Visitors and Moving Forward

Your mother’s 95^th birthday doesn’t happen every day. Our whole family arrived to celebrate so that she had all her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren together for the celebration. It’s hard to put into words how momentous this week of visiting meant for all of us. For me it served to remind me to keep making the effort to strengthen family times. Flesh time together is the best!

My college roommate, Liz, came for a visit to process her recent job loss and rest in a place to consider next steps. We went to 1000 Palms Preserve and Sunnylands to bird watch but found the best site to be my house. We were treated to Golden Eagles and falcons! Tootsie the tortoise also woke up while she was here so Liz the animal behaviorist got to learn all about desert tortoises and usher her into activity. Once more The Number Nine seemed to fulfill a guest’s highest need.

March 25 marked three years of Ric’s passing. Two family members called me to tell me of his presence in their dreams. Both had the same experience – a strong feeling of his unique presence in which he was laughing or smiling and made them feel happy. How beautiful to be a haven of love and calmness that loved one’s can visit in their dreams.

I continue to move things around and build new installations in the effort to fulfill one of my missions for living. This one is to repurpose as much of the unused stuff of my life into low-impact pieces. It’s a creative process that seems to have a life of its own, which is fascinating enough! The Medicine Wheel and Memorial Wall have settled into a pattern that will keep growing. The Memorial Wall has spawned a satellite site for remembering the recent Parkland shooting on another part of the property. I’ve started an installation using a palm tree as the structure for holding Ric’s collection of cameras, lenses, and miscellaneous camera accessories. It is called “The Whole World is Watching, Here’s Looking at You, and These Cameras are Going to be Worth a Lot of Money Someday”. I’m also working on a memorial piece to hold Ric’s ashes, a signpost to all my hometowns, and an installation of all our watches called “Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is”.

April brought new neighbors who stirred up fears of my privacy being invaded. In response, I bought myself some awesome earphones and decorated my fence next to their property with palm fronds. I am delighted with both and my peaceful solution to a perceived threat!