I'm into Love, Actually

handmade wedding ring created and worn by my nephew Henry Edwards

A silver
wedding band,
made with love, to express
love, intentionally shows the markings
that occurred during the creation
process. A pure acceptance
of life's bumps and
beauty.

Black boots from The Pink Alligator in West Lebanon, NH

A beloved
pair of black boots
bought because they fit
perfectly...and felt great from
the first moment. Previously owned
shoes are wonderful that
way. Broken in, they
are ready, just
for me.

JV girls hockey teams express gratitude somewhere in CT

My daughter's 
JV hockey team says
thank you...I love watching
them play, going fast, falling down,
passing perfectly, missing the puck entirely,
they play with joy and a commitment
to each other. It's about showing
up, learning something new
and laughing just 
because.

fabric scraps from my mother-in-law

Love is
silly, really.
It's amazing how
I can use that word to 
express feelings for such a
variety of things. There is love for
a life partner, love for a pair of boots, 
love for a child's hockey game and love for
a mixed and mingled set of discarded scraps of
cloth. It seems that the more open I am
to this strange emotion, the more
I am able to feel and notice
it - everywhere.

refinishing a child's cabinet

When
refinishing
this child's cabinet
my mother made for me
and my sister in 1971, I can feel
her love - - it's embedded in the yellow
and green flowers, dots and letters. I wondered,
when I put on the first coat of primer, if I was somehow
erasing that love. But it turns out that the act of transforming
this wooden structure 50 years later and giving it new life magnifies
that emotion. I could have easily thrown this 'toy' away, but
for some reason I couldn't. So here it is, getting a
makeover and, in the process, shedding
light on the transformative power
of love in its many
shapes and
​sizes.

mending an ancient t-shirt in Assisted Living

And here 
I am continuing
to mend my favorite
27 year old t-shirt while 
waiting for my mother-in-law
to return from PT. Love for a t-shirt is
nothing like love for my children's
grand-mother, but it's love
just the same.

Tiekel sleeps at home in Idaho

And when
a dog curls up in
his bed on a cold winter's
day, knowing he will be fed and
​walked and have his needs met, he 
knows he is loved. And how
can we not love such
faithful creatures?
It's a two-way
thing.

another Compost Composition by ERSwett

So why
not love my
compost pile? I 
feed it and it
feeds me.

inaugural Community Climate Conversation at Salt Hill Pub in Hanover, NH

And why
not love it when
a group of people gets
together to laugh and learn
together during a Community Climate
Conversation? Although I find the play of light
in this particular scene compelling, it
is the gathering itself that fills
me with joy. It, too, is a
different kind of 
love.

I think 
the love I feel
for a group gathering
to cope with climate is like
the love I feel for the earth when
I witness snow-covered mountains rising
above the clouds. It's an abstract kind
of affection, one that satisfies a
non-specific but core
need to share the
gift of being...

a multi-generational gathering of friends

...together