Thursday, February 28, 2019

Sweeping Out The Nest

     sweeping out the nest
the children have all grown up
     who shall we be now


                                                   *     *     *     *     *
I woke up early this morning. There was an urge to phone my oldest granddaughter to wish her a happy 8th birthday before she left for school. The bed was still warm, and I could have gone back to it, but by the time the phone call had been made, the message left, the call returned and missed, and returned again... (tag, you're it! No- YOU'RE it!) and the conversation quickly had, I was hungry so I stayed up long enough to have breakfast and a cup of tea. Before the cup was empty, everyone was up, so I just stayed up and started the laundry.

"Everyone was up" now means we two.

Just He and Me.

We.

Back to the beginning of Us.

Before we were three. Or four. Or six.

Before the day was bookended with noise and laughter and tears and shouts and screaming. When doing the laundry took days instead of hours. When grocery shopping was both an escape and a chore. When I was the hub of the family unit, holding all the strings attached to all the people, watching them spin further and further away into autonomy. Letting go, one at a time, as they outgrew my reach.

I have an empty nest.

This is a joy! The hard work of maintaining friendship with my husband is paying off. It's not a hard or lonely thing to be just us. It's like a new spring in the relationship- in spite of a lingering winter and a teasing *actual* spring that almost comes, but keeps dancing just out of reach.

I must admit that I'm mostly writing today because I'm sleepy from being up way earlier than usual, and I don't feel quite like doing anything really productive. There are innumerable projects gathering dust on the spare bed in the sewing room, but motivation is taking it's cue from the blinding whiteness outside and is hibernating.

All this to say, it's probably time to blow the dust off my keyboard, shake the cobwebs out of my brain and start living into Spring.

Make that quilt. Write that book. Do some bead work. Wedge that clay.

Find that motivation. 

Time to sweep out the nest.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Five For Autumn


an autumn haiku
should be cool, crisp and orange
like me'n my new clogs

*

the geese are making
(and who can really blame them...)
a hasty retreat

*

winter is peeking
in at the bedroom window
as nights get cooler

*

harvest is complete
which means I pulled the carrots
lame garden this year

*

the snow is melting
it feels just like spring, only
it is September...



Wednesday, August 8, 2018

A New Haiku

                                                             

                             A QUAINT GAZEBO
                 AND WAVY MORPHING JINX ARE
                            A BIG POINT HAIKU

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Love Day



It need not be said
That you are my Valentine
Some loves are just known

Monday, December 25, 2017

It Progresses

To the stuffed head was added a cough
And I feel most decidedly *off*
You may joke, as you please,
But I'll sputter and wheeze,
So Daaahling, pray don't make me L-aw-ph.


Friday, December 22, 2017

Oh, Yeah. Merry Christmas.

I think that I'm ready for Christmas,
I've done all the things I should do...
And so, with impeccable timing,
I've caught me a Christmas Break Flu.

I'm shuffling around in pajamas,
I'm aching, and fevered, it's true.
My nose is much redder than Rudolph's
As I cough, sneeze and wipe what I blew.

I feel like I just did this last year-
I've got very strong "deja vu"...
There's way better Christmas traditions,
Than wrapping things up with the flu.

I briefly considered the arctic
Surely the bugs there are few!
But I read that ice doesn't kill microbes,
So there's just no escaping the flu.

I will wish you a bright Merry Christmas,
And the Happiest of Years that are New
But if you respect my condition,
Keep it down, while I'm nursing my flu.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Get Lost Mosquitoes

I may have it all wrong, but
Nobody likes you.