as promised my brother john wrote about his (often) weekly date with spouse pam to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens Sculpture Park, in grand rapids where we all grew up and where, of the six of us, he still lives.
Pam is on her way home from Ethiopia - arrives late tomorrow. So Pauline, friend Sami and I went to the gardens to make sure nobody was messing with our Tuesday. Being August, they have live bands on Tuesday nights so we were able to take in the gardens and got a free show on top of it. It was a gorgeous night - people everywhere. It's really nice as you can stroll around and groove to the music or sit in the grass amphitheatre and watch all the old fuddyduddies trying to reenact their youth.. The highlight of the night was watching Pauline sail her little boat through the entire chain of Great Lakes in the children's area (it's really a cool replica of the all the Great Lakes) - she was quite proud of her accomplishment.
Sami kinda looked on - humored of course on how Pauline had taken her little plastic boat and so artfully navigated the varying levels between the lakes, wondering how real boats would navigate abrupt drops in water levels without crashing into oblivion. But together they figured out the real world used locks and therefore the end of the earth doesn't occur at the connecting points of each lake. Pretty impressive conclusions for a couple juniors in high school. But we had a wonderful evening and while we missed Pam it was fun to just hang out with daughter and friend. Love, John
Life on the Salt Marsh is a journal of what i am learning and experiencing in this breathtakingly beautiful place, where the Dyer and Sheepscot, both tidal rivers, meet and merge.
Sweet Last Days of Summer
Author
- Rev. Mary
- Midcoast Maine
- Rev. Mary is a Unitarian Universalist minister who served congregations in San Francisco, Sonoma County, Houston, Marblehead and Winchester MA, and New Orleans, in a variety of ways. She is President and co-founder of Gulf Coast Volunteers for the Long Haul and has led 14 service trips to Louisiana and Mississippi since a few weeks post-Katrina. She has 3 children, Sam, 22, Julia, 26, and Jason, 41, and the best spouse in the universe, Marty. She was diagnosed with ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease in 2006. Rev. Mary can be reached at duckdreams at gmail.com. Due to her illness her ability to reply is unlikely but she would enjoy hearing from you if that's OK.
From Mary's Journal in December
after simple surgery turned into a nightmare: "the pain has been excruciating and for 3 days was unrelenting, even breathing was an agony. i tried to picture our mallard in maine who i studied one day when it was freezing cold, windy, pouring down rain and he was in his spot in the grass all tucked up and i tried to imagine how he could handle the elements. i decided he must go very deep inside and have duck dreams. so i tried to emulate him."