Icicle

A novelist I enjoy reading very much is Elizabeth Berg, and one of my favorites is Range of Motion. This is the story of a young mother who, along with her children, must cope with the aftermath of her husband becoming comatose after being hit in the head by an icicle. I keep a little notebook where I jot down interesting phrases and lines that I have read, and one of my favorites comes from this novel:

Alice and Ed have a little dog named Maggie. She looks like an animal dress up like dog, like a hedgehog or a weasel wearing a Tina Turner wig

Icicles are commonplace here along the eves of the house after a snowstorm or freezing rain, but I’ve never seen one quite like this. It formed on a twig of the tree by our porch. It was quite long -- about 17 inches before it finally fell, and it looked very lethal..

Happy Birthday.... and RIP

Our son’s birthday is today, and he has reached his 30th year. Three years ago today, our Little Dog died. It makes it impossible to “forget” loosing the dog, and what I find troubling is that it is easier to write about the dog than about our son. I feel rather awful about that, too. I miss the dog a lot, and I miss the young boy in this picture, which was taken in the Spring, just after his 13th birthday. Life was still relatively normal. The boy is now a man, the dog is dead, but I still have the plant, which is one of those “carrion” plants from Africa with a huge leathery flower that stinks like rotten flesh and attracts the flies.

The last 10 years in our son’s life have been tumultuous, to say the least. One hope after another.... raised, and then dashed to the ground. As unhappy as I am with the direction our son’s life has taken, he does seem to be happy, he has kept his job (as awful as it is) for 2 years and he is trying to live as best he can in the world he has created for himself.

Part of the reading from the Proverb for today:
Wisdom has built her house... she has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.. she calls from the highest point of the city "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment.... come eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.

My hope for him is that he will someday learn walk in the way of understanding...