One Single Impression: Shift in Time

"Most of the amber that exists today is between 30 and 90 million years old."

This piece you hold

Has endured forever

Which was yesterday

Which is your life

And the history of the world.

You see the remains

Of an insect or dust

On a foggy day

In that semi-precious

Bit of history

Set in a ring

Around your finger?

So it is.

So it will be.

Such is life.

We endure.

Blog Your Blessings: Quiet

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After school today, I went to Litchfield to do some video work for some good friends. On the way home, I found myself detouring for a little walk around Topsmead. There I spent a few minutes in silence shaken only by the breezes caught in the folds of the brittle leaves that had yet to let go of their trees.

No what-ifs, I-wishes, if-onlies. No disappointments or hurts or hungers. No problems, no pleas. No punishing words of any kind. Nothing. For as long as I was out there and alone, the universe was fine. I was not inadequate. I had not failed. It was all good.

I walked around and around as I fell in love with the silence, the soft autumn light running parallel to the hilltop, and old, old apple trees that twist and turn toward the light, bear their fruit, and lean into the hill even as they reach for the light.

I felt so good after a little while that I invited the quiet home to stay for a while. A lovely guest.

Blog Your Blessings

Skywatch Friday: Morning Light

Out and about early Sunday morning, I found myself just plain enjoying the way the morning light moved horizontally across the landscape and played with my perception of depth and dark. Looking up was a visual adventure.

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Blue Dreams

Wordless Wednesday

My World Tuesday: Fire, Ember, Ash--the Blur of Autumn

October is a blur for me. So much goes on at work and at home with my daughter's sports and activities and school work that the beautiful autumn fires in the treetops become the cold gray ash of winter before I know it. When I was out for a walk on Sunday morning, the startling changes in the season were clear to me. She woke up with a temperature 9no surprise--102 kids were absent from her school on Friday), so all her activities for the day were canceled. Suddenly there was time for a walk and to take in the light. So it goes.

My World Tuesday

Today's Flowers: Shy Girl

Today's Flowers

One Single Impression: Elusive

Years ago

He was aloof

Every morning

Alone

On the shore

And if you so much as

Looked

His way

Even from the other side

He would blink himself

Into flight

And he was gone.

So unlike

The pair of his kind

Who have no idea or care

Who else is there

They are together on edge

Complete

And that is enough for anybody.

But that elusive grey giant--

He is alone

And he should stay

Because he is always alone

And so am I

And I wish he would.

One Single Impression

Blog Your Blessings: Smiling? No Way!

My kid got busted for smiling in math class.

Twice. Once, the teacher called her out in front of everyone else. Once again, she and two of her friends were hauled into the hallway by the math teacher, who said the three (high-achieving, mild-mannered) girls' smiling made her uncomfortable.

***

The above has left me dumbfounded for the past day or two. "Lady, I wish I had your problems," was my first thought when I heard this tale of gross insubordination.

My curiosity got to me and I thought I'd give this lady a call and hear it from her perspective and maybe even find out how hard it is to deal with smiling students.

I suggested to my daughter that I do this. She was good with it at bed time. When I awoke her the next day, her first words were, "Mom. What are you going to do?"

"You don't want me to do anything."

"No. I don't."

"OK, then. Just look as sour as humanly possible in school today. Live the joyless life."

***

But the math teacher was out. I guess the happy people got to her.

***

Moral of the story: smile anyway.

Blog Your Blessings

Skywatch Friday: You Can't Touch This--Maybe

Here is a sky view from Topsmead State Park in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the Sunday before the Incredible Weirdness came and dashed and dashed and dashed snow all over us before it disappeared without a trace--beyond the incredibly late-November-like cold. The sky was a terrible tease. The clouds seemed within reach, but there was no taking hold of them.

Skywatch Frida

Wordless Wednesday: A Marriage

Wordless Wednesday

My World Tuesday: At the Shop

I noticed these objects of art while my car was undergoing an emissions check not so long ago. The top image is a fence made of cast-off tools. The fence is outside the office to the mechanic's office. The sport's car in the bottom shot was getting a little work done while its antique relation stayed out of the sun and out of the spotlight. I expected ol' Gomer Pyle to come round the corner and offer to clean my windshield.

