Summer in northern Illinois has been sort of a bust
All my plans....dashed
The heat oppressive...a water ban in place
trees dropping leaves like autumn
weeds...oh God bless the weeds...they thrive in adversity
as do wasps...nothing has stopped my bald faced hornets from building
a mansion on my family room window
Looks like the deck will have to come down next year
and major clearing out of unwanted volunteer trees and plants
will have to wait another year also
But....the garden has been beautiful in an aging moviestarkind of way
you can still see the beauty of her youth

I still take a morning walk in the garden...still stand in prayer
still my heart beats faster when the birds sing me a welcome
Why just yesterday..as I was dragging the hose to water the river birch
a tiny itsy bitsy short feathered young chickadee was at the feeder
my eye level...a foot away from me
It never saw me....so I just stood there and watched the beautiful little fellow
munch away....then he must have sensed me..because he gave me a glance
then turned away and continued eating...much to the distress of its parent chicadeeing in the tree
So I walked on and the baby flew away..safe from me
It is moments like these that I give thanks for....
but the heat was awful...so humid...so short of air
I went inside and did some work..then I got out a book of poetry..James Wright
found myself some comfort in words

MILKWEED

While I stood here, in the open, lost in myself,
I must have looked a long time
Down the corn rows, beyond grass,
The small house,
White walls, animals lumbering toward the barn.
I look down now. It is all changed.
Whatever it was I lost, whatever I wept for
Was a wild, gentle thing, the small dark eyes
Loving me in secret.
It is here. At a touch of my hand,
The air fills with delicate creatures
From the other world