Sugaring with the neighbors yesterday. I love their old-school, hand made set up. I love the sweet clouds of steam, and how everything feels hopeful and grand standing around the evaporator watching the sap bubble and thicken. Hours pass, easily, occupied this way. Bean was all helper this year. Carrying wood. Pouring sap from the metal tap buckets into the big plastic five gallon bucket to be filtered and poured. He even got to strike the match to light the fire up. This is his boyhood. This is what he will remember. This is why we are here, even though things are so tenuous financially right now that at any moment we might slip, and have to leave. So. This is why I’m throwing my heart into trying to make A Field Guide To Now. This is why there is a lump in my throat at night, when I can see how it might not reach that stupid enormous funding goal (that also feels so small.)

Last year ate our savings. Last year ate everything. This year, who knows? This year, the outcome is anyone’s guess. We could move. We could stay. It’s all up in the air, illusive as the steam, as tender as the first fat buds.

So that’s the truth. I want this life more than anything.

Also: You can win this painting.

Add your photos to the Flickr pool or leave the url to your photo here.

I’ll be posting a bunch of your photos here throughout the week. Go take a peek.

I can’t wait to see what you share this week. Happy Spring!

The risk the artist takes is that you might …
actually laugh at the effort. And it’s taking these
risks that leads us to get rewarded.

~ Seth Godin

Today I left my keys on the roof of my car dropping Bean off at school and spent the better part of an hour looking for them in the parking lot in the slick mud with Sprout on one hip…. one of those mornings (not enough coffee+ not enough sleep + feeling kind of sick = not that much fun.)

Looking for small pleasures today… Like the yummy salad my friend made me for lunch: roasted eggplant, red onion, zucchini and pepper with goat cheese & mixed greens. Mmmm! Thanks K!)… and like this photo…and this awesome music.

What’s making you smile today?

Today I am…
sipping the first iced latte of the year…
letting my hair dry naturally…(it gets curly)
gathering chapter ideas
letting the dishes sit in the sink…
listening to my rosters out-crow each other…
cutting forsythia for vases to go in sunny windowsills…
working from home today…

…and feeling grateful for you today (in terrible resolution, but still. You get the idea.)