quote for the week

In Blackwater Woods

by Mary Oliver

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds, 

and every pond, 

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this:  the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able 

to do three things:

to love what is mortal

to hold it

against your bones, knowing

your own life depends on it,

and, when the time comes to let it

go,

to let it go.

Baseball is Back...Or is it?

I have been a baseball fan ever since I was a little kid, so I could hardly wait for the Astros' opening night game on Friday.  I have recovered from my shock at the sign stealing scandal.  Instead, I like to remember how the Astros brought Houston so much joy after Hurricane Harvey.

I tuned in just as the team took the field so I don't know if the Star Spangled Banner was played or who threw out the first pitch.  It must have been a great night because they won, but I fell asleep after the third inning.  Was it the cardboard fans in the Crawford boxes, the piped-in cheers, or have I outgrown baseball?  No, no and no; I was just sleepy.  Being locked down drains your energy.

The Chronicle sports columnists mourned the lack of fans.  Jerome Solomon's headline was "An Empty Feeling."  He said, "No cheap hot dogs, no fireworks, no hugs, no handshakes, no happiness."  And I would add, "No spitting."

Brian Smith's column was titled, "Back, But Not Really With Us."  "Fake sports," he wrote.

There will be other games, 59 of them, and maybe another World Series.  I'll try to stay awake for the rest of the season.

quotes for the week: change

This week's quotes are about change...and aren't we all longing for a change for the better?

The need for change bulldozed a road

down the center of my mind.

Maya Angelou

Noneof us knows what the next change is going to be,

what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner,

waiting to change all the tenor of our lives. 

Kathleen Thompson Norris

Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.

Alvin Toffler

My Windows

Through my bedroom window, sunlight pricks my eyelids and wakes me each morning. Until the virus attacked us, the window was just a pane of glass.  Now it's a link to the world, a tenuous one at that, but still a connection.

My window affords me three views of the world that's inching along without me.  If I look down, I can see the black-shingled roofs of the apartment complex next door.  If I lean my forehead against the window and look left, I can see the edge of the nearby bayou. and recall the year when Hurricane Harvey slammed into Houston.  Water rushed over the banks, turned streets into rivers and covered lawns with water that reeked of sewage and forced its way into houses where it demolished furniture, drenched books and destroyed treasured mementos, leaving Houston in a soggy mess.

If I look straight ahead, I can see the buildings of the Texas Medical Center the largest medical complex in the world.  Hospital beds are scarce now, with virus cases roaring through Texas.  

To the right I see NRG stadium where the hapless Texans play football and, predictably, deny Houston's yearly dreams of a Super Bowl appearance.  To the left are buildings surrounding the Galleria where I could shop or browse in pre-COVID days that seem so long ago.

Upward is the sky hazy gray pale blue or on some days obscured by threatening black clouds that I hope don't portend another hurricane.  At dusk I watch the city's light blink on, and I imagine lives going on in other buildings. Are people there happy, hopeful, afraid?  How has the virus changed their lives?

I prefer to look up at night when stars sprinkle the sky and the endless view reminds me how small Earth is--a pale blue dot in a limitless universe.  How small our troubles seem when I gave skyward.

On summer nights when I was a child, my cousin and I would sit on the sidewalk when the heat wore off and fireflies twinkled on the lawn behind us.  We would watch for Venus, the evening star, and make a wish.  I don't remember what I wished for, perhaps to win at jacks or hopscotch the next day, but those nighttime memories remain, along with the scent of newly cut grass, the rough bark of the willow tree I loved to climb, the slap of water against my skin as I ran through the sprinkler.  Then, summer days wer endless,  hot and sweet.

I have another window to the outside world--technology.  I love the little windows on Zoom, where a group of friends meets every afternoon at 4:00 to share what's going on in our lives.  Not much these days but it's a joy to see faces we can't see in person.  Last week we shared a virtual toast to better days ahead.

Zoom gives me the pleasure of listening to lectures or concerts.  I've hosted a birthday party, visited my children on Mother's Day taught a course in writing legacy letters for the nearby YMCA and had a telemedicine appointment for my annual checkup.  Last year I'd never heard of Zoom.  Today those tiny windows are a connection to the world.

Robin Williams said, "There's a world out there.  Open a window and it's there." Tragically, he closed his window too soon, but he left us a mantra a guide us through these difficult times. 

quote for the week

To believe that we can and must hide the parts of us that are broken, out of fear that others are incapable of loving the parts of us that we cannot love ourselves, is to believe that sunshine is incapable of entering a broken window and warming an empty room.

quarantine video

Books of June

You'd think I'd be reading more during this lockdown but I'm spending more time writing and watching movies, so here are the books I read last month.

When We Believed in Mermaids.  A woman sees her supposedly long-dead sister on TV and sets out to find her.  Will she be successful?  Will she find love at last?  Of course everything will turn out exactly right.  I'd give it a B+ but an okay read,

The Hideaway.  Nora Roberts used to be my favorite romance writer.  Now not so much.  Especially not so much for this book.  Supposedly a romantic suspense, it's neither romantic except for 2 or 3 pages, same for suspense.  It could have been better if it were half as long.  Much of it was padding to get to 400+ pages.  This will be my last Nora Roberts book.  (Can you tell I didn't like it?)

If you want to listen to a perfect parody of For the Longest Time, originally a Billy Joel song, check out YouTube for Longest Time quarantine edition.  It's exactly right for our current situation.  I tried and tried to copy the URL but couldn't.  Anyway, look it up.  You'll love it.  If you listen to it, leave a comment.

There is Nothing Like a Cat

From the Brazos Tower Manor Banner

To be sung to the tune of There is Nothing Like a Dame

There is nothing like a cat, nothing in the world.

Sleek or slinky, lean or fat--nothing's anything like a cat!

There are Persians, Himalayans, Abysinnians and House,

Cats who bask in sunshine and would never chase a mouse,

There are active ones who pounce and play and answer when they're called.

What don't we have?  We hope--fur balls.

We have geriatric kitties who mostly sleep and shed,

We've got some obsessed with boxes and some who love our beds,

Cats who wake us every morning with their gentle velvet paws,

What ain't we got?  We hope....kittens!

Nothing purrs like a cat, grooms its fur like a cat,

Nothing out-stares a cat, hides anywhere like a cat,

Gives you looks like a cat, sits on your books like a cat...

So you see it's purr-fectly clear why we keep our feline friends near.

Snuggly, cuddley, totally loveable....CATS!