Friday, July 02, 2021
turn, turn, turn
Thursday, July 01, 2021
Summer again
Finally, another summer day. I took advantage of our first no-rain day in over a week to putter around the garden and prep for a picnic with Nu and AC--a wonderful former student who babysat Nu years ago. I was so surprised to learn that AC is turning 30. They grow up so soon!
One of this year's WGS guest speakers (KH) mentioned how they were doing social work because as a WGS student they'd been inspired by AC's presentation as a guest speaker--I loved that so much and enjoyed passing it on to AC.
This last year has been tough.
[Pic: Robin with cherries]
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
cloudburst
[Pic: Made it to Ted Black Woods with L this morning--before the downpour.)
Sunday, June 27, 2021
feeling--recursive
--every time I send one
to you, sister
you demand to know where I am.
I'm behind the camera,
I travel back
with the sticky facts of tenderness.
What could ever replace
you reminding me
to burn like fire, like diamonds
the beloved coal of my body
hybrid, haptic, whole
[Pic: An indoors kind of day; the kids have to delink settler colonialism and Catan for me every time.]
Saturday, June 26, 2021
weather or not
Rain again today; lots of it! But we snuck some other stuff in there as well.
Met up with DD and TD who are visiting Lansing after 15 months for a walk outside and a catch up.
Pride Parade was rained out, but the kids and I went to Salus Center's open house and my gay babies got some merch to supplement the stuff they got at our in-home pre-Pride party yesterday.
I made "leftover rice" for dinner (rice from Indian takeout; bean and corn salsa + tomato, cilantro, and onion salsa from our pre-Pride-party's "rainbow nachos;" veggie sausage, seasoned potatoes, frozen veggies, a pinch of garam masala, and a couple of teaspoons of ghee... voila).
Then the weather alert system started going off on the radio and our phones, and tornado sirens started up too, so we all trooped into the basement (Scout and Huck anxious, Big A needing to sleep before work) for an hour and half of weather-mandated family time 😅😂.
[Pic: We found this highly apropos duo of national flags outside Salus! My parents were so delighted by this photo 😇.]
"The Chicken Daddy"
But they don't want to name any chicks yet because they "don't want to get too attached." That's too much reality for me.
The all-day and all-week rain has been unreal and disappointing. I'm nothing if not stubborn, however, so I've been sitting in the swing reading, drinking lemonades, and eating cherries anyway.
Thursday, June 24, 2021
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
if it wasn't already clear...
Jackie Sumell's "A Solitary Greenhouse" asks us to imagine a world without prisons. The link has better photos and text.
From a walk through Beal Gardens.
Monday, June 21, 2021
old school laughter
talking, the sun stunning in its brilliance
the sisters say: "quiet now, settle down"
Saturday, June 19, 2021
I said
[Pic: cobwebs-bridge-Red Cedar River]
Friday, June 18, 2021
shadow friends
[Pic: L and I being silly with our shadows in the Red Cedar on Farm Lane yesterday.]
Thursday, June 17, 2021
starting summer
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
complications
how to take things for granted
let's say we're sort of Egyptian
I hold for friends who have left
with untold pasts, fear for those
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
cenotaph
in all of this ennui, this outrage
yet we sit blandly where people
were dead--had been for ages.
standoff, feel around for the edge
But we listen; learning now how
all news is unbearable, how it all
Monday, June 14, 2021
mixed
Had a welcome breakthrough on a work project and managed to meet a proposal deadline one whole day ahead of deadline.
Took a nap. Woke up because of a horrifying moment in a post-apocalyptic-style dream (someone had tumbled down some stairs because I bumped them and when I went to check on them, I was captured and they started pulling on my clothes... also, my dad was supposed to help me keep watch, but he fell asleep and didn't hear me when I was shouting for help).
I'd planned a "Summer Celebration" to celebrate the end of Nu's 8th grade year.... it literally got rained on after we set the picnic table.
Ah well, watermelon tastes almost as good indoors too.
Sunday, June 13, 2021
third wave
A lovely start to the day, going up the riverwalk with L... Then a chat with my sister who said that a third wave is expected in India by the end of the year... After that, everything felt very off for the rest of the day.
I made a summer soup for dinner in the InstantPot (stove's still not working), but left everyone to their own devices and put myself to bed with a bar of chocolate.
Thursday, June 10, 2021
gaze
hold my own hand as it trembles
a stare still lies a bit out of reach
grows into a new part of my body
my body goes old young indifferent
time folding across like a clock-face
and hands clap for what comes next
texting alien syllables from my name
Sunday, June 06, 2021
a two-hike kinda day
First was the usual one with L, getting to the MSU gardens just as the sun was beginning to skim the tops of the waterlilies and set off the frogs like blobby, plopping fireworks.
Later, I managed to somehow ruin the stove when some lentils boiled over. Now I wouldn't be able to make the raw mango dal, a summer staple from my childhood. I made do by microwaving the chunks of mango and adding it to some canned cannellini beans. A heaping spoonful of turmeric, the tadka I'd made earlier, and a good potato masher... and I could imagine it came from a kitchen long, long ago untouched by canned beans, a potato masher, or a microwave. L showed up like a lifesaver bearing an electric skillet she had in her basement, and I used it to make aloo parathas later.
I'm glad I made it to Ted Black Woods with BS after all that. The woods were lovely and deep--as was talking to B. I needed that.
(L doesn't mask outdoors, B does; I am ok taking my cues from whatever my companions are comfortable with now.)
Saturday, June 05, 2021
what's up
Behind me, Nu and L are intently listening to our neighbors give them a crash course in raising chickens. I guess what's up... really is chicken butt (and a significant amount of chicken poop).
It seems like a A LOT of work, but Nu and L are determined to make it work. I've already politely excused myself from from mucking out the chicken coop, which will live in L's yard. I guess I'd feed the little babies whenever there's no one else to do it. 🐣🐥
Friday, June 04, 2021
"food for thought"
The wonderful ladies of "Food for Thought Book Club" down by the Red Cedar River in LB's backyard...
Vaccinated, unmasked, outdoors.
I handled it.
I *enjoyed* it.
I'd forgotten how lovely communal joy can feel...
MSU solidarity encampment
More than 60 campuses across the U.S. have now set up encampments to call attention to the ever-rising death toll of the Palestinian people ...
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Friends and old neighbors shutting it down in honor of John Crawford. _
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At had us pose for this pic up at Aunt R's place on Lake Huron so he could put it up in his dorm. "Don't tur...
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I have the feeling that I’m going to succumb to the season and put out a list of resolutions soon. Just wanted to establish this heads up th...