I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape—the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

Andrew Wyeth

Waking to Frank home from his trip and here for the week. Not a refreshed night’s sleep, but I am happy to go out for my walk. It’s a toasty 22 degrees! Feels bearably cold after the frigid temps. I must find the Special One’s boot. I take my time on the ice looking for pictures, but I don’t find inspiration until I get to the brook where the water runs under the trail and spills into our wetlands. So much lovely ice and music! I stop and watch the beauty of the water streaming through the ice where there is some green grass. I breathe and listen, breathe and listen. Refreshment. I am in need of refreshment in this Sunday Sanctuary. I walk and enjoy the cold but I do not find the boot. I find my desk in the glorious quiet. I enter my office determined to have all the time I need and want in the quiet quiet quiet. I felt so much on my walk the call from spirit for quiet. Not the quiet of being far away from people I love; but the quiet of being near the people I love but in my own mind and heart with the ability to focus on my creative work. And, so I filled that up. One interruption, however, was Frank, but it was a good one because we needed to put a few tweaks into my daughter’s office next door and he helped and we solved the puzzle of the rearrangement magically (with his good eyes and thoughts) without having to remove a single piece of furniture! All three of us were quite satisfied with the result. Then, behind my closed door I got my Aim for Astonishing prompt written and sent and began my prep for my Tuesday night workshop and also took notes for a new poem. And even took a short nap, woke up, and added more notes for my poem. I don’t know if this one will go somewhere tomorrow when I sit down to work. But it cheered me to start. Family dinner that I didn’t cook. Frank is home to buffer the presence of the workmen in the house tomorrow. My youngest and I talked, briefly, about co-presenting a workshop for the upcoming Playback North American conference. I thought she’d say no when I asked, too busy. But she said yes. Tomorrow she starts her last semester of graduate school. My baby will have a Master’s degree.