The crackle and spit are enough to wake anyone from sleep, let alone someone who has been through this devastation before. He wakes with a start and looks about the room. It is still dark though the beginnings for daylight are underway. He must have slept late. The ribbons of grey arrive to his nose long before his eyes spot them. It is what he feared. The smoke announces above the shouting voices that there is yet another fire. What works of art will be in this one? He walks to the window to see. Stacks and stacks of paintings, artwork, books and rolled up paper are stoked in the…

The green canopy seemed to have only one small entrance in. Leaves of all colors of green shapes and sizes hang about the area on the edge of the parking lot. The arched doorway beckons on to arrive in this forest that sits in the midst of much city pavement. The birds, chipmunks, and squirrels all announce their discontent at a new human visitor. Steps forward reveal the robins digging in the middle of the carefully blazed trail for yet another worm as the one that resides in his beak is not enough for his family’s meal. The birds fly off but not far, lighting on branches to see if…

“How was it?” He asks pulling her in for an embrace that envelops her. “Green and cold,” she responds without a pause, “And amazing!” “Do tell,” he encourages as they sit across from each other at the little breakfast table. Outside the bay window announces the state of pink on the azalea bushes, the dogwoods wave their white blooms contributing to his welcome home greeting. “That place is so stark. There is nothing but green grass and stone all the way up the road. The skies are so gray that all the different shades of green become brilliant without the slightest amount of light. Church steeple after steeple, sheep grazing…

Is this not a famous quote or what? (521 highlights on the Kindle…when relatively speaking, few are technology driven to read this one…that number is small.) He smiled understandingly – much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced – or seemed to face – the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself,…