Pondering Lives Well-Lived

April has been quite the whirlwind. I figured now that there are only 2 hours left of it I should write something. I just posted all of our spring break photos, and since then I haven't taken many pictures. There was a relative lull in the middle of the month, just busy, regular stuff. But then on April 23rd I learned that our old family friend from Tucson, Ann Lewis (formerly McClellan) passed away. We made arrangements to meet my mom down in Idaho for the funeral.

Here I am with Mitch McClellan, who was one of my best friends til I moved across town for middle school. I had a crush on him when we were 8, but then I had a growth spurt and grew about a foot taller than him and thought I'd have to marry someone else, lol. He is doing so great, living in Boise with a beautiful family. It was a pretty joyous reunion on an otherwise sad day.

 

Here are 8 of the 10 McClellan kids at their mom Ann's grave (Mitch is #8). They gave a beautiful funeral service for her that was one of the most fun, uplifting services I have ever been to--she must have been so pleased.
It was a nice, quick trip--I even got to see both of my parents, which is cool.
 

We got home Saturday night, then I sent Rich off to a two-day insurance conference in Great Falls Sunday afternoon. Once I got the kids to bed, I watched a Ken Burns biography of Frank Lloyd Wright on Netflix. It was surprisingly riveting and entertaining. I wish I knew more about architecture. I was so fascinated by the story and by his style and philosophy, and there seems to be something holy about this art form, like many others--so much more than drawings or engineering or construction.

Here's FLW nearing 90, at the peak of his career...petulant genius!

Here are a couple of quotes from the film that I loved. "For him, what an artist is, is a person who transforms nature by looking at nature, passing it through the soul, and in the expression of what the soul experiences in nature, something more natural than nature itself emerges, which is as close as we get to God." -William Cronon, historian.

AMEN! [to me, creativity is the manifestation of my divine nature, inherited from heavenly parents].

Read at Wright's funeral at Taliesin: "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."-RW Emerson.

Wright's home and studio in Oak Park Illinois was so beautiful! I loved his idea of putting the fireplace in the center of the home, as the heart and soul and gathering place of the building.

So Richard is home safe, all my people are sound asleep (I'm typing to a chorus of snores). Life is good. Our underground construction got inspected today (water main, sewer, etc.) so we will be able to pour the basement floor in the next day or two and start framing. Our builder said he's excited for that because, "That's when your vision starts to take shape." Indeed! So happy May to you all. I hope to be back a little more frequently, but we'll see if life cooperates.