June 16, 2010--JUBILEE'S BIRTHDAY

Please join me in the Happy Birthday song for Jubilee, who turned 3 today! In celebration, I tried to make the day HERS, giving her plenty of trips down to the river to fetch sticks (her passion, not mine). This meant more Mississippi mud, and a short, enthusiastic roll in a dead fish. This also meant a very un-birthday wash in the camp spigot. She pouted for a short while and abandoned the gloom when, close to dinner time, I brought out my gift to her: a Mastodon bone! She was employed with it for nearly 2 hours, while Hans and I BBQ'd steaks and enjoyed a blissful picnic at our campsite at Delamar State Park, IL. We were stupendously hungry, but stopped short of licking our plates, honoring the birthday girl's talent for that sort of thing.

After dinner, I reclined on my perfect little couch, facing the sunset, and listened to a beautiful guitar-only CD on my computer while Hans worked over his journals. I don't remember the last time I treated myself to a simple concert like this. During the past few years,  music has taken a "background" position. It was like a restoration of some part of my soul to allow music to be the focus, while everything else, including the blazing amber sunset, played background.

Good as meditation!