When Time Stands Still

I love moments.
Those transient moments
when someone or something
has a moment in time where everything
comes together.
You take a deep, aware breath
that envelopes your heartstrings in its fullness,
and all the while you know
it is a moment.

Even our abandoned, bleakest, man-made atrocities
have illuminative moments in late-day sunshine
reflecting from a rain-soaked surface,
or cyber-space flashes a brain image of a white-hatted person
gently cradling a still-living child from rubble,
a few notes of music take us where we learn again
from where we come,
an athlete stretches to
a nadir of possibility.

Maybe, that is why I take walks
or need a window in my dwelling.
A grey, rainy morning viewed under a spring canopy
vibrates with every shade of green there is
and I am reminded.

I love moments.

___________

The Farm Report: There was a lot of activity. John and Wendy hosted a satisfying lamb roast with invitees as diverse as three or four continents could make them including ages ranging from toddler to moi.

Not all was idyllic for Toby who rounded the corner of the barn at full tilt with a herd of pre-schooler children hotly pursuing him; the scene echoed later with the baby goats in the lead. Aidan and I got Texas Hold 'em started and soon found genius-level brains showing us a thing or two about poker. I really didn't know minds could add and subtract chips that fast. I scored zero on the horseshoe game I played with three others.  Aidan played some card tricks. Here's one...







Over in Dixon, MO, where I have a Great, Great Grandnephew...

...handsome, young Hunter was swinging. 

The lamb roast day wasn't complete without a walk...

Aidan enjoying the tall grass while I worry about recent Lyme Disease reports of deer ticks on the march.

Keoni, Aidan, and Joseline--friend visiting from Tucson for a few days.

Austin and T-Bone ignored the humanoids.

Everybody gone home, John enjoys the fire and the cigar somebody slipped him.

From the Arts Desk: Aidan in the PYAO had their spring concert at Perelman Theater in Kimmel Center...

Aidan waved to us before the performance.

CelloMan in his first chair spot.

John and Wendy hanging out while we wait for Aidan after the performance.

Keoni and Joseline.

Keoni, Maestro Scaglione, and John

A favorite of mine. Top of Kimmel Center.

Celloman himself.

And hearing from Paula in Tucson was really welcome for me. Paula sent one of her newer drawings...

Weather Report: Drenching.

Oh, the happy gardens.

Sensations

Wow!

Mothers Day started with the arrival of cut flowers from Valerie and Tim...

...and continued with some handwork by Aidan...

...and John taking us to a fine repast at McCoole's Red Lion Inn here in Quakertown...

...that included good-natured humor leading to tears-in-the-eyes belly laughs. A complete success. Thank you, John.

Throughout the day and beyond, fine greetings and remembrances kept surfacing on various social media platforms. Cyberspace zinged with imagery and mothers, past and present. Nice.

From the Anecdotal Medicine Desk: Belly laughs are prescriptive antidotes to aging.

Ah, yes. That aging process. I don't have mission creep; I have decrepitude creep. The cells will have their way.

In the meantime, there is so much to enjoy. Backyard vistas to begin with...

The iris started opening.

Lillies of the Valley are adding to the sensational olfactory experience.

And there is the music. Keoni secured a viola loan from a shop in Philly to use during his summer adventures in Rome and out west.





But before all that begins, it's a treat to have him here for awhile.

I'll leave you with one of our friends in the pond...

...who  sat still for a picture yesterday.

You know how when a whole bunch of stuff goes out of whack, you deal with it intensely; then, when it comes time to tell about it, you'd rather scrub toilets in a bus station than bring it all to mind again. You just want to smell the Lillies of the Valley and take a walk. Yes, it was far from a normal week.

Here's the good stuff. My cold went away by the end of the week. A few days ago, at the middle school Spring Concert, Aidan played a wonderful solo rendition of a piece he's worked very hard on...

During the orchestra pieces.

His solo...






Keoni got back home after his finals were finished, saddled up my pony Subaru and came over for a lunch with me. He shared a couple minutes of audio from his end of the year concert. He had played some solo violin during parts of the recorded segment. I have it on iTunes but Blogger doesn't have a mp3 upload feature. There are workarounds but they require challenging utilizations beyond my ken here tonight. Later on, I'll fight this dragon. Maybe a light saber would help.

A scanning of about a 100-year-old picture of my dad, aunt, and uncle was successful. The challenges of electronics are far exceeded by what they now do... to think that that might be a gaslight hanging from the ceiling...

Dad, Aunt Catherine, and Uncle Nonny.

Sonja sent over from Utah, Elijah's birthday time pictures...

Elijah's 12th birthday.

Elijah and Kingston.

Somehow, I worked in something for the church newsletter which returns me to a routine I've enjoyed but the lack of driving had slowed it to a halt.

Marge here at home makes a lot happen. Off and on the past few days, we went to the movies, shopped, worked on a panel discussion/presentation, and went to the Michener Museum of Art...

Next door to the Michiner is the Doylestown Public Library.

Marge's gardens and yard are blooming like crazy. The PA landscape is green again, dotted with dogwood, and flowers are everywhere. People are out with every ray of sunshine on their riding mowers. In the back yard, the squirrels demonstrate their acrobatics while they decimate the bird seed supplies.

Miss Suzy hanging up-side-down from the squirrel-proof bird feeder. She does a sit-up occasionally to scoop up another mouthful, all the while gripping the edge with her hind feet.

Early one morning, Marge and I took ourselves to Nockamixon Lake for a picnic breakfast...