i met kerri-lynne through my dear friend tracey, (who will need her very own post and portrait and the long explanation of how she changed my entire life’s course in a single phone call, but that is for another day), and we shared this sweet circle of girlfriends, but somehow didn’t connect truly with just each other till the last year or so. and connect we have.

i can tell you that she is brilliant. words from her flow much like honey from a spoon; gentle and unhurried, sure to provide sweetness. that hers is the house on the block that all the wild little boys show up to, and she invites them in and feeds them cocoa and maybe the only maternal adoration they get and it is a thing of beauty to watch.  she is quick to laugh, and  it comes from her gut.  she is even quicker to hug. that hers is a mama bear’s heart. that she loves love.  that she is one of the BEST people to share champagne and catch a matinee with on a lazy sunday. that her friends can count on her; being authentic, being present, never withholding, always with the glint in her eye that reads,” i love you, silly you, for everything you are and everything you mean; good, bad and ugly”, and she really means it.

there it is, the double whammy; the alliteration of a weekday AND false promise that i’ll post something religiously each friday.  i won’t.  but some fridays i will try to come here and share a friend with you, because i’m always yammering about great it is to know such shiny, lovely people and how lucky i am to call them my friends, and i’m just realizing what a total gift that is, and one that should be shared. also, i’m secretly hoping it will make me more accountable. i imagine there will be no trouble with writer’s block when given the chance to tell you about these people i adore.

so with no further adieu, i give you…tara.my first muse.

we met freshman year of high school. i can’t say i was her biggest fan from the start, because my bff helen liked joe but joe liked tara and tara was soooo sultry with her long legs and dark eyes and too intimidatingly beautiful. but soon enough her giggle and warmth and earnest dear heart could not be refused for any boy drama, and we were fast friends. we could run to each other’s house in one minute flat.  we dedicated each other songs on “cryin’, lovin’ or leavin’.” shared our deepest secrets. adopted each other’s families. always found the most magical moments. and still do. as adults, she is the friend-that’s-more-sister. the one that (attempted) to be here for the birth of each of my boys. one they call auntie. the refuge in new york i could slip away to to remember who i am. without them. i loved climbing out her kitchen window to huddle and dangle our legs and solve the problems of the world from her brooklyn rooftop. loving to cook together, we have commiserated for hours over chopped garlic and with a good syrah. and while we’re terrible at keeping up (we go weeks, sometimes months without talking) not a beat is missed when we finally do. ours is a most dear and dependable friendship. a lifeline.

so some day i’ll find both the negatives and a scanner and share the images from a dozen years ago. back when each film frame mattered so greatly that a photo shoot was a big deal.  we would plan, and style, and execute photo sessions together with such verve. she my glorious subject, me falling hard in love with the notion of really capturing her on film. those were the sessions that made me fall in love with portraiture. blame tara.

anyway, until i find those pretty prints from so long ago, there are these images, from her last visit. and then i guess there’s no need to keep trying to describe her or why she is a muse of mine. she is right here.

i stalked, um, met sue 6 years ago or so. i’d been listening to and loving her music for years before that. this woman is terribly talented, and whether she’s belting out her own heartache or her own take on Heart, she completely, unmistakably, moves you.

that’s all i’ll say for now, about sue, though i could fill these pages with why i admire/adore her and why you would too. and as for our shoot together? it was perfectly lovely. until we lost the kids in the corn maze. but that’s another post.

the boys love to brag that they have “over 40 cousins”. there is some truth to that, in that i myself have a gaggle of them, thanks to 2 parents from 6 kid families. still, there is something precious and quite momentous about a first first cousin.

mo is the youngest of my husband’s 3 siblings. this always gives me a giggle; her being the “baby”, because she is ANYTHING but. she is truly one of the more maternal people i know;  constantly looking out for every one, often the organizer of adventures, always the dependable one. oh, and she’s fiercely, unshakably loyal to her people. so there was no doubt she’d be a great mama. and the lovable, loving man she married would be a fab daddy-o. all the same, meeting o; this bright-eyed and beautiful boy, this little beam of light that we all find ourselves so drawn to, was sweeter and more delicious than i’d expected.  as it turns out, auntiehood, much like motherhood, can shock you with the sheer depth in which you can love a little one. and it’s sure a treat watching the “baby” love the baby that is hers.

as if the first day of school isn’t bittersweet enough; we lament the end of summer and her long, sweet days. the delve back into school and routine and strict time constraints and commitments. that swift passage of time, and recognizing that just when you blinked your eyes, another year, another grade, has come upon you like a runaway train. they call it, at least in our waldorf-inspired school, “the handing over ceremony”. each first grader is welcomed to the family, the village if you will, that is our school community. and it’s all very lovely, what with the sing-songing teachers calling the name of each new member of the first grade, the rest of the school looking on. his big brother, who was JUST THERE, smiling at him from his tall fourth grade chair.

and they call his name first, and he moves forward to accept the flower from his young and pretty teacher; and she will see him more waking hours than i do during the week. and he will call her name when he’s afraid, or hurt, or confused, or simply wants to know more about the world or how things work. and the parenting of strangers suddenly influences what he knows, as it seeps out of the children surrounding him,  and the words of his peers nearly become his gospel. and i stop becoming his main influence. and he stops becoming mostly mine. mine.

that morning the first thing he muttered was, “i can’t believe i won’t see you for SIX HOURS.” and then, “do you feel nervous, buddy?”, met with, “um i’m REALLY nervous”. honesty.

and so i get to sit at the front during this “handing over”, armed with my camera and thankful that it buys me the nearness…that i get to sit right behind him because i’ve promised the principle photos of the gathering. but i’m not ready when they call his name, my eyes already glassed with grief, and then he’s sitting right before me, clutching his flower and wondering how this will all unfold, while i’m wondering the same thing. and he turns with this look…full of nerves and excitement and total unknowing, but faith that it will all be fine. and i will try with all my might to glean some of that faith. that what we’ve taught him thus far will carry him through. that the world will keep looking full of hope and beauty to him, and that the harsh realities will only trickle in when he’s ready. and honestly, i’m not ready for one minute to hand either of them over to anyone at all. and they have to teach me to be brave, to have some faith, and to trust that it will all tell a very happy story in the end.

for today, to get this darn thing off the ground, i won’t bore you with the 34 other versions of this “first post” that are in my head, scribbled on various scraps of paper throughout my house, recited in the shower, or archived by my emailing myself notes and thoughts. there is just this photo, which was taken back in may, but feels very relevant right now…as it reminds me of all the beauty we live in, and of the constantly changing landscape of this life. there is lovely light. there are impending storms. this is all just one big joyful, chaotic, delicious mess we call life.