Christmas stockings

Art On the Grand – Next Saturday – Kickstart Farmington Author and Book Fair

Car hell

Condos

10 word love story

The departing crawfish would never understand. My tears were salty.

Animal

He was just happy to be outside, walking.

Tongue out, panting and pulling at the leash. His fur freshly washed and curly. The dog glowed with pride.

His owner sighed, but smiled back and gave him pats.

And down the sidewalk they went. Pause for the tree, the hydrant, the discarded stick everything was wonderful and interesting. It was a long time past when he could hear everything, and his vision was blurry but that was ok, he could still smell his way around. 

The chalky concrete sidewalk moved past under his paws and the sharp smell of dandelions and fresh cut grass hung in the air. Past the street that stunk of tar and around the corner. 

Over the bridge the breeze wafted the warm fishy smell of the river. Up  ahead the pizza shop filled him with homey yeasty confidence mixed with the tang of sauce and the comfort of cheese. 

Each rock, plant and house was an exciting swirl of colorful scents.

It was getting a little hot, and the little dog was visibly getting tired as they turned into the building full of animals, and a touch of fear. Down into a small room with benches along the sides. The man crouched down and gave him a long hug. Salty tears streamed down his face and fell gently on his fur as he fell asleep for the last time.

It was a good day.

Something bigger than yourself

For a long time I didn’t believe there was anything bigger or more important than myself. Even god I had constrained to my understanding. The universe took up only a corner of the dark places inside my skull. I knew I didn’t know everything, but I could find out anything and make it mine. 

Such hubris rarely goes unpunished, and I spent my youth hurt and dejected by my own machinations. 

I try to remember if there was a single incident, a place, a person, an institution that brought me back from that brink, but I think it dawned on me slowly in pieces of what was truly important.

There was the birth of my first child and the awe of bringing home a small person who was totally dependent on me for everything. I believe that was the first strike. She had colic and I slept three hours a night for a year.

After that there were two more children, the end to smoking and drinking and nearly the end of a marriage over those. 

But it took losing myself, and then picking up the pieces from my near shattered life and finding myself to truly appreciate and understand others and hold them in my heart.