My World Tuesday

Today's Flowers: Loves Me, Loves Me....Not

This is actually a late summer lovely that caught my eye while passing through Vermont to pick up my daughter from camp. After last weeks mad dash into the World of Winter, I found myself taking a few giant steps backward into summer to even out the temperature (in my own mind).

Today's Flowers

One Single Impression: Conquer

Their voices summon the day
And the day arises

Almost immediately

They will the death of a squirrel
And one sacrifices himself

Under the tire of the next car

They land on a branch in any field
Cry out whatever they please

And own the growing repast
Of the farmers

Who are perhaps wisely elsewhere.

They cry into a snowfall
And the snowfall stops.

They are crows.
They believe what they say.
Their prophecies come true.

Their conquests begin
Whenever I open my eyes

And think
Where are the crows

To speak to me today?

One Single Impression

Skywatch Friday: Apple Country

Though many of the apples we picked on Sunday were dinged-up or pock-marked from te hail storm that had kicked off our summer, they were nonetheless juicy and sweet--and perfect. There's nothing better than a sun-warmed apple straight off the branch--except watching my daughter and nephews do the picking and holding up each apple like a treasure. Every autumn, it's the same old thing around here. Thank God.

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Double Stuffed

Wordless Wednesday

My World Tuesday: Corny Moments

My World Tuesday

Today's Flowers: Fading Fast and Falling

These aren't flowers, of course. But they are the color that is on offer in this part of Connecticut right now. We had frosty temperatures sent shivers up our few remaining flowers. Won't be long before the color season is over.

Today's Flowers

One Single Impression: Talisman

The distant fragrances

Of forgotten apples

Of cooling wild grapes

Of fallen leaves crumbling

Envelop me

In the early dark

of October and--

There is no reason for this--

Make me turn my gaze

Just enough to take in

A white heron

Blessing the lake

With silence and flight.

Shadows darken.

Stars appear.

There is no looking back

No turning away

If you are the heron.

I've been doing a lot of dictionary work with the kids, and I have been loving it. Every word in our language has a story that takes us deep into another time and place. I found talisman to be irresistable:

From Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: tal·is·man

Pronunciation: \ˈta-ləs-mən, -ləz-\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural tal·is·mans

Etymology: French talisman or Spanish talismán or Italian talismano; all from Arabic ṭilsam, from Middle Greek telesma, from Greek, consecration, from telein to initiate into the mysteries, complete, from telos end — more at telos

Date: 1638

1 : an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune

2 : something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects

— tal·is·man·ic \ˌta-ləs-ˈma-nik, -ləz-\ adjective

— tal·is·man·i·cal·ly \-ni-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

One Single Impression

Blog Your Blessings: 63 Kids

I love my job. My job has shifted from teaching remedial reading to 235 kids to teaching it to 63 kids. I have fewer students in a more intense environment, and I am charged with helping them improve their reading skills in a big way. That translates one level on the state's annual standardized reading test.

There's no way a kid will read unless he or she has a passion for it. Kids have to believe that something is in it for them. It has to be pleasure--the pleasure of discovery and identification and possibility.

Currently we're reading S.E. Hinton's classic, The Outsiders. On the surface, this story is about the price poor kids in western Oklahoma pay at the hands of rich, vicious spoiled brats whose chief form of entertainment is picking on their poor counterparts. A deeper look reveals a story about growing up and realizing there is ample, promising truth in that cliche that we are all the same inside. In fact, the story shows just how complex that truth is.

The thrill for me is that these kids get it. They can relate to the story. One boy asked me if the poor kids, the Greasers, were Puerto Rican. "Why do you ask that?" I replied.

"Wait. Am I in trouble?"

"Nope. You're asking a great question. I just want to know what makes you ask it."

"I asked that because it's like here. And Puerto Ricans are like the Greasers."

"OK. And who are the Socs?"

"White people....mostly...."

"Fair enough."

There began a conversation about identifying with characters, connecting text to the world we live in, feeling the truth of the text.

