On this Mother's Day... #phenology

• our pear tree came into full bloom
• some lilac flower buds are becoming visible
• more and more prairie smoke flower buds are developing
• warmer temperatures are returning to the North Country
• dandelions are in bloom

swallowtail butterfly on dandelion

Photo by J. Harrington

• the sun is shining
• birds are singing
• the Better Half finds our artisan sourdough bread "quite tasty"
• the mother of the household has been wished "Happy Mother's Day"
• annuals have been planted
• Mother's Day gifts given and received
• the Better Half's rescue dog, a border collie cross, has been hers for almost 7 years
• we're grateful and blessed to be sharing life with the Better Half and 2 of our adult children plus a Son-In-Law person that we share with the Daughter Person
• life remains full of unanticipated pleasures and treasures

What I Learned From My Mother

By Julia Kasdorf

I learned from my mother how to love 

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand 

in case you have to rush to the hospital 

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants 

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars 

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole 

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears 

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins 

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point. 

I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know 

the deceased, to press the moist hands 

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer 

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then. 

I learned that whatever we say means nothing, 

what anyone will remember is that we came. 

I learned to believe I had the power to ease 

awful pains materially like an angel. 

Like a doctor, I learned to create 

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once 

you know how to do this, you can never refuse. 

To every house you enter, you must offer 

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself, 

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

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