I need to do some writing.

I miss it.  Or, I miss being able to look back and remember all that has happened over the past year or two, or more, and learn a few new things, as well.  I miss taking the time to reflect and take photos and share some of my modest life with the very few of you out there who I know stay connected to me, from time to time, through my writing here.

It's not that I haven't had time. Sure, things have been busy, but in truth, I've been purposelessly neglecting this page, for quite a long time now. Perhaps I've grown tired of maintaining a presence here that doesn't seem to reflect certain aspects of my current existence. Perhaps I've grown lazy.  Perhaps I would rather not reflect on my activities and feelings. Perhaps I've lost the knack. Perhaps words cannot do justice. Perhaps a lot of things. But it would be a lie to say that I've not had time.

Yesterday evening I was sitting in a salon, waiting a few minutes for a haircut, and I picked up a magazine that was lying nearby, the kind of thing it's interesting to flip through maybe once a year.  On a page's worth of quotes from celebrities I've never heard of, these words caught my eye:

"There is always enough time. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone's excuse is 'I didn't have time.' From getting important work done to texting someone back, you always have time if it matters."

Of course, this woman probably didn't have to feed the kids, mow the lawn, take her aging grandmother to the doctor, paint the garage, or write a dissertation, among the many other possibilities, although she did apparently manage to write a pretty crappy book.  Anyway, the point is that it doesn't really matter how busy you are, think you are, want to be, or try to be.  The more I think about those words the more they seem to ring true. It's not the time you have, it's the time you make. You find time. And if you don't have time in your life for the things that matter, then maybe it's time to let a few things go. 

So, I'm going to work on that and get back here just as soon as I can. It's not that I can't make time, but it's probably true that I just don't have a mind to do it, or the heart for it (which are probably even poorer excuses!), although maybe I'll feel differently after a week on the shore. I hope so, and I shall return...

Truth is Hard to Come By

Some people get it and some people don't.

No Good Morning

Get up.  

Remember your dreams.

Take a shower, fix your hair, change your attitude, find some faith. Choose love. 

Change your attitude, have faith, choose Love.

Get going.

Long Exposure

I think where cameras fail

may be in 

the impossibility of 

the separation of

light from darkness,

if not 

stopping time

It's beautiful, running by 

night, blind and alive

to the coming storms on the radar

6/3/2010

if that's not a frog i hear tonight

i don't know what else it could be...

New Recipe

this one is for Dandelion Wine

made from dandelions picked at the height of their bloom: thick, fat, and sticky, all petals and pollen

yellow fingertips and open flowers
in the calf-height grasses of the warm wind-blown fields
of Spring
(or knee-height, for the small ones who might like to help)

brighter than you've ever seen

3 to 4 quarts dandelion flower heads (it may be hard to tell how much you have once they shut tight and settle)
2 gallons boiling water

put the flowers in the water, stir, cover and seal with plastic wrap, and let sit for two days.  do not exceed this time unless you are me, in which case let sit for three days, and work hard as you can for one of them.  stir daily

bring the flowers back to a boil.  to the boil add:

juice of three large oranges
zest and juice of three lemons
1 lb golden raisins

boil gently, or not, for a while, maybe twenty or thirty minutes, or more.  time is relative.  then add:

6 lbs sugar, just exactly the amount you happen to have in the cupboard, and

boil for ten minutes more.

use a sieve to scoop and strain solids into another pot.  do not attempt to strain twelve quarts of liquid with flowers and raisins directly through a sieve and funnel into your primary, spilling hot sweet flowery beauty all over your feet and the floor, and do not feel bad about the wine you've just lost, even though it smells about as good as anything ever did.  strain the remaining  into primary.  let the solids cool for a bit, then spoon into a nylon straining bag, cool a while more and squeeze as much liquid as you can from them, into the primary.

allow to cool to room temp and then add:

1 packet Montrachet wine yeast
2 tsp yeast nutrient

put fermentation lock in place and let sit until 

the next thing happens...

Full Flower Moon