simon says

mom is still recuperating from her bat shots.  the good news is that i did not have to get a booster.  she still has two injections to go and they make her all achey and slow-moving (kinda like she's 90).  so i'm being curious dog jumping on to blog farewell to summer 2010. 

it was hot, this summer was.  and sticky.  i shed a lot.  i took really long naps five or six times a day.  i honed my flair for making people laugh.  and pet me.  and forgive my disinterest in catching bats.  that's all. 

see you in september

um, i'm going to need another break. 

a few weeks ago, a little brown bat snuck in my house.  he hid for a few days then reappeared with random fly-bys while i was in bed reading.  bats are sneaky little mofos...he'd swoop and flutter over me (see me frozen with fear clutching my book) then retreat to some unknown makeshift bat cave in the casa.  i slept with the covers tightly secured around my neck, just like when i was eight and certain dracula was making nightly rounds on castro lane.  i couldn't find him until the next day.  as ken was out of town, i was left no choice but to suit up and be all bad ass bat hunter myself.  i knew i couldn't go another night with his shenanigans, so i put on my big girl pants and caught him.  then, animal lover that i am, i let him go in the great outdoors.

i was pretty darn proud of my fearlessness and told the saga with bravado and joked that my little brown bat looked nothing like edward cullen. 

then the rabies stories started showing up on the evening news and in the paper.  who knew that bats are primary carriers of rabies?  and you can't feel it when they bite you?  i didn't even know that if you get rabies, you are almost guaranteed a quick and horrible death. 

i don't know if i was bitten.  but he did have a few nights of stealth access to my bod.  and because i let him go, there was no way to test his little bat brain.  given this, my doctor has ordered rabies shots.  friends, you have no idea how i am so not looking forward to this.  i hate going to the doctor.  i hate needles.  i hate substances in my body that are intended to kill. 

trying to look on the bright side here:  i'm grateful that there is a way to prevent my death, that i have health insurance and i know the series of shots (the thick syrupy burning one with the long needle being the first) will be over before i can say "holy immunoglobulin batman".  i am also grateful for any prayers and sweet mojo you can send my way.

see you soon.

***

update:  eight needles down, four to go.  it actually wasn't so bad.  thanks for the sparkly calm thoughts and prayers friends, i felt them.

a bit of restraint

autumn catalogs, you're killing me here.

paris

a mosaic monday full of little wishes.  please honor the artists here.

romantic summer nights

the superpower to see

abundance in the ordinary.

graceful exits

hello friends. 

last week i mentioned that i'm not so good at asking and set about to make a month of practice, of prayer.  my instinct told me, "be careful what you ask for" and "others need more than you" (i.e. "you don't deserve what you want").   but i believed i could overcome years of conditioning and learn to trust that i was in a place of safety, a place where risk and dreams and prayer cohabitated nicely.

clearly, i am a beginner, a prayer novice.  eight days has yielded more than enough material for me to sort through.  so i'm taking a break from the august break.  i love visiting your blogs and seeing your augusts unfold and will continue to do so.  thank you for coming here and leaving nice comments that always make me smile.  my break will be temporary.

my camera is a happy extrovert, a celebrator of life and beauty and love.  she is not at all interested in the grunt work it requires to help those things manifest.  there is a need right now for me to cocoon and protect and (let's be honest) wallow in the grunt work, so my camera has to take a break from me.

impermanence becomes vivid in the present moment; so do compassion and wonder and courage. and so does fear. in fact, anyone who stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without reference point, experiences groundlessness. that’s when our understanding goes deeper, when we find that the present moment is a pretty vulnerable place and that this can be completely unnerving and completely tender at the same time.

-pema chodron

good things in the post

{the squam journal available here.}

space

uncontained joy

yeah, some of that

creative opportunities

heart {open}

grace

psst...

for the month of august i am participating in susannah conway's august break.  each day there will just be a photo with title.  won't you join me in this exercise in word restraint and photo explosion?

i've been reading lit by mary karr and am intrigued by the concept of asking.  this has not been my strong suit but i'm ready to give it a go.  my photo each day will be an interpretation of something that i need more of in my life and am asking to receive.  by naming it with intention, like a little photographic prayer, i hope to see opportunities and possibilities to manifest it in my life.  and don't be surprised if some not-so-lofty needs (coffee!  boots!  tacos!) arise during the month.

happy august friends.