"To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie - True Poems flee"
- Emily Dickinson

Our time on this Earth is fleeting and precious. We often know that in a vague, intellectual sense, and yet we can find ourselves whittling away those finite minutes without mindful thought. We should celebrate the beauty in a child's smile. The radiant sound of saying "I love you" to that special person. The warm touch of a hand. The delicate scent of a wildflower.

Our artwork celebrates those stunning moments. The raindrop on a pale petal. The glimmer on a honey bee's wing. The perfect orange sphere of a rose hip. The peaceful calm of a resting owl.

Poetry layers in emotion and senses beyond sight. We travel to Georgia with the aroma of honeysuckle and fried chicken, with creaking floorboards under rocking chairs. We sizzle in the heavy heat of a summer's day while crackling brown grass prickles our feet. We breathe in the shore's scent - birds, salt ... starfish.

Fiction immerses us in lives which - but for a cosmic hiccup - could have been our own. A family sorts through their belongings, deciding what to sell to keep finances going. An older couple dedicates their energy to providing solace to orphans. A daughter finds a way to be at peace with her father.

Non-fiction reminds us that we all share one world. We struggle with mental illness. We struggle with the walls we construct between us and others. We struggle against the power of our own fears. We struggle to overcome the patterns drummed into us by our parents. We struggle with the knowledge of our own mortality. Through these works we learn, if only for a moment, to walk in another's shoes.

As we reach the Summer Solstice's cosmic pause, the moment when the earth passes seamlessly from encroaching days to encroaching nights, it's a reminder to us that this has happened billions of times before and will happen billions of times again. We are a mere blink in the eye of our world. We should treat each fellow passenger with gentle kindness. Treasure each moment. Appreciate the blessings we have.

Namaste.

Lisa