Spring

Bach outside the light rail station:

A baby born in the car on the way to the birth center:

Glorious 100 year old cherry trees on the UW campus:

Just home from an afternoon performance of Romeo and Juliet with a Deaf Romeo and Friar. They had other actors 'speak' while the Deaf actors signed. Clever and moving.

And it was beautiful and I blubbered all the way through the second half.

Gawd.

Shakespeare is so wonderful to listen to. 'What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun.' I chose to ignore the fact that their romance was about 24 hours long and she was 14. At least he was underage too.

The crows are making a racket outside. I came home from a dog walk and stepping out of the car, they were swarming and yelling. At first I looked high into the trees. Then I saw this:

A Cooper's hawk methodically tearing off the feathers of a fallen crow. I moved closer and she stared at me without moving. The crows are hollering all around her as she dismantles her dinner, one feather at a time.

My house is on a ridge and every morning the crows in their hundreds fly north. Then in the evening, they come back. I think they roost 10 miles or so south of me. They stream south, in two's and three's stopping to sit on wires or a tree. I like to think they are going to work in the morning and coming home at night.

Just before I took Felix out I had been reading The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman. And I watched this     

So a day spent with crows. And Cooper's hawks.

They are smarter, much smarter than we know.

Got the newest copy of The Sun today. The editors have made a real effort to diversify the magazine by publishing writers of color and including photos of POC. One article is a photo essay of homeless folk living in California.

I saw a few of my favorite homeless people today. It has been sunny and warm the last few days and I've been thinking about them enjoying the warmth after all the really cold days we have had here. Seattle is growing at such a clip, apparently the mayor and the city counsel has approved a 26 story apartment building in a neighborhood near my house. At least it will have affordable units.

Every time I hand a homeless friend a dollar, I am reminded that we are the same. We want to be safe and well fed and loved. We want to be sheltered. We want to be seen in all our beauty and complexity.

Tomorrow I go visit a new baby. I delivered their last baby and I was their wedding officiant. Just part of the family...

Sometimes I am astonished by my good fortune.

In a few days, this wonderful child of mine will be 44 (!) My home born baby girl.

Now and again, when the news is particularly bad, I find myself weeping. Christchurch, New Zealand-I think we can only stand so much before the grief, disbelief and sorrow spills over. A friend and I saw a movie 'Capernaum' tonight, filmed in Lebanon with astonishing 'actors' especially a child. But the poverty, brutality and despair were wrenching.

She turned to me and said that she can't see movies like this one, at all. So we made a deal-only comedies, light hearted dramas and beauty. Like Mary's chickens. Then we had drinks and warm chocolate chip cookies.

Still broken-hearted. Still on the verge of tears. The challenge to stay open and soft in the reality of the harshest incidents. Not to harbor revenge fantasies, or hatred and anger. Our collective shadow is rampant in the land.

At dawn, the humming birds come and sit on the back porch. The sky, streaked with pink and gold, behind the songbirds at the feeders. Such a small act, to keep those wild creatures fed. In service to their lives, the continuation of their feathery lives.

That's right. I spent the last several hours working on my book. I have downloaded all the transcriptions of interviews I've done, I've located all the articles I thought would be useful and I figured out how to get everything off my external hard drive. And I wrote part of a chapter. The dog has gotten up, exhaled his fetid breath on me and gone back to lying around. It's time to take him and myself to the park so he can have a reason to live his dog's life.

I am leaving all the piles of paper on my desk to remind me that time waits for no (wo)man and anyway, why not. Secondary trauma anyone?

Bless all you writer types out there.

XX beth

Just watched a video of 44's jokes and funny comments throughout his presidency. What a sweet, smart, beautiful, sane, wise and thoughtful man he is. I miss him so much.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/president-obama-the-legacy/comedian-chief-obama-funniest-moments-president-n690166