Evening now, and a lovely rain. I let Suzi out, after the thunder, into the dark and waited for her to come back. Barefoot in a t-shirt. Summer rain, a favorite feeling. Day bright and sunny and hot. Oh, those swans, they like to have their pictures taken on the river! As I stood on the trestle bridge, the pair skimmed under me in all happiness and peace. I was silent in the woods. No podcast. I only wanted to hear the birds in my ears. This is a busy week, and I wanted to be in the moment, fully. Sanctuary of the woods where, today, there is only good new: wild geranium and violets and lady slipper and apple blossoms and frogs and snakes on the edges and swans and woodpeckers and dogwood blossoms and anemonies. I heard and saw all this great news. Took my fill of it. To my desk, lost in thought, revising my poem for tonight. Suzi! Where’s Suzi? I had a sudden thought that she didn’t come inside with me. Didn’t follow me on the walk, wasn’t in the yard. Hopped up from my desk and went back to the woods. No use calling her name––she’s totally deaf. Called a neighbor, called police. No sign of her. Went back home. Checked under her favorite shade bush––should have checked there first, of course. Sleeping in the heat. Grateful to have found her. I finished working on my poem, and quite satisfied. Forgot to send it for workshop and rushed into other activities. So, I went to workshop, but couldn’t share my poem. Happy, though, to have received an acceptance for publication on one of my Costa Rica poems. And the thunderstorm has passed, the garden is watered. Sleep.