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September Second Friday Retirement Adventures

Retirement officially began for me August 1st, and each second and fourth Friday of every month, I’m reflecting on the first year of retirement and what it’s like in this new chapter of life. These have become some of my favorite blog posts of the month because they become a lot like what I believe Sarah Ban Breathnach was driving at in her book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. Focusing on the gratitude and appreciation for a new phase of life by looking at all the joy it brings is a balm for the soul. At the beginning of my first week off, I used a green spiral notebook to make a list of all the things I wanted to do — something enjoyable each week, blending in some new hobbies and routines as well. Friends and family who are still working seemed genuinely curious about what I would do with each day, and that’s what gave me the idea to plan and reflect on the course of my days and adventures. I remember my late father’s words, on retirement: You don’t retire FROM something, you retire TO something, and you’ll be busier than you’ve ever been. He was right, but the busy part is optional, like changing out of loungewear and wearing real clothes on most days.

Here are some things I’ve enjoyed in my first official six weeks of retirement. I’m keeping a running list, adding to the previous post each time I pause to reflect.

1. Mahjong 101

2. Rag Quilting

3. Morning Walking

4. Yoga

5. Friends of the Library Book Fair –

6. Local Bookstore Book Club

7. Summer Reading Poetry Book Club

8. Postcard Poetry Fest

9. Wayfaring to FDR for camping

10. Wayfaring to Margaritaville for a concert

11. Mahjong 102 and Free Play

12. Zinnia Arrangement

13. Fabric Postcards

14. Porch Sitting

15. Lounge Pants Spree

16. Novel Writing with Nick

17. Kindred Spirits Book Club

18. Barnes and Noble Virtual Book Club

And picking up where I left off at the end of August, here is how September has begun as I make my way down my list of 100 Things:

19. Re-vamping the Reading Room – I have breathed life back into my reading room and updated it by replacing some shelving and adding a few other personal touches to make it what my husband calls my own unique version of a she-shed. No matter what all is on the list of things I’m doing in retirement, the reading chair is a place I sit each day to adjust my sails. I have a Goodreads personal goal of 60 books this year – – (it’s fitting….it’s the year of 60)…..and I’m trying to get on track to accomplish the goal. By the end of this day, I will have read 31 books, leaving me 10 books behind. I’ve got some reading to do, and Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth wins the prize for September! My older daughter gave me a personalized book count tracker for Mother’s Day to go in my reading room, and it keeps me ever-aware of having the next book ready.

My Book Count Update in the reading room

20. Office Cleanout – Some of the furniture I brought back from Dad’s house on St. Simons had been occupying space without real purpose or function until I could think it all through, and one is an antique desk that my brother convinced me I need – – and he was right. I’m so glad I let him persuade me to bring it home. As I find the places for each treasure, I am rethinking the best location. And in rethinking the best location, I discover that other things need to shift. And as other things need to shift, I’m cleaning up and cleaning out. I’m reminded of the children’s book If You Give a Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff…..the cycles of how things take on a circular pattern. The office was one of those spaces this month, and already it feels like the air is lighter in that room.

21. Monthly Small Postcard Group – I loved the Cascadia Postcard Poetry Fest so much that I’ve already registered for 2027. Meanwhile, I’ve joined a small-scale monthly postcard group with some of my writing friends after I was invited by Denise Krebs of Yucca Valley, California. Here is the link to more information if you are interested – you can email Barbara Robinette and jump into the October round. Some of the postcards I’ve received with poems have literally taken my breath away with their beauty and depth. The artwork of these artists has inspired me to try other forms of art on my own postcards, using theirs as inspiration. I have a lonnnnng way to go, but what joy creativity brings, no matter the lack of artistic talent inside.

22. Watercolor Postcards – I created fabric postcards for Postcard Poetry Fest in August, and I have also picked up the paintbrush for watercolor postcards. My friend Glenda Funk of Chubbuck, Iowa recently shared Alex Kincaid’s Flower of the Month watercolor link, and while I will never be as talented as Glenda, I’m inspired to try the flowers. I also use the postcards that arrive to try painting similar ones, in the same way I used the fabric postcards to try that medium as well.

