Happy New Year!

My maternal grandfather, Edward Kilcrin.  I have a vivid memory of him in about 1971, driving his big, new convertible, with his hair slicked back and his shades. Instead of reading us stories at bedtime, he made them up. And he sneaked us out for ice cream without finishing our dinner. He was a brilliant man. Fluent in five languages, a writer, poet and philosopher, and gourmet cook. And probably why I like drunk, moody Irishmen.  

   It's so delightful, to be left alone the day after Christmas, in our heavily-partied house, with nothing to do but restore order, restore beauty.
   This is so
   Not the me
   I thought I'd grow
   Up to be.

Time to crank up the music and work magic........ 💪

My beautiful girls.   💖

   It's eleven am, on Christmas Eve. Tonight all our kids and a couple of their friends will be descending on the house for our annual dinner and presents. So far I've made a pan of bread pudding and two pumpkin pies. Got two pans of pie cookies in the oven, and three loaves of whole wheat bread rising. Resting for a few minutes, before the grand baby comes over, and I start on the rest of the goodies - Zuppa Toscano, a big salad, two pans of a wonderful Midwestern comfort food dish whose name I don't know, we just named it after the lady who gave my mother the recipe a millennium ago. And Snickerdoodles, chocolate-orange bars, and maybe toffee.
   Whew.

Would you like to swing on a star?

   I'm memorizing Edna St Vincent Millay's 'Renascence'. This is not easy, because sometimes a passage I'm working on will leave me so full of emotion that I have to wait before I do any more.
   I seem to be stumbling upon really powerful pieces of literature to memorize.
   Life is good.

This is no fun, and no joke. This is what I'm dealing with right now. It can happen to anyone, though there are factors that contribute to it.

Sleep apnea

• Symptoms & causes
• Diagnosis & treatment
• Doctors & departments

Print

Overview

Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. If you snore loudly and feel tired even after a full night's sleep, you might have sleep apnea.

The main types of sleep apnea are:

• Obstructive sleep apnea, the more common form that occurs when throat muscles relax
• Central sleep apnea, which occurs when your brain doesn't send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing
• Complex sleep apnea syndrome, also known as treatment-emergent central sleep apnea, which occurs when someone has both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea

If you think you might have sleep apnea, see your doctor. Treatment can ease your symptoms and might help prevent heart problems and other complications.

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Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of obstructive and central sleep apneas overlap, sometimes making it difficult to determine which type you have. The most common signs and symptoms of obstructive and central sleep apneas include:

• Loud snoring
• Episodes in which you stop breathing during sleep — which would be reported by another person
• Gasping for air during sleep
• Awakening with a dry mouth
• Morning headache
• Difficulty staying asleep (insomnia)
• Excessive daytime sleepiness (hypersomnia)
• Difficulty paying attention while awake
• Irritability

When to see a doctor

Loud snoring can indicate a potentially serious problem, but not everyone who has sleep apnea snores. Talk to your doctor if you have signs or symptoms of sleep apnea. Ask your doctor about any sleep problem that leaves you fatigued, sleepy and irritable.

Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic

Causes

Obstructive sleep apnea

• 

  Obstructive sleep apnea

This occurs when the muscles in the back of your throat relax. These muscles support the soft palate, the triangular piece of tissue hanging from the soft palate (uvula), the tonsils, the side walls of the throat and the tongue.

When the muscles relax, your airway narrows or closes as you breathe in. You can't get enough air, which can lower the oxygen level in your blood. Your brain senses your inability to breathe and briefly rouses you from sleep so that you can reopen your airway. This awakening is usually so brief that you don't remember it.

You might snort, choke or gasp. This pattern can repeat itself five to 30 times or more each hour, all night, impairing your ability to reach the deep, restful phases of sleep.

Central sleep apnea

This less common form of sleep apnea occurs when your brain fails to transmit signals to your breathing muscles. This means that you make no effort to breathe for a short period. You might awaken with shortness of breath or have a difficult time getting to sleep or staying asleep.

Risk factors

Sleep apnea can affect anyone, even children. But certain factors increase your risk.

