The blood of the earth is pulsing emerald green through stems and tendrils. But before that there was the first breath of spring, nature exhaling vintage perfume stored in winter's crystal. Still struggling to arrive are the warm breezes, like a late benediction – snow’s Last Rites. Hope you caught the changing of the seasons in person if you live in the northern hemisphere. I was witness to it all on-site, but it didn't really register until the doves reappeared on my upper deck rail. Has to be the same pair I photographed last year (see below), more in love than ever and not caring who knows about it. I watched as the female went beak to beak with a frenzy of French kissing and the male then went for the homerun, disdaining second and third base.
Seasons. Cycles. Every day is a journey through time and space, sometimes backwards, sometimes forward. I find myself revisiting the magical haunts of my most fulfilling moments, and they are still magical. I run the risk of falling short by living for ideals, but when my dreams are frustrated the solution for me is to keep on reaching for them, whereas giving up on ideals would be fatal to my soul. What a blasphemy it would be if my body outlived my mind's passions. I’d develop spiritualsclerosis (narrowing of the imagination), I think, and die of a soul attack. There wouldn't even be a funeral, because my mind would already have been buried. Nothing is ever buried in nature, everything is cumulative.
I've pretty much traveled by all available means this spring. One of the last ski adventures was through Elm Creek in the middle of the night. A young couple from St. Paul, John and Kathy, dared the uncertain conditions with me and lived to tell the tale. Coyotes howled on cue and we skied through water over ice, naming a couple of oceans that got in the way. A pair of lengthy road trips by myself followed, with at least one more planned. Then I ran into a bobcat on a bike. I was on the bike, not the bobcat. The bobcat was one of those yellow tractor jobbies on a construction site next to Wal-Mart. Fortunately I wasn't going too fast. Unfortunately I still went over the handlebars. Fortunately I didn't get splattered over the landscape. Unfortunately I wallpapered the bobcat with my body. But the bike and I are intact, which is good, because next month one of my most athletic friends and I are doing the Paul Bunyan Trail on mountain bikes. Bruce and I trained together for a lot of years, evolved similar philosophies of mental-physical-spiritual well-being, and once spent a blisteringly hot afternoon during a heat wave discussing God in the walk-in freezer of a meat market.
On the writing front, I'm deep into a contemporary novel that was originally supposed to follow my Pulitzer Prize nom satire THE PHASES OF HARRY MOON for E. P. Dutton. H.E.R.S. & H.I.M.S. is a fable of modern marriage and a riot to write (and read, I hope). H&H got sidetracked when my career took off in the direction of thrillers. I hate marketing labels. They never quite fit me, and yet there are elements that all my works have in common. I just write people stories, and I'm sorely in need of a publisher who can present me whole cloth. This month's column over on StorytellersUnplugged deals with being real and some lessons I learned [SU 2008 05-16 STRIVING FOR IMPERFECTION ]. And thanks for the kind comments about last month's column [SU 2008 04-16 PRIME BLOOPERS, THE GREATEST ROMANCE OF ALL TIME, AND THE SEEDS OF SLEEPING RAINBOWS]. Glad so many people were amused.
For the many people who have asked, Flamingo Frank and I had a couple of sterling days together in Michigan. My substitute column for him on April 13th over on StorytellersUunplugged explains pretty much where things are. His mantra is still, "Chin up! No regrets." He lives fearlessly, how could he have any regrets? And how typical that he should still be the cheerleader for those who are torn up over his circumstances. The man knows only victory.
And a correction is in order. Last month I mentioned that the gift of a nomination at The1000BestSpecialPeople.com expires after a year, and so I thanked a number of individuals for tributes and boosts as the 12 months drew to a close. Now Australian Grant Soosalu informs me that the site has gone free and thus the nomination will stay up there. Thank you one and all, and particularly for the tributes and boosts posted since last month.
I probably get more e-mail about the photos in these newsletters than anything else. Webmaster Captain Ed Picard has added new photos to my web site, as well as archiving the newsletter/photos. The pictures below include the love doves on my deck rail mentioned above, two shots of Elm Creek taken from roller skis, a canoeing picture taken behind my house, and -- yes -- a pair of new attempts to make me look ridiculous by the infamous Dr. Foto hisself (musician Mark Manrique). I've never needed help looking ridiculous before, but he does have a flair for summing it up, doesn't he?
Also here's something new in marketing for me that sort
of confirms my love affair with recreation and nature. runningrags.com , a
top-notch site for recreational apparel and equipment of all kinds, is featuring
three of my novels.
If you’re not getting this free monthly newsletter mailed directly to you, you can ask to be added to the list at: mn333mn@earthlink.net. As always, this is a Blind Carbon Copy that does not reveal your address. If you ever wish to stop receiving emails from me, please just drop me a note to that effect, and I’ll remove your address from the list. And if you’d like to see more of my latest writing, please check out a free sample chapter from THE WATER WOLF at the website below.
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/
