12 JUL 25

Halfway through scrubbing soap scum build-up out of the bathroom sink... unwashed bangs falling into my eyes... novelty t-shirt coming un-hemmed at the bottom... white paint stains on my old track shorts... I sense a silent presence standing behind me... a silent presence with very loud thoughts... I turn around... “What is it Patience?”... she ponders me carefully... perhaps weighing the repercussions of her wording... “Mom... I think you need a glow up”... !!!

After Oxbear returns from a weekly business meeting with a friend early that morning... he busses Yali and Patience out to “Nana's and Papa's” to play with cousins for most of the day...

This provides a remarkable dose of simplicity to my morning and afternoon... slogging through dishes and weeds and notebooks to the tempo of serene oboe concerto playlists... pausing early afternoon for a neighborhood walk through birdsong and cicada song... the sun has come out for a few muggy hours but the breeze is steady and above a hawk rides on it...

At home the dog has consumed a full paper towel slathered in bacon grease from Puck's lunch BLT... her dumb eyes look up at me as if to say... “What? You knew I was going to eat the whole thing”...

Late afternoon Sally drives over to join Oxbear and a handful of other Compassion International volunteers to captain a couple of booths at the Dude Perfect show down at the Family Arena all evening... somehow Oxbear's foot survives five hours and 1100 Compassion bracelets are passed out to interested passers...