It also began a conversation about Romeo & Juliet and West Side Story. (They want more on West Side Story.)

Another child asked how Ponyboy, the 14-year-old narrator and a central character, could talk to "a dirt bag" like Randy, a Socs, or one of the rich kids.

"Why do you call him a dirt bag?"

"Because he beat up Ponyboy."

"He did, and that makes him a dirt bag, but what has he realized?"

"That fighting doesn't pay off."

"So what does Ponyboy have to do in his heart to be able to talk to this dirt bag?"

"Forgive him. I guess."

"What's he call Randy the Dirt Bag in the end?"

"Just a guy."

I guess I could have replaced dirt bag with cruel person just to help this little guy expand his vocabulary. It seemed to me then that the truth of dirt bag was not worth giving up right them.

These kids are smart. I love every last one of them.

Blog Your Blessings

Skywatch Friday: Delicate and Moody

I caught these clouds from a hilltop in Watertown, Connecticut, at a beautiful place that reminded me all over again that heaven is hear and now.

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday: Future Doctor?

Wordless Wednesday

My World Tuesday: Southford Falls

My World Tuesday

These are some views from Southford Falls in Southbury, Connecticut. This was once the site of the Diamond Match Company. The fire tower there is much shorter than the one at Woodbury's Orenaug Park, but it sported some interesting graffiti, like the tower in Woodbury. I love when the climb is worth it. We saw the barn above from the top of the tower. The tree in the top shot had a healed-over heart tattoo from many a year ago.

My World Tuesday

Today's Flowers: I Flinched...and Found the Unexpected

I flinched and found the unexpected. That's the way it goes,usually. The good stuff would be right in front of me if I would budge just the slightest bit. What I thought would have been a disaster was no. That's the way it goes, usually....I posted this as a reminder to myself that it's all good.

Today's Flowers

One Single Impression: Descent

Wind like snow and rain

Descends upon the pines,

Threshing them

Free of sunshine

Or so it seems:

At my feet lay the yellow needles

That mark the end of a season

The end of too much heat

The end of stillness

And there are pine cones

Everywhere to say

Earth and air and light

Will make of their dreams

A tree.

In this strange mating,

In the shape of this tree

That has learned to yield

To every pressure

Yet to grow straight

Death is a fragrant,

Liquid definition

Of forever.

One Single Impression

Blog Your Blessings: The Thermostat

This week's blessing is the thermostat. Because it's connected to the furnace and makes the wheels go round so the house is not cold when the air outside is. I was especially grateful for that thing this morning around four, when I lay in bed fully aware that my nose was very cold. I pulled the covers close around my face and the I heard the lovely bump and rumble of that mysterious electrical machine that makes the cold air warm. I could relax for a few more minutes and bask in the heat I imagined before it ever made its way up the stairs.

The sound of the thermostat is a seasonal pleasure that rates up there with the shorter days and the lovely, long,and lingering nights. They are the pleasures of blissful solitude. I like to feel warm and safe and cozy, and I love the solitude of an autumn evening.

At work today the air went from frigid to infernal, and even that was nice. There's nothing quite like that long blast of institutional heat to tell you winter's on its way. So many days of being warm inside and drinking hot chocolate to look forward to. Yesterday the kids got a little sluggish as their lips turned blue and their bodies stiffened in the air conditioned room. Today, they complained of the heat and I thought what a luxury to be bathed in the stuff and to be able to relax. How nice to be disturbed by such luxury.

On those nights when I don't sleep, the furnace's kicking into action tells me the time quietly, peacefully. The heat tends to come on around midnight, three, five. With each distant rumble, I know the world is closer to waking up, and I am growing farther from the strange and unwanted solitude of an empty, restless night. It is enough for me to know the world is with me even if I am alone in the dark. The world is not such a cold place.

Skywatch Friday: Swift Kicks on a Cool Day

Mom and I froze our tail feathers off while Dell played soccer last weekend. The sky was moody broody, the sun was playing hard-to-get, and the game was good. It's nice when the kid's team wins after one of those character-building stints in the great outdoors.

Skywatch Friday