I spent my 4-day (including a furlough day) weekend doing exactly what I love most: 1) spending lots of time with my husband, 2) making art, 3) gardening, and 4) relaxing. The above photo is from a book a colleague gave me for my birthday, back in February. I had not done much with the book other than jot down a few ideas and random thoughts. Over the weekend it came to me what I wanted to do with this little booklet. I made it my latest journal. First thing I did was cover the outside covers in red paint, then I added the gilded edges, which are really stickers. Since I spent almost all of this past February and half of March sick, I felt I short-changed myself on my favorite day of the year: Valentine's Day. So, I spent some of Saturday making valentines (who says you can only give them out on February 14?!) and this new journal will be my "love" book.

First page of my love journal. Lots of thoughts on what love is and what types of love there are. I feel SO lucky to have such a wonderful family and friends, and especially, my husband, who is in a category all his own. It does not get better than that.

These next pages are my ode to Pablo Neruda, my favorite poet. This is an excerpt from "Your Hands":

I crossed the roads,

trains carried me,

waters brought me,

and in the skin of the grapes

I thought I touched you,

the almond announced to me

your secret softness,

until your hands

closed in on my chest

and there like two wings

they ended their journey.

Although not many would dispute that Shakespeare was the greatest poet of all time, Pablo Neruda has always had a BIG place in my heart! Throughout my teaching career, I taught Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, but it wasn't until I taught Neruda's poems that I really fell in love with poetry.