I haven’t had time to get any artwork done since I arrived home in Provincetown late Monday night, but I did do an owl, #28 above, on Saturday before I left. However, I took a lot of snapshots out the airplane windows I sat next to on the flights back. One is of the remnants from Hurricane Melissa as we flew through it on the way to Dublin from Newcastle, as well as the rain-lashed window of the Dublin to Boston plane as it was waiting to take off. Again, like the flights to the UK, I sat in window seats but this time I was next to emergency exits on both planes so I had lots of legroom and nobody smashing into me with the back of their seat. I shared the space with a young man named Trace who bore a startling resemblance to an old college friend of mine named Barry when he was young, and who had died while I was in the UK. Same long black curly hair, same glasses, and boho hippie clothes. When I showed Trace pictures of Barry from 50 years ago, it freaked him out, but it made me happy. It was as if Barry was sitting with me, not his young doppelganger.

Anyway, I’m back and have been very busy plowing through the bills and paperwork I had dreaded coming home to. I got a little refund from Expedia because I prepaid more for my tickets than what the trip finally cost, and a check arrived for my cut of the sale of the collage I did this summer for the PAAM 12x12 Benefit Auction, so that plus the Substack subscription I mentioned last week were enough to pay everything except the balance of what I owe my eye surgeon. So, if I eat frugally this month, I’ll be ok until December. Especially if I do well at the Holiday Craft Fair at the Canteen Thanksgiving weekend. I heard about another craft fair in town next month that I’ve applied to since the one I did last year has been cancelled.

Have I told you my favorite Buddhist parable about the woman and the tigers? Being chased by tigers, she climbs over the side of a cliff and is hanging from a vine only to see there are tigers down below her too. She also sees that a rat is chewing on her vine and that she will eventually fall. Then she notices a cluster of berries growing out of the cliff next to her. She plucks the berries and eats them. They are delicious. End of story - in other words, stay in the moment. Eat the berries. Onward.