Best Day of the Week

Got your clothesline fort ready?

I don't care who you are, when Friday rolls around you do the Happydance.

Got homework? Forget it! Monday's a million miles away. Stuck in traffic. At a 4-way stop. In a construction zone.

Today's GOLDEN.

Today the clock will reach 5 p.m. and slow down to be one endless evening of bare feet and dandelions, bonfire smoke and marshmallows, fireflies and twilight. It'll be a bottomless beer sipped to the sounds of nightbirds and the scent of lilacs. It'll be kids chasing each other in the dark, stories read by flashlight, stars in the sky for wishing upon.

It'll be just one night and forever, too.

But only today. So don't blink or you'll miss it! Stay in The Moment.

Because when tomorrow comes, there'll be nothing endless about it. There'll be time for clothesline forts and Popsicles and a chapter or two, perhaps. But the clock will make up for today's shenanigans. And Monday will be here again in the blink of an eye.

But I don't have to tell you that, do I?

So for now I'll just remind you that it's Friday; time to get our dancing shoes on!
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5 Magickal Things About My Day (5/30/13)

Busy working, thinking, imagining, remembering, drawing, and trying HARD to be in The Moment. My head's always running at full tilt; it's unfortunate that thoughts aren't better calorie-burners....

So much to do and think about! And if I took the time to try to organize my thoughts and tell you everything, I'm afraid I'd just confuse you. Or at best, put you to sleep....

However, I can at least share with you five shiny golden bits about my day:

1. Windows open, and lacy curtains billowing in the lilac-scented breeze....

2. Taking a moment to study an elm seed under a magnifying glass. They're like fairy money. Tiny coins sealed in tiny envelopes. Fairy letters....

3. A bit of garden Lovage in the breakfast smoothie. Refreshing.

4. The discovery in my billbox of a handwritten letter from a faraway friend.

5. Grandbug bouquets! Because when a beautiful child gives you mushed lilacs and blowsy dandelions, you are blessed beyond measure.
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Holiday Anticipations

Friday -- my favorite day of the week.

And it's the Friday of a 3-day holiday weekend, James arrives home early this afternoon, and my wireless weather device says that, although it's currently all sun and blue skies, rain and possibly thunder can be expected before the weekend's over. Plus the weather's mild enough for me to have the old windows open so that all can be enjoyed inside and out.

AND with any real luck the neighborhood is even now gearing up to travel elsewhere for the holiday weekend, thus leaving us alone with our bad bunnies and our dandelions and our firepit and our homemade hard cider and our books and our episodes of 'Lark Rise to Candleford'.... Because that would be too dang magickal for words.

Think I'll turn the computer off and make it a real holiday.

Stay safe and enjoy yourself.
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Taking a Social Media Break

I've had to walk away from Facebook.

Just for a bit.

Social media and I are uncomfortable friends at best, and every once in a while I have to leave the suddenly overcrowded sandbox and go swing for a bit, just until I can catch my breath. People, even virtual ones, are apparently my kryptonite....

But this seems to be a cycle for me. I'm sure if I checked my blog archives from exactly a year ago, I'd find a post like this.

So for today I'll walk away. After all, there are pea seedlings to plant and dandelion blossoms to pick. The lawnmower needs my attention, too. And since it refuses to start for me, there's always sun coffee to brew and a rockingchair to curl up in on the patio. If I'm quiet there I can watch the robin in her nest on the garage. I can spy the nibbling nose of Bad Bunny hiding in the rhubarb patch. A cabbage white crosses my path; a good omen. And a trio of starlings march in the sunlight, their sharp beaks scissoring the clover.

And I've got something to read and something to sip, a notebook to write in, a sketchbook to draw in. And my head is full of ideas.

I'm good company. And things are magickal here. And I'll choose this before Facebook any day.
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One-Sided Conversations

Every day I talk to you.

It's so easy when you're not really here.

I can say anything then. And you listen, too. You don't judge. You don't get impatient and say, "Snap out of it." You don't go all cheery and say, "Time to turn that frown upside down!" You don't try to change the subject or give advice or find a solution or a million other things that just make it all worse.

Instead, you just stand by while I cough to clear my heart of all its dusty flutterings.

I open my mouth and out fly bewinged fears and self-doubts, the pale moths of where-am-I-going, what-am-I-doing, and how-can-I-be-this-old-and-not-KNOW.... Some raggedy grey ones have obviously flown through a flame or two (how can they still live??). Others are newly hatched, velvety white, with feelers like feathers and feet like knives....

And Imaginary You stands with me in the shadows and watches them as they beat themselves against the windows, dying for the light.

But they always return to me. They know I burn the brightest.

Good Advice

I'm not away. Just busy. And this week has been overly stressful....

My family's been aware of the goings on here, and yesterday my eldest Grandbug told me (complete with wagging finger), "Gramma, just try to forget your troubles and have some fun today!"

Good advice.

So she and I spent the afternoon together at The Pond Near Her House. We sat on the wooden dock and 'took the pond's temperature' by dipping sticks into the icy water. We looked for floating snail shells and fished for mermaids.

Fluffy cotton-candy clouds sailed by and blocked the sun. "Gramma, if you could ride on one of those clouds, which one would you choose?" I picked one and she picked the one right next to it so we could hold hands together while traversing the sky.

My cell phone rang and I answered it. It was Grampa. With a little wrinkle in her forehead, the Grandbug watched me converse, then when I ended the call asked worriedly, "Does this mean you have to go home? Because I don't want you to go home!"

There would be no going home yet.

Hours (and a bit of sunburn) later, there was bubble stuff and sidewalk chalk and the sharing of Freezie Pops. "Gramma, how about you taste my purple and I taste your yellow?" Ants were studied and leaves were picked apart. Airplanes were watched as they cut across the sky. Would they fly through our clouds, we wondered? Nope. Whew!

A most excellent day. And when I returned home again, I discovered my troubles had pretty much taken care of themselves.

Her words were more than just good advice. They were absolutely magickal.
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