the dream life

Making merry with the girls

Last year, Tracy and I had Ava over for a holiday sleepover and we had big fun. Tonight, we had both of the girls over for holiday merriment. I confess that I’m not woman enough to host both of the girls for a sleepover when I have to go to work the next day, but we tried to pack as much fabulousness as we could into tonight’s festivities.

Two days in the work (& I'm gonna make it home tonight)

On Friday night, we went to the fair with my brother, sister in law and nieces. The girls rode in the car with us and they were so sweet and funny, showing us their new tattoos and telling us stories about people who keep tiny ponies as pets.

The fair is a challenging place for me, but I tried to hold on to how the girls experienced it. Always, they impress me with their zest for life, their bravery, their intense emotions, their love, the golden light that radiates from them, their complete lack of judgement. They see the world as glorious -- the way it really is.

This side

My mom telling her uncle and cousins about the UFO we saw once.

I love my mom’s family.They are so smart and funny and free-spirited and gifted. With them, I’ve always been a bit of an observer. I tend to pull back in groups and watch and listen so, maybe they don’t know how I feel about them, but somehow, I think they do. And what is so good about family is that you can go away for a long, long time. You can go away for decades and no one hears a peep from you but still, they invite you to things, and when you come walking in, they reach for you and they hug you and the conversation picks up wherever it left off. This is called, love.

Last week we celebrated my great aunt and uncle’s wedding anniversary. Several of my very favorite people on the planet were there. It was hot, and we sat outside and I fought the urge to take a thousand pictures, and I fought the urge to get up and walk all over the property and down to the creek where I used to play with my neighbor when I was a girl.

Listing the fabulous

I have a few fabulous things to tell you:

*The Goddess and the Poet started and it's so exciting. Art supplies thrill me no end. I feel positively fluttery when I sit down with these assignments. Suzi Blu is the best.

*The book is coming along. Seriously. I’m almost finished. It’s as if it’s writing itself and I approve of that whole-heartedly. Write-on, book.

My brother told my eldest niece that I was writing a book and she said, “Will it have a real cover or just paper?”

Ah, the heart of the matter. Isn’t that what every writer wants to know?

We're having much more fun

If I read the local paper more, I probably would have known earlier that X was playing at the Dame last night. Luckily, my theory that people will tell you the really important news was proven when, at our family dinner, my brother mentioned it to me.

Rainy day fabulous

I need these boots and this umbrella in adult sizes, please.

Morning, evening

Our friend Tanya, who also cuts our hair, started working at a salon in our neighborhood. This is great news for me because I find it difficult to get anywhere. Businesses within walking distance of me make me so happy. Even so, even with Tanya mere steps away from my home (aka the giant magnet), I kept putting off and putting off making an appointment. The getting to places is hard for me lately.

Being

This weekend brought a respite from the rains, soft sun and warm breezes, my favorite temperatures and ample opportunity for me to practice being in the moment and enjoy the present.

On Friday, I met my friend Chris at Wine + Market for a wine tasting. 

Early learning

Do you remember what you learned in elementary school? Not what you learned socially, but what you learned academically? I mean, we know that elementary school is where we learned the fundamentals like adding and writing and macaroni gluing, but do you remember specific lessons? The sensation of “getting something”? I don’t have a point, I’m just asking out of curiosity.

Read more about Gurney

here.

 

A celebration of words

Tracy’s brother in law (and my brother in spirit) was inducted today as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky. I can think of no one more deserving. Aside from our family connection, and our human connection, I am indebted to Gurney like so many other Kentucky writers. His work is important to who we are.

Kentucky Writers' Day is a celebration of fabulousness. There were times when I looked around the Capitol Rotunda today and couldn't believe all of the people I was seeing. Gurney is a teacher who has touched many, many lives and the love for him was electric in the room.

I was reminded today of how culturally rich our state is; how populated by the soul workers; the artists; the men and women of words who tend to spirit. Not just in our cities, but all over Kentucky, in small towns, in hollers, down winding lanes, there are people dedicating themselves to truth and hope, to storytelling and memoryscaping, to living creatively. I reveled in the life-giving sensation today of hearing poems and stories read out loud and then the collective sigh in the room, the small sounds of pleasure that we make when we've just been moved by words.

We had breakfast at the governor’s mansion this morning before the ceremony, which was lovely and in some small way amusing, as the governor’s mansion is not the sort of place that Tracy and I typically find ourselves. We felt quite fancy and were very honored to be there. We didn’t actually meet the governor, but we did eat his delicious food. 

The whole event was so wonderful and affirming – all the past poets laureate, the readings, the writers and lovers of writing, Kentuckians and otherians gathered in the Capitol to honor words and story and expression.

And then, of course, there was the partying, the cake, the wine, the biscuits, the beautiful people.

It was a good day in honor of a good, good man, who I am grateful and honored to know.

About a dress

This is a picture of my parents attending a military ball in 1962, seven years before my birth.

I came across it last week; I hadn’t looked at it in a long time. I’m taken now by how young they are and how nervous my dad looks, and I’m impressed by the magnitude of my mother’s dress. That is a dress.

In print

 

Singing my mom's praises today. Her latest article, "The Vocation of Peacemaking in the Victorian Era: Social Transformation, Bread and Peace," was published in Mercy and Justice Will Kiss, Paths to Peace in a World of Many Faiths.

More Elvis

Last night, my brother got in on it.

 

Christmas 2008

Last night I attended a beautiful, reverent church service with my mom. (Who isn't really green.)

Tonight, my dad channeled Elvis. (Not his real hair.)

Such is the Christmas tapestry of my family.