I’ll have to work to be abstract, and my sun has too many rays….I’ll keep trying

23. Labor Day Camping at F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia – It was just too hot to be outside much, so we did some reading and movie watching (Secondhand Lions and Arthur the King). We caught up on the recent episodes of our favorite YouTubers, Mark and Tricia Leach of Keep Your Daydream. Before leaving, we packed up the dogs, threw in our loungewear and a couple of outfits into our new “suitcases” and shopped for groceries on the way, grateful we don’t overthink the camping like we used to do when we strung up lights and used an outdoor rug. And those “suitcases?” They’re the 99 cent TJ Maxx bags that hold as much as a standard airplane carryon and are flexible enough to slide right into a wardrobe cabinet in the camper, without the bulk of a big bag. My friend Christian Jackson shared this trick. So now I have a new set of four seasonal suitcases. Who knew???

Under $1 Seasonal Suitcases from TJ Maxx

24. Dolly Parton Tribute at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee – We love to go to the Grand Ole Opry from time to time, but we’d never been for a tribute or celebration to see the way all the singers come out onstage at the end. I’d seen recordings, but we finally got to be there for a momentous tribute in person. We somehow managed to score two tickets in the nosebleed section, deciding that just being there would still be a treat, even though we’d be watching on a screen with a far-off view of the stage from our high-altitude seats. There’s not a bad seat in the Opry, we’ve found, even though we were nowhere near our favorite Section 17. We took small, high-powered binoculars and sang along, breathing the air of that amazing sold-out evening and sharing stories with people all around us. I got to sit next to an 84 year old from Mississippi who had come to Opryland as a child each year and continued bringing her son throughout his childhood. She’d lost her husband five years ago, and when her son heard about the tribute, he snapped up three tickets and jumped in his plane with his new pilot’s license and flew his wife and mother to see the show. I got to see two shows that night: the tribute to Dolly, and the joy spilling out in tears on the face of that lady next to me. We heard the story that evening from one of the performers that a yellow butterfly had been flitting about the Opry, and I found a video of it here. I like to think Dolly was right there on the stage, too, all evening, soaking in the love everyone had for her.

In Opry Mills Mall, my racecar driving husband found that Cobra he’s been wanting…..
Outside the Grand Ole Opry on the afternoon of the Dolly Parton Tribute

25. September Stafford Challenge Small Group – The first Monday of each month, my small group of Stafford Challenge writers meets to talk about what we’re writing and to catch up. We share what we’re working on, we share prompts for writing, and we enjoy time together from our homes in California, Iowa, Idaho, and Georgia for one glorious hour. This month, we each read a poem we’d written and shared some of our favorite resources, including the Art of Flash Institute, Audrey Gidman’s prompts, Joy Sullivan’s Necessary Salt Substack, and Ten Poetry Notebooks of Robin Farr. Barb Edler also shared a favorite publication, Moss Piglet.

26. Stafford Challenge Writing Workshop – I attended a workshop led by Melissa Helton of the Hindman Settlement School, and it was fabulous. She shared poems of Appalachia and gave us writing prompts to lead us in the writing of four poems during this time. My favorite was Requiem for a Dollar Store Christmas Bear by Willie Carver, which we read prior to writing our own poems about precious lost childhood toys. Milk (scroll down to page 4 or so) by Diane Fisher led us to write about a time we broke a rule to do the right thing. Soon the Red Wolf by Annie Woodford inspired us to write poems about wildlife or extinct species in our own areas, and Affrilachia by Frank Walker had us writing about the intersection of two unexpected events or circumstances. Melissa Helton is one who is able to reach into a writer and awaken the muse.

27. Mahjongg Group Formation – Now that my former colleague and dear friend Christian Jackson and I have taken lessons in Mahjong, we have branched out into the world of group play. We’re finding our best fit, and we’ve learned that even the best players who are in leagues and tournaments are no more likely to win or lose at the table, because Mahjong is one of those games that requires luck AND skill, and good decision making. We’re fending off cognitive decline, too, according to recent scientific research that shows the cognitive exertion needed for the game keeps the brain cells sharp.

We like to take pictures of our winning Mahjongg racks so we can track our wins and know our favorite neighborhoods and streets on our 2026 National Mahjong League cards

28. Birthday Pedicure with my Sister-In Law – It’s fun going for birthday pedicures during the day and being able to walk right up to a chair without the wait. My sister-in-law Bethany usually schedules our appointments at our favorite nail salon, and we enjoy using the time in neighboring chairs to catch up and get our legs massaged and toes painted. Unfortunately, her best friend’s father died and she was headed out of town to the funeral on her birthday, but not before we sat and chose Plum Wine (her) and Iceland (me) paint colors as colors for our feet to welcome autumn. We missed our bookstore outing to buy each other a birthday book, so I found a couple of gifts from Natural Life and got us matching mugs and socks.

