In A Word or Two

Dear Maria,

While drinking coffee this morning just before the sun made it up over the horizon, I was struck by how lucky I am that I have friends who still use the word lovely and who still understand the prettiness and gentleness that is embedded in that word. I think somehow that super-pretty would not have done justice to the mix of light and breeze and temperature in one of those moments we delight in when it occurs.

Even grouchy old Housman let us read “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now / Is hung with bloom along the bough." Of course, I’ll spare you the rest of the sentiment, but the image if you can conjure it in your mind is, in fact, lovely.

A cherry’s blossom might even be exquisite. I hope that word still finds room in the various vocabulary workbooks used in our classrooms. Francis Bacon—Sir Francis Bacon—knew that “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.” In the story “Ligeia," our Poe went with “There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion."

Any chance then that ecstatic has not been outflanked by the peppier and perhaps even sunnier super-excited?

Yesterday morning I chanced to see high in the neighbor’s trees a shadowy form settle in the branches, but I couldn’t find whatever it was by taking a longer look. Then I said out loud that it was about time for my—yes, my—red-tailed hawk to make its annual appearance. Sure enough, a moment later that large, full-bodied squirrel-slayer, the terror of the tall pines, the raptor of the apocalypse, did swoop down and make a majestic arc over the ridge of my roof.

Delight on my face? Oh, yes, I was quite super-happy. Dang squirrels.

Oh, I finally did read City of Thieves. Thought I might be able to recommend it to former colleagues as a good read for English 5 or even 4 if the shift is made toward world lit. The story takes place in Russia during WWII, but while the writing is fine, I’ll have to let others judge how the plot goes.

Hope the weekend was—dare I say it—lovely in all ways. Blessings for your family. Simply, quietly, srk