Obstructive sleep apnea

Factors that increase the risk of this form of sleep apnea include:

• Excess weight. Obesity greatly increases the risk of sleep apnea. Fat deposits around your upper airway can obstruct your breathing.
• Neck circumference. People with thicker necks might have narrower airways.
• A narrowed airway. You might have inherited a narrow throat. Tonsils or adenoids also can enlarge and block the airway, particularly in children.
• Being male. Men are two to three times more likely to have sleep apnea than are women. However, women increase their risk if they're overweight, and their risk also appears to rise after menopause.
• Being older. Sleep apnea occurs significantly more often in older adults.
• Family history. Having family members with sleep apnea might increase your risk.
• Use of alcohol, sedatives or tranquilizers. These substances relax the muscles in your throat, which can worsen obstructive sleep apnea.
• Smoking. Smokers are three times more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea than are people who've never smoked. Smoking can increase the amount of inflammation and fluid retention in the upper airway.
• Nasal congestion. If you have difficulty breathing through your nose — whether from an anatomical problem or allergies — you're more likely to develop obstructive sleep apnea.

Central sleep apnea

Risk factors for this form of sleep apnea include:

• Being older. Middle-aged and older people have a higher risk of central sleep apnea.
• Being male. Central sleep apnea is more common in men than it is in women.
• Heart disorders. Having congestive heart failure increases the risk.
• Using narcotic pain medications. Opioid medications, especially long-acting ones such as methadone, increase the risk of central sleep apnea.
• Stroke. Having had a stroke increases your risk of central sleep apnea or treatment-emergent central sleep apnea.

Complications

Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition. Complications can include:

• Daytime fatigue. The repeated awakenings associated with sleep apnea make normal, restorative sleep impossible, making severe daytime drowsiness, fatigue and irritability likely.
  You might have difficulty concentrating and find yourself falling asleep at work, while watching TV or even when driving. People with sleep apnea have an increased risk of motor vehicle and workplace accidents.
  You might also feel quick-tempered, moody or depressed. Children and adolescents with sleep apnea might perform poorly in school or have behavior problems.
• High blood pressure or heart problems. Sudden drops in blood oxygen levels that occur during sleep apnea increase blood pressure and strain the cardiovascular system. Having obstructive sleep apnea increases your risk of high blood pressure (hypertension).
  Obstructive sleep apnea might also increase your risk of recurrent heart attack, stroke and abnormal heartbeats, such as atrial fibrillation. If you have heart disease, multiple episodes of low blood oxygen (hypoxia or hypoxemia) can lead to sudden death from an irregular heartbeat.
• Type 2 diabetes. Having sleep apnea increases your risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
• Metabolic syndrome. This disorder, which includes high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels, high blood sugar and an increased waist circumference, is linked to a higher risk of heart disease.
• Complications with medications and surgery. Obstructive sleep apnea is also a concern with certain medications and general anesthesia. People with sleep apnea might be more likely to have complications after major surgery because they're prone to breathing problems, especially when sedated and lying on their backs.
  Before you have surgery, tell your doctor about your sleep apnea and how it's being treated.
• Liver problems. People with sleep apnea are more likely to have abnormal results on liver function tests, and their livers are more likely to show signs of scarring (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease).
• Sleep-deprived partners. Loud snoring can keep anyone who sleeps near you from getting good rest. It's not uncommon for a partner to have to go to another room, or even to another floor of the house, to be able to sleep.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Where my son Rob works. Sweet, to be surrounded by beauty every day, and especially at Christmas.

https://driskillhotel.com

I LOVE this movie, love this song. Louis Prima is without equal. 

The other night this song was quoted in a poem read at The Spoken Word, and it struck me differently than it it ever has before. ....... The common belief is that technology is what separates us from the animals. The ability to control, modify the world around us, to suit our needs and pleasures. 

"What I desire is man's red fire, so I can be like you."

I think this is so very wrong. I think it badly cheapens who we are. 

Think about it. Are we just smarter than average apes?

God help us.

