1. God
2. Family barbecue organized by Cassie
3. Leon, Simon and Alan playing well together
4. David talking with his grandparents
5. Outside space
6. Cheryl coming over and taking family pictures
7. Having a family to stand together and photograph
8. Giving flowers to the neighbors
9. Laughing with Michel and Bill
10. Cassie’s blueberry salsa, and again the day after
1. God
2. Alan’s drawings – he draws a mean yellow submarine, likes boats and all their parts, and an intriguing cathedral with a rose window
3. Talking with Andrew and my father, mostly about my father’s chess playing when he was younger, how he learned the game, even played it with people by mail, appreciating my father’s stories
4. Looking at an album of pictures from when my mother and father visited Andrew in Paris for his thesis defense, 20 years ago, still proud of him, imagine we all are
5. Talking of chess reminded me of Ed, a friend who visited me when I was incapacitated with a broken ankle, and who brought a chess board and chess pieces, along with some books, and then we sat on my front porch together on a summer day like this one. Last I heard he was newly a father and doing quite well
6. What about this summer day? The clouds are rolling away and family are coming over including my parents, children, my brother and his children. It is going to be nice.
7. Looking out my back door, I take pride in the garden that’s there, results of planting and nurturing, and from somewhere else came the seeds, the soil, the rain and sun, gratitude for this.
8. Cassie finding new recipes, handing it over to me, this chicken must be “aggressively” salted, she said, and then “unattentively” cooked. Turned out great especially with the sauce made with mint from our garden.
9. Elements
1. God
2.America
3.Americans
4.Holiday
5. Cooling rain
6. Morning glories blooming
7. Rammel lending toys for my nephews for when they visit
8. Andrew and Chloe and their children at Willard’s Woods and their photographic journey
9. The diligent African students speaking in their own language then wished me a Happy 4th of July as I locked up
1. God
2. Wind
3. Zinnias blooming
4. Vases for Cheryl and Jenn
5. Signs of summer
6. Fans
7. Maps
8. For learners any age any pursuit
9. Steve talked sense into me
10. Julieta’s force
11. Something about Sarah (aside from her being a dead ringer for Kate)
12. Enjoying those things that fly and those more durable
1. God
2. How Cassie prepares the coffee at night so that all I have to do is press a button in the morning to brew it (or sometimes it’s already brewed.)
3. Cassie thought of the neighbor with a baby who didn’t have an air conditioner (on a hot and humid night.) We have extra ones left behind by our neighbors. While I was retrieving one from the basement (and appreciating how much lighter and more compact they have gotten over the years,) she emptied the humidifier, which had filled within twelve hours. Then we went and installed it for the neighbor.
4. This makes any day better for me.
5. Seeing the fingers pointing back at me when I point my finger.
6. Ice cream and more ice cream. I like Cheryl’s ice cream flag.
7. Andrew and his family arrived safely
8. David played chess and talked with residents at the assisted living facility
9. Hannah, our camper, distinguishes herself as a counselor, especially with a girl having a difficult time more than often.
10. Chatting and texting with friends.
““There are new friends to be had everywhere I go” Crystal Andrus
1. God
2.Not getting my way
3. Contact
4. Just as well
5. Returning with a different attitude
6. The woman knitting who astounded me with the grace of her simple speech
7. Getting at the student’s actual question, in my awkward way
8. She kept smiling
9. Somebody broke the power and someone else fixed it or perhaps many someones, I know not who to thank, thank you nevertheless
10. Electric cello
1. God
2. Summer days
3. Road trip with Cassie, Charlene and Richard
4. to a part of Massachusetts where I haven’t been, the south coast
5. Street fair
6. and the town’s library, not having seen anything like it nor knew what I was seeing at the time
7. then the Unitarian church, and the guide who pointed out so many of the details to me in the stained glass, pew carvings, altar, that I would have overlooked
8. Picnic on the bay with sandwiches and fruit that Cassie packed
9. Seeing the whaling museum which had special resonance since I’d recently read Moby-Dick and learning a lot about our nation’s early history in the process
10. Driving through the countryside, observing vineyards, farmland, farmhouses, rivers
11. A public beach at the road’s end
1. God
2. Corrections
3. Flowers in vases
4. Dinner outside
5. Something finished
6. Tabula rasa
7. Those who eat cookies (I would be among them)
8. Morning coffee
9. Not having to wait for the end (to get to the next thing)
“I claim and keep my miraculous moments” Crystal Andrus
1. God
2. Ice
3. Flowers on tomato plants and zucchini plants
4. Coffee with Steve
5. Necessary rain
6. Seeing and listening to John K. again after several years
7. Walk around the park and an inspiration
8. Two or three things
9. Another way around
10. Keeping in touch with Julieta throughout her trip
1. God
2. Phone call with Steve in the morning – he told me not to overthink things which is counterintuitive for my mind though appreciated
3. Pleasant and attentive visitors, and good to be prepared for them
4. Grateful to attend Allison Rimm’s Business of Life seminar. Aforementioned visitors preempted my going to the first part of the workshop which was a disappointment, but Cassie convinced me not to think in all or nothing terms and see about going for at least 1/2 of the day which I did and appreciate.
5. Hannah’s enthusiasm about her summer job (David’s snarky commentary)
6. David enjoying a few days before his summer program and internship
7. Coffee readily available (not to mention the water, the motion we call heat, and the blades to grind the beans)
8. Zinnias emerging, especially bright red
9. Two daisies in a pot white with violet trim
10. Instantaneous flowering of daisies