Coffee mugs and socks if not books……all the cozy things

29. Lunch with Friends – From Angelo’s Italian corner restaurant and Bank Street Cafe in downtown Griffin to Mangia on Main in Barnesville, lunch with friends is one of my favorite retirement indulgences. I recently caught up with former colleague Jayne Midura, who gave me a fabulous retirement t-shirt. We talked dog rescue and enjoyed catching up. She is, sadly, in the same place I was during May when I was facing the grief of letting go of an aging dog too tired and sick to carry on. Prayers for Jayne in these coming days. It’s heart wrenching to say goodbye to our fur babies.

Mangia! on Main in Barnesville, Georgia

Over the next two weeks, we’ve planned to take a birthday weekend getaway with Briar’s brother and his wife to North Georgia to stay in a cabin on a creek and have cake, and also camp in Vogel State Park in Blairsville, Georgia. I’ll share a virtual poetry reading of my poem Timestamp Tanka for the Art on the Trail celebration on Sunday as part of the Time in the Landscape series this year in Southborough, Massachusetts. My poem was selected to accompany the work Phases of the Moon for this year’s chapbook, and I couldn’t be more excited!

Retirement III Haiku

a year full of firsts:

weekdays like weekends, slow-paced

~ Mahjongging with friends

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Re-vamping the Reading Room

cozy reading nook

hours in books, retirement bliss

dogs, too, bask in this……

When we built our house in 2008, we used the open space concept of the honeymoon house we’d stayed in in North Georgia as our plan and my husband drew it on a napkin for the contractor who built it. I requested three things: front and back porches, dual “thrones” in the master bathroom, and a reading room where I could see rain, sun, and wildlife out the windows. I measured and found bookcases that completely covered two walls, and I ordered comfy sink-down-into-a-book-reading chairs like they used to have at Barnes and Noble back in the day. It was my dream room, but with more and more work demands, I had less and less time to sit and read. Books spilled out into the bedroom and other rooms of the house, and I had to pare down the obsession by donating many of my beloved volumes. Shelves were buckling from the weight with the way I had adjusted for heavier and taller books. The chairs had faded from the intense sunlight in the room. It only got worse last year when the trees were harvested for timber and the sun siphoned all the rest of the color from the chairs.

I didn’t want curtains where trees had always been our “outdoor curtains,” but it was blinding in the room, and the windows acted like a glass oven door sending the temperature through the roof. The larger windows overlook a butterfly and bird garden that I want to be able to see without the interference of drapery. My beloved Schnauzer Fitz loved looking out these curtainless windows on the faded ottoman so much that that he is buried right beneath them, as is Archie, a rescue given to us by a former librarian and my black and tan Dachshund Roxie, who moved back to Georgia with me after an awful divorce. It’s a regular pet cemetery underneath the reading room, but there was no choice about the curtains; they had to be installed. The first thing I did was get tension rods with room darkening curtains so I would not have to install hardware in the casings. And I reluctantly put up those sworn-off window treatments.

Then, when Dad left us in June 2025, my brother and I kept the Barrister bookcases as treasures that we remember holding “the most valuable books” he had collected. I sold all 6 of my original bookcases, replaced them with 3 Barristers on one wall, and started over with the room, beginning to redesign it with retirement – and lots more reading – in mind. I also came up with a plan to manage book breeding. My brother and I had given Dad a Little Free Library to go outside on his street corner for him to start paring down his book collection, but he’d never gotten around to putting it together. My husband found a Phillips Head and magically built it out for me, and we brought it home from the island. I haven’t figured out whether it’ll go in the community somewhere or whether I’ll take it to campsites for folks to take books, but it will be part of the population control plan. I also use Libby and the library more now than ever.

The goal was to redesign the reading room on a dime with existing items. I’m not a fan of clutter…..except when it comes to cozy book-filled nooks. With books, somehow I’m a complete hoarder-go-overboarder. But as a disciple of Robin Wall Kimmerer of Braiding Sweetgrass fame, I also like to keep the simple concept of repurposing and reusing what is on hand. Because every fixture is in some way the descendant of earth or tree, a leaf from the branch of natural resource. I started by stripping the faded chair and a half of its cover and repurposing an old channel quilt as a new chair cover. I swiped a rug from another room, and then for the finishing comfy seating touch, I brought in a new throw recently received as a retirement gift from a friend – – and it makes the room pop with style and reminds me of her each time I sit here and read. She knows me well – – the throw says, “I can’t stay long, my dog is waiting.” It’s draped over the chair where Ollie sandwiches himself between the chair arm and my right hip and Boo settles onto the back and wraps himself around me like an airplane neck pillow, and we all sink down into the soft cushions and get lost in nap or story.

