Solstice

September is the breakout breakup heartbreak month, not all the time, but often enough.

Tonight Ian and I went to a vernissage - the opening of a show of watercolors by a longtime family friend. He was easy to find in the crowd of well-wishers, because he spent the evening sitting on a tall chair near the middle of the room - "Doctor's orders!"

This in no way muted his natural ebullience. Though he had trouble articulating, he lit up as each visitor came to offer congratulations on a series of small elegant pictures that eloquently capture a place he knows and loves.

He is very ill - so ill that we may not see him again. According to someone we spoke to, our friend wasn't sure he would make this date.

It's the turn of the year, an early fall that is colder and wetter than usual. Since July, two people I've known for years have died in car accidents. A member of our family is contending with a series of health problems. Listening to the news makes me alternately furious or despairing.

While waiting for a bus on the way home, I decided to focus on the almost-full moon, just then making a pale showing in the eastern sky.