'cause when you worry your face will frown

there's not an azalea pinking and perky for miles.

we've nothing flowering in our yard save a golden dandelion and something mysterious and purple.

there's a wind brewing. we stand in the drive and the rain spits and spatters.

my mother plucks all tulips from her yard and puts them into a glass where they yawn at each other on the dining room table.

the babies sleep and ernie clicks his way toward a tax return.

headlights stream from one side of the room to the next, long triangles of white light that stretch the shadows of branches across the ceiling and down the wall, over window and wood, reflecting in a flash on my nose and then disappearing a split second over the knuckles of my typing hands.

because i am the one he loves the most, ernie put the screen doors on the front of the house and on the side door. the sun has been hot already and the stillness in the air of the house was beginning to feel itchy and frustrating.

it's tornado weather, gray and windy, the best kind of weather for sleeping with windows and doors pushed open. today i folded footed pajamas and put them in boxes for other winters.



on saturday ernie and i heard and saw the outrageously fabulous bobby mcferrin perform with the peoria symphony orchestra. i love his website, first of all. try the interactive "sing and play with bobby" page while you're surfing the world wide web. secondly, and more personally, i've never experienced anything like watching him perform. i don't recall ever being carried away on the waves of music in the way i went soaring when he first opened his mouth and let out these, well, these sounds. it's really impossible to describe. we came away inspired to be more peaceful, to make more music, to be full of life.

the concert was worth every pretty penny and while it may take some scraping together of couch cushion savings (and, ahem, a little more, most likely) you will not be sorry. i suppose that one could purchase something tangible with the money i'm suggesting you fork over for bobby mcferrin concert tickets. but when it comes down to it, this life isn't about the tangible, now is it?