A Booklight in a Storm

Hurricane Irene just made her way up the coast, turned tropical storm through New York, and drifted on up to Canada. The past few days have brought many saddening accounts of  the destruction and displacement she left in her wake. Videos and photos capture the washed-out roads and bridges, destroyed homes and farms, and worried expressions of those who've lost too much. The rest of us now watch and wait, hoping there will soon be something we can do to ease the pain and lend a hand.

She was a stark reminder of the give and take of nature, as was impressed upon us in those classic high school readings. Some of those pages were hollow, but the likes of London always rang true. Like when we knew the protagonist's frozen fingers wouldn't build that fire, and we knew he wouldn't beat that fifty below...more than fifty below. And then, the dog survived. Seemed unlikely at first, man being the thinker and all. Still, sitting at our metal desks, we got the message. Nature doesn't sympathize. Some are spared the worst of her wrath while others are struck down, and the randomness of it plagues the mind. So, while the winds howled around the house, and the rains poured down, the kids slept soundly here. Briefly without power, we lit candles and read by booklight...and waited. It was during these stormy hours that I finally got around to a couple of long-neglected books.

The best of these was Richardson's The End of the Alphabet http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_19?field-keywords=end+of+the+alphabet&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&sprefix=end+of+the+alphabet , a small book, full of the sentimentality and disappointments of life and marriage, it was irresistable. Maybe it was the storm, or the rarity of the nearly silent house that night, but lost in its pages, all thoughts and worries of hurricanes and life in general vanished. And we were thankful for those tiny booklights; symbols of  little hopes and prayers that maybe, just maybe, will get you and yours through the storm.

Almost back to school, but still up late canning...

While I should be ironing clothes, packing backpacks, and sharpening pencils to gear up for a new school year, I'm spending quiet evenings chopping, stirring, and canning after the kids have gone to sleep. There's something dreamy about the smell and sound of jam bubbling away in a quiet kitchen, and of course, the popping of sealed jars adds a pretty sweet punctuation point to these last breezy evenings of summer freedom....not to mention offering an equally pleasurable lazy breakfast option. Here: Kiwi Lime Jam  Recipe from Mary Anne Dragan's Well Preserved, 3rd Edition http://www.amazon.com/Well-Preserved-Third-Small-Preserving/dp/1552859886/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314739631&sr=8-1