Learning to Breathe

Sometimes I forget and think that being very, very busy will keep me moving ahead, moving towards a better life, towards fulfillment, towards contentment, towards stability.  The truth is that being busy all of the time, working so hard that I'm holding my breath until the project is over, isn't necessarily a good thing for anyone, especially me.

Magic in the Sky

It's that time of the year again. When the evenings begin getting warm and humid, nature pulls out her perennial summer night lights and casts them into the shadowy spots under trees and the low misty spots in fields. Her fireflies dance and whirl to what must be secret fairy songs and inspire children to laughter. When I was a child, my grandmother showed me the toad stools that popped up after a summer shower where she said the fairies had sheltered from the storm. She told me to watch in the evening so that I could catch sight of the fairies flying and playing chase with the fireflies. Every time I see a firefly now, I think of my grandmother's voice in my ear and the joy that I'd feel bubbling in my chest when I spied that first firefly of the evening.

One Tree at a Time...

About two years ago, Tom and I were driving along Highland Drive (wraps around LeFleur's Bluff Park and the Science Museum before crossing over I-55 and heading into Belhaven) here in Jackson and noticed something unusual.  As we were bouncing along Highland (those who know Jackson know that we have VERY bouncy roads), we spotted a lone figure in the median kneeling next to a wheel barrow and tending to a very young tree. We had noticed some months before that the trees had been planted and though how lovely that was of the City of Jackson or the MS Department of Transportation to plant a green screen from the Interstate below. As we continued down the road, we came upon an old black truck parked in a turn around in the median. That was when we realized that the figure we saw tending to the trees was our neighbor, Josh Weiner! The person responsible for this work that is traditionally done by the city or MDOT was an individual.  (Let that sink in.)

Miss Rumphius

When my daughter was a little girl, my mother gave her a book, like most librarian grandmothers are want to do. This book, Miss Rumphius written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, quickly became one of our favorites. We read it before bed, we read it in the park, we read it at nap time, and we gave it to all of her friends for birthdays. Like so many children, there is that one book that becomes a favorite. This book, however, became a favorite of mine, too.