The Triplets and A Cardinal......

A few weeks ago I wrote about Fenway and I taking our morning walk and spotting five deer....a doe with two fawns and another with triplets!

Tonight, after dinner, we went for an evening walk. Lots of activity in Port Washington since it's Lions Fest Weekend with bands playing and people walking everywhere. So I thought that any wildlife would probably be out-of-sight.

We reversed our walk and started on the "low" side, walking through the volleyball court area and the grassy area before the woods and the bridge that would lead us to the bike path. As we approached the grassy area I could see two deer grazing. As we got closer I realized it was two of the fawns....no doe in sight and they were much bigger than they were a few weeks ago. As we got closer they watched carefully.....and finally ran off toward the woods on the right. Suddenly there was more noise/movement and there was the third fawn....following her siblings into the woods.

The triplets! And then a beautiful red cardinal swooped in, landed on the path in front of us, looked our way and took flight through the trees.

Triplets and a cardinal. I started the day at the beach....listening to the surf. I ended the day spotting wildlife. What a lovely day.

Surf's Up......

A beautiful, cool Saturday morning. Out the door to start the day with Fenway's early walk and then back inside for coffee. With the door open to the deck I sit and read my book.....and listen to the surf. A breeze out of the northeast is driving the waves onto a little beach area about a block from our condo. A constant, rhythmic, soothing sound. And the occasional cry of a seagull......

If I didn't know better I'd swear we were back on the boat, anchored and surrounded by blue water.

The sound of waves reaching the shore......one of my favorite sounds in the world. 

Living in Delaware.....

Dave and I spent about ten years living in Old New Castle, Delaware....this was a very special "small" historic place situated on the Delaware River just outside Wilmington. Our house was 200 years old and we loved it. Yes....an old house has its challenges, and living in historic area of New Castle was a unique experience. (We once had a couple walk right in our front door because they thought our house was a pub!) The historic area, part of the National Historic Registry, measured maybe ten blocks by ten blocks....old homes, brick streets, a walking path along the Delaware River. It was unique...and forgotten for many years. The interstate from Philadelphia to Washington DC bypassed it....so it "slept" for many years. When it was "rediscovered" people came in and worked on the historic homes. They didn't put up aluminum siding...they respected the history and preserved it.

Hollywood directors chose historic New Castle for movies....because it was so special. Go and watch "The Color Purple" — it was filmed in front of our church and we watched the actors as they enacted the scenes. And "Dead Poet's Society"....the scene where the young actor runs across our "green" to a historic house on Second Street. This was Old New Castle. Good Morning America came to film a segment in our little town...and I watched and waved from the sidewalk. Old New Castle was not a Williamsburg, it wasn't a reconstruction...it was real.

And when we attended services at the Presbyterian church two blocks from our home we could turn around and see our State's Governor and his family sitting in a pew a few rows behind us. Delaware is a VERY small state, and people know each other....they even know the people they elect to office, and they hold them to account.

So the other night, while working on a quilt, I watched some of the Democratic convention and listened to Vice President Joe Biden. And my eyes filled....and my throat tightened. I feel like I know this man, this man from Delaware. He started his service to America before we lived in our old house....but his story was part of the "neighborhood" lore. I admire his service, and his words tonight were personal and meaningful.

It was nice living in a small state and having the opportunity to feel that you, just regular middle-class you, had a chance to meet and get to know your State's leaders without having to contribute thousands to re-election campaigns. Not everyone has that chance....not everyone feels a personal connection to a candidate when they walk into a voting booth. But somehow, for me, that small personal interaction, a smile, a hello, a cup of coffee after church service, made a difference. I wasn't casting a vote for a stranger....I was casting my vote for a neighbor.

Threads......

Today was a flashback. I drove down to Park Ridge (where I grew up) to have lunch with a friend I met in high school.  I wanted to see one of Megan's paintings on display at a Park Ridge art gallery and she was able to meet me. Barb moved back to Park Ridge a long time ago, was free for the day, so it was a nice opportunity for a quick visit.

We met at the gallery, viewed the pieces featured in the show and then went to lunch. The restaurant is located in what used to be the town's main pharmacy. How times change!

We had a fun conversation filled with some memories, laughter and sharing. While we were not best friends in high school, we did spend a lot of time together. She went off to St. Olaf for college while I went to Ripon, and we began to lose touch. I'm sure we saw each other during summer vacations or over winter break. But soon after college our "adult" lives took us in different directions. Marriage, children, husbands' career moves.....off we went.

Our paths first reconnected, strangely enough, when her son and daughter-in-law bought my mom's house back in 2010. Sitting across the settlement table at the real estate closing was the first time I'd seen Barb since the late 1960's.

And then again we got together once last year (with another high school friend, Karen).....and now today. It's nice to pick up a few old "threads" and find that there are still commonalities and reasons why you were probably enjoyed each other's company in the first place.

I'm glad we were friends way back then.....I'm glad our paths re-crossed....and I'm glad we had lunch today. Hope we can do it again before long.

In a world full of divisions......I appreciate the threads that bind people together....no matter how tenuous.

The Human Heart.......and Another Good Read

Years ago I read Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. It was such a good read that I found myself slowing down instead of quickly turning pages. I'd re-read sentences and whole paragraphs because they were so very well crafted. After finishing the book I set it aside for about a week and then picked it up and read it all over again.

