#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Goodnight Nosara

The moon is full. Swimming tonight, from 4:30-6:00 in the velvet and lilac water. Some clouds moved in, late afternoon, and this deepened the blue spirit of the frothy surf. Franci and Will and I walked from our casa in the late afternoon across Playa Peladas onto Guiones. Frank met us on the beach. One of my nephews, Huck, is here; another was unable to come. Huck and his girlfriend have been a delightful surprise. We body surfed til the orange ball sunk below the horizon. It was dreamy. Such softness, warmth, peace. The day started with pickle. Huck joined us. It got very hot. Then I ran my two groups and now I am done with groups for the week. Wonderful writing from the prompt I changed this morning at the last minute, from what I had prepared. I so rarely do this, as I prepare very well. But my gut just told me to switch it up, and I did. A very powerful experience with a writing prompt exploring the idea of prayer. I am still very much missing Wave. There is no cure for this. I have given up on Jude the Obscure. It got very dark and I felt that the characters and plot were not enough to hold me in this catastrophic outcome of the story. I wonder if this is the second time I gave up on this book! But I am so grateful to Thomas Hardy for all the distracting pleasures and ideas and beautiful writing I’ve enjoyed on this binge. I read a NYTimes article this week on tips for keeping your memory strong. One of them is to read fiction. Well, I know this already. But it was also nice to think about why reading a novel keeps your memory working. Especially long novels with lots of characters. Your memory must work to keep everything straight. So, I have just begun another journey through another great novel on audible. I’m going to go on a rereading binge of Edith Wharton. I’ve read all her novels, I’m pretty certain. So, beginning with Age of Innocence. I sent a Valentine’s present to Wave and my daughter. I have my Valentine, Frank, here with me. He is very sympathetic to my feelings about missing Wave. My Israeli group was very deep and poignant today, as always. I had a an actor sighting on the beach after sunset. An actor from one of my favorite shows, Succession. I recognized his nose. Its Fisher Stevens who played Hugo Baker. He was there with his wife and two children just next to me, going for a post-sunset swim. I didn’t bother him. His very distinctive nose!