the morning after

I Waking up to the unexpected 


Well of course, I was wrong in predicting that a woman would be our next president. I could have updated yesterday's post, but I didn't do that, because most of the hours of the day I had spent thinking that Donald Trump would be defeated. The post stands true to those hours.

We gave up watching and listening when Trump crossed over to a solid win, but of course, it had been obvious for many hours already that this would happen. Those same polls and predictors that had solidly stood behind his loss and her gain, swung crazily in the course of the day and I believed what they foretold, in the same way that I had believed what they had previously and quite differently told us. It's hard to get me to abandon logic and reason, particularly when I make political calculations.

At night, I had my recurrent dream about the airplane: I'm on it and I see that it is unexpectedly starting a descent -- ultimately to land in some small unknown to me village, in a place that I do not recognize. There is no airport or runway, but the large jet lands safely, though without explanation as to why, or what now from the cockpit. We disembark. I remember to take my pack, but only that. I have no idea where we are or how a huge airplane is going to take off and continue on its journey again. It's a dream that comes often to me at times when something in the course of the day catches me by surprise and puts me in new territory.

I don't know about you, but after an election, no matter what the outcome, I think about my children and now, too, my grandchild. Me -- I'm retired.  I've lived under many different presidents, indeed under different regimes. But for those who are younger, there's a lot to think about and I had a whole night to imagine how I might have answered a Snowdrop question of "what now?" had she been old enough to ask it.

Maybe because I am a postwar child, maybe because I think it helps in life to feel optimism -- I'll likely look ahead with the belief that many good people will work hard to make sure that this country moves forward in some fashion. Let's get crackin'. There's work to be done!

Let me start by picking up more of the lotus tree seed pods that showered the yard again last night.






And yes, it is another gorgeous, sunny day here, in Wisconsin. No frost yet. You look out and you think -- we live in a beautiful land. Let's take care of it.






II How oddly normal this day seems!

At first, Ed resists the idea of breakfast. Cereal, after reading countless opinions as to what happened and what the future holds seems so wrong somehow!

Or so right? I'm in favor of preserving the best of our lovely routines.






Inevitably, we do a lot of reading after that. And yard work -- a therapy of sorts. Improving something is a good antidote to the potential for a large scale disruption.


And then I pick up Snowdrop.

(Just out of school...)






She, of course, sets her mood by the mood of others and by the weather and by the book she can "read" or the toy that's there for her.






Yes -- the weather. It's a mood booster, that's for sure!






(Quiet time...)







III Child's play


After her nap, it's all so normal! She colors...






She "cooks soup."






She insists on going out again. It's cooler now. Coat goes on.






I show her the seed pods I'd picked. She wants to help push the cart. Now there's a difficult undertaking!






She settles on a ride on top. And she sees the moon. It shines brightly over us all tonight. Did you know that?






The two read until Snowdrop's parents come to take her home.






Let me end with flowers. Nasturtium. For all of us who really need flowers today.