A purple potato made me do it

Hello hello. It’s been a heck of a 6 months. I’m still here and I am glad that you are, too.

Things on my mind include:

• Is my family ok? Am I?
• How about my friends? My neighbors?
• What will 2021 look like?  What will November look like?
• What will 2030 look like? What will this weekend look like?
• What can I do to help everyone in my country and planet understand that black lives matter?
• Will I ever be able to do the E minor chord change on the ukulele in less than 5 seconds?
• Will I get good enough to bring the uke along on a camping trip to do fireside songs? Or play in a café for strangers?
• When can we do a party to celebrate Mom?
• Am I taking the pandemic too seriously?
• Should I paint the walls brighter, so when I teach yoga from my living room, it’s got better lighting?
• Do I work better, when working remotely?
• Teens and kids and single may be having trouble with fewer social engagements and less hugs. Am I, too, long term?
• What does it take to get enough people feeling there’s a dangerous wingnut in the White House, to vote him out?
• How much forest bathing do I need in a month? Or week?
• Will we have to go camping in January again, to get adequate social distancing? (Brrr.)
• What’s my reason for living: time with family? The next ride on my bike? A hot bath? Doing my part to ensure that other people have the freedom to think about those choices, too?

It’s a lot.

Some things stay steady, to keep me feeling connected and grounded. For example, a tour of the vegetable garden and later, a happy hour, each weekday with Steve. And my user experience work. Zooms and phone calls. Reading books. Cooking. A takeout meal, weekly. A drive and, and with any luck, also a hike. My Monday night yoga classes, which have been virtual since… February? I’m invested and grateful for all of these.

At this week’s class I shared a Rita Dove poem; below you’ll see my favorite tiny portion of it but please check out the book (cited, below) or at least read the full poem here, online. Her writing is amazing.

How do you use life?
How do you feel it? Mom says

Dove, Rita. “Parlor.” Collected Poems 1974-2004, W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, p. 294.

I’ll be posting here, more often. I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long. See you soon.

It doesn’t sparkle so much without the dirt. Our first potato, ever!