So I was delighted to find another book by the same author in one of Port's Little Free Libraries. This one was titled East of the Mountains. Again, a beautiful book and so well written. Maybe one of the things that caught my attention was the setting - the narrative takes place in the Columbia Basin of central Washington state, an area we've driven through on western explorations. I could picture it in my mind.

The main character is a surgeon. Facing a terminal cancer diagnosis he is determined to live independently and end his life on his own terms. I'd spoil the read if I said much more.....safe to say the story has twists and turns and unexpected consequences that all occur within about a week's time.

Reading the book got me to thinking about the human heart and all of the imagery associated with that interior pump we take for granted. We use it to describe so many things...."She was heartbroken"....."my heart just aches"....."he was a heartless bastard".... "she stole his heart."

The book seems to revolve around the heart and a theme of love....and more than half way through the novel the author writes: "Ben thought of the hearts of other men and women in all their naked, exposed truth - muscles about the size of fists, pulsing at the center of living forms. The heart that was for poets and priests the seat of all things beautiful, the house of love, the host for God, the chamber of sadness, rage, discord, envy, despair, glee. Ben knew the heart as a muscle first, designed for the work of pumping blood, not so terribly intricate that it couldn't be duplicated. Parts of it were replaceable....In knowing the heart in this cold way, he had lost all innocence about it. It was not that he didn't believe in love, but first he was a scientist, a physician, and a man of reason."

It's our brains that think about things like love, heartbreak, loss......but it's our hearts that seem to feel those emotions. Somehow saying,"I love you with all my brain" doesn't convey the same passion as "I love you with all my heart."

Anyway.....this blog entry is a ramble, but I recommend the book and the author.

It made me think. It made me feel.....it even made me remember lyrics from a song from the movie "Titanic"....."the heart will go on". It does....even after loss....those heartstrings stretch across time and distance and the heart does go on.

I Think I Get It.....

So now the Republican party's ticket is complete and next week's convention will make it official. As I've said before, when this whole process started I (along with about a zillion others) never thought I'd see the day where I might be contemplating four years of a President Trump. Yet.....here we are.

Dave and I were talking about it a few days ago and I told him that I thought I was beginning to understand how people were drawn to his candidacy and willingly/proudly/fanatically believed The Donald could "Make America Great Again".

I'm serious when I say that not a day goes by the thought doesn't enter my head that I, and my family, are just so very fortunate. Lucky to be born where and when we were, lucky to have the parents we had, live in communities focused on the good life, got an education, found good jobs, and now have the chance to enjoy retirement. Every time we start out on a travel adventure I know that I am among the lucky citizens who can plan and then actually take time to wander. And everytime I walk back into our condo overlooking Lake Michigan I again think "Wow.....look where I am. Who would have thought?"

But how would I feel if none of the above applied. If for the past twenty years I'd been part of the shrinking middle class, struggling to find and keep a good-paying job, trying to figure out how to keep that car running one more year and where I was ever going to find enough money to put my kids through college? What if the "system" hadn't worked for me....at all. What if every politician I ever voted for promised me a better life and new opportunities......but it was all just empty rhetoric? My town was full of empty store fronts, jobs disappeared and my kids moved away looking for some kind of opportunity.

What if I just was so damn discouraged and down right mad at the powers that be I decided that someone, anyone who was not a career politician would have some ideas that just might work and the system could change and things would be better for my kids and my grandkids. I might not look to closely at the candidates actual proposals......I might be carried away by the speeches and the hope.

I might be wearing a red baseball cap too.

This American Circus......

I've been watching the political circus unfold for months......or is it years? Heading toward November's Presidential election I watched as party #1 presented over a dozen candidates. Some quickly dropped away, others held on for months for debates and interviews. But one by one they fell to the side until party #1's choice to lead the American people in a very complex and frankly frightening world was evident. The Donald.

Party #2 basically battled back and forth between two candidates. Neither one perfect, but at least there was some experience talking. And finally party #2 settled on their headliner. Hillary.

The anger, mistrust, nastiness and frustration surrounding this process has been sadly fascinating to watch. And so very tiresome. Issues and proposals and content fall aside as tweets and instant coverage of every out-of-context comment becomes front page news for about ten seconds.

In November, we Americans will freely and quietly walk into voting booths all around the Country to cast our ballots. Results will be tallied and a few months later there will be a new occupant in the Oval Office. One can only hope that whoever wins he/she will gather knowledgeable advisors to help them with four years of governance. And no matter what they say to get elected, neither one will have all the right answers or be able to "fix" all the problems facing America and the world as a whole.

I know a lot of people who say they simply won't vote this year. They find party #1's choice to be a clown, and "hate" party #2's choice....so they won't vote.

If they really are going to refuse to enter the voting booth I think that's the saddest thing of all. It's as if the only names on November's ballot are the candidates running for President. If you don't walk into that booth you've given up the chance to elect congressional candidates, local leaders....dog catcher...whatever.

So......if you don't vote, that's your choice. But then don't complain. In my humble opinion, if you decide to "protest" by withholding your vote that's your business, but that decision should also mean you given up your right to complain about the results or the decisions made while candidate #1 or #2 is sitting in Washington DC as leader of the free world.

Your free choice.....and aren't you lucky to live in a county where it is your free choice.