On graduating...

It was graduation this weekend, and my dad's 70th birthday, and the end of the school year wrapped into one fabulous package of hallelujah and amen.  This is really the end of my "year" and the opportunity to rest, catch up on life and try new things is this great buffer between now and August when I have to go back.  The trips are scheduled, the books are piled up, the friends are called and dates are made.  Who says Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year?

The day I graduated from Niwot... the clouds look all kinds of ominous.

What is graduation?  To me, graduation is a moving forward.  I had a fantastic high school experience.  I had lots of close friends, I was involved in a lot of fun things, I didn't worry too much about my grades and I remember my parents being mostly happy with my life choices.  And graduation day was really fun.  It was my dad's birthday, and my Grandma flew out from Oregon, and family and friends gave me a lot of presents.  I remember being emotional and sad that I wouldn't be in the protective bubble of high school, but I was looking forward.  I was hopeful that good things come more than once in a lifetime.  I suppose I still am. 

This weekend was so wonderful because of that hope.  Hope that these graduating kids will find their paths and joy in the process, hope that my dad continues to enjoy good health and happiness, hope that this year and this summer will be restful, joyous and full of love.  We have everything we need, everything else is gravy. 

Get your garden on...

I rather fancy myself a garden person.  This is not to say that I am a gardener.  Far, far from it.  My version of gardening is buying $100 of annuals at the local hardware store, planting all of them in all kinds of pots and terracotta holders, watering them, and crossing my fingers that they will take off and become a kind of English garden, but on my patio. 

I just love flowers, I think.  This year, since January, I've made a point of filling my house with blooms. 

It started with roses.  I won these when I won my Lenny Kravitz tickets.  I like to pretend that they are FROM Lenny, but I do live in reality most of the time.  They're from Whole Foods, which has a DELICIOUS floral department.  The florist made a big deal about wrapping these up with ribbons and then making me walk through the aisles waving like a princess.  Okay, maybe I did that waving thing on my own. 

Then with spring came many many daffodils (one bunch cost 2 dollars at my grocery store), tulips and threelips and fourlips, and early lilacs I pruned from my friend Heather's shrubbery (I did ask first).  What is it about flowers?  I like the metaphor, don't you?  Growing and blooming into something lovely once a year.  Having a season and knowing that when the season comes to a close, it will happen all over again.  There is something so faithful and permanent about flowers, you know?  They've inspired songs, poems, paintings and lovers with simple beauty and scents.  Bees dig 'em, and thank goodness they do. 

Yesterday I planted those annuals on my patio, and this morning I took my coffee out there for some morning garden love.  It is my heraldry of summer, "TAH DAH, your bloom time is around the corner!"  How will you bloom during this season?