While I Was Gardening

An elementary school for young girls bombed; more than 165 people killed. More soldiers dead than officially reported. “Small potatoes.” Weapons stocks being depleted, again under-reported. Dishonesty and “misrepresentations” of facts and numbers. “No new wars!” Healthcare and expenses of daily life soar, countless people do without basic needs. Measles cases and deaths under...

Once again, we returned to the Snohomish Centennial trail for a peaceful walk on a gorgeous day. Our starting point this time was the Pilchuck Trailhead, along the Pilchuck River.

We could not have chosen a more beautiful day for a walk that ended up longer than planned – 4.5 miles.

But when greeted with such a sky as this, and a gentle breeze to c...

Soothing, raging, calming, flowing, trickling, roaring, splashing – sounds of water. We are water; water and bone and flesh. We live through water and die without it. We love and fear water, try to control it, and strain to use it. We use water as metaphor – a river of tears, the flow of love, washed clean of sin or pain or sorrow, flooded by happiness – on and on. What water...

It’s here! Finally arrived! Rain in all its beauty and sweetness. Dust washing down the walkway and flowing off leaves, dripping down the gutters and cleaning the air. Rain like manna from heaven. It smells so sweet, so clean. I sat on our porch with a cup of hot chocolate (and a dash of whipped cream), and watched rain fall on parched ground and thirsty plants. My cats, comi...

On Sunday, Bill and I took a beautiful hike in a gorgeous, second growth forest on Bainbridge Island. Because this has been a brutally busy, and at times difficult, month for me and exhaustion had set in, we decided to get out and go walking. Earlier in the week, I had a few very minor accidents that resulted in some melodramatic bruises (age has something to do with the brui...