Well, it's come and almost gone. A quiet one this year. Started out with poetry class.....a day with my poetry students is a day in heaven - I have a wonderful group of all young people, say, under 25, and they are so attentive, into the spirit and passion of it, and writing some amazing poems. Coming forth in such a heartfelt way.....supernova!
I decided to buy donuts this morning and take them to the class, to celebrate my birthday. Of course, they all disappeared! I felt like such a Mom.
Beautiful day- as is often the case here in Palm Desert, on any November 13 - warm and the sun and temperature just right! The kind of day perfect for a hot spring or the spa - which I didn't do, because I am waiting for my pool motor to be fixed and replaced Dec 1 (next paycheck) so I can use the hot tub in my backyard. I would've liked to have gone to Desert Hot Springs, but didn't make it.
In the mail, two large cards! From my two wonderful 2nd cousins, my cousin Shari's girls, Rebecca and Cathleen (13 and 15.) They live in Oklahoma now, and I miss them so. This meant the world to me. Thanks, girls! You rock! Tarah surprised me, after work, with a gigantic hello Kitty card and a small chocolate cake, along with a bonsai garden. I so worry about her - living here with me, without friends, working at the doctor's office, her boyfriend in Berkeley, and want only happiness and abundance for her - I know she has to find it for herself, and I feel that some of my life stresses lately have been a burden on her. My wonderful daughter, surprising me with her thoughtfulness and generosity. I was nowhere near that considerate with my mom at her age, and probably wasn't for another 10 or 15 years past Tarah's age. She's so mature it blows my mind, and yet, I worry about her over-attachment to one boyfriend, her need to grow up and settle down, and his floating in college - what is he doing up there, so far from her? She came home from college last year to be with him - and then he left her here.
Dinner with my parents at Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, Palm Desert. They bought me a french coffee press. My aunt Jeanne came down from Victorville and bought me....coffee beans! They are going to help me with some of the final stages of the desert book. What a wonderful relief. I'm so thrilled about the Heyday desert anthology, but it's so ongoing and so much work and I feel like I'm handling it so inadequately, and need all the support I can get!
Birthday phone calls from: my friend Armi - singing happy birthday (thanks, my friend!); Phil - two calls, how sweet! - my brother Jerry in L.A. - haven't talked to him in months......talked to brother Patrick last night. We're going to run, for the third year in a row, the local 5 k turkey trot. A little piddle for him, as he is an ultra marathon runner, but he's so nice, humoring me with our 45 minute times.....he could do it easily in 25 or less....a nice brother! Nice emails/ facebook/ myspace postings from several of my students, from my friend Avideh in the bay area, from Cati in Riverside, Chrystine in Redlands, Patricia in DHS, Todd in Missouri (a high school friend!), Susanne in Las Vegas, Dustin in Korea......I'm going to make 100% effort to remember everyone's birthdays, with cards or just an online posting - I even got a few messages from "friends" I don't really know - but receiving love and goodness all around is the most important thing.
I just have to remember that - to accept other people's kindness and love. Instead of hiding out and hardening my heart when I feel alone. Maybe writing on this blog, corny as it sometimes feels, is a way of that reaching out. And making all of you who are reading this feel less alone. In the world. My goal. To be a connect the dots between us all, ambassador of words. Make the deserts between us feel more ecologically sustained and balanced. Good night to all!
On a cooling desert night - shortening days - time to take another drive into the Mojave, this time east into the Granite Mountains for the fall desert committee meeting on Saturday. I'm scheduled to give a little talk on desert literature. It should be a miracle, being out there. A beautiful, beautiful place, and I haven't been to the Granite Mountains Preserve, proper - great people, too, all focused on desert conservation issues and preservation.
Cricket-sounds, gentle weather, and pre-holiday vibrations to all of you. Your editor.....at the Phantom Seed.
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