June 30, 2013

13-6-30


Quaker meeting —
a fly seeking a way out
stirs the silence




June 29, 2013

13-6-29


red-winged blackbird
facing into the wind
calling for its mate




June 28, 2013

13-6-28


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


June 27, 2013

13-6-27


almost touching
leaning into the path’s sunlight
black-eyed Susans


June 26, 2013


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.

June 25, 2013

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

June 24, 2013

June 23, 2013


deadheading
nicotiana to make
room for more blossoms


June 22, 2013


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.


June 21, 2013


first night of summer —
in the garden, listening
for mosquitoes




June 20, 2013


choosing a new home —
how well do these windows
admit moonlight?


June 19, 2013


flavors of freedom —
money on my Metro card
sun in the forecast



June 18, 2013


reaching up
for as much rain as they can —
city trees


June 17, 2013

June 16, 2013


again this summer
our pillows damply scented —
lake water




June 15, 2013


distant thunder —
even the woodpecker
stops to listen


June 14, 2013


still more rain —
all day the smell of worms
with nowhere to go


June 13, 2013


each of us
missing the other —
another late night


June 12, 2013


fireflies
and a fingernail moon —
gifts for every glance


June 11, 2013


slow down,
bird with the long tail feathers —
what do they call you?



June 10, 2013


gentler this time,
today’s rain finds itself
in yesterday’s puddles


June 09, 2013


underfoot
the sound of yesterday’s storm
not quite finished

June 08, 2013


discovering
that the open parking space
is a huge puddle


June 07, 2013

June 06, 2013


watching the sky
as the birds spill across it —
illegible script


June 05, 2013

heading back downstairs
for just a little more 
rhubarb season


June 04, 2013


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.)

June 03, 2013

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


June 02, 2013

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



June 01, 2013


after the fireworks —
trying to keep those sparks
alive as I walk