My Swans @ Daybreak. 6:37 am, April 9, 2022. 47° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.More photos from this morning here.
Miracle. All of it.
October 28, 2021 by 28 Comments
Dear Babies,
I now know that you are a boy and a girl. The girl is bigger than the boy now, by 12 percent, and you’re both over 2 pounds, and the boy is presenting first, head down. I had a dream that the boy came early but the girl stayed inside; and the boy didn’t want to breastfeed but instead asked for sausage and cheese, and I was impressed with his verbal abilities. I have been resting up and reading, hoping you stay in there for at least another couple of months. Most people come into the world by themselves, but you will (knock on wood) come into this world together. I hope you both feel safe and sound and cozy there together.
Love, Mama
…
I got my epidural. My doctor told me to hug him around the waist to reduce my shaking and increase the chance that the needle found its target. I threw my arms around him, grateful. I got my Pitocin drip. My husband and I watched basketball on television. I never watch basketball. Why were we watching basketball? At midnight time sped up, and they rushed us to the OR. Everyone in scrubs, just in case. My doctor put on his birthing mix tape. I think it began with “American Woman.” Looking into the face of my husband, I pushed William out. I heard a baby cry. “Is he all right? Is he all right?” “Yes, he’s perfect.” Then the doctor reached inside me, as he’d promised, and pulled Hope out by the legs. “Is she all right?” “Yes, she’s perfect.” The nurses laid Hope and William side by side in a crib and checked them. The nurse told us the babies were holding hands. Before they held the hands of their mother or father, they held each other’s hands. I began shaking.
— Sarah Ruhl, from Smile: The Story of a Face. (Simon & Schuster, October 5, 2021)
Notes:
- NY Times 8 New Books We Recommend This Week (9/30/21) & NY Times Book Review (Oct 4, 2021): An Acclaimed Playwright on Masks and the Return to the StageSarah Ruhl, after a long struggle living with Bell’s palsy, knows the feeling of being masked among the unmasked.
- Portrait of Sarah Ruhl via Playwrights
- Post title Inspired by Albert Einstein’s quote: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.
Fuzzy
June 12, 2021 by 27 Comments
And then, Yes!
May 12, 2021 by 63 Comments
Notes:
- As I was driving out of the parking lot, I took one last glance to my right. What is that!?!
- DK @ Daybreak. Cove Island Park. May 12, 2021. 5:59 to 6:06 am.
T.G.I.F.: Running. With Mother Goose (3).
May 8, 2020 by 48 Comments
4:48 a.m. 8 hours of sleep. Rested.
I jump out of bed. Dress. Gear up.
It’s 5:04 a.m., and I’m out the door. Running. With Mother Goose. (Again.) 9th consecutive day pulled outside by The Call of the Wild.
44° F, feels like 42° F. No wind. No traffic. Dark. Full moon beams from up above. Jenny Offill: “The moonlight through the windshield. No one talks.”
Same route. Down the hill. Around the corner. Down the street to U.S. 1.
There, up ahead, silhouetted under the street lamp, is the Masked Woman. 5:09 a.m. Can’t be her. No chance. She hustles across the street. I glare at her. You better make way for me Lady. She says nothing, but sweeps both hands up to cover her face. It’s going to be a good day.
I run.
Down U.S. 1. I work my way around the construction, crossing the bridge, the highway and into The Cove.
The same pair of geese stand at the entrance, that’s them in the photo above.
I pause for a moment to snap the shot, and keep moving, pulled forward towards the main performance.
The same acceleration of heartbeat.
The same anticipation.
Where she goes, they follow. All 76 of them… She’s the Mom of the Year.
July 29, 2018 by 28 Comments
Where she goes, they follow. All 76 of them. A female duck in Minnesota has about six dozen ducklings in her care, a remarkable image that an amateur wildlife photographer captured on a recent trip to Lake Bemidji, about 150 miles northwest of Duluth, Minn.
“It was mind blowing,” the photographer, Brent Cizek, said in an interview. “I didn’t know that a duck could care for that many chicks.” It’s not unusual to see many ducklings gathered together. Some 20 or 30 have been reported with a single hen. But 70-plus? “It’s an extraordinary sighting,” said Richard O. Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University…
Mr. Cizek said he first stumbled upon the brood in late June, when he headed out to the local lake in an eight-foot plastic boat he bought to fuel his outdoor photography. He said he wasn’t expecting to take many pictures that day — he brought one camera and one lens — but then he saw the duck and her babies.
He began snapping photos while trying to steer in choppy water. He rushed home to look at his camera roll, he said, and found that only one image turned out: the duck, who is being called Mama, blazing the way for the long line of ducklings in her wake.