In the meantime..... Oh, MAN, what a beat! 😎

   Sorry for the silence, Peeps, I've been in the Real World, giving thanks with those I love and working on getting my health under control. Sometimes one of those can work against the other. haha.
   My Suicide performance came off beautifully, and now I've started memorizing Renascence, by the same amazing lady. This might be my favorite by her, and that's saying something.
   Getting ready to get ready for Christmas. I have a certain disdain for the habit people have developed for starting with the glitz and glimmer of the season right after Halloween. I think it wears out the specialness of it. And I'm saddened by the fact that so far in the media, I haven't heard a word about the thing we're supposed to be celebrating. It's like trying to celebrate the Fourth of July without ever hearing the words America or Independence or Freedom. Silly and sad. In a week or so, I'll get my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree and buy a few presents. Not a lot to spare on those, but those are not what it's about anyway. I'm glad we have better things to spend our money on right now, all I want is the family together. And lots of fun for the Baby Girl.
   

I knew it! 

May I never break a tree's heart........

..... Interesting to come across this as I'm rereading The Silmarillion. Learning about
the birth of the Ents. The Tree Shepherds

Trees Have a "Heartbeat," Scientists Discover

• by Brandon Prows 
• Published on September 21, 2018 

Share on facebookNew Discovery Proves Trees Have HeartbeatsThe world that we live on is home to a wide range of different kinds of life. Whether we are looking at humans, dogs, cats, all types of fish or even the microscopic bacteria that we cannot see, it would appear that there is a nearly infinite number of different living species for us to examine and explore. Amongst all the different types of life, there are plants. This includes everything from moss, to dandelions, to the tallest trees in Redwood National Park.

Trees are a fascinating species on Earth. Unlike other creatures, trees can live for thousands and thousands of years. The oldest tree on record lived for over five thousand years! Unbelievable! It was still three thousand years old when Rome was at its greatest point. It’s amazing to think about and it’s absolutely crazy how long trees can live. They are amongst the oldest living creatures on the entire planet.

We know that trees are alive because they use energy to create their own energy. Even though they lack the organs that creatures like mammals have, trees still have their own set of unique organs.

The Secret Rhythm Of Trees

Have you ever wondered if it is possible for a tree to have a heartbeat? A tree may not have a heart, but the concept of it having its own beat and rhythm is not as far-fetched as you may think! According to a new study, trees have a special type of beat in their bodies similar to that of a heartbeat.

The study was headed by András Zlinszky, Bence Molnár and Anders S. Barfod from Hungary and Denmark. They used advanced monitoring techniques known as “terrestrial laser scanning” to survey the movement of twenty-two different types of trees. The investigation on trees revealed that while trees sleep at night they routinely have beats pulsate throughout their body.

These pulses are the tree distributing water throughout its body, similar to the way a heart pumps blood through the body. This could change the way that we study and look at trees, as it had long been assumed that trees distribute water via osmosis. What an incredible find! The heart beats occur very slowly in between one another, with some of them taking hours to repeat. They phenomenon is slow and gentle that it cannot be seen with the naked human eye. Nature is amazing!

The study also revealed that it turns out that trees move a lot more than people initially thought. It turns out that numerous species of trees dropped their leaves down up to ten centimeters after the sun goes down. This is because the trees are sleeping and entering their own type of circadian rhythm known as “circadian leaf movements.”

With as much as the study revealed to scientists, there is still much that we do not understand. For example, it is still unknown how the heartbeat and water pump fully work. More research is required in order to fully understand what is happening. Who knows what else we’ll discover about the world of trees and plant life? Recent research proved that plants and trees have the capability to feel pain and cry out in agony when being harmed. Up until then, we all thought that plants couldn’t feel pain! It just goes to show how little we actually know about everything. It’s all the more exciting to learn about how nature really works!

I just finished memorizing this today. I'll practice it for a week, and next Tuesday I'll recite it (tell it as a story) for my poetry circle. I love poems that tell a story, and this one is powerful:

The Suicide

Edna St. Vincent Millay - 1892-1950

• 
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

"Curse thee, Life, I will live with thee no more!
Thou hast mocked me, starved me, beat my body sore!
And all for a pledge that was not pledged by me,
I have kissed thy crust and eaten sparingly
That I might eat again, and met thy sneers
With deprecations, and thy blows with tears,—
Aye, from thy glutted lash, glad, crawled away,
As if spent passion were a holiday!
And now I go. Nor threat, nor easy vow
Of tardy kindness can avail thee now
With me, whence fear and faith alike are flown;
Lonely I came, and I depart alone,
And know not where nor unto whom I go;
But that thou canst not follow me I know."

