June in Pictures (in Mid-July)
Author: Rae
I Heart Eighty Degrees
I have no idea what the temperature is outside right now, and it’s still very muggy, but it is well below the high 90s that have blanketed our days in the past few weeks.
There was a big storm last night – the first one to actually spook me in a while – I thought a tree may very well come down on us. The porch door flew open of its own accord; I considered moving into the basement.
But this morning, it was cool in the early hours. I would have rather been sleeping – the storm and a restless baby had left me bereft of the necessary REMs, but Cole and I were up before most others and we swayed with the Ergobaby and coffee on the drenched side porch. Few cars passed by. We could hear frogs from our creek (swamp) and birdsong. It was the first time in a long time that I wanted to be outside. I appreciated that, even as my eyelids pulled down on me.
Now, it is later in the afternoon, and the air is thick and heavy with southern damp, but we are on the screened porch. The rain comes back in short reminder-bursts, seemingly in a steady effort to keep the temperature down and the trees bowing under water’s weight.
Cole is happily, lazily, lounging in a bouncy chair, and I am able to write. He has not approved of being put down the last few days. Maybe I can get ten minutes before he stirs if I set him down asleep; if I’m lucky, I get thirty. It’s as though he struggles with sleep-surrender unless his body touches mine, preferably if I am erect and walking. There is nothing sweeter. Sleep and productivity for me have been staccato.
But now, out of the omnipresent air conditioning, sinking in amidst the swoosh of passing cars, the caws and hoo-hooos (who-whoos?) of large birds, the breath of blown tree limbs, and the intermittent patter of rain, he is soothed: his senses, I imagine, engaged and satisfied beyond what a sound machine provides.
It Takes a Village…
Yesterday, I took Maya and Cole to a play date at my friend Alys’ house. Our friend Liz was there with her two kids as well. We were all in our birthing class together when pregnant with our first born daughters. Now we each have two kids. Three three-year olds, an almost-two-year old, a newly-one-year old, and now brand new baby Cole. Six kids! We marveled at how much had changed in only three years.
As we were getting shoes on and bags packed up to get ready to go, Alys went outside to help Liz get her kids loaded up in the car. It was just Baldwin (Alys’ almost-two-year old), Maya, and me in the kitchen. I helped Baldwin get down off of a high stool he was on, and Maya said, “You’re the best mommy to everyone, Mommy!”
I melted right there on the spot.
I looked out the window, and I saw Alys starting my car so that it would be cool by the time my kids were ready (it was a 92 degree day), watched her hold the one-year old while Liz got her big kid buckled up, and I said to Maya, “We all help each other. Liz and Alys are the best mommies to everyone also. We are the best because we do it together.”
So so grateful for my wonderful friends and their families; I feel so lucky that our kids will grow up together.
Easing Back In – May in Pictures
To just get myself started again, I am going to ease in by sharing big, beautiful May in pictures. Maybe this can be a new thing – the month in pictures. Nice way to catalogue the memories.
The man of many nicknames is born!
My sister, Lily, and her boyfriend, Sam, were here for Cole’s birth and they took Maya to the Museum of Life and Science to give her some special attention after the boy was born.
May was truly wonderful.
End of April, End of ABCs
No, I did not finish strong. And my next post will be about all the changes in my life that have distracted me from TAKING 5 MINUTES A DAY TO WRITE, but I do not want to make excuses about not writing – that is the habit I was trying to break through participating in the A to Z Challenge.
However, I did take the haiku off the blog and into my classroom this past week, and my students wrote some really amazing and beautiful pieces. We spent a chilly but lovely morning outside, trying to leave our preoccupation with our selves back in the classroom, and going to the blade of grass to learn about the grass. Yes, I did have teenagers down on their knees in the morning dew, coming nose to nose with nature. Yes, there were also teenagers glancing at the trees and sky between texts and snapchats from their dry bench seats or from just inside the hallway doors, where the breeze couldn’t touch them. Oh well, their loss. The idea has been planted.
So, to wrap up my April month of haiku, I will share here all the true-to-haiku pieces I wrote that chilly April 28th morning with my Creative Writing class during my last week of work.
(Some have assigned categories)
About the Sky:
Blue, unwritten page
Pale edges touching trees.
Unmarred indigo
About Grass: (I gotta say, my kids did a much better job with this one than I did)
Shaken with the wind
Vibration of life, grass blade
Proud, vertical shoot
About a Living Thing (trees):
Verdant harmony
Song of hunter and chartreuse:
Spring’s voice, sung in green.
About Moisture:
Rain’s breath on the wind,
still reminder of past storms
cools this morning air
Connection of Place: Between Mountain and Sea in North Carolina
The sound of ocean
Communicated through leaves
Shaking in the wind
Free Choice:
Afternoon warmth
Announced by the morning’s rays
When the wind is still
Adios, April, it’s been real. I am pleased with my efforts toward self-discipline and consistency. Though I have not reached the apex quite yet, I am moving in the right direction.
A to Z Challenge: This month, I will be writing a haiku (sometimes a senryu – same syllables, not marveling at nature) each day save Sundays for the 26 letters of the alphabet as part of the blogosphere’s A to Z Challenge.
April 22: Sink
For my “S” day, the students in my 1st period Creative Writing class “voted” that I write a haiku – in full haiku honor: focusing on qualities of ‘nature’ or being, creating an image, an emotion, and an “aha!” moment, but to apply all of that to the humble, man-made sink.
So here goes:
S
White porcelain dish
takes in water, lets it go:
we have become clean.
A to Z Challenge: This month, I will be writing a haiku (sometimes a senryu – same syllables, not marveling at nature) each day save Sundays for the 26 letters of the alphabet as part of the blogosphere’s A to Z Challenge.
April 21: Red
R
A fleeting brilliance
Bursts from the earth with spring force:
Temporary gift.
A to Z Challenge: This month, I will be writing a haiku (sometimes a senryu – same syllables, not marveling at nature) each day save Sundays for the 26 letters of the alphabet as part of the blogosphere’s A to Z Challenge.
April 20: Quiet
Q
In a world of noise,
I am not myself without
Finding that moment.
A to Z Challenge: This month, I will be writing a haiku (sometimes a senryu – same syllables, not marveling at nature) each day save Sundays for the 26 letters of the alphabet as part of the blogosphere’s A to Z Challenge.
April 18: Pointed float
P
She teaches herself,
toes pointing, legs buoyant: lift!
She learns water’s grace.
A to Z Challenge: This month, I will be writing a haiku (sometimes a senryu – same syllables, not marveling at nature) each day save Sundays for the 26 letters of the alphabet as part of the blogosphere’s A to Z Challenge.
April 17: Only
O
Only eighteen days
more, ever being pregnant:
Slow down; remember.
A to Z Challenge: This month, I will be writing a haiku (sometimes a senryu – same syllables, not marveling at nature) each day save Sundays for the 26 letters of the alphabet as part of the blogosphere’s A to Z Challenge.