--AND SO, THIS IS HOW THE STORY GOES

…It’s morning and the sun is struggling to find a place for itself.  Across the lake a few houses are lit up, others dark and sealed as if the world is all too much for them to take.

The water this morning is a muddy green-gray, the color of an antique army tank maybe, or a chalk board faded by the sun.

There’s not a single living thing in sight.  No ducks or eagles or leaping fish.

The surface of the water is rippled, resembling an old person’s skin.  It floats persistently to the west, like salmon on the way to spawn.

I’ve seen many things in my life, as we all have, but the lake never fails to mystify and stun.  It changes every day.  There are always new things to see, find, discover.

I love it.

…I hope this week is wonderful for you.

…"It is wonderful to be in on the creation of something, see it used, and then walk away and smile at it." Lady Bird Johnson

"We look in every store window to see if we look better than we did in the last store window." Barbara Sher

“A man without a smiling face must not open up shop.” Chinese Proverb

“The thing about performance, even if it’s only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities.” Daniel Day Lewis

“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter.  If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Jack Benny

“The secret to life is making your vocation your vacation.” Mark Twain

"We are all the same, underneath the sycamore." Death Cab For Cutie

"Poetry is as exact a science as geometry." Flaubert