Next, I took a candle shelf and added the “Books Read This Year” sign one of my daughters sent me for Mother’s Day. I updated my number to 30 and selected the lowest Barrister to showcase it. I put a fairy light tree next to it for ambience, and on one branch I placed an ornament given to me by a book club member who’d taken all our 2025 books and made miniatures of them to go inside a clear bulb and an ornament from a friend who recently visited the redwoods in California and sent me a wooden cutout with a gold hanging thread. The room still needed music, so I brought in a Smart TV from Dad’s house and programmed it so I could put fall jazz on YouTube and have a seasonal backdrop for the room. I brought in a floor lamp for a corner from the living room and made the small fireplace we’d used at the base of the bed in the Little Guy camper the permanent small fireplace in the reading room (it’s a space heater, but we can use it without the heat part in the summer). An old farmhouse stool sits by the chair to hold my coffee. And a painting from the same friend who gave me the throw will be hung next to the glass French doors leading back into the bedroom once I get a box of picture hanging hardware. The only new things I’ll need are a new unfaded ottoman – which I might be able to locate on Marketplace – and a hook for the binoculars I use when I see little rabbits at the edge of the brush or owls and hawks in the branches across the farm.

It didn’t convert to scale….but here it is!

It’s a work in progress, but it’s the kind of work that’s fun and comes without buyer’s remorse over needless purchases. And while I love sunny days, I am secretly praying for rainy and snowy days where I can read the day away without feeling like I should be anywhere else.

And our favorite Atlanta weatherman tells us it’ll be my kind of winter…..come bundle up and sit with me and read!

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Walkin In a Spider Web

Chelsea Bradway <p> Chandelier pieces, wire, and fishing line </p><p> $1,500 Inquiries: artonthetrails@gmail.com </p><p> Repurposed chandelier crystals and an upcycled film reel form a sculptural spider web glimmering with stories of connection, resilience, and growth. The crystal fragments—once suspended in private spaces—now radiate outward as points of shared light, reflecting how individual experiences touch others. The film reel anchors the web, reminding us that memory, history, and community are inseparable threads. An invitation to consider how we build, mend, and sustain one another—how our shared stories, hopes, and vulnerabilities form the luminous webs that hold us all.</p>

Throughout the month of September, I’m taking the time to appreciate various forms of art and to be inspired by the creativity and thought that goes into each work – whether it’s a painting, a sketch, a collage postcard, or a structure created in nature along a trail. This week, I’m sharing poems that were inspired by Art on the Trails. Today’s ekphrastic poem is in response to Chelsea Bradway’s Walkin in a Spiderweb that you can read more about here. I chose a Huitian as my form, thinking of the eight legs of a spider and how poetic form can become a part of the overall impression when paired with visual art. A Huitan has eight lines of eight syllables, and this one has a rhyme scheme of abbaacca.


Crystal Chandelier Delight

one spider spins a web of light

to reach into our darkest fears

shares stories told throughout the years

then turns to others to invite

their own connections and insight

together, then, they all reach out

climb far beyond the waterspout

weave crystal chandelier delight

If you’d like to know more about the project, visit this page and watch the videos that were created to show how the shared vision became a reality. This makes me want to create a similar event in my own community. I have a trail in mind – a trail created in memory of a former student whose parents are my former colleagues. I just wonder……could we do the same thing here, inviting artists to create works of art, and poets to write poems inspired by that art, and then walk along a trail in celebration of it all?

I think that would be a beautiful thing to do!

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House of Straw

Pam Bonaguide <p> straw, old cedar shakes, Pal Tiya, wood, paint, wire, glue, string </p><p> $5,900 Inquiries: artonthetrails@gmail.com </p><p> You stand in front of a small straw house, about six by seven feet and ten feet tall, built on a simple wooden frame. Straw fills the walls, held in place by metal screen, while the roof is covered with old cedar shakes. As summer unfolds, the straw shifts in color, fading in sun and darkening in rain. Like the house in the nursery rhyme, it isn’t meant to last. The piece reflects Time in the Landscape, marking change as it slowly weathers and becomes more a part of its surroundings, shaped by season, memory, and the natural world.</p>

House of Straw

a house for today

out of the wind’s and rain’s way

for pig or for wolf

characters seeking shelter

we all need our own safe space

I enjoy writing poetry using art as inspiration, and that’s what Art on the Trails invited poets to do for their 10th Annual event in Southborough, Massachusetts. I read about the process and learned that once the artists were selected and their works installed along the trail, organizers invited poets to write ekphrastic poems inspired by the art, and then a poetry juror and the artist would select two poems for each piece of artwork to be published in this year’s chapbook.