Thus I to Life, and ceased; but through my brain
My thought ran still, until I spake again:

"Ah, but I go not as I came,—no trace
Is mine to bear away of that old grace
I brought! I have been heated in thy fires,
Bent by thy hands, fashioned to thy desires,
Thy mark is on me! I am not the same
Nor ever more shall be, as when I came.
Ashes am I of all that once I seemed.
In me all's sunk that leapt, and all that dreamed
Is wakeful for alarm,—oh, shame to thee,
For the ill change that thou hast wrought in me,
Who laugh no more nor lift my throat to sing
Ah, Life, I would have been a pleasant thing
To have about the house when I was grown
If thou hadst left my little joys alone!
I asked of thee no favor save this one:
That thou wouldst leave me playing in the sun!
And this thou didst deny, calling my name
Insistently, until I rose and came.
I saw the sun no more.—It were not well
So long on these unpleasant thoughts to dwell,
Need I arise to-morrow and renew
Again my hated tasks, but I am through
With all things save my thoughts and this one night,
So that in truth I seem already quite
Free,and remote from thee,—I feel no haste
And no reluctance to depart; I taste
Merely, with thoughtful mien, an unknown draught,
That in a little while I shall have quaffed."

Thus I to Life, and ceased, and slightly smiled,
Looking at nothing; and my thin dreams filed
Before me one by one till once again
I set new words unto an old refrain:

"Treasures thou hast that never have been mine!
Warm lights in many a secret chamber shine
Of thy gaunt house, and gusts of song have blown
Like blossoms out to me that sat alone!
And I have waited well for thee to show
If any share were mine,—and now I go
Nothing I leave, and if I naught attain
I shall but come into mine own again!"

Thus I to Life, and ceased, and spake no more,
But turning, straightway, sought a certain door
In the rear wall. Heavy it was, and low
And dark,—a way by which none e'er would go
That other exit had, and never knock
Was heard thereat,—bearing a curious lock
Some chance had shown me fashioned faultily,
Whereof Life held content the useless key,
And great coarse hinges, thick and rough with rust,
Whose sudden voice across a silence must,
I knew, be harsh and horrible to hear,—
A strange door, ugly like a dwarf.—So near
I came I felt upon my feet the chill
Of acid wind creeping across the sill.
So stood longtime, till over me at last
Came weariness, and all things other passed
To make it room; the still night drifted deep
Like snow about me, and I longed for sleep.

But, suddenly, marking the morning hour,
Bayed the deep-throated bell within the tower!
Startled, I raised my head,—and with a shout
Laid hold upon the latch,—and was without.

* * * *

Ah, long-forgotten, well-remembered road, 
Leading me back unto my old abode, 
My father's house! There in the night I came, 
And found them feasting, and all things the same 
As they had been before. A splendour hung 
Upon the walls, and such sweet songs were sung 
As, echoing out of very long ago, 
Had called me from the house of Life, I know.
So fair their raiment shone I looked in shame
On the unlovely garb in which I came;
Then straightway at my hesitancy mocked:
"It is my father's house!" I said and knocked;
And the door opened. To the shining crowd
Tattered and dark I entered, like a cloud,
Seeing no face but his; to him I crept,
And "Father!" I cried, and clasped his knees, and wept.

* * * *

Ah, days of joy that followed! All alone
I wandered through the house. My own, my own,
My own to touch, my own to taste and smell,
All I had lacked so long and loved so well!
None shook me out of sleep, nor hushed my song,
Nor called me in from the sunlight all day long.

