Home at Last

I said goodbye to one of my favorite pieces this week...

         "Lost and Found" - I've written about it before, about that mysterious connection that happens when a human and an animal find each other. It was inspired by a brave little feral cat who decided to homestead on our porch back when Padi and I lived in the Central District. He was barely 6 or 7 weeks old when he and his sister started hanging out at my front door. The deadly combination of construction and four lanes of traffic was cutting down the feral cat population in the neighborhood and I guess they felt safe there. Anyway, the female got sick and crawled under the porch and this tiny little guy, barely the size of a tribble, stood guard over her, being as brave and fierce as he could be when we tried to get near her. Sadly, his sister passed and he was alone. So we fed him and watched through the peephole over him and when he was old enough,  we scooped him up to have him neutered. He had to recover someplace for a few days, so we kept him in my studio and watched him through the plate glass window and fell hopelessly in love with him. We named him Wheezer for his stuffy nose and silly sneezes. When he was healthy enough to let back out, we let our executive cat, Mackie Bird, in with him instead. And they lived happily ever after.
    I did this piece a couple of years ago, after saying goodbye to both those fine creatures. The gesture the little cat is making is something Wheeze would do when I held him, he'd reach out and gently pet my lips. And I would feel like we knew each other from somewhere long past.
    This week I delivered "Lost and Found" to my friend Kathleen Shaw and her friends at The Community Cat Coalition, a fine organization that is dedicated to rescuing feral cats and placing them in good homes. If you live in the Seattle area, please check them out and support them. They do good work. If you live elsewhere, I bet there's a group just like them in your area that could use your help.

Life is Beautiful

..

It's true. I'm not saying it's not tough. I'm not saying it's not scary or sad or confusing or tragic sometimes. But we are surrounded by instances of grace and beauty. Look at this...

 

It's a daisy I found for my garden. It starts out with flat petals but as it matures the petals curl in towards the center, creating these science fiction starburst flowers. And it's purple! How cool is that?

Look at this...

I mean, look at it! I know... It's a snail. But it's maybe an inch and a half long! Look at the colors in it's body. You can see its tiny little eyes.  It was on my sidewalk one rainy day last week. I almost stepped on it. Then I damn near flipped head over heels into my garden trying not to . I think I spent 10 minutes on my knees in the rain trying to capture a decent shot of it.

It was just a moment and it was silly, but it was also so much fun to get lost in the discovery of something wonderful just under my feet.

This week we've seen unimaginable horror but we've also seen amazing strength and caring and grace. We've seen cowardice in congress but we've also seen men and women run headlong into danger and scoop up strangers to care for them. We've seen people standing in the street to cheer for cops who've been working around the clock for four days so that a city could breathe easier.  We've seen carelessness almost level a town in Texas, but we've seen it answered by men unafraid to stand in a fire if it means someone else can get out of it.

They beauty in our lives is not just in what we choose to look at, but in how we choose to live.

Moonshine

is available here

Beautiful Dreamer

So for the last few months, I've been getting up at hell o'clock in the morning (5am) in order to drive a mile up to the mall to go stand in a 110 degree room and do yoga with dumbells in my hands. I know what you're thinking... mid-life crisis! No (although I can understand people going that way... you don't wear a whole lotta clothing in a 110 degree room). More like an opportunity to dial in, to my body, to my health, to a little peace of mind. It's just time to go somewhere and strive without having to be "myself"... I'm not anybody's friend, I'm not an advanced student, I'm not "Mr. D", I'm just a guy working off his spare tire by doing something difficult.

And it's wonderful. But it's exhausting! I need a nap when I'm done, and that's not just from the exercise... I don't get to sleep early enough to get enough sleep to be off and running after a 6am class. So a nap...then I get to work at the restaurant... usually a double, then I get home and I drop again! My creative rhythm is a little off in other words!

However, what's blowing up is my dream life. I've been having the most amazing dreams since I started seriously doing hot yoga! Like "Inception" Level dreams. One morning I literally had one of those "Am I a man dreaming I'm a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man?" dreams. Struggling,  dying, slipping into darkness and crawling out into a whole new life and looking into the mirror and knowing I was different and carrying that awareness into a whole new story in the same dream. And it was so much fun!

I've filled up a dream journal with these stories. Perhaps I'll tell them and post them with some appropriate art...

Beautiful Dreamer

available here