At the center, love

This beautiful man who holds our hearts had a birthday on Monday just past. For some reason I love this photo I snapped a few weeks ago, when he was updating our children on some news about the impending sale of his childhood home in Antigua, a long and complicated transaction that, somewhat miraculously, will be accomplished this week.

The "kids" all showed up to celebrate his birthday, bearing cupcakes, wine, flowers, snacks, to add to a particular store-bought strawberry shortcake, his fave. He opened gifts and we chatted and told stories as uproariously as we do, and a lovely evening was had by all.

The tulips were tight buds when they arrived but were nicely opened by the next morning.

And now we are a mere two days away from election day, and everyone is barely drawing breath, waiting to see what will unfold. The only thing we know for sure is that whatever the outcome of the voting, there are hard days still to come, and may we be equal to them, may we be set on a path to a future in which we can move forward from a place of courageous reclamation, shared humanity, and above all, love. That may sound corny in the world we know, but that doesn't make it any less worth dreaming.