making peace

i made up with my mother last night. after an hour's conversation where we delicately skirted around Issues, we parted friends, harmony once more restored. i'll go to see her next weekend to celebrate my birthday...she found someone else to wait on her.

i also slogged over to see my grandmother, who looked remarkably well as usual despite her best efforts to the contrary. i found her in pretty much the same position she was in when i saw her last. she was wearing different clothes and there were different sheets on the bed. all the complaints, however, were the same. i was feeling bad about not seeing her for a month but after a few minutes i realized it's like showing up in the middle of a nothing-nothing game - whatever you've missed may have been momentarily entertaining, but it hasn't made much of an overall difference.

i got all the books put back in my writing room. i like the robins' egg blue walls, the creamy woodwork. it's soothing to look at. now the trick is to stop Beloved from throwing things back in the room helter-skelter with nothing at all resembling order aforethought. my job today is to clean the rugs, and decide which of several slipcovers to use on the sofa and chairs. i need to find pretty curtain rods too,for the new blue curtains, because im not going to have the valances made for another few weeks. it's time to freshen up the living room, too.

and have i mentioned anywhere we are planning a major renovation to the back of the house.... assuming, of course, we can get a builder to call us back?

in the mornings when i walk the puppies, the skies are bluer, the horizon limned with a blazing edge of light. a growing chorus of birds cheep and call more insistently every day. today i saw the moon, fat and full, in the west above the trees, the red crescent of an aries sun just visible over the empty flower fields next door.

i'm having a massage today, then lunching with a friend at my favorite little tea room. Beloved continues to forage for the soup kitchen tomorrow. i have a press release to write, a chapter to finish. despite the lingering moments of exhaustion, i feel the unmistakable stirring of spring-time in my blood.

and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.