There is a restaurant in Austin, and it has a large framed piece of art on its wall. I wasn't close enough to it to tell if it's a poster or painting, but it depicts an island, and the water in front of it. Instead of seeing the land and the water from above, the perspective is such that you can see both the calm little island, and the activity below, the sharks and fishes and underwater plants. You're seeing two worlds at once, air and water, touching each other, coexisting, yet so separate, so different.

graceful the great pink moon
hovering above the ribbon of highway;
grateful I for You who
picks up the pieces.
mutely You listen;
a cardinal nestled among the leaves
gives You voice

parking lot cat
stretches,
claws unfurled,
and makes
a poem

a stringless kite,
this wind-filled
plastic grocery bag
shoots over the roof
past the motorcycle
parked between
two straight lines
on heated asphalt

Today, there was the woman who said nothing but, 'Bye' and the man pedaling by wearing nothing but a thong and a smile. There was the game with the floating cottonwood fluff, and balancing like a kid atop the faded red curb.

This past week, I've been the recipient of gifts that are out of the ordinary. Today, walking to the store, I came upon this yellow-crowned night heron, feeding in a shallow ditch alongside a four-lane street. It was quite hot, the middle of the day, in heavy traffic. The heron looked at me, unperturbed. It didn't fly off.

I've included the second photo (take note in the lower left-hand corner) to give some perspective. These beautiful birds are usually lounging in trees during the day, in much less industrial settings.

The perfection we create in architecture, in music, in math and physics, dance and martial arts may be a response, a search for antidote, to the messiness we experience in life. Such a relief to carve out clarity in the face of confusion. In creating perfection, sometimes we tease out a map to guide us up and outward. We carve a key to simplifying the multiple plotlines of our lives.