August 2006 Archives

I drifted up from sleep early and watched the sky fade into white. Now I am drinking cool water, typing, and wondering how the Summer compressed and blurred by so quickly. I know that there are still days left in the season but...how rapidly it all flutters by.

A very Happy & Healthy 94th Birthday to my Grams! Here's to a wonderful day -- and to many more!

Love,

John

And Happy Birthday Bob, too! Hope your day is groovy!

Happy Birthday, Mom! May your day be lovely and may you have many more years of good health, great times and joyful seasons.

Love,

John

Ewan McGregor is looping "Come What May" (from Moulin Rouge) in my mind, as the day quietly swelters. I'm sweating -- but got a lot done. Now this, while I marinate some veggies and tofu. Gonna stir-fry that in a moment or two. Gabby is here, stretched in a furry black curve on the floor. Traffic noise from the Parkway, outside. And cicadas. The Summer feels like it is piling up into these last few weekends. A green blur, laced with sunshine.

I'm glad it's Friday.

Listening to Kate Bush sing, "A Coral Room," (from Aerial) while I edit a handful of photos I took today. An exuberant Hibiscus flower, wide and radiant, by the pond. Image diving into that, while her voice and piano fills up the room.

Maybe it is a perfect mix of coffee and song, the flower's encompassing visuals and the late Summer daylight, streaming in. It's lighting up the beauty center in my brain. All this time, moving by so fast. All this lush color and delicate detail. Her music. These hours. These swirling seasons. I am so moved by it.

So I imagine/remember making a paper ship, setting it in water. A push of a finger, sending it outward, gliding smoothly away.

And she sings, "Put your hand over the side of the boat. What do you feel?"

A girl in a chocolate-colored kimono, impossible leaps through the air. The same girl in a small boat, drifting across a beautiful lake: beneath her, in the glimmering water, orange and white koi the size of people. A vision that can look inside individual cells, watch them change... Flying through the city. Water over river pebbles. Me, with long wet hair.

And that song from Simply Red, "Holding Back the Years," repeating hauntingly.

Fragments from odd dreams, while I slept on the couch.

My hip feels better, today.

I was going to write a more involved entry, but my leg hurts too much and I'm trying to stay awake long enough to get tired enough to actually sleep when I finally find the futon...

Anyway, it is kinda interesting that The Nine have now become Twelve (Scientific American: New Planet Definition Enlarges Solar System). Such a fundamental shake-up! Of course, I have a soft spot for the number twelve, so I dig the new reality. The number of planets in our neighborhood will likely change again at some point, though. Ah, well...

Anyway2: Nevermind all that. Let's try this "sleep" thing again...

I awoke this morning to find that the light had taken on an aspect of Autumn -- though that equinox is still quite distant. The outside, today, looks like it has been dipped in the purest crystal. And the slant...the slant is definitely there.

Though all is still warm and Summer-green, the light holds a difference. A vision of Fall, before waking to it...

I sat in the pale moonlight. Above me, a contrail seamed the night sky. First it was a line, then it was a road, then a cloud, and then...the sky again. The face on the moon was vivid. I cupped its light in my hands. I drank a cold beer that the breeze made colder. I saw the light beneath the cracks in the floor. I shivered -- then stopped. The trees swayed. Ten trillion shades of gray. I saw the stars through their leaves. And a distant light, blinking.

The sky is white, occasionally opening to blue clarity. My windows are open too, letting in a breeze -- and the sounds of birds and water.

This is sort of a delayed greeting to August. The Summer piled up toward Joel's wedding, at the end of July. Time seemed compressed. Now there is a swirl of unscheduled moments. I'm floating in it like a leaf in an eddy.

Looking into the pond, earlier, I saw a frog still bearing an elongated tail. Midway between tadpole and full-on frog-hood. He regarded me calmly from a lilypad. Taking his time, too.

So, Hello August. Just a bit late...