1) August, my favorite month! How marvelous for it to begin with a) a negative COVID test after a week in quarantine, and b) a major hostage release. Good omens!
1a) And yesterday, July ended with the installation of our new fence, complete with new gate and arbor.
July, 2024: Here at Maison Robaire, the new fence and arbor before the gate was installed.
2) My vision for this August includes (why I don’t know) pressed white linen (both shirts and cocktail napkins), vines of ivy, purifying sunshine, bright surfaces, open windows, the colors green and yellow, Queen Anne’s Lace, and multi-faceted, mostly happy conversations.
2a) Some of the building blocks under this castle in the air include the visit of a high school friend, a week in Palm Springs, and acting out the title of that old elementary school primer, Happy Times With Our Friends.
3) Two rather nostalgic or sentimental or poignant songs build August’s foundation this year, too. Inexplicably a couple days ago I remembered Norma Rae and its theme “It Goes Like It Goes,” which makes my heart cry like every waltz ever does. And today a dear friend introduced me to “Down by the Salley Gardens,” the poem by Yeats arranged by Benjamin Britten, which makes my heart cry both more tenderly and more deeply.
3a) “She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;//But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.” goes the poem. And how much easier would our lives be were we to take love more easily than we do! Not just romantic love, but all kinds. Because as much as I hate to acknowledge Change, we all of us change from Within, and that affects how we relate to everyone Without.
4) In conclusion, when September comes I hope I can associate these words with my favorite month: bright, crisp, happy, laughing, deep, new, learning, healing, forgiving, clear. What do you want from this month?