That’s the sort of writing that makes me happy, so I decided to accept the invitation. I scrolled through the works of art and selected four that were particularly inspiring. The House of Straw took me back to my favorite childhood storybook days, and The Three Little Pigs came to mind, of course. I wrote a tanka with a variation of a borrowed line from Padraic Colum’s “An Old Woman of the Roads” in response to Pam Bonaguide’s work House of Straw as part of this year’s Time in the Landscape theme. 

You can hear the audio clip of my poem here:

This is one of four poems that I submitted for the works of art along the trail, but this one was not selected for publication. I’ll share the poem that the artist and poetry juror selected on Sunday, when the gathering of artists and poets will happen beside each work of trail art in Southborough during a progressive trail walk. Though I will not be able to be there in person for the closing event this year, I’m celebrating in spirit as the week leads up to the closing event on Sunday.

For today, may we all know our own safe spaces. As I see it, there are no safer spaces than the pages of books …..and nature trails with art, poetry, and fireflies.

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Ekphrastic Art: Time in the Landscape Signposts Tanka

Art on the Trails is a unique celebration of art in nature and poetry that takes place at the Elaine & Philip Beals Preserve in Southborough, Massachusetts each year, and this will be the ten year anniversary of this event. In the first phase, art is selected by an art judge who announces the 16 winning works for installation along the nature trail, and then in the second phase, two poems are selected by a poetry judge and the artist to go along with each work of art. You can read about the poetry process here. I responded in verse to four of these works of art along the trail this year and submitted them for chapbook publication. I’ll share my poem that is selected to appear in the chapbook on the scheduled day of the event finale on Sunday, September 13.  I will be unable to be there in person to read my poem at the progressive walk, but I have shared a video recording with event organizers and will share that here as well. Today, I’m sharing the tanka I wrote in response to Mike Libby’s work Here and There and Now and Then as part of the 2026 Art on the Trails: Time in the Landscape. 

Signposts Tanka

signposts guide our way~

here and there and now and then

we choose our own paths

today, tomorrow, later

tonight, forever, always

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Rattle’s Ekphrastic Poetry Challenge

Throughout the month of September as we officially welcome the start of the fall season, I’m sharpening my awareness and appreciation of the art and nature around me. This week, I will share five ekphrastic poems that I’ve written in response to works of art. These five poems were all submitted for publication to various calls for poetry I found through Submittable.com in the Discover tab, and of the five poems, one was accepted into a poetry chapbook celebrating works of art in nature. I’ll share the poem selected for publication one week from today.

For the month of July, Rattle’s Ekphrastic poetry prompt was the piece below by Leslie Ann Aguillard. Find more about the artist here. My poem is beneath this image. I didn’t win or place with this nonet, but Rattle hosts a monthly Ekphrastic challenge that writers love, and we all win when we write. We just don’t all get that $15,000 prize for the big contest or the $100 for the monthly challenges……

Wrong Number Nonet

another wrong number again, truth

beginning to set in like knives

each piercing deeper into

memories of warnings:

he can’t be faithful

….don’t marry him!

she knows now ~ 

.

.

.

they were

right

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Labor Day Camping

Camping Tanka

on our favorite

campsite at our favorite

campground, reading books,

snuggling dogs, watching movies

sipping coffee, holding hands

We’re traveling more in my retirement, but the way my husband sees it, the only way we’ll stay home as much as he likes is if he keeps working, so he’s not taking the Social Security option just yet. He knows I’d pare down what’s in the house and sell most everything and take to the open road in the Wayfarer if it were up to me. I’d take us two plates, two mugs, two spoons, two forks, and two knives. I’d pack three pairs of jeans and six t-shirts, plus two pairs of sweatpants and a thin sweatshirt for pajamas. My camo Birkenstocks, one pair of sneakers, and my trusty Ugg slippers would be in my shoe cabinet. That’s pretty much how my two prescription medications and my favorite toothbrush and I would live for six months out of the year – until all the trees have grown tall enough to give us back our woodsy cocoon we once called home before they were harvested to go off and realize their ultimate destiny as telephone poles, the poor things.

