welcome to America, where would you like us to dump your body

once you're out there, it has a different feel to it

are you serious about the 17°?

implore

take cover

this is just moments before the squirrel plopped on top of the pile of seeds

didn't he just give an address the other day?

did you frame that yourself

your friends that can be alone with you quietly, yes, they're the ones that understand you the most

the beauty of just enough

three years ago...birds are funny

it seems like so long ago

Often before I embark on the first dog walk of the day I will read a poem to jump start my imagination. this morning it was a Jane Hirshfield poem and near the corner of our street this scene reminded me of the poem the connection many times is so abstract and still, I am happy to have connected

my friend Al died Wednesday night. He was the fourth poker player at our table on Saturday afternoons at the nursing home. I did visit him on Wednesday morning after I gave out ashes in the chapel. I didn't bring the ashes along to remind him that we shall return to ashes. He did that on his own.

Breakfast the heart is like a bus going downtown to do some window shopping or it can go the other way to a farm and pick up a hen and a cow

elemental

an interim pond

slings and arrows

& so, I'm sitting in the chapel assisting the priest with the distribution of ashes. it's Ash Wednesday & the ashes we apply to foreheads come from the burned palms of Palm Sunday. this day is to remind us that we start from the dust of stars & will one day return to the cosmic heavens. turn,turn

here we go loopty loo

no one has the right to define you by what you see in the wild

we could dance in the middle of the street like no one was looking

a lit candle for all beings

it's downhill from here

you gotta have heart

cold war of the 60s

slip, slipping away

Sunday afternoon blues

I've sat on this cat more than once

litter tailor-made

I've been trying to get to you....

Sam's almost spring break

years ago I had a tattoo placed on the back of my wrist. it was lotus on top of a Vietnam campaign ribbon, the premise being, from the muck of war comes the flower. Today Maria Popova's tarot cards were delivered... interesting coincidence. Something has to nudge us towards compassion. Be loving..

veins and capillaries that we often take for granted

when I worked in an office I would stop at the concession stand after lunch & buy a pack of Trident chewing gum & put it in my front shirt pocket. During the course of the afternoon, people would hit me up for a piece of gum. At the end of the day I realized the pack was gone & I didn't have a chew

this morning I feel as giddy as Jesus sitting next to Mary Magdalene in an old school lyceum...

"he sends his pure sweet love"

you know what they say

a hawk and a catalpa a-ok with each other

neighborhood hangout

mother,son ,wife two daughters and a son... .

very close to home

sculpt me any way you want to

well, you've cracked the sky, but there's still room down here for kindness...

when the furnace is working

using my bartender skills while watching TV this afternoon, I believe the U.S. skating team was also surprised they won the the gold

as for the news, know when to fold 'em...give somebody else a run

a pine tree, a birch tree & a building that houses a hockey rink. parents shuffling their kids inside for an important game, a man & his dog walking by taking it in. the dog glancing back, the man imagining this non-verbal communication & agreeing with the dog, saying yes, it is cold. let us go home

they're not as funny as they used to be...

@lyle-stratford.bsky.social A small world, isn't it?