reverse threading

the path back is the path forward

Tag Archives: reassuring


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smushy. [kerri’s blog on merely-a-thought monday]

in a bag inside a box on a shelf inside the closet i found this. a hug coupon.

there are coupons on the back for an automotive a/c inspection and a fuel injection cleaning. they expire in 2009. so that would mean i’ve had this hug coupon since 2009. fifteen years.

my sweet momma sent it to me. she was the world’s best letter-writer. always sending mail – since we lived long-distance – i’d open an envelope to reveal a handwritten note or a letter she typed on her word processor and printed. maybe there’d be newspaper or magazine articles she thought i’d like to read. maybe an astrological horoscope she wanted me to see. and coupons. always coupons. she and my poppo would sit and clip coupons and then divvy them out – anticipating the needs of various members of the family and mailing them off – in business size envelopes or big brown envelopes or even envelopes they repurposed from other mailings. mail from my momma. i could count on it.

today is hug day. (so, i also read, was january 21st.) no matter. each day should be hug day. cause there really is nothing that can get you more back on track than a good hug. hugs to and from your children, your partner, your parents, your dear friends, your new friends, your posse, long-lost pals, your beloved pets. we – d and i – are pretty smushy. hugging is par for the course. i know, even in the worst of moments, our hug will change the air around us. i can count on it.

i’m continuing to go through the bags and the boxes, the shelves and the bins and the things tucked away. some items will be harder to figure out – what to do with them. 

i found this hug coupon and instantly thought of my momma sending it to me. i photographed it, knowing that is at least the first step in letting it go. and then i showed david. and then i got lost in all the memories of mail arriving at my doorstep. 

so what do i now do with this sweet gesture that expires the day after eternity?

well, it’s still redeemable. maybe i should just save it and put it on the fridge.

*****

❤️feel free to copy this image and print it out to give to all the people you want to hug. ❤️

read DAVID’S thoughts this MERELY-A-THOUGHT MONDAY

from way back when…

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these old woods. [two artists tuesday]

stump copy

this is an old woods.  while we still can hike in it, we are driving -without stopping- to the woods and, generally without seeing anyone else, taking a hike.  it is grounding to be in a woods that is old, a woods that is natural.

around us many trees have fallen.  they lay quietly on the ground, nurselogs to others, the white rot fungi that is sharing their space an invitation to symbiosis.

we spend time looking up at the very-mature-trees standing, reaching to the sky, parallel to each other, taking in the sun.  they too share their space.  they have endured storm and wind, snow and torrential rain; they have endured times of thirst and times of excessive heat.  they are still enduring.

i suspect most of these trees are much older than us.  their rings of life could tell stories of lack, stories of abundance, stories of challenge and stories of ease.  yet, they quietly stand, swaying in the wind like cattails along the curves of a slow river.  not one boasts of its steadfastness; not one complains of its fall.  the wisdom of the ages seemingly is in the long story.  not in the angrily staccato-ed punctuation of a self-indulgent-short-story.

we step into the forest and the community of trees seems to sigh, pleased to see us again.  it is not the prettiest of woods.  but it is deeply, silently reassuring.  life goes on.

read DAVID’S thoughts this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY

bristolwoods website box


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back to back. [two artists tuesday]

dogdogbabycatbacktoback copy

dogdog and babycat – back to back

in the middle of the night when i wake up – which happens every night thanks to the keeps-on-giving gift of menopause – i can hear them.

dogdog is gently breathing, sometimes punctuated by his paws running in a dream where he is doing laps around our pond, excitedly barking.  his even breaths, a dog in mostly-quiet slumber, reassure me, and my heart and i listen as he peacefully sleeps.

the peaceful-sleep bar is different for babycat.  he is not a stealth-sleeper.  well, actually nothing that babycat does is stealthy.   he’s not that kind of cat.  instead, his sleep on the end of the bed (he picks the side and you definitely know early-in-the-night if you have drawn the short straw) is noisy, fraught with snoring.  i’ve never heard a cat snore as loudly as he does; it is absolutely necessary to nudge him a little so that he steps it down a tad bit.  even with the snoring and the give-him-an-inch-he’ll-take-a-mile-bed-hogging, babycat’s presence sleeping on the bed is reassuring and i lay awake in wonder at how peaceful he seems, how content.

these two are buddies.  i was concerned at the beginning, having never had both a dog and cat simultaneously.  i needn’t have worried though.  they will lay napping on the raft back to back, with their people nearby.  perhaps at those times it is the two of them tuning in and listening – to our voices, our laughter, the rhythm of our day.  and perhaps it is those times that they are reassured.

read DAVID’S thoughts this TWO ARTISTS TUESDAY

dogdog babycat paws touchingwebsite box