This is the moment when bliss is what you glimpse
From the corner of your eye, as you drive past
Running errands, and the wind comes up.
And the surface of the water glitters hard against it.

 ~ Excerpt from “September, Inverness,” by Robert Hass

Thank you, Charlie. Thank you for waking me early this morning so we could be at the river at this gorgeous moment of mist and low rising sun and reflections of trees and clouds on the placid surface of the Charles after a rainy night. How am I sleeping later or staying in longer and missing these earliest mornings? I resolve to go out earlier. Foliage is starting to appear. We pass the still brook and a single maple is going red and reflecting in the brook and I stop to see and Suzi wades in for her swim and ruffles the reflection for me so the red leaves are squiggled in the blue. No more tweaks on my poem today, even though I looked. I will bring it tomorrow night. And I got a first draft written of the “found” hybrid piece, who knows what to call it? that I’m writing about the crime story, interwoven with an obituary and condolences. All day I waited to get the time to work on it. I have this draft, but have to think about what it is and what it’s trying to do and show me and see if it’s got something to say. It need to be more than juicy dramatic irony. It needs to tell a meaningful story. I have not yet figured out if it’s more than a crafty exercise. My husband departed; I drove him to the airport. I picked an herbal bouquet from my gardens and tied it with a string to drop at the hospital for a friend who will find the fragrances healing, I hope. The most special part of my day involved going for a mid-September swim with my son and the dogs in Farm Pond in the late afternoon. I was so happy when I texted him on my way home, I was so eager to go, and for him to join me. He agreed, and we put the dogs on the paddle boards and left the shade of my friend’s dock and glided out into the sun, and as soon as I felt the faint heat on my shoulders I was ready to dive and swim which I did, around the island. And the bonus was, listening. Being told what’s on his mind and in his heart; being trusted as a listener. We played with the dogs and we climbed the winding stone path back up and the four of us were very satisfied with our September Sunday.