One Wish

A few weeks ago, we had several good soaking rains in a row. I took the kids to the Tempe Festival of the Arts and with the rain and the cool breeze, it reminded me of Portland's Saturday Market which is held under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon.

I got so nostalgic, I felt a little weepy. It was silly. I haven't lived in Portland since 1988, and haven't even visited since 1995. But I loved Portland. The weather, the people, the trees and green. The mountains, rivers, waterfalls, beaches. I'm sure it's changed, everything does. I'm sure I romanticize it. But it was a lovely place to live. A lovely place to hope to live again. But until then, my one wish for the coming year is for more soaking rains to remind me.

PUTTING IT DOWN

My friend Adam has a book. In it is the story of two Buddhist Monks walking along a road. They come to a stream where a woman is pacing back and forth, unsure of how she will cross the river. One monk simply picks her up, carries her across the river, puts her down, and continues his walk with the second monk.

The two walk on for another ten miles in silence. Suddenly, the second monk says, "Brother, you KNOW we are forbidden to touch women . . . HOW could you do that?!" The first monk replies, "I put her down at the river's edge . . . why are you still carrying her?"

The New Year's resolution this year is to put it down. To quit carrying all the baggage of things I cannot fix nor change. To release the guilt, the sadness, the anxiety, the extra weight I keep as a barrier between the now and the past.

I am hopeful. I am joyful. I feel free.

Bugs, Bunny

Well, after deleting 2700 temporary internet files like Blogger asked me to do, I still have no tool bar to post pictures or do spell check. Sigh. Guess you'll just have to visualize this one in your pretty little heads.

The nice neighbors, who shall remain nameless, aquired a bunny rabbit. It was soooo cute that shortly after they aquired a second bunny rabbit. Shortly after THAT they began breeding like, well, rabbits. Now the heat of last summer took the lives of some of the smaller ones or weaker ones, but it appears that the cooler temps agree with them. They are no longer content to hang out and dig dens in the nice neighbor's backyard, now they are nibbling the tender winter grass in the front as well.

This has just proven to be too much temptation to Dumb Cat, who has made several futile runs at catching those wascally wabbits. I thought it was rather amusing to watch his frustration level rise.

Last night I let Crazy Daisy out into the backyard to do her business. Usually she wants to come RIGHT BACK IN because it's cold, and she thinks she's delicate. I was concerned because I sat watching some infomercial for quite some time and the princess of the doggy kingdom did not bang at the door demanding to be let back into the warmth. Fearing she had plunged into the pool and was frantically dog paddling waiting for me to save her, I opened the door a squinted out into the yard. There she was, playing with a toy, shaking her head. I called her to come, because I was getting cold, and I'M delicate, and so here she comes at a dead run with her toy. Only when she reaches the door I discover that it is not a toy, it is a A DEAD BABY BUNNY RABBIT. More accurately it was HALF a DEAD BABY BUNNY. And as I'm blocking Daisy from entering the house with it, and trying to get it away from her, I glance up and there is Dumb Cat in the corner of the yard snacking on the other half. I swear he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. So I had to throw on my jeans and sweatshirt as the sun was coming up and clean up the carnage before the kids (or heaven forbid, the nice neighbors) were aware of the horror that had befallen one of the rabbit multitude.

I keep trying to tell myself it's survival of the fittest, and the cat's natural instinct and all that, but YUCK! Poor bunny.

Gone green

I think I'm being punished. My blogger create a post page no longer gives me the option to post pictures or change my font or even use spell check. Hmmmm.

I'm off to a funeral for a 56 year old this morning. Moral of the story? Life is short, enjoy it.

I'm changing my page to green for the holidays. I'm actually looking forward to setting up the tree tomorrow and then having the puppy knock it all down. Bec is coming over to help make Christmas cookies, so that will be fun this year. And yes, I'm even thinking about sitting down and making the Christmas cards.

What's on your plate this time of year?