January Sunday

2013 word of the year

SELFIE has been proclaimed the 2013 word of the year by The Oxford Dictionary. In honor of the official introduction of a new word, I decided to take one of myself with the dogs on a snowy, freezing walk last weekend. Below: the first selfie of 2014.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Happy Birthday to the Best Sister Ever!

You were always there, ten years ahead of me.  At seven,  I went downstairs every morning to get your freshly ironed Kent Place uniform from the laundry room and even though mom said that I shouldn't do that for you because I would be late for school, I did it anyway.  I would do anything for the chance to enter your room which was filled with all the teen age trappings of a sister who had entered a world I could barely imagine.  You once said, "if you want to know anything about stuff, ask me. Mom won't tell you anything." So it was you I turned to and still do.

When I was thirteen, you were married and drove west for a new life in California. "You will visit me," you announced. And so I did. I got to experience Golden Gate Park in the 60's, where Country Joe and the Fish played free concerts and hippies wore flowers in their hair. At sixteen, we camped in Wyoming.  Years later, I traveled with my young daughters to your Oregon Farm where they climbed trees to pick cherries and rattled the bucket to call in your sheep.

Now it's Portland that we explore when I come west. We take art classes and sit at Townsend on Alberta Street, sharing a pot of  Immortalizer Tea.  More and more we reflect on the mystery of it all.

 Happy Seventieth Rue.
 I wish for you a year of deep peace, good health, and good times.