13-6-30

Quaker meeting —

a fly seeking a way out

stirs the silence

13-6-29

red-winged blackbird

facing into the wind

calling for its mate

13-6-28

keeping track
and then letting go --
birthday candles, stars...

13-6-27

almost touching

leaning into the path’s sunlight

black-eyed Susans

today

the water I’m swimming in

feels welcoming

I was on the verge of tears all day. Mostly unexpectedly. There was no way to prepare, emotionally, for the sudden prospect of first class citizenship. We thought this might happen. But when you've worked for so long at guarding against hope...

I made sure to watch Republican leaders responding to the DOMA and PROP8 decisions today with our son. He is almost twelve years old, and he understands the human heart in a way that they cannot, yet.

Looking over at my smart, compassionate, funny, sexy wife, I wonder if I can ever dismantle the airquotes around that word in my own heart.

I am grateful to all those whose work and love have helped bring us this far.

Auntie Camp

Doesn't look like a first meeting, does it?

Cousin C has a gift for making friends...

people, dogs, and, apparently... birds!

The girl has skills.

Hot summer day + pool + cousins = awesome.

Proud of these two.

call and response —

the crows leaving less and less

room for each other

waiting

for the sweeping fan

to find me

deadheading

nicotiana to make

room for more blossoms

brighter than ever,

June’s full moon at perigree —

we take the back road

Games For Change Festival 2013

Did we have a good time? Take a look at this and tell me what YOU think:

(Here's Miss T play-testing Privilege, the only tabletop game 

at the screen-dominated Festival.)

Miss T and I spent two days in NYC hobnobbing with folks who live at the intersection of games and learning... we had a GREAT time.

There were thought-provoking presentations 

about coordinated transmedia campaigns like Half the Sky.

Here's Miss T playing the extremely creepy Nevermind, which includes a biofeedback element as well as a faceless cat... she had to step away!

We loved Lindsay Grace's talk on the verbs of games.

Here's Miss T explaining some of the finer points of Quandary,

one of the demonstration games we liked the best.

The first night we caught the final preview performance

of Bureau of Missing Persons, which we really enjoyed.

Thanks to AirBnB, we were able to crash in the Village!

Day Two found Miss T checking out the amazing Blindside, a game which depends entirely on audio cues and motion-sensors for its game play. (Thus her closed eyes.) Later in the festival, Miss T had a lovely conversation with the co-creators of the game.

Jesse Schell's closing keynote, here featuring
a Dorothy Parker quote, was entitled
"Sheep, Goats, and the Future of Learning" (link is to his slidedeck);
it was one of my favorites.

No Special Day is complete without ice cream.

And here are your victorious travelers on the train ride home!

(If you're curious about the festival,

check out their site.)

More Django!

 SO curious!

Cuddle time is the best.

first night of summer —

in the garden, listening

for mosquitoes

choosing a new home —

how well do these windows

admit moonlight?

flavors of freedom —

money on my Metro card

sun in the forecast

reaching up

for as much rain as they can —

city trees

traveling home

on the same heading

as the storm

again this summer

our pillows damply scented —

lake water

distant thunder —

even the woodpecker

stops to listen

still more rain —

all day the smell of worms

with nowhere to go

each of us

missing the other —

another late night

fireflies

and a fingernail moon —

gifts for every glance

slow down,

bird with the long tail feathers —

what do they call you?

gentler this time,

today’s rain finds itself

in yesterday’s puddles

underfoot

the sound of yesterday’s storm

not quite finished

discovering

that the open parking space

is a huge puddle

stormwater

tumbling over itself

in a rush

watching the sky

as the birds spill across it —

illegible script

heading back downstairs

for just a little more —

rhubarb season

poison ivy —

somehow victorious

even in defeat

(Inspired by my friend Dave, who vowed last weekend to get the last of the poison ivy out of his yard... and has the arms to show for it.)

Transformation

I spent the day today at a conference by the ocean, about an hour's drive from my home.

It was raining when I left, and I went directly inside to the conference sessions; although I was within easy walking distance of the boardwalk, I never left the hotel again until it was time to return home.

During the course of the day I spoke with many people, both old friends and strangers... one woman who I had never met before mentioned that she lived with her sister. This gave me a lovely excuse to reminisce about my own time of living with my sister, and to remember how much fun we had with that.

You and your sister get along well, then? I asked, in an almost rhetorical way.

Actually, she said, we didn't get along at all for a really long time. At one point it was so bad we couldn't even stand to be in the same room together. When I told my mother we were moving in together, she couldn't keep herself from saying, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

But it was a good idea, and somehow both sisters knew it.

I'm sorry that I missed the ocean, but glad that I had the presence of mind to make a little room in my reminiscing for someone else's very different story.

a pair of rabbits

nosing their way

across the yard

Meet Django

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled haiku to bring you your first glimpse of our soon-to-be newest member of the family...

Mr. D has been waiting a long time for this. This dapper fellow is a Jardine parrot, and he'll likely be coming home to us sometime in early August. Until then we have to content ourselves with visits.

We think he's quite handsome and clever. But we're also clearly already biased. :-D

making yesterday

seem quiet —

today’s woodpecker

after the fireworks —

trying to keep those sparks

alive as I walk