A day in the life

Yesterday, I climbed the little mountain in my town, as I do, and found rejuvenation waiting--the sky scrubbed by wild winds the day before, the earth sprouting where last month's deluge had soaked in, unseen birds singing. So words popped in my head to form haiku.

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a sudden trilling,

wild burst of exuberance

on a still morning

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ancient granite

yields a foothold to fragile

wild grasses

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Today, I have a crit group meeting all afternoon. Our stories will take me to Wales and India and the rural South. I will climb mountains with them and find hope along the journey, because that's what writing and writers bring to my life--a sense of new beginnings and wonder, words developed and shaped to form worlds where we make sense of ours.

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And, today, I remember a man of tremendous courage and foresight, who brought hope and rejuvenation to the world. May we all learn not to judge by the color of skin or country of origin or religious belief or physical impairment or anything except the content of character, the goodness of spirit. And may we all, someday, be free at last.

In memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.