I return...and begin again.

But this time - it's different. Life is. The landscape has shifted. My world has changed.

On the day after my daughter's picture perfect magical fairytale of a wedding...my strong healthy vibrant mother suffered a stroke and massive bleed in her brain.

We sit. And - we wait. And - we hope for whatever the outcome might be.

It's not often that I share the insides of my life. Today - I am. Because - art saves...and writing heals...and my art and my life have become one and the same. And because this is just exactly what it is. As it is.

"Man plans and God laughs."

Life has a strange way of showing us its colors. In this moment...in this now - the wedding seems like a distant dream and fairytale. Was it real? Or just something I imagined?

I'm reminded of how precious and precarious life is. We live. We love. We let go. We rise and begin each and every day again. We cry - tears of happiness and joy. They taste the same.

All these years of consistent practice - is serving me well. My body knows. This is this pose...there will be another. I remain quiet and still. This is today. Tomorrow will be something else. Every thing changes. The good times are great...and to be celebrated and enjoyed. And the hard times....will pass.

Most of my everyday days - I walk chasing birds and ducks and waterfowl. I stop and I notice. These days - up here in the mountains - I rise each morning to the soft mooing (which is much louder than you'd imagine) of cows. The corn fields are just now being planted. The air is fresh and cool. Everything is rendered in endless shades of green.

I move slower.

I don't have all of my usual tools with which to create. I have my camera. I have two eyes to see and ears to hear and a body that feels. Too deeply.

And - I return. And - I begin again. Because - art heals and writing saves and my life and my art have become one and the same.