The family is the nucleus of civilization. — Will Durant

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life. — Albert Einstein

Family is the root of all happiness. — Aristotle

 I sustain myself with the love of family. — Maya Angelou

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration. — Charles Dickens

I met Ulli during my first year playing and coaching basketball in Ober-Ramstadt, Germany. Her brother German and I were friends. He played pro soccer and was in my basketball course at Darmstadt University, so we hung out on campus, in pubs, parks, cafes, and museums, and discussed Nietzsche, Hesse, existentialism, and the purpose of life everywhere we went. One day he asked me if I wanted to go to a ballet in Frankfurt. He said his sister was dancing and could get us tickets. We showed up at a back entrance to the dancers’ dressing room and the first time I saw Ulli was when she opened the door dressed as a female spirit for her role in Giselle. Her hair was pulled back, she had white makeup covering her face, and the first thing she said was, “Scheisse.” The concert was sold out. We got tickets from two no-shows, enjoyed the performance, and afterward went to a cool underground bar for beers. I fell in love. I didn’t have a phone or car, and my German was very poor, so I bided my time between our get-togethers. I borrowed German’s VW and we went on a couple dates, she came to my apartment and we watched a couple hours of Woodstock, she came to one of my games and was too busy talking to notice I scored 55, she watched German and I play in our Rock band at the Darmstadt University spring festival, and I even kissed her at a Heinerfest in Darmstadt, but the romance didn’t start until the next year.

I signed with Aschaffenburg, made more money, radically improved my German (took a course and made it a point to speak only German), had a car, and moved into a penthouse apartment in downtown Darmstadt with German. I also shaved my beard and cut my hair. Slowly, with patience and perseverance, the spark ignited a flame, and her love became mine. She danced and studied in Frankfurt but lived part-time with me in Darmstadt. It was a wonderful year. My team was successful, and I was able to watch Ulli dance many times in many performances. So, when she signed a contract to dance in Nürnberg, I decided to sign with a team in Munich. I bought her a train pass and drove a powder-blue, executive, turbo-diesel 604 Peugeot (I could make it to Nürnberg in an hour after games late at night). I had a centrally located apartment and we had a lot of favorite places downtown, but also enjoyed Englisher Garden, Schwabing’s pub district, and art museums.

Words
(in the form of a poem)
so fragile
and incapable of holding
what I feel for you
grows
every day
without sensing an end
it seems
there was always
only you

The next year I signed with a club in Bamberg and moved into a new apartment with Ulli in Nürnberg. Between basketball games and dance performances, Ulli and I went to plays, movies, and museums, went out with friends, played lots of tennis, and took lots of walks. We loved checking out at the castle and the spectacular view of the city, strolling along the Pegnitz River and its tributaries, watching the water flow from the bridges, and eating and drinking in places all around the old, cobblestone part of the city (Innenstadt). We lived in three different places over our three years there and all were magnificent. Here’s a poem I wrote for her on the back of a Goethe-am-Main postcard I sent from Munich.

Our first apartment was around the corner from a Greek restaurant and a stone’s throw from a stream where we would play cards and drink Frankenwein. It was on Moltkestrasse, had very high ceilings, and was home to a number of wild parties. Our friends from Ulli’s dance Troupe added spice to our lives as well as parties. The following summer, we rented a house in Eibach, a scenic subdivision, with German and his fiancé, Claire, who was also a ballerina. They also loved taking walks, sitting in beer gardens, and playing cards and board games. We cooked many great dinners together and often went to KonTiki or Bodega, where the food was fabulous and the atmosphere awesome. German and I played a lot of music together in our basement, and occasionally had a couple of musicians join us, but were too busy to put a band together. He worked at the Nurnberg airport and was playing third-league soccer and I was taking German at the Euro-Sprachschule and got a job as a sports director at a U.S. army base. We were making money and had no trouble spending it. Those were the days.

Ulli and I got married on August 12, 1984, and the following day, we were on our way back to Germany. The wedding was amazing. Both our families were there, along with lots of friends from Cadillac, Florida, Iceland, and Germany. Bill Allinder performed the ceremony in our backyard on a gloriously sunny day, Gary sang a wedding song he wrote for us, and I sang a couple tunes—including a love song I wrote for Ulli—with the band at the reception. We got about three hours of sleep and Dave picked us up shortly after the sun came up and drove us to the Gerald Ford Airport in Grand Rapids. We arrived in Germany just in time to head to a basketball tournament in Hungary, where Ulli and I did our best to make the trip some sort of honeymoon. Shortly after we returned to Nurnberg, we rented an amazing top-floor apartment only a couple blocks from the castle. I played with a club in Nürnberg the following season, which was the icing on the cake. We traveled quite a bit, including trips to Iceland, Italy, Cairo, up and down the Nile, Athens, and a few Greek islands. What a wildly wonderful time it was.

