Poetry

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.”

~ Mary Oliver

 

Around OakMeadows

 

It is time for my twice yearly gripe about time change. Yes, it is time to turn the clocks back one hour. My complaint is the same as usual: Just pick one—> Regular time or Daylight Savings time. Either is fine with me but pick one and stay with it! The time change is not as bad now that I am retired but how I remember it was not so easy to deal with when I was working rotating shifts. I understand that the Senate has passed legislation to make Daylight Savings Time permanent but it seems to be hung up in the House. Arrgghh!!

The butterfly count is going down. We still have some Monarchs and Queens, a few Gulf Fritillaries, and lots of Sachems. We have a cold front coming Friday and I anticipate the end of the butterflies for this year. It was so beautiful this year with hundreds of butterflies on the blue mist right by the brick pathway so that you could watch them close up.  

I am putting the borders on my Blue & Brown quilt. I thought I would finish it today but it just didn’t happen. Tomorrow.  I found a couple of French General patterns that I really like. I plan to order them tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is the midterm Election Day.  JMM and I voted by mail weeks ago. Very convenient. I do my best to concentrate only on those things that are in my control. Voting is really the only thing I can control so once I’ve voted, I avoid the constant news barrage leading up to the election. I will find out what the outcome was the next day or the next. I doubt very much if anything changes here in Republican Texas but in any case, JMM and I will be just fine whatever happens. Then after Election Day on Tuesday, the campaign for 2024 begins Wednesday....blah!!

My first Tovala food delivery comes tomorrow. The oven came last week and TSMR came over Sunday and figured out the wifi set up and got it all ready to cook when the food arrives. I am really looking forward to this. I’m getting 4 meals a week. The menu selections look wonderful and I am happy that I will be getting one vegetarian meal a week.