I know not when the wonder came to me
Of what my father's business might be,
And whither fared and on what errands bent
The tall and gracious messengers he sent.
Yet one day with no song from dawn till night
Wondering, I sat, and watched them out of sight.
And the next day I called; and on the third
Asked them if I might go,—but no one heard.
Then, sick with longing, I arose at last
And went unto my father,—in that vast
Chamber wherein he for so many years
Has sat, surrounded by his charts and spheres.
"Father," I said, "Father, I cannot play
The harp that thou didst give me, and all day
I sit in idleness, while to and fro
About me thy serene, grave servants go;
And I am weary of my lonely ease.
Better a perilous journey overseas
Away from thee, than this, the life I lead,
To sit all day in the sunshine like a weed
That grows to naught,—I love thee more than they
Who serve thee most; yet serve thee in no way.
Father, I beg of thee a little task
To dignify my days,—'tis all I ask
Forever, but forever, this denied,
I perish."
        "Child," my father's voice replied,
"All things thy fancy hath desired of me
Thou hast received. I have prepared for thee
Within my house a spacious chamber, where
Are delicate things to handle and to wear,
And all these things are thine. Dost thou love song?
My minstrels shall attend thee all day long.
Or sigh for flowers? My fairest gardens stand
Open as fields to thee on every hand.
And all thy days this word shall hold the same:
No pleasure shalt thou lack that thou shalt name.
But as for tasks—" he smiled, and shook his head;
"Thou hadst thy task, and laidst it by," he said.

The other day, my next door neighbor for the past 23 years - dear friend and fellow educator - fell down at the grocery store, apparently, with a stroke, and died. ........ This has been hard for me to wrap my brain around. She was only a few years older than I, and from the looks of it, in better shape. So I'm simultaneously grieving because I'm going to miss her, and looking at myself, realizing that this could be me. So easily. ........ Time for me, to the degree I can, to carefully attend to the things I have neglected. Get more exercise, be more careful about what I eat. I don't know how much that stuff actually helps, because as I said, I believe she was better at that than I. But as much as I can control, I will.

                            Our world would be a place of peace
                            If we each would now and then lie
                            Alone on our backs beneath the trees
                            Gazing at the sky -
                            Feeling caress of sun and breeze,
                            Watching the clouds sail by.

                            How could any soul, thus soothed,
                            Against another soul be moved?

                                                 Whatever else is going on,
                                                 I keep my mind set right -
                                                 Up with Edna at the dawn,
                                                 Down with Dickinson in the night.

I love these little Everyman's Pocket Books. There are about 50 of them, stuffed with the works of many poets and writers, I have cleared a shelf and will be filling it, as I study the Word People. Edna and Emily are just the beginning. And what a beginning! I'll be memorizing pieces by most of the people I study. My brain is gonna be so full!  ...... Still have to finish The Suicide (not much to go) and tackle Renascence (huge) before I can start in earnest on Emily. The other day I recorded myself reciting what I know of The Suicide, and while I need to tweak the equipment and perfect my delivery, I was pleased. Some day what I memorize will be on YouTube!

Sometimes in our house, when it's quiet, if you don't make a sound, you can catch one of these little creatures at work, doing my dishes for me........

Disturb her and she'll flit out that window before you can blink.

The music is a little too loud, imho, but his delivery is perfect. This is the way I want to perform the poems I memorize. I memorize them so they're coming from my heart, not being read from a page. Thinking about posting one of my performances to Youtube - like he did. :)

Not a man in line looked so fine,
Me old mither used to say,
As your father did in his old-time lid
Upon St. Patty's Day.

      Gene Kelly, Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Can't beat Gene Kelly!

Last day at Dad's

Is it strange for me to think.....
Is it odd for me to say......
If I moved on to Dickinson,
I'd be cheating on Millay?

Praying for Lebanon, my husband's home country and where much of his family is. God grant them peace, democracy, and religious freedom. 

Miss that baby..... 💖

"You're getting' to be a habit with me...."

                                    As a love story, so simple, and yet so powerful.

But of course

Because Because

And then.......

and.......

And today we did these:

Dad and I watch movies when I'm here for a week. And on Tuesdays my daughters come (with or without me) and watch them with their Grandpa. This was yesterday's fare......

