The painters are coming today
at 6.00 a.m. the whole family does

a quickclean

you know, moving things away
from windows so those frames could finally be finished
then there is a mad dash
to clear the boxes and shoes out of the hallway
after that
it's breakfast
making lunches
finding shoes
an umbrella for one
a coat for another

runningforthebusintherain

at 7.30 my husband gets the e-mail

nopainterstoday

I'm going to go sit
in the nice clean hallway

and drink my coffee
and write.

happy Friday.

what color would you paint the hallway? : )
I'm thinking lighthouse yellow.

So a very nice Jehovah Witness just
knocked on my door.
An older man with white hair and crinkly eyes.
He introduced himself and his wife.
Nice names. *
They both had warm hands.

I didn't mind the interruption
I don't have any heat in my house
at the moment
and my hands were quite cold
from trying to type and update my
online portfolio.

Anyway, he asked me, 
"Do you believe in a Doomsday?"
and he pointed to the cover
of the pamphlet he handed me.
It had a black and white photo
of a broken train and burned cars.
And some concrete blocks.
I liked that detail because it reminded
me how happy I was
that my husband had removed
the concrete blocks from our driveway
just yesterday.

And I said, "Yes, I do, I meet up
with a Doomsday every day at Stop and Shop."
And then I told him it just wasn't
illustrated correctly on  his cover.

He laughed.

His second question was, "Do you
believe God cares about women?"
He then showed me the cover of
pamphlet number 2.
That had quite a nice collage of various
women and girls involved in happy activities.

And I said, "Of course! We are 
walking gifts on this Earth. We're
the better half as they say. I am
slightly biased though, being a woman myself."

He laughed again. A nice hearty laugh.
And I laughed. His wife laughed.
We all stood in the sunshine on my front stoop
laughing.
I was just so happy I could answer his questions.

We shook hands again and parted ways.
I told him and his wife
to be very careful walking on such a busy road.

It is always nice to share a laugh.
Don't you think?
I'll try to laugh today at the grocery store.



* can't divulge their names, I want to retain their privacy. : )
but maybe you'll meet them someday.

still flying high after SCBWI

she stopped on her walk to look at the

purple crocuses smiling by the birch tree

She walked up the hill

with a little bit of sunshine

coconut ice cream

and

jingling

in

the bottom

of her bag

two spoons.

So I was raking

with my kids

and

my boys

were playing best 2 out of 3

to see who would have to drag

the garbage pail of leaves

to the backyard

and the best 2 out of 3

turned into

the best 4 out of 5

then

7 out 8

and

Josephine

and I

kept raking

and then

my neighbor

Rose

yelled to me

from across the street

"Hey, do you know when they are picking up

these bags of leaves?

Mine have been sitting

here for a week. The town has never been this late.

Can you believe that?!"

She kept talking

the boys kept yelling

and Josephine was

raking

and all

I did was nod

pleasantly

because

really

all I had

wanted to do

was get outside

for some

fresh air

quiet

fresh

air.

so

I took

the

trash can

waved

to

Rose

still talking

with

her arms akimbo

and

I

dragged the

pail

to my

backyard

my

quiet backyard

and I dumped

the leaves

into

our compost

and breathed

in

the autumn air

looked

up

into

the blue sky

and

listened

to

my boys

still

playing

best

12 out of 15.

Here I go

so I am away with my college best buddies and they started up this site for me so here I go...it's easy to be inspired when you're surrounded by good friends, sunshine and blue waters.
namaste