After the storm

Tonight there was another thunder storm, one of the strongest of the many brief storms to pass through our neighborhood. The rain came in slanty through the windows, the lightening was bright and the thunder loud. The power went out just as my son was getting ready for bed. Fortunately our bedtime book is digital, so we sat in a dark room while the last hour of light from the long summer days made 2 glowing rectangle windows, reading "Only You Can Save Mankind" on my PDA. And then it was amazingly quiet. Out the front door you could hear the sound of the generator from the nursing home down the street, but from my son's room only the dripping of rain off branches and a neighbor playing saxophone out an open window. Later I sat in the living room my husband had filled with candlelight remembering a time when we used to light these very same candles just to see yellow light flickering in a dark room. I haven't been that quiet in a long time.

Wilty

We are all very wilty here in Ithaca. It has been near 100 degrees, but even when I went running this morning and it was 76 outside, the humidity is impressive, and it is hard to get a good breath. It has rained 4 times in the past 2 days, but still the plants are wilting. Each morning I water my pansies, and by the time I come home from work they are as wilty as I am.

More Fluff

I am obsessed with the fluff. Apparently it comes from the cottonwood tree. It looks like a snow flurry down certain streets and especially at intersections. I chased one around the parking lot at work with my camera for a silly amount of time, before finally finding some on the ground to share with you.

Where to find them

It turns out if you cross reference people who care about the earth, with people who care about the spirit, you get some very amazing people. How good it was tonight to sit in a room with people who already know that a thing worth doing on a Tuesday night is to gather at the intersection of earth and spirit. I am now floating around like the bits of cottonwood fluff filling the Ithaca air this week. What a joyful gift it is to find a group of people who talk and work well together.