I swallowed a bug on my morning walk.
I was going up a hill and my mouth was open just enough for a gnat to fly in.
Before I knew it, I was like the infamous lady who swallowed a fly.
And this was all before breakfast.

Absurd.

A resident of St. Paul, Minnesota lost everything when his house burned to the ground.
He lost everything except his cable service.
He and his daughter tried for an entire week to get the cable company to listen to them.
He was still receiving a cable bill.

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As I was filling my teakettle with water for a cup of tea, I saw the brilliant yellow.
Forsythia that was not blooming yesterday is a blaze of color today.
I can see them clearly from my kitchen window, though they do not belong to us.
They were planted years ago by our former neighbors.

I had mentioned once that I loved forsythia.
It was the one bush my husband would not plant since it tended to grow so wild.
That’s probably what I loved about it: the wildness and abandon.
My neighbor planted two forsythia bushes near the property line, for me to enjoy.

My neighbor, the one with the same last name, did that just for me.

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My daughter brought some friends home to stay at our house for a long weekend.
A house-full of girls.
Young women really.
Young women of beauty, talent, Godliness, and promise.

How I loved sitting at our long kitchen table and hearing their hearts.
How I loved sitting at our long kitchen table listening to their dreams.
How I rejoiced when I heard them share what God is doing in their lives.
How I loved their laughter, their conversation, and their vitality.

The future is in good hands.

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I knew that my daughter would like the boots.
The boots were for her birthday, nineteen years old.
At that age, birthday presents mostly consist of new clothes.
I was sure these boots would be a new favorite.

I was right.
They were leather with flannel inside.
They laced, but also had snaps.
You could turn down the leather sides to make them various heights.

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Gutter guards are causing the problem.
Gutter guards that my husband wanted to install on our gutters.
Gutter guards that I agreed to if it meant that he would no longer have to climb ladders.
I regretted my decision soon after I made it.

Cleaning out the gutters is a messy job.
It is my husband’s annual fall ritual.
He would remove the debris and allow it to fall on the walkway below.
Some debris would blow away as soon as it fell, the rest needed to be swept and discarded.

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My mother had two sisters.
One never married.
She was a professional woman her entire life; a legal secretary.
Though she never married, she was engaged, twice.

As I got older, I asked her about why she never married either of those men.
They were wonderful men, but I could never imagine spending my whole life with them.
The love was just not there.
She believed in the sanctity of marriage too much to enter it haphazardly.

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My husband and I were away for the weekend.
We went to see our son who lives in a nearby state.
Our son who graduated from law school.
Our son who just passed the bar exam.

The weekend had been planned for quite a while.
The news about passing the bar exam came earlier than expected.
We were thrilled; we are so proud of him.
A celebration, to be sure, once we arrived.

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Technology went along with me on my morning walk.
My youngest daughter has her fall break coming up in a few days.
I was trying to plan a time with all of my daughters together.
We decided that we would go to see a movie we all wanted to see.

It is next to impossible for me to text while I am walking.
I had my phone with me and I decided to use Siri like I have many times before.
Siri, by definition, is an intelligence personal assistant and knowledge navigator.
The application uses a natural language user interface to answer questions.

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There is always a “day after” kind of feeling when a birthday is over.
My daughter enjoyed a good birthday as we celebrated her on her special day.
A lovely way to mark the end of one year and the start of another.
The telling of the story, yet again, of the day that she was born.

Whose birth was the easiest?
Whose birth was the fastest?
Questions, innocent enough until they begin to tease each other about who is the favorite.
Relentless, even as adults; the child always tucked away in their hearts.

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