taking a breath

It's been a rough time recently all over the world, though I don't see much point in blogging here about Haiti, hometown politics or any of the myriad wars & miseries happening at any given hour on any given day. Instead, for now, I'll allow myself a tiny bit of escapism. I paid a modest donation for earthquake relief via yele.org (which I hope to repeat in the near future). For now, I'll just sit back & feel a little useless, while meditating in front of these two pieces of eye candy on my desk: 
The scent that comes from my forced hyacinth is delightful  - you can smell it even before you reach my seat. And pictures of angelic pets really gets you through the day, don't they?

Right now, I'm daydreaming about escaping here. We have a road trip in the offing - maybe we will make it to the Catskills & hang out in an Airstream trailer. 

I like the sound of this too. School kids + gardening = bright idea. Is it because of that one suddenly warm day earlier this week that I'm suddenly feeling inappropriately spring-like? I know I have a while to wait yet.

Here's to appreciating all that we have, big & small. Because, if you're reading this, you're probably very lucky indeed. Have a look around & see.