On a Monday

Tony Chestnut knows I love him...
I hear them humming their little songs, hear their voices whispering through the house when they are gone. Imagination is quieter than reality. In concert with the gentle rain today, go the gentle voices. The bird calls from the dripping maple, the cat squeaks in her sleep. You've got a squeak-box in your chest, now don't you kitty, don't you...
The other cat sits in the window, coveting the calling bird, chattering his teeth. Petey-Pete, what are you looking at Sweetie-Pete...
Houses live with the echoes of inhabitants. Oh lord, my echoes must reverberate like a drill sergeant. Or maybe the children hear me quietly too, when I am out. I hope so.
Some days are meant for gathering thoughts, completing tasks, organizing minutiae. My thoughts drift lazily over quotes I've heard, and want in my home. Visual reminders of who we are, where we are headed, and how to get there with grace and good cheer.
"Life is very short & there's no time for fussing & fighting my friend..."
Was there ever a better line to apply to siblings? Round & round they go, unifying and re-organizing allegiances along lines of...whatever they think is important that day. You're out of the best friends club, you're not a best friend...
They love and hurt in equal measure some days, offering sublime inclusion and dreadful recompense in the same game. Hopefully developing a thick skin, as the development of kindness in speech seems to lag behind. Ever the referee, blowing my whistle, I head off the worst offenses. Is it the best we can do? To make productive citizens from hoodlums? Nature vs nurture in my own little incubator. Oh, I hope nature and nurture are working in conjunction, because I need to believe that. I listened to Sonia Sotomayor on 60 Minutes last night, and exhaled with small relief at how she attributed her success to stubbornness in no small measure. Rick and I shared a glance and a snort, whew, if that's a significant piece of life's puzzle, then check it off the list of "Worry" and move it to "Attribute."
On a Monday, this is what's happening in the borderland.
Welcome to a new week, friends! May it be a good one...