Notes from A Cloud & A Book Signing, Too

It is one of those still, white mornings that give me the sensation that I am floating in acloud. The gray sea is barely visible, the fog is wending its way up the canyon like a whispered secret, and a tiny hummingbird is hovering about the Mexican sage on our deck.

I may be in the fog right now, but I'm feeling clearheaded and energized, and it isn't just the coffee talking. I happen to be thinking about enlightened leadership for our nation, and how welcome that will be. Watching the Democratic National Convention that culminated Thursday night reaffirmed a sense of possibility that the last eight disastrous years have nearly beaten out of me. God, it's been discouraging, no need to count the ways, and we’ve got some steep holes to climb out of and some sticky webs to untangle and no one expects it to be easy, but oh, how good it will be to get our country back!

Now we can only hope that the deeply stitched threads of racism and hate will not dominate the fabric of our nation, that we will refuse to let our course be shaped by fear, and that we will stand up at this pivotal moment in history and say yes to the change we so desperately need. This is one election we cannot bear to lose, and it's disturbing to realize how close it may be, but right now we have a chance and today is a beginning.

I don’t even consider the above sentiments to be political, by the way.It feels so much bigger than that.

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But now let’s zoom in on some small moments, since I haven’t been much of a blogger lately.

A few sundry glimpes:

Sameer and Emilie have moved into the canyon with their beautiful son Ravi, and a couple of weeks ago I was riding my bicycle in that brief window before dusk when the light is low and burnished gold, and they came along in a car, driving slowly, andEmilie put her finger to her lips and whispered, “We’re trying to get him to sleep…”

All the remembered tenderness of having a little one came back to me in that moment. Ah, yes..trying not only to get her to sleep, but to keep her asleep…walking in circles, or pushing a stroller, or that slow kind of driving, hoping you don’t come to a red light because one brief cessation of movement would jolt her awake and all would be lost.

Such a sweet and poignant time…

And then suddenly that child grows up and leaves you far behind.

I guess I'm still reeling with that.

Speaking of red lights…’cause I did mention one somewhere along the line; didn’t I? Well, I just wrote out a $400 check for my traffic infraction, and believe me, it hurt. But what is probably going to hurt even more will be the eight brain-numbing hours in traffic school, yet to come. Can’t wait to tell you about that.

And speaking of friends in the canyon, I went with Jill and Peter the other day to pay a visit to Jeanne’s chickens, a delightful gaggle of girls and one proud rooster namedWayne. More about the chickens in a subsequent post, I hope.

Oh, and here’s a little something else I’ve recorded in my journal:

A few days ago while I was taking a shower, I looked out the window and saw a rainbow snagged in the branches of a tree by the house.It was a globe-like shimmering shape with the colors of a prism, glinting in the sunlight. I thought I might be imagining it, but I looked away and there it still was, again and again. When I went outside to investigate, however, it was gone, just a sweet little mystery, a bit of magic, maybe a tiny fairy who had lingered past dawn before darting away. I mentioned it to Monte. “You don’t suppose it might have been a droplet of water or a bubble on the window pane, do you?”

Sometimes he just makes too much sense.

And that’s not all: I had my proverbial fifteen minutes of (minor) fame last week! It was an authentic, old-fashioned book launch at the Book Loft in Solvang, one of the last of the independent bookstores. I read from my collection of essays and signed copies afterwards, and it was truly exhilarating and heart-warming, reminding me once again what a wonderful community I live in. (The book is out in a very limited edition, has received excellent reviews, and is easy to purchase online.) It was quite a heady experience hearing applause for words I had written, feeling that sense of having connected with others, and afterwards looking up from a table and seeing a line of people waiting for my autograph.

But I think I am done being famous.