Woke up to a great fog coming up the hill and crossing the boundary onto my property line. Some things know no borders and that’s a good thing. Wish peace and all good things were like that. Waxing sentimental. Would have should have put “sentimental” as a tag on this site and several posts. It’s never too late. William Kittredge, forgive me if I misquote you but you wrote something like ‘writing has got to risk sentimentality.’ Could be it’s a process of ageing but I find it revealing to allow the feelings to come through when talking and writing. Like spring is beautiful and about renewal and the joy of the sun returning; the birds and all that great stuff we know about nature waking up.
But many people reading this know that we think back to those we miss and those that have left the planet for parts unknown. Spring might be a particular time for this kind of thinking and it could be that it’s no mere coincidence that so many holidays that focus on rebirth and renewal come round this time of year. Bridges to other feelings and even other ways of seeing are always around and we cross them or we look at them and keep straight ahead sometimes.
I guess it’s an age thing that delivers the percentages of going over those bridges and keep on keeping on kind of choices. Today, and yesterday too I was missing my mother a great deal. She was nicknamed Leaping Lena a very long time ago. Now how she came to get that name is a story for another time. But if you were to grow up hearing a group of women sing “Here she is, Miss America” as your mother descended the stairs in a summer rooming house, you might wonder how she also got that nickname. Late to the morning but game she was, as they say, sumphin, and I’m missing her.
This week started with her chicken soup and ended with her newest granddaughter, Molly, going on another adventure. The nature of Molly’s adventures may seem small compared to Odysseus but she hasn’t even heard of the Aegean yet. Once she does, watch out. She may be the first cat to cross the ocean on a raft. I guess I crossed that bridge and decided to risk sentiment. I’ll do an inventory later and see how everything is working. If all is good, maybe it’s not such a huge risk.