opening doors

First, most importantly, word from Kathmandu: Denis has written to us all to say that though his daughter Sarah and her kids did not lose their home, they are sleeping outside along with everyone else, for fear of more aftershocks. Sarah is an extraordinarily strong and accomplished woman, director, as I've said, of Handicap International for the whole region of Nepal, so she will have an enormous amount of work in the months ahead. As well, she is the newly single mother of three small children. If anyone can triumph under such difficult circumstances, it's Sarah. Here's a link to a Paris Match article with a photo of her and one of her twin boys:
Comment s'organise l'aide humanitaire - Paris Match

Thinking about that devastating chaos makes being at home seem even more safe and tranquil. I relish every moment: opening the fridge door, my clothes closet door, the front and back doors. Bill the toothless neighbourhood helper came twice; he raked and I pruned and we cleared away all the dead leaves - 5 huge bags worth. The garden is tidy if brown and bare, though I ache to see the ivy, which for the nearly 30 years I've lived here has flourished on my south wall, shrivelled and brown. Much work to be done. But the birds are at the feeder and I see a few daffodils struggling to open to the light. Soon we'll be complaining about the heat. In fact, yesterday it was hot, heavenly hot - this whole week will be.

In praise of screen doors and windows - there seem to be none in France. Denis said it's because there are no mosquitoes. But there are many other bugs, with which their house in Gordes is filled - beetles, huge grasshoppers, even scorpions - not this trip, but on others. I praise the inventor of screens.

And though there is, as I always notice on my return, so little beauty in and on the streets of this city, still, it's a vital, vibrant place to live - so much theatre, music, dance, art. My piano teacher has written to say I must see the film "Seymour, an introduction," about a classical pianist, so I will. The Hot Docs festival is on, every day a flood of fantastic documentaries. The neighbourhood festivals are beginning - next Sunday one of my faves, the Forsythia Festival right outside my door. I love it here.

And here's another reason - an article on the fast pace of social change in North America. Home.
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-pace-of-social-change/?cmpid=BBD042715