Last spring, I wanted something trouble-free and found it in coneflower seed packets, buying into the midsummer promise of self-sowing sun lovers—now overrunning the garden with nature’s lavender turns. Seed heads bristle symmetry, measure upon measure, Fibonacci’s weathered tune luring goldfinches to August feasts.
Tag: Poetry
Mottled History: The Love Behind a Peeling Vintage Table
I wore down layers of old paint on the vintage table. Running my hands over the just-right smoothness, I saw stories in the splotched surface: black paint from the furniture’s earliest days—maybe when my grandmother sipped morning coffee and gazed on her flowers; green when my mother went for a spring look; and sunny yellow in the hopeful days of my marriage.
Nature’s Humor—If We’re Free to See in the Moment
For all its beauty, nature can play a joke, as in the time I once passed beneath a stately magnolia and spotted a nest with a tag likely torn from a pillow. It was a laugh-out-loud moment: a bird recycling human trash.
Starting the Day with an Offer of Loving-kindness
I remember a time when I started the day seizing on the news cycle or my to-do list for work. However, exploring what’s behind anxiety and depression, I shifted my before-dawn routine to quiet time. Settling into a meditative practice has taken years. I discovered the loving-kindness approach and never looked back.
When I Found Joy in the Morning: “Swimming After Trout”
The exuberance of diving into a mountain lake inspired this poem, which opens the third section (Summer) of my poetry collection, The Tears of Things: Poems. It was a ritual that announced days of soaking up sun and swimming in pristine waters.