On Tuesday, Cia worked with young Alex McCammon on his quilt, sitting in her workroom with him, both of them chatting and sewing. I stopped in to see how they were doing, and I asked Alex how he liked Cia's latest puppet, a large wild-looking elephant. "Awesome!" he said. 

On Wednesday, we hosted a neighborhood meeting concerning one neighbor's plan to have a dock put in behind his property. His plan has stirred up lots of controversy among some of the Riverbend Drive residents, a lot of it stemming from misinformation, rumors, and just plain gossip -- so we decided to invite the dock proposers to meet with neighbors and have an informative discussion. It turned out to be a pleasant and helpful discussion, and we're hoping it might have set a small flame of acceptance going in the neighborhood. Cia and I now give our complete support to the dock plan, since it meets with all legal requirements and has received the approval of both of the important state agencies. I just hope some of our less supportive neighbors can be won over by reason and common sense. 

Last night, Cia was the leader of one of our best discussions in our Faith Group, which meets at a local church every other week. She chose "faith" as the topic, and it generated lots of heartfelt and helpful comments. It was a full 60 minutes of sincerity. 

Today, Cia met with Lee Toth at Muddy Waters cafe in New London for a 90-minute cuppa and lots of conversation. She said the chat was interrupted several times by calls from her husband, Tom, about where to place the new internet router, but still, their conversation over coffee was spirited and very enjoyable. 

I've had a great time continuing my reading of Tara Brach's True Refuge, an excellent  book about using Buddhist meditation to work with fear and pain. I also dug out from a forgotten bookshelf Scott Peck's wonderful The Road Less Traveled, which I read and annotated years ago, and plan to go back to soon. Scanning through it, it was obvious that it deals with many of the same issues Brach is dealing with. More good reading to look forward to!

Some recent magnetic poems . . .