Though we loved Germany, we decided to move to Florida thinking I would become a professor, we would start a family, and spend the rest of our lives in the sun. It’s worked out perfectly. We spent a year in Pensacola living in a married-housing dorm on campus, where I earned my M.A. from the University of West Florida. It took me only three semesters to complete. Halfway through Ulli got pregnant and, only a couple weeks before graduation delivered Julia and Jeremy into the world. It was quite the birth. Ulli went past full term and the doctors did a C-section. She had an epidural and was awake as Julia slipped out smoothly, but Jeremy was breached and required considerable force by the doctors to be removed. It was very tough on Ulli, who was completely exhausted. When they finally delivered him, it was the greatest relief and joy ever. I’ll never forget the first time holding our twins–the ultimate mystical experience.

We moved to Tallahassee a couple weeks later and I jumped into a full load of Ph.D. coursework and having received a graduate assistantship, started teaching humanities classes at Florida State. Julia and Jeremy were so tiny, precious, and such a handful. Julia had colic for a few months and Jeremy needed his share of attention, so—along with their incongruent sleep schedules—Ulli and I didn’t get much rest. Minutes after I came home from a full day of taking and teaching classes, Ulli took a walk, and I would lay in the living room and play with the twins. It was the highlight of every day. They were as different as yin and yang. Julia learned to walk gently, moving from chair to table to the couch without falling. Jeremy learned to walk earlier but did so by barreling down the hallway through the living room and often banging his head against the wall. Julia could sit still, stare out windows, and peacefully daydream. Jeremy always had to be doing something, playing with a ball, or Legos, or driving trucks in the sandbox. I would play the piano with them on my lap and Jeremy would jam away like the keys were drums, while Julia would lightly pluck a key at a time. I would swing-swing Jeremy like crazy, throw him in the air, and oh my would he laugh. Julia loved to patty-cake, doodle with crayons, or sit with me in the rocking chair. As they got older, Jeremy was doing cannonballs into the pool yelling “cowabunga” and slam-dunking on his hoop on the porch. Julia would fold clothes with me and invite me to tea parties. To my great delight, both of them loved to cuddle. We would often go to Lake Ella or one of the nearby parks. We were members of the Junior Museum (now called the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science) and went there at least once a week (Ulli and the kids more than that). We could spend an hour or an afternoon on the stunning nature trails and boardwalks that wind through over 50 acres of animal habitats. We loved it there and would often bring our lunch.

I had a number of job offers upon graduation and chose Unity College in Maine, where Annabelle was born during the so-called “storm of the century.” We were inundated with over 30 inches of snow, and much of it had fallen by the time we took our first trip to Waterville’s hospital around 10 PM when Ulli’s birth pains started. George and Mary Reed lived at the front of the cul-de-sac and George plowed out the road every hour all night long. Thinking back, though Ulli had barely started dilating, it seems absurd the doctor sent us back home. We left again at eight in the morning and Belle was delivered smoothly and naturally just after noon, as the storm was slowly slipping into the Atlantic. The birth was a joyous experience and Ulli breastfed her shortly after I cut the umbilical cord. She was a peaceful baby—always content and easygoing. I’m sure having a big brother and sister who would do anything for her didn’t hurt.

There were so many things about Unity that called to me, and to this day, Ulli, Julia, Jeremy, and Annabelle completely understand. Besides the wonderful people who live there, the college was dubbed “America’s environmental college” and the community was surrounded by a sparsely populated area filled with woods, wildlife, streams, hills, and fields. Our home was no exception. A ranch-style house built on a spacious cul-de-sac in the middle of the woods, we had a back porch outside the sliding kitchen door on the upper floor that overlooked a creek that ran through the backyard. We cut a path and made a bridge across the creek that led to Sandy Stream, where we spent all kinds of time, regardless of the season, exploring or just sitting atop the embankment listening for wildlife that would intermittently break the stunning silence. Besides the college, Unity was a small town with very few places to go, so it was natural to spend most of our free time enjoying the woods, rivers, lakes, and surrounding environment. We made a number of trips to Acadia National Park and Boothbay Harbor and camped at Baxter State Park every year with a huge group of friends. We loved going to the park in Belfast where we would often play some catch, soccer, or swim in the pool, and always end up on the rocky beach. Jeremy and Julia would climb the boulders along the shore for a couple of hours.