“It kind of compels you just to look and wonder: How?” Mr. Cizek said. “How did this happen? How is this mom taking care of all of these ducklings? She just looks really proud and stoic in the photo.” [Read more…]
Monday Morning: Head up. Slow and Steady Wins the Race.
August 15, 2016 by 16 Comments
And just like that
November 3, 2015 by 15 Comments
This morning the redbirds’ eggs
have hatched and already the chicks
are chirping for food.
They don’t know where it’s coming from,
they just keep shouting, “More! More!”
As to anything else, they haven’t
had a single thought. Their eyes
haven’t yet opened, they know nothing
about the sky that’s waiting. Or
the thousands, the millions of trees.
The don’t even know they have wings.
And just like that, like a simple
neighborhood event, a miracle is
taking place.
~ Mary Oliver, This Morning. Felicity: Poems
Photo: Mr. Greenjeans
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
May 11, 2015 by 15 Comments
Federal Recreation Lands Photo Contest. Honorable Mention selection for “Wildlife” by Koustav Maity, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Source: Recreation.gov
5:00 am. And Inspired.
April 3, 2013 by 13 Comments
Good Wednesday morning. Here are my selections of the inspiring posts of the week:
Olive @ Olivethepeople with her post titled The Subway Samaritan: “…He was crazy. At least I thought so. At least at first. You see…”
Tina @ Practical Practice Management with her post titled Who Made an Impact on You. I’ve read similar iterations of this thought but it never seems to get old and always seems to leave me in wonder. “Name three friends who helped you through a difficult time…”
Sedone @ Getting Better, Man. with his post titled Giving Happiness a Helping Hand aka Beware the Silent H*. “I’m dedicated to giving happiness a helping hand, although sometimes I want to give it the finger…And don’t miss the short video.
5:06 am. And Inspired.
March 27, 2013 by 8 Comments
Good Wednesday morning. All of my inspiring posts of the week come from a single source. Thank you Sandy Sue for pointing me to Peg-o-leg’s Ramblings who has started a series of guest posts called “Should Have Been Freshly Pressed.” Peg awards the bloggers a “Freshly Pegged Award.” Here’s some samplings:
Life In The Boomer Lane with her guest post titled Why I’d Rather Be 65 Than 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, or 55: I hate that my body moves more slowly than it used to, that when I roll over in bed, my back hurts, that sex is accomplished in mostly one position, that photos of myself scare me, that I can no longer run up and down the stairs or sit in a pretzel position on the floor or reach way under the bed to grab something. I hate that reaching way down into the crib to pick up my grandson must be planned like a military operation . I hate that my memory fails at the oddest times, that I am beginning to lose a grip on pop culture, that I think a lot about being home in bed with a book when I am out in the evening. I hate that people in charge can look younger than my children…” Great post. Read more here.’
Misty @ Misty’s Laws with her guest post titled The Last Straw…To My Heart. “I have an admirer. I am being wooed on a daily basis. I see him almost every day and he gives me what I so desperately need. He satisfies my cravings and soothes the beast within. He gives me the ability to face the day. He provides me with the fix that I need before I can function every morning. He is . . . the drive-thru guy at my Dunkin Donuts...” Read more here. [Read more…]
4:26 am. And Inspired.
March 20, 2013 by 18 Comments
Good Wednesday morning. Here’s my selection of inspiring posts of the week.
- Thank you Megan @ Make Something Mondays for her post More Than Photographs where she shares the photo above and a collection of similar inspiring shots. See more here.
- Russ Towne @ A Grateful Man with his post: There is Greatness in Goodness. ” I just flashed back to a scene in the movie where a man with many flaws who has wanted his whole life to be great and failed over and over again finally does something that is indeed great. The woman he is with says something to him that is profound. It went something like this: Yes, you were great. “But you were also something much better than that…Read more here.
- Julie @ jmgoyder with her post Gutsy9’s Growth: I look forward to each post (pictures and updates) on G9’s development. G9 is a orphaned baby peacock which Julie has adopted. And there has been an exciting new development. “But guess what? I think he might…Read more here.
- Renplus @ for her post titled Cocoon Breaks Open. “The enormity of Monday’s layoff didn’t sink in until yesterday, and I allowed myself to grieve finally. It needed to happen, and I was proud that I could experience it, release the pain, and move forward. Some beautiful things that I never expected really touched me, though…” Read more here. [Read more…]
Morning After Long Weekend
February 19, 2013 by 20 Comments
Statistically speaking…
February 19, 2012 by 16 Comments
Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that the mere fact of our existence should keep us all in a state of contented dazzlement.
~ Lewis Thomas (1913–1993). A physician, poet, etymologist, researcher.
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Thank You Luke @ Crashingly Beautiful
Image Credit: 1000notes.com
Live & Learn 