Randoms

I'm a little late posting today because I stayed up to an indecent hour talking on the phone (which I normally don't like to do) to a good friend. We talked for hours over a great distance. It is a strange and beautiful thing, isn't it, the people we meet in our lives and the timing of it all. I truly believe people come into our lives at the moment we need what they offer--and everyone offers something. Good or bad there is always something meaningful to take away from all of our encounters. We just have to be open.

And though I was slow to move this morning I still woke up to the quiet of the dark and the kids sleeping. I took my coffee to the backyard and listened to an owl hooting--8 hoots in succession, then more quiet, and then 8 more. The stars were there as always though I couldn't see them through the clouds.

The best cup of coffee I ever had was on a patio in Antwerp, Belgium. In fact, it is one of my favorite cities I have visited.

And the best stars I've seen was the time I sat on a cliff overlooking Pecos Valley, New Mexico--unthinking of distance or the steep drop or scorpions under rocks. The bright immeasurable stars burning holes in the dark veneer overhead, my pockets utterly empty. It was the closest I have been to free.

Once I was feeling down and out in Chicago, walking the streets with a friend. A man passed, paused to look at me, and then held up his hand saying "high 5?" I love that there are people in the world that go around giving random high 5s to strangers. I vote for more of this.

One of my favorite few lines from a poem is "the signals we give - yes or no, or maybe - / should be clear: the darkness around us is deep" from A Ritual to Read to Each Other by William Stafford. He's also my favorite poet.

And here's my favorite picture of me and the kids...taken last summer on a beach along Lake Superior.