#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Cool and cloudy. Lots of birds making noise. Chippie at the river early. The river waking me up. Getting the group room set up, getting Wave to pick his toys up off the living room floor. Writing workshop, all the new writing. I led a prompt on the them of strength. Strong writing emerged. Led Israeli group, grief and gratitude. Going to the river tonight after dinner with Frank and Chippie. I need to record Frank’s voice because Chippie listens to him. Chippie catches a dead fish, his favorite. We make him get rid of it. It’s April and I’m thinking of my mother and my aunt and the blueberry cake recipe. Month my mother died. She died on the day of my niece’s birthday party. This week Franci was reminding me of what a trial the day was for her and I felt sad that for a host of good reasons I wasn’t able to be with her when she got the news from someone besides me and had to keep it secret while her cousins’s birthday party played out so as not to spoil the special day for her cousin. And then I was with my father who was quite distraught after leaving the nursing home and I made him let me drive him home, and meanwhile, poor Franci was still with cousins and an aunt and uncle who don’t live near us, she hardly knew them, and I’m sure they were kind, but kind in the way of strangers. They drove her to meet me at my father’s house, finally. Oh dear. Anyway, all this reminding me somehow about my mother’s blueberry cake recipe. It’s not blueberry season. It’s April. A month of losses, and yet the month of my daughter’s birth.