What does your ideal meal look like? -sunshine & sandwiches-

a summer picnic

a summer picnic with no pesky bugs (unpesky ones welcome)

a summer picnic with no pesky bugs, and a fresh, summery breeze that sweeps away extra deposits of sunshine just as you're about to get "too" anything, no sweating allowed unless you wanna run around and throw around a frisbee except not frisbees because those always come over and hit me on the head.

a summer picnic with no pesky bugs, and a fresh, summery breeze that sweeps away extra deposits of sunshine just as you're about to get "too" anything, and simple, but filling food (maybe sandwiches; homemade multi-grain bread, freshly-sliced deli meats, AWL the cheeses from France, whole-grain mustard = KEY; sweet potato fries, somehow still warm from the fryer; all kinds of FRUIT, gathered from trees/bushes/the earth [somehow now we are in an orchard. or there's an orchard nearby, ~14 minute walk]; some kind of CAKE, no nuts except maybe hazelnuts except okay maybe half and half, for the nut-averse/nut-endangered... etc. but the food is not truly the point)

a summer picnic with no pesky bugs, and a fresh, summery breeze that sweeps away extra deposits of sunshine just as you're about to get "too" anything,  and simple, but filling food, on well-worn but clean, bright, perfectly sized picnic blankets that make us all sit kind of close to each other but not too crowdedly (the US is unforeseen, and this is the beauty of it all. a picnic of unexpectedly, unplannedly perfect group of thinkers, talkers, feelers, friends and strangers, coming together for various good and terrible reasons such as 1. car has broken down right next to the picnic, 2. you are looking for a lost pet gerbil in the field, 3. you started the picnic, etc.)

a summer picnic with no pesky bugs, and a fresh, summery breeze that sweeps away extra deposits of sunshine just as you're about to get "too" anything,  and simple, but filling food, on well-worn but clean, bright, perfectly sized picnic blankets that make us all sit kind of close to each other but not too crowdedly, in which the WE feelings are high and triumphant but inclusive and loving and YOU can join, too. 

a summer picnic. with sunshine & sandwiches. with you. and the blanket doesn't even have to be plaid.

the world is a beautiful and mysterious place

A Hundred Years from Now

by David Shumate

I'm sorry I won't be around a hundred years from now. I'd like to

see how it all turns out. What language most of you are speaking.

What country is swaggering across the globe. I'm curious to know

if your medicines cure what ails us now. And how intelligent your

children are as they parachute down through the womb. Have

you invented new vegetables? Have you trained spiders to do your

bidding? Have baseball and opera merged into one melodic sport?

A hundred years....My grandfather lived almost that long. The

doctor who came to the farmhouse to deliver him arrived in a

horse-drawn carriage. Do you still have horses?

The world is a beautiful and mysterious place

will I still think this way a hundred years from now? a hundred days from now? after the magic of college is actually behind me and days and moods are less dependent on the quality of discussions I had in my classes and the lunch partner of that particular afternoon and who I happen to run into - who happens to run into me - all happy and bright, Maaaaadison?! I haven't seen you in forever!

Will I still think this way, mid-career, when I'll probably want to be having a mid-career crisis and feel panic, realizing that I'm realizing my desire to go back to school for something? On those days I will feel stuck, or stagnant, or too consumed with pesky details I have never liked?

Will I still feel this way when my baby gets sick and I realize I never learned how to take care of sick babies, or when that baby starts asking questions about where babies come from or about math (dear God please let me marry a math-science-technology genius who will be patient with me) or when that baby officially declares the end of her babyhood, ignores my curfew and phone calls? Or takes too many selfies? Or is a he?

Not certain. But today, the world is a beautiful and mysterious place. And today, the world was also a beautiful and mysterious place - of these things I am certain. 

There are: horses and beauty and mystery and happiness in the world today.

The world is a beautiful and mysterious place today.