Undies

My boyfriend, Kelly, came to visit my new locale in Fountain, MN, and met my Grandpa for the first time. That night we went to my cousin's house for a bonfire and returned around 10:15 to find my 87 year old Grandpa sitting on his walker in the living room, watching the baseball game and eating a single serving cup of ice cream in his underwear.

"You caught me in my undies!" was his response and then he stuck around and chatted for another 10 minutes before retreating to his room...in his undies.

Contributed by Aryn.

Book Brigade

Elk River is looking for about 900 friends of the library to form a "Book Brigade" to symbolically move books from the old library to new quarters about 3 miles away. A "senior citizen" will remove a book from the shelf and pass it along through the human chain until that book reaches the new library where a "youngster" will shelf the book at the new facility. Everyone from 1 to 100 is invited. I hope every family shows up!! What a beautiful community symbol.

Contributed by Ann.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

---Derek Walcott

Contributed by Sarah.

Honi the Circle-Drawer

Coming into South Dakota, I started ranting into my portable voice recorder about a man named Honi the Circle-Drawer. I first heard of Honi the Circle-Drawer in a class at Hamline University. Honi the Circle-Drawer was a Jewish Charismatic who lived in Israel during the same time as Jesus.

Honi was famous for going to villages experiencing severe drought and promising rain. He would go outside the village and draw a circle in the scorched earth. He would pray to God, step inside the circle, and would stay there until God made it rain.

"What a way to live," the professor said. "Drawing your circles in the sand and daring God to make the next move."

Potty Call

A phone call caught me off guard last week. Our granddaughter wanted to tell me something. "Gamma, potty!" Her mom had finished reading her a "potty book" as part of her night time ritual. At the end of the story, the little girl called her grandma to share the accomplishment.

"Talk Gamma. Potty!" Emma jumped out of her bed running for a phone. Aren't books wonderful? I smile thinking of the tune the "potty" plays when mission is accomplished.

Contributed by Ann.

Hamilton

My friend, Louise, flew into St. Paul from California a couple weeks ago. We were walking to the State Fair and she was lamenting over the fact that she is no longer a coffee barrista, flush with small bills.

"I used to take all my tips and turn them in for ten dollar bills," Louise told me.

"Why tens?" I asked.

"Because Alexander Hamilton is the most attractive man in American currency," Louise replied. "He's just beautiful."

100 Postings!

100 "beautiful experience" swatches intertwined in a cross section of Americana tapestry shared in life's scrapbook! Thanks for adding to the collage--and for showing up!

Contributed by Ann.

Mistake

Loving people is the only mistake I can think of worth making time and time again.

Shooting Stars

I was talking to my cousin, who recently moved to Florida, the other night. We were both outside watching the stars when suddenly she saw a shooting star. Five seconds later I saw a shooting star.

"Wow," she said. "Maybe it's the same star. We are in different time zones".

At the count of three we started to laugh.

Contributed by Sarah.

Gerrymandering

My friend Kent and I were discussing politics at a bar in St. Paul.

"I blame gerrymandering," Kent said.

"Who's that?" I asked and looked at him before collapsing on the table laughing. "Did I just say that?"

"You should have just played that off," he told me. "I thought you were just being really clever."

"I wish I would have," I replied. "In my head I saw the word spelled 'Jerry Manderin' and thought there was some obscure man responsible for voter disenfranchisement everywhere."