1. God
2. All sides
3. Parts of a whole
4. Birthdays
5. In the sun
6. Writing surprises
7. Seeds of Time
8. Laura

1. God
2. The people at Bill’s birthday party giving Peabody lots of pets and attention
3. Fresh vegetables from our garden
4. Cassie’s help with a project
5. The Leadership Freak does a gratitude walk
6. Talking with Laurie and learning new things
7. Finding out more about Lara just by asking simple questions
8. Cooling fans
9. Flower pots

1. God
2. San Francisco memories
3. Especially tea with Julie
4. The sign in City Lights Bookstore that says “Welcome  Sit Down and Read a Book”
5. Sunflowers inside and outside
6. Terri’s message to people: you matter
7. Talking with my mother, my father, and my brother
8. Small vacation even though it looks like rain
9. Glimmerglass
10.

1. God
2. My father
3. His encouragement and belief in me
4. I’ve written about his generosity and think of when my cousin told me how my father helped him when he was young and starting a new family with a baby. I was proud to say that’s the kind of man he is.
5. He instilled in me a love of music, mostly because there was always music playing in our house (and still is, presumably,) on the radio or with records, or he would play the piano or harpsichord
6. We could sit in silence for long times, driving some distances, then he would ask me questions
7. My father is always reading. Some books he’s read multiple times. I think he’s particularly fond of Dickens, Trollope, Jane Austen, and also likes biographies.
8. I had no curiosity about his work and it wasn’t until early in my working days that I discovered some of what he worked on, cited in a reference book, data compression algorithms that eventually made possible the graphics interchange format, commonly known as the .gif.
9. He worked hard and supported our family. When the news came that the research center where he worked was going to move to Virginia, his question to the company was will you move my wine. When it became clear he needed to change jobs, he didn’t make a fuss, but essentially walked down the road and found himself a job and worked for another dozen years.
10. And his kindness to my children
11. He still does crossword puzzles, double crostics even, and loves that ken ken
12. Still quite active in his 80s, though sometimes gets disoriented and flummoxed by life (so do I.)
13. My mother told me yesterday he was riveted with watching the golf tournament, interesting because he didn’t golf to my knowledge when I was growing up.
14. Happy Father’s Day, Dad
13.

1. God
2. Editors (Cassie especially)
3. We get used to things but at least some of them are used
4. Arrival of the day lilies
5. Window boxes filled with daisies
6. Echinacea bloom
7. So maybe things are happening at the right time
8. And what’s yet to come is unknown
9. And in the present moment it’s all right (or it’s the only moment there is)

1. God
2. Crystal’s creative breakthroughs
3. Blooming rose
4. Collaboration – even Cassie and my mother helped, room for all
5. Flowers on the zucchini plants
6. Leo, a bibliophile, practical, open minded – then we were standing outside and I looked over at the grove and saw a big fallen pine tree; was that on purpose, I asked? Oh, I ordered some wood, he said.
7. The deck Pierre and Tony made for us, where there was once a sand pit, now Cassie and I enjoy sitting outside and folks come to visit. Terri and Michel, who hadn’t met, realized they knew each others’ families and had lots in common. Small city.
8. Taking David to our local bank to open an account. He considered his options and asked questions like an educated consumer.
9. Long way
10. Slow growth – and then surprise

1. God
2. David’s graduation from high school
3. Everything Emily did to help while she visited
4. Hannah too
5. Asking for and accepting help
6. Learning new things about how to use Powerpoint (only took 15 years or so ;)
7. Maybe some rain
8. Lettuce from the garden
9. The music of Antonin Dvorak, especially that from the “new world”

1. God
2. Peonies
3. Zinnias
4. Plants coming from seed
5. Emily, Hannah and David on an outing yesterday
6. Poetry of Laura Grace Weldon
7. Some aches and pains go away
8. Affectionate cats
9. Loving dog

1. God
2. Nice visit with Emily
3. David came too
4. Terri dropped by for a while
5. Blue sky after several days of rain
6. Eric, the solution finder
7. Erica, cheerful anyhow
8. Nancy, persistent and often with the laughing face
9. Donna, so strong and colorful
10. Grass growing

1. God
2. Linden
3. Acknowledging what is
4. Recognizing needless worry – it’s when I think there’s a crystal ball allowing me to predict what someone will do or say
5. Simplify
6. A call
7. Tim offering to help
8. Arriving on time