Shut down

It's been a sad summer. Two of my favorite people died.  Two very good folks who make me
smile just to think of their voices.

I shut down for awhile. Went inside. Then I saw this cloth Jude Hill made. It woke me up.

I can't explain why but it opened me up. Took my camera outside and caught the
sunflowers in various stages of opening, following, closing and dropping their heads.  Nature
again leading me back to balance. Someone making art that opens another from grief.

 Getting back up a little wiser to how important others are-before it's too late to tell them.

At my friend, Laura's funeral looking around at the greying heads of our contemporaries. Of
my community, where I live, people she linked and laughed with and cared about.

Walt's smiling face next to his wife in a photo.  Real good folks. I'm so happy to have them
in my life. I'll hold their laughter and voices in my heart forever. And I'm going to go outside
and open up a little more.