Forward

Seeds are getting motivated. Indoors, marigolds are an inch high, and basil and thyme have begun producing little specks of green. Outside, both bachelor buttons and spinach are sprouting—though there is also a chance of weeds. 

For the third week in a row, Sophie and I have enjoyed a Sunday stroll, where she rides and I walk. Well, I enjoy them. She doesn’t trust the contraption I stick her into. If she sees me bring it out, she turns tail and pretends to have something better to do.

On our first week, she stood for the entire ride, until we neared home and I paused to chat with a neighbor. On this third ride, she lay down immediately. Fresh air, smells, view, no work involved—what’s not to like? Just so long as she’s on the inside of that scary thing with wheels.

Writing, too, has taken a slight surge, thanks to last week’s critique session, which led me to resolve one sizable gap in the plot. Another chapter to amend, and we’’ll be moving toward the finish. 

My word of the week is Forward. At Sunday brunch, we had a heated (but all on the same side) discussion of the state of our country. With people trying to tear down all the safeguards of government, now is not the time to go back. Now is the time to go beyond—to right current and past wrongs; to catch up with the rest of the world on healthcare and safety nets, to get money out of politics once and for all.

A statement by Eckhart Tolle, written more than a decade ago, says:

Acute crises and dysfunction always precede or coincide with any evolutionary advancement or gain in consciousness. All life-forms need obstacles and challenges in order to evolve. 

Forward, I say.