Spring Break

As it should be, the weather is changeable these days.  Friday and Saturday were lovely, and we spent lots of time outside with Mieko, mucking around in the woods and pastures behind the Clark museum.  As usual, we were moving at a pace slightly too fast for me, slightly too slow for Jamie, and WAY too slow for the pup, whose nose has been wiggling in the spring-thaw air anytime he gets a whiff of it.  Oh, the smells!  The picture at right is from a romp almost a month ago, when the first signs of spring manifested in Mieko's impatience to get going already.

I spent Friday in Northampton, after submitting the final paperwork and fees to graduate in May.  (Hello, Doctor!)  It was a wonderful afternoon: lunch with my beloved advisor, coffee with my best friend, more snacks and chats with fellow grads, topped off with beer and falafel with "my friends from the museum" (such insufficient descriptions of such important persons).  Driving home through the hills of the Valley, I felt how dear these people are to me and how

 privileged I am to have so many dear people in my life.  I am very thankful for modern technology, specifically for the increased ease at staying in touch that technology has provided; yet I suspect that this upcoming geographic distance will still be felt all too acutely.

And so a week of break has gone by, without high levels of productivity but with high levels of enjoyment.  Time for reflection and retrospection.  And time to dig into my latest moving-related project: culling our photograph collection, which has ballooned (despite my best efforts).  Now that more than five years after my mother died, I see that things (photos included) do not have the meaning that I had attributed to them in the past.  While there is often still a flicker of memory upon seeing them, the flicker fades and then disappears.  The

 move is a good excuse to do what I want to do anyway: lighten up, pare down, move forward.  It is often surprising to me to see what makes the cut.