The Messenger

Yesterday I saw a cardinal fly past our back door and land on the little peaked roof above the entrance to the basement. He was perhaps 3 feet away from me, and so I got to see his bright red body very clearly.

He was quick and alert. Sharply sweeping his head side to side to check out the yard, note the location of the various cardinals and other birds nearby, and determine which spot he'd like to fly to next.

And within only a few seconds he was off - zipping over to our neighbor's yard... on with his day with lightening celerity and a seemingly clear agenda.

Confident and staccato, charismatic and proud, keenly aware of his handsomeness as he brashly announced the arrival of Spring - without even knowing he was doing so.

A parallel process in April:

The little peach tree in our front yard has burst into bloom. A flurry of soft pinky-white petals gently sprinkled across spindly toddler branches rising to reach at the sky.

If the tree were capable of singing, I imagine it would hum little jaunty tunes; spritely and quick like a playful and bouncing minuet.

If the tree could dance, it would stretch it's thin fingers to the heavens, twirling like a dizzy two-year old in the happy, springtime sun... making sloppy circles across the front yard as all the stately oaks and elms shook their limbs and tsk'ed their trunks.

Our tree does not care, does not see. Our tree is two.

And two is magicalroyalspinninghappy.

Twenty simple pleasures for a nearly Spring day

1. Making a whistle from an acorn cap
2. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
3. Clean laundry smell
4. Birds who cover the land and jump into the air for a brief moment when startled
5. Driving with the windows open
6. Sunshine, warmth, and the need for sunglasses
7. Watching the hum and buzz of life within nearby small towns
8. Having a 5-year old neighbor introduce his stuffed moose
9. Leaving the coat unbuttoned and the scarf on the backseat
10. My father's laughter floating in from the side yard
11. Iced green tea
12. Opening the blinds and leaving the lights off
13. Running along sidewalks with Ariana
14. Watching Simon lie in the sun - eyes half-closed in blissful, doggy meditation
15. Little tuplips striving to peek from beneath forgotten fall leaves
16. Noticing a beautiful sunset out the back door with a smile of a moon framed between two trees
17. Turning the thermostat down, not hearing the heat come on, and still feeling comfortable
18. Conversations about God, politics, love, choice, struggle, oppression, justice, and the paranormal
19. Watching TV on the couch next to Andy
20. Clean sheets... and a feeling of yummy, happy, sleeeeeepy exhaustion

Attempted haiku in celebration of less snow and ice

Snow and ice have gone
Water fills the basement still
Spring is coming near