Dear Friends,

A raft of young birds found our birdseed feeders outside the kitchen window. They are half grown and half fluff. They are still learning about flying so they dive and sing and land on each other grappling for more food.

I look at these small clumps of life and need and feathers and think of a tumultuous Waitangi Day … I think about the long US election year ahead. I think about the brief respite of Taylor and Travis’ kiss then waking up from that fever dream to hear about another mass shooting during the celebration parade.

Emily Dickinson whispers hope is the thing with feathers

and Jon Stewart yells the work of making this world is a lunchpail job

“I’ve learned one thing over these last nine years, and I was glib at best and probably dismissive at worst about this: The work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunch pail [expletive] job, day in and day out, where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those that are fallen and grind away on issues until they get a positive result, and even then, have to stay on to make sure that result holds. So, the good news is, I’m not saying you don’t have to worry about who wins the election. I’m saying you have to worry about every day before it and every day after, forever. Although, on the plus side, I am told that at some point, the sun will run out of hydrogen.” -Jon Stewart (bolded emphasis mine)

I’ve been reading books by authors who dedicated their lives to standing with the poor or the downtrodden. I am soothed by their wildly counterculture commitment to love extravagantly and to hope ferociously.

We went to Wellington Pride Parade and yelled we love you. And thank you.

I finished a full draft of my next book. and I think I might just call myself an author now. With pride, probably still bashful and blushing. But with hope too.

Love, Kerry

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Poetry Foundation

[see below bits and bobs I can’t find a convenient place to put anywhere else]

What I learned from
“How to keep house while drowning” by KC Davis

1. Care tasks are morally neutral.
2. You are not here to serve your home, your home is here to serve you.
3. Be flexible: do it partially, do it later, don’t do it. [cheater codes]

Quotes I liked from “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement”

1. “I can’t change what happened to you in the past, but together we may be able to use your experience to help protect other people…The pitch was about helping other people. This was always the truest, best reason to talk to a journalist, and one of the only potent answers to “I don’t want the attention” or “I don’t need the stress.” Kantor, Jodi; Twohey, Megan. She Said (p. 26). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
2. “All summer, Katz and Banks had been feeling exhilarated but worried: This moment was so valuable, they felt; change was so overdue. They wanted as much progress as possible, as fast as possible, before too much backlash mounted.”Kantor, Jodi; Twohey, Megan. She Said (p. 202). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
3. If the story was not shared, nothing would change. Problems that are not seen cannot be addressed.Kantor, Jodi; Twohey, Megan. She Said (p. 260). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.