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Clare and Stefan made the big move! After more than ten years in New York City, they've packed everything up for the serenity of Vermont. This is the first picture they sent of their house, which they'll be renting for at least a year while they get settled in - click on it to see a bigger version! You can also see the patio and outdoors in Clare's most recent Weekly Rite, seen here.
All I can say is...I can't wait to visit ;)
Wonderful-exciting! You can now see, online, the short film we made for the play Fistful of Love - i.e., the Big Wedding Scene. It was a very hot May day when we filmed this (see pictures starting here), but it was so worth it. During performances, whenever the film came on, all of us actors would creep out from backstage to watch it. We had a beautiful live version of the Beck song you hear here, and it was always a sacred shared moment. You can credit the genius of our assistant director Jim Haverkamp for it. Watch the film here (and click in the lower right-hand corner of the picture, to make it expand to full-screen).
Mom died today, seven years ago. Sometimes the anniversary passes lightly, and sometimes more heavily. Today I feel sad.
Dad wrote to me: "Ellie reports that Grammy used to say that when the
cicadas started up in
He wrote a beautiful, beautiful poem for Mom: "Of Mary Anne, My Midsummer Night's Dream." You can read it here, or just below:
Her bearing regal, luminous even-
a midsummer night’s dream. I will never
get over her, a midsummer vision
in gold lame’, flattened sandals ever
devil may care the details—dust, my faults.
I conjure her presence, renaissance faire
here where I walk, green grassed under tree vaults
she seems to me, her possibilities
poised again, after her night in homespun,
like Cinderella to dance in Belize
the sun never finally sets. I would
follow wherever she goes, to admire
her peerless lips, steal a kiss if I could
like the musk of midsummer’s dusk, humid
and salt. We were never more one than when
dancing—neither of us cared which one led.
I'm now a graduate of the Clarion Class of 2008! Here we are, celebrating, throwing up our Burger King crowns in unison. (Mary, in front in the white dress, had the great idea of picking them up as our "graduation caps.")
I'm almost done with Clarion. Thank God. It's been a source of mixed delight and frustration for six weeks now, and I'm looking forward to getting off the roller coaster and snuggling back into sweet Carolina.
The life is very intense and closeted - write, read, critique, workshop, rinse, repeat. But one day on the way to the cafeteria, I realized I was passing a pool, where a swim meet was going on. So I just walked through the gate and suddenly I was transported into a past life!...and the past lives of many of us Byrnes, for most of whom swimming played a BIG part. I stayed there for almost an hour, watching all the swimmers and their rituals - chewing on goggle straps, psyching up the relay, snapping their shoulders. They even had Pixie Stix for sale at the concession stand. I remember downing those before my breaststroke races, not-too-well-advisedly.
So yay for swimming nostalgia! and also for Other Worlds that we pass by, every day, and hardly even notice... ;) See the pictures here!
Donny sent along a sumptuous photo essay of Melleray's garden bounty. He writes: Yes, the produce is really coming in this year, what with our new
irrigation system. You can see it in the photo of the
pergola. It's the big black tank in the corner. Also, the manger is
built and almost ready for the Icelandic sheep and the Maremma guard
dog to arrive in late August. There will be a small fenced barnyard,
is all that's left to be done. Dad and I stained the manger with
linseed oil today.
(Can I just say how excited I am to get a dog!?! Even if it's a guard dog we're not supposed to bond with! I just want a doggie to pet!!)
Mom and Dad were married forty-one years ago today at the Saint Teresa of Avila Church in Summit, New Jersey! So, I am thinking of them both, and all the fruitfulness they brought into the world by their marriage - five of us, true, but so much more.
Francie wrote: I was the maid of honor...the bridesmaids dresses were so beautiful...blue green chiffon floral long....Mary Anne asked each of us to be in her wedding party via a favorite paper doll card...and I think we got a pearl pendant as a gift from the beautiful bride...it was the happiest of days. More than a bit of drunken revelry too!
Happy wedding day!! :)