Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste:  chia seed pudding and rice Sight: lavender sky; a touch of grey cloud; golden flake leaves; an enormous blue truck; her lifted ears Sound: vacuum; dogs' snoring; Ursula K. Le Guin's poems Smell: vinegar air Touch:  heels, pads, toes: feet; stiff hands; numb toes; lip balm Extra: "My last words to the class.......I told them that they should always reward their dogs for good behavior by playing with them and petting and praising them. We all learn better and faster when learning is fun." — Chaser, Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words , John W. Pilley Grateful for: words

The New Year's Day sunrise reminds me: a year flew by in which I was grateful — every time it starts, driving into peach sunrises and sunsets, marveling at engineering and human support systems, ever hopeful of technological devices, be there one glorious year of this or 10. In between rain breaks and mizzle: I was grateful for art-nature-dreams — always being outside, gazing up into superlative trees, buying the work clothes of everyday laborers, ever calmed by cold medicine and ibuprofen, be there one glorious day or 10. When I went to The World of Wakanda: I met friends zie was — "a lifelong advocate for social change," saying, "I'm grateful for those who make an effort." voting in Utopian Acts of courage, ever awed by the edible flowers of our imagination, be there one glorious story or 10. When I went to Wayward Vegan Cafe : we gorged biscuits maximus on spices, pepper, salt — poutines of plants, sleeping in a fit sunny day, glori...

Taste: a pat of vegan butter Sight: black tomatoes; purple berries; folded flowers; circles, squares, triangles, diamond shapes Sound: the rrrr grind of the french press plunger Smell:  puppy fur Touch: the slow fall of the french press plunger, a soft steady pressure Extra: a 15 mile walk; I dreamt of puppies.; “That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah. The rest is commentary. Go forth and study.” — Hillel “I know that many men and even women are afraid and angry when women do speak, because in this barbaric society, when women speak truly they speak subversively - they can't help it: if you're underneath, if you're kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. That's what I want - to hear you erupting. You young Mount St. Helenses who don't know the power in you - I want to hear yo...

Taste:  criminis Sight: a peasant woman goat - babushka; brilliant red, gold leaves and sunlight Sound:  shuffling, crunching Smell:  cinnamon, tumeric Touch: a cow's side; a goat's side Extra: Guilt is a terrible motivator.; My writing is important.; Why must we apologize for having feelings.; "Thus, respecting a dog as a friend is perhaps the best approach to the human —canine relationship." — The Dog: A Natural History  Grateful for: courage; voting

Taste: too sweet huckleberry vinaigrette; oat milk Sight: Wilbur the pig; a meteor; fog, a lone a gas station on a winding road; Sasquatch; a bright orange mushroom; a deer on a bridge Sound:  Cher; whining Smell:  champagne-scented soap Touch:  stiff hands, swollen toes Extra: Go forth and get rained upon!; like a lost story that won't be forgotten and teases the mind with half-rememberedness.; a mean girl; assumptions: "Now I know, as I didn’t then, that emotion is itself a kind of talent not everyone has. A form of intelligence, perhaps—though not much valued by any culture I know of." — Carolyn Ives Gilman, Halfway Human   Grateful for: edible flowers; imagination

Taste: lemon basil butter; dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in vegan prosciutto Sight:  the ocean; a dog's tail that looks like a mountain lion's; cat in a bowl Sound: ocean waves Smell: creosote Touch: sea breeze Extra:  trying the new restaurant on opening weekend; a child's lost shoe Grateful for: days off with Sam

Taste:  white rice, gold potatoes, tempeh bacon Sight:  red sun rising into August's smoke-filled skies Sound:  barking, howling, whining, snarling, growling Smell:  peanut butter; smoke Touch:  sticky Extra: "Elizabeth was still in the hands of vicious men, but with a dog, there was love. With love there was hope. Hope was strength." — Nevada Barr, Destroyer Angel Grateful for: dogs, change, forests, hope, optimism, porgs, sleepovers, memento mori