Saturday, April 12

Visiting my Parents

Paul and I drove up to CT to see my parents today. Mom was put on hospice care about two months ago, but I naively hoped that this might have been more about changing her type of care rather than a real harbinger of what was coming. That did seem to be the case at first, but she has been declining suddenly just lately. I spoke with hospice people twice this past week, and a little with Mom herself, and decided I could not wait till next month for my next visit. I'm in the last few weeks of a graduate degree program, and we were/are planning to celebrate with my parents on Mother's Day in May, two days after I graduate. Was/am hoping to show Mom my diploma and tell her I am grateful to be following in her footsteps. (Always a hard worker, she got a Master's from Columbia when she was a brand-new mother!)


We stopped and picked up Dad first. 

Dad asked me to bring him toothpaste. He couldn't recall the kind he liked so Paul got him a variety.

Saw this old photo of my parents in my Dad's apartment.


Mom loves flowers

Mom was asleep and slept heavily throughout our entire visit. Dad was being very brave.

Even though Mom was sleeping we got some snuggling in

She loves cats: I hope she enjoys the company of a few furry friends when she wakes up!

This is a natural phase in existence, but it is incredibly painful. Driving home we were listening to a talk by Edward Hirsch and he quoted this beautiful poem:

Life flows to death as rivers to the sea /And life is fresh and death is salt to me. (J.V. Cunningham)
Of course, everyone is hoping she will pull up out of this recent nose-dive, and she could! She's always been so strong. Keep the river flowing Mom... 

Thursday, April 10

Dawn Brushes Rose

Just a typical day at the sink in art school 
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?

Wednesday, April 9

Poetry Poke

again the artist comes to the studio with unkempt hair ~ parody of Chiyo-ni
April is National Poetry Month here in the U.S. I majored in English at University, with a concentration in poetry but I somehow missed out on studying any asian poetry traditions at all! I later discovered various traditions on my own. Fukuda Chiyo-ni (Kaga no Chiya, 1703-1775) was a buddhist nun, a calligrapher and a painter in addition to being one of the foremost haiku masters of the Edo period in Japan. The poem of hers that I respectfully parodied is this:

again the women
come to the fields
with unkempt hair



Monday, April 7

Book Contract!


Yesterday we had a momentous evening! Paul signed the contract for his book, working titled "The Boss Life" which will be published by Blue Rider Press (an imprint of Penguin Books) in Fall 2015. I'm so proud of him!