Not Again

 It’s happened again—another school mass shouting this time in Texas.  I can’t bear it.  I can’t look at the photos of the innocent children and their teachers shot down by a violent disturbed 18 year old.  We don’t know that he was mentally ill, I just called him that because I cannot imagine a healthy person doing such a thing.  He even shot his grandmother in the face.  This time I feel these recurring tragedies are clear symptoms that our democracy is in peril.  Any sane society would act to block gun sales and reduce the guns (and hopefully the violence) in their society.  Australia has successfully done it.  New Zealand has done it.  The UK has done it.  Canada has done it.  But our legislators can’t seem to get it together to begin to pass the laws that are needed starting with mandatory background checks for those wanting to buy guns.  Studies show 90% of voters want laws changed to make it harder to get guns and to block gun sales to the mentally ill, yet nothing is done.  We will have these horrible shootings again and again.  I don’t like to write this, but I cannot think of another reason why our country is suffering such horrible gun violence.  Oh, there are other symptoms too:  the  broken political system;  the Republicans  (yes, I blame them) and to a lesser extent the Democrats with their immoderate rantings and the availability of violence on social media and in the media.  This time, I put my head in my hands and feel despair.  It can’t happen again, but it will. 

Friendship is a Gift

 I’m just back from a trip to Chapel Hill to see my friend Doris.  We’ve been fast friends for nearly fifty years now and it had been many years since we’d seen each other in person.  We talk in the phone every couple of months and keep up with what is happening in each other’s life.  But there is nothing like a hug or sitting at the kitchen table and solving the problems of the world in person.  Friendship is such a gift.  How wonderful it is to pick up like we’d just seen each other last week!  There’s such comfort in recounting our adventures and sharing stories.

Doris has a true gift for making friends.  I have always been impressed with her generous spirit and great good humor.  How she is able to keep up positive attitude through all that life throws at her is an inspiration to me.

We had fun, just being together, going out to lunch or walking Bash, their cute dog each morning before breakfast.  We had fun shopping (at the local thrift shops—-not nearly as overwhelming as the mall).  We went to a UNC Women’s LaCrosse game, my first LaCrosse game ever.  It was fun in the warm evening as the light slowly faded and the temperature cooled watching the amazingly fit young women charge up and down the field throwing the ball in their little nets on the end of sticks.  We were invited to one of her friends’ home for dinner one night.  It was a perfect evening with dinner in the English garden with lively and interesting conversation. All in all, I am so grateful for our friendship and think that friendship is one of the true gifts of life, a treasure that grows richer each and every day.

It’s the LIttle Things

Our granddaughters are so very busy with all the school activities, homework, friends and sports, it sometimes can feel they don’t have time for us anymore.  Recently, I’ve noticed little ways in which the girls show they are happy we are here.  It’s when Sonja comes over to get me as a fourth for a game of Hearts she wants to play.  It’s the nod of recognition when Erika sees I have come to watch her tennis match and the nearly imperceptible wave to me from her hand that never leaves her side.  It’s when Erika comes over and wants to walk to the library with me and chats all the way there.  Or when Sonja sees us after we’ve been gone on a little trip and say “Where have you guys been, I haven’t seen you ( to be understood as I’ve missed you).  We’re part of the family here.  We eat together every night, dividing up the cooking between Paul and me.  Those 10 or 15 minutes are always a highlight of my day.

Our very presence matters.  It’s hard to remember that.  We spend our lives doing things, being busy with so many activities, it’s hard to recognize that it’s not the activities that matter, but rather just being here.  Perhaps this is one of the lessons of old age, knowing that.  

                            

Tulips!

 We traveled to Holland, Michigan  to see tulips!  I was told before we came that I’d see more tulips than I’d ever seen in my life.  From our experience, I think that is true.  Tulips are planted in extreme abundance everywhere—250,000+ planted in parks, 250,000 planted, along the curbs in neighborhoods, 37,400 planted in downtown areas.  I was overcome with the crowds downtown when we first arrived.  There are multiple big tourist buses every place we’ve been.  We were told that 200,000 visitors come during the festival’s 10 days.  It is an amazing recovery from the years of the pandemic.   I’ve forgotten what it is like to be in a crowd of people!