Besides going to preschool and kindergarten through second grade at Unity Elementary, Julia danced with Ulli’s Dance Academy (so did Belle our last year there) and Jeremy played soccer in a league in Belfast and Tball in Unity. They both had some close neighborhood friends. Ulli and I had a group of friends and some had kids around the same age as ours and we were constantly together. We may very well still be living in Maine if we didn’t love the warm Florida weather so much.

Sanctuary

As sunbeams pierce trees in our backyard we witness

deer eating holly berries and squirrels racing branch

to branch. When spring hits sandy stream we cherish

the sounds of ducks quacking and sparrows singing.

Raccoons meet at our compost as owls hoot and just

last night a moose left its prints near the red maple

that shades our porch. Daily snakes and turtles slide

through thickets in our backyard where crickets and

frogs loudly stake their claim. Silently a red fox sneaks

through dawn, giving way to our juice and coffee.

Carefree, we plot a garden, then wake the kids.

After four wonderful years in Unity, I took a job at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida. We’ve been living on Caribbean Way in a subdivision called Bluewater Bay for nearly three decades. There’s an “environmental strip” with a bike bath behind our house, which makes our backyard seem even bigger and more seclusive. We are not far from the Midbay Bridge that connects us to the Emerald Coast beaches of Destin in the Panhandle. I could not guess how many glorious afternoons we’ve spent swimming, walking, body-surfing, playing ball, building castles, and living the dream. This is truly the life Ulli and I envisioned when we left Germany.

All three kids attended Plew Elementary and Ruckel Middle School, both great schools. Ulli and I were very active and participated in all co-curricular activities that involved parents. Jeremy won the annual fifth-grade “3 A Award” for athletics, academics, and attitude. Julia and Belle were cheerleaders and attended Ull’s Dance Academy while I coached Jeremy in Niceville baseball, basketball, and soccer leagues. Belle and Julia attended the Collegiate High School at Northwest Florida State College, where they earned an AA degree from the college as well as a high-school diploma. It was a great experience for both of them and they made lifelong friends. They both took my film and world religion courses and never missed or came late for a single class. While I had to call on Julia to get her to talk, Belle was not afraid to share her insights or convictions. They both wrote inspired papers and learned a lot. Jeremy attended Niceville High School, where he started as a sophomore on the basketball team and earned first-team All-Conference honors as a junior. He transferred his senior year to Walton High School, where he won All-Conference and All-State Awards. He had a number of scholarship offers and decided on Northwest Florida State, where he was second-team All-Conference as a freshman. He took my Philosophy class and Science, Religion, and Nature course, but rarely spoke in class. He did well but did not share the same passion for learning as the girls did. I think I was very much the same until I started my graduate work. It was an immeasurable joy having my kids in my classes.

Like Ulli, and because of Ulli, Julia and Annabelle are beautiful dancers. Not only did they take dozens of dance courses with her over an eight- or nine-year period, but they also danced in pieces that Ulli choreographed for the college’s annual Dance Facets program. Those dances are highlights of my life. Of course, I have many favorites. I cried the first time Julia and Ulli danced together on stage in “Paquita,” the passionate classical Spanish piece. Julia had a number of solos and shined in Ulli’s “One Chance,” a piece that featured Dave Matthew’s “Dreaming Tree” and Seth Bernard’s “Make More” and delivered a strong yet subtle message about deforestation, melting polar caps, corporate pollution, stars shining, and whales singing. The first one that Belle and Julia danced together was a classical ballet based on St. Francis of Assisi’s “The Canticle of the Sun.” Julia was the sun in the opening movement, they danced together in the section called “Mother Earth,” and Belle was the main dancer in the piece’s finale, “Death.” I was not the only one who cried during that piece! Ulli choreographed “Sunrise, Sunset” for Mom and Dad. Belle and Kyle Poppell were the only dancers and they moved metaphorically through Leo and Betty’s lives together as the backdrop of a huge morning sun slowly migrated into a sunset. The music, a modernized version of Albinoni’s famous “Adagio,” intensified the synesthetic experience.

Jeremy has always been an all-around athlete and won many tennis tournaments, pitched in many all-star games (and had a perfect game), scored plenty of goals as a soccer all-star, and was a top varsity golfer as a freshman! By his sophomore year, he chose to play basketball exclusively. After a great high-school career and freshman year at Northwest Florida State, he signed a scholarship to play at Southeastern Louisiana and got lots of playing time as a sophomore (and scored 26 in a game). He got red-shirted the next season and decided to transfer to Arkansas Tech, where–besides meeting Gloria, his wife-to-be–he was first-team Gulf South All-Conference and All-Tournament first-team for two years. The Wonder Boys (yes, that’s their nickname) went 30 and 2 his first year and were ranked number one nationally in D2 for eight