In my best estimation, we’d travel by day, stopping for groceries on our way to wherever we’d camp for two or three nights. We’d take morning hikes and go exploring with the dogs, I’d press flowers between the pages of books and sketch them for watercolor paintings and bookmarks, and then we’d build campfires to sip coffee by, read books for hours, watch movies, and listen to music. I’d have to play Mahjong with bots on the computer unless I came across a group of three players needing a fourth; otherwise, we’d play Phase 10 so I could stay perpetually confused about what to discard.

We’d stop at every festival along the way so we could check out all the jams, preserves, and pickled things they’d be selling, and we’d buy some for our morning toast, along with a dozen free-range fresh eggs. And we’d throw in some homemade soap, too, probably made with the goat milk of someone’s backyard herd. It would smell like crisp mountain air with a hint of breezy wildflowers. Then we’d opt for a caramel apple instead of a funnel cake and sit in a bentwood rocker and watch the cloggers and banjos for a while before Wayfaring along on our merry way, humming some bluegrass tunes .

For today, though, we’ll watch Secondhand Lions and Arthur the King with dogs in our laps snuggled under fleecy throws, and I’ll be reading The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick since that’s what popped up for me on Libby. Yes, for today, we’ll only have a little pat of Kerrygold tub butter on our cinnamon raisin bagels – – none of these festival preserves that must wait for another time……

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Digitizing the Family Photographs

I’ve been digitizing family photos, getting rid of hard copies of pictures that require closets full of storage. We’ll save space and put these on thumb drives, allowing each family member to have access to all the photos instead of splitting them up. It has always been difficult for me to see my own resemblance to family members through the years, but in my younger years everyone said I looked just like my dad. As I’ve aged, though, and especially when I’m wearing contacts instead of glasses, I’m often told I look like my mother.

My husband and I recently met my dad’s sister for lunch on the way home from a camping weekend, and she remarked how I looked like my mother………and when you hit 60, that feels different than it ever has before.

Lunch with My Aunt

when your aunt tells you

you look just like your mother

you cry, smile, laugh, sigh…

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Spiritual Journey Thursday: Rhythm

it takes a rhythm

to create healthy habits

to remain in sync

Ramona is our host this month for Spiritual Journey Thursday (SJT), and she invites us to reflect on rhythm. You can read her post here.

When I think of rhythm, I think of cycles associated with biorhythms, seasons and times, and cycles of nature. This verse from Genesis comes to mind:

Genesis 1:14 ESV

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years….

I think of things having an appointed time in the rhythm of life when I consider the verses in Ecclesiastes that are so iconic to seasons and turning.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Rhythms and cycles play an important role in balance and harmony of living. Having a rhythm to each day, each week, each month is an important part of life, whether we are working or retired – rhythms are like schedules, habits, and time management. One of the first things I had to do in retirement was create new routines. A new prayer time topped my list, since my prayer chamber used to be my drive in to work and now that I’m not going there anymore, I needed a new designated time that would be consistent. I chose coffee time since there is a rhythm to that regularity and, to some degree, a consistent morning time frame – – and, like coffee, I need prayer at the top of the day. I have discovered in this new routine that I like to see steam rising from my mug as I say prayers, as if what is coming from my lips is swirling in a steam mist upwards to heaven in the quiet, relaxed rhythms of the morning.

HELLO! and HELP!

someone stranded

on a desert island

sends smoke signals

I send prayers

from the porch

fresh from my lips

vapors rising

to heaven

A special thanks to Ramona for hosting this month and inspiring us to think of the rhythms in our spiritual lives.

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Cascadia Postcard Poetry Fest 2026 Grand Finale Celebration

Last night’s Cascadia Labs Poetry Postcard Fest 2026 Grand Finale Celebration over Zoom gave poets from around the world an opportunity to share their visual works of art and their poetry with everyone in attendance. It was a festive evening hearing the voices of the poets reading their original poems and sharing how they created their cards. While I did not register to read in the evening of sharing, I will begin sharing the postcards that I sent as part of the Poetry Postcard Fest later this month on the blog. It isn’t easy fitting a handwritten poem on a postcard, but short forms like haiku make it less challenging.

I don’t want it to end, so I found a new poetry postcard group beginning this month – – and also registered for the 2027 Cascadia Postcard Poetry Fest, 11 months in advance.

why can’t every day

be a poetry postcard

day full of word gifts?