                                                  Love hanging' out with my Papa

DELIGHT IN DISORDER
                 - Robert Herrick

A sweet disorder in the dress.
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction:
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher:
A cuff neglectful and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly:
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat:
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see wild civility:
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part. 

from THE SUICIDE
          - Edna St. Vincent Millay

So stood longtime, till over me at last
Came weariness, and all things other passed
To make it room; the still night drifted deep
Like snow about me, and I longed for sleep.

i thank You God for most this amazing
                                        e.e.cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitable earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I'm taking an online course on Aristotle's Ethics. Fascinating! Here are the notes I scribbled down during the first lecture:

NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS, Lecture 1 - Book 1, Chap 1 & 2

The goal of every choice is some good.

Character (Greek) charese - etching

We need to ask what is good and how to be it.

"The good is that at which all things aim." Every art, inquiry, action and choice.

- Art is that which is produced. Designed and executed with skill and purpose.
- Inquiry is methodical investigation.
- Action is praxis - practice.
- Choice - prohiresis (?) Choice is the basis of human freedom. Your choices are very important and they make you what you are.

Every time you make a choice, it etches a mark on your soul and makes you what you are.

Every thing done aims at SOME good.
All things aim at THE good.

There's a contrast between Good and Beautiful.
And there's a contrast between Some and The.

Ends are purposes. Check the ultimate good of an action, not just the immediate one.
Beautiful is the highest form of good.

Read Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Nichomachean Ethics.

It is beautiful to say that all of our actions, taken together, aim at THE good.
There is a hierarchy of the good. The first 20 lines of the book direct us to start looking at the universe vertically. The Good, the Better, the Beautiful.

Read The Discarded Image, by C.S. Lewis.

The Beautiful is the good that is chosen for its own sake (not a means to something else). Hence, the highest form of good.

I don't see your ghost around here much anymore....
Tho I sometimes see signs of him skulking about....
(Not the same as haunting)
(Not the quality Presence I'd grown accustomed to)
Anyhow, I pay him little mind, he's been replaced.

She's a scream.

Yesterday afternoon it was 99F. Last night the wind blew and it rained, and this morning it's 50F. From hellish to healthy overnight.     YUM! This is what I've been waiting for this since May. There will be baking this weekend!!

"Lovers gaze at Each Other, while friends look at Something together."

Happy October!  👀

"One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by...."

My nearly three-year-old grand baby wakes up singing EVERY morning. From her room I can hear her pouring out her heart in song. The roosters and birds can't even begin to compete with that. The sweetest sound in the world....... 

from THE DAILY STOIC

According to the philosopher Blaise Pascal, at the root of most human activity is a desire to escape boredom and self-awareness. We go to elaborate measures, he said, to avoid even a few minutes of quiet. It was true even of the people you think had all the reasons to be happy and content. 

"A king is surrounded by people,” Pascal wrote, “whose only thought is to divert him and stop him thinking about himself, because, king though he is, he becomes unhappy as soon as he thinks about himself."

It’s an observation that puts Marcus Aurelius in an even more impressive light. Think about it: Marcus Aurelius was surrounded by servants and sycophants, people who wanted favors and people who feared him. He had unlimited wealth but endless responsibility. And what did he do with this? Did he throw himself endlessly into the diversion and distraction these blessings and curses offered?

No. Instead, he made sure to carve out time to sit quietly by himself with his journals. He probed his own mind on a regular basis. He thought of himself--not egotistically--but with an eye towards noticing his own failings. He questioned himself. He questioned the world around him. He refused to be distracted. He refused to give into temptation. 

People in his own time probably thought he was a bit dour. They wondered why he did not enjoy all the trappings of wealth and power like his predecessors. What they missed, what’s so easy to miss today in our own blessed lives, is that the true path to happiness is not through externals. It’s found within. It’s found in the stillness. In the quiet. With yourself.

Last night Raymond made a rosemary-parmagiano skillet bread. Mmmm....... a slice of this with my second cup of coffee, and some seasoned olive oil to dip it in, will be my breakfast!

Yayyyy! A cold front blew in last night, and now it's a brisk, gusty 69F. Shorts and sweatshirt weather!