I’d booked, with Paula’s help, several events each day back in January.   Our first event was after lunch at the fairgrounds.  It was “Tulip Immersion.”  They advertised 50,000 tulips to be seen there.  I’d congered up images of a beautifully lmanicured garden planted with tulips along with lots of information about the history of tulips.  Well…….we got to the fairgrounds and there in a bare parking field were cardboard boxes filled with pots of tulips at different heights put together to give the impression of masses of tulips. It was rather like a tulip maze. There were a few posters of the history of the Holland Tulip Festival.  It was started by a biology teacher in 1927 who presented the idea for residents to all plant tulips in their yards to beautify the city in a speech to the Women’s Literary Society.  The next year the mayor had 100,000 tulip bulbs plants and now it is voted the biggest and best of all flower festivals. 

Next we went on to Veldheer Tulip Gardens, the only tulip farm in the area.  They have more than 4 million tulip bulbs and the tulips were at their peak for us to enjoy.  It was breath taking and overwhelming.  So many tulips, so much color, so many varieties, it was hard to know what to photograph.   We did our best and were in tulip heaven for our several hours there.  At 4:30 we checked into our B and B.  There was a very bossy innkeeper and over the top decor, but our room is spacious and comfortable.  I think it is the first time I’ve slept in a 4 poster bed with lace curtains on it.  The hostess told us we ought to get downtown and get our dinner early because of the crowds and our 7 pm show.  After dinner, we happened ou a charming event.  Central Avenue was blocked off, so we asked the policeman what was up?  He said local children were dancing in the street.  We joined the crowd and thought the children charming dancing in their wooden shoes and Dutch costumes, while singing along with music.  

Finally we went to “Guys on Ice.”  When I ordered the tickets, I had no idea what this could be—funny hockey players?  It turned out to be “the hit Ice fishing musical.”  We were entertained by good singing, good acting and a funny plot.  Back in the B and B, we were delighted to catch the Warriors game before climbing up into the fancy bed and dreaming of tulips.  

                                                        

Planting Trees

 Yesterday Bob and I went to a tree planting activity in Meridian Township at a Natural Preserve.  The “Green Team” from the church we go to organized it together with a whole group of other churches, synagogues and even a Mosque.  It’s really a City-wide Green Team.  

When we got there, we joined a loose circle of folks gathered around a woman in her thirties dressed in a bright orange tee shirt.  Emma gave an excellent introduction about the benefit of planting local native species in this restoration of an old farm field.  She talked about the insects and the birds and of course all the trees and how important it is to have local native species.  They all interact.  We liked her enthusiasm, sincerity and I thought it gives me hope to know there are people like her dedicating a Saturday to helping people plant trees.  I thought, “she makes the world a better place.”

To begin, we each grabbed a gallon pot or two with trees to be planted in them.  Bob and I took Black Chokecherry trees.  Then, we had to find the stake with its name on it which was no easy task.  It took a bit of time.  When we found the stake with the right name on it,  we dug a hole and planted the tree,  covering up the roots and tamping down the loose soil.  We wished the little tree well.

Planting trees is a good thing to do,  a hopeful thing to do.  It’s an investment in a future we won’t see.  It makes me very grateful to do this.  Most of the folks planting were our age.  I wondered if you have to be old to come from a place of gratitude wanting to do something to help the future?  

Spring Energy

 Spring is late this year here in Michigan.  It’s behind last year by about a week.  The days have been chilly, nights down near freezing and the skies uniformly gray and with low clouds.  What’s good about that is that the daffodils and Forsythia, all in their bright yellow, have lasted longer.  They’re still beautiful.  Nothing like Forsythia with a bright red cardinal sitting in it to show Spring is here.  

I’ve been walking on the MSU campus where the beautiful landscaping delights the eye.  A week ago on Saturday I found a big planting of daffodils in front of the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.  It was hard to know how to best photograph them!  Truth is every photo is beautiful.  Last Saturday Bob and I went back to the campus.  It was a gray day but the flowers brightened up the views.  It’s graduation time so there were many students in their green graduation robes and mortarboards.  We found magnolias along the river; blooming cherry trees in front of the Chapel, and even a big patch of Spring beauties under a tree.  Today, the gift of Spring was a “tunnel” of white blossoms over one of the nearby roads. But the best is watching the deciduous trees green up.  Each day now there is measurable growth in the flowers and leaves. There is an urgency, a push of life force, that astounds and reassures me.   Life is bursting forth in an irrepressible push.  There’s just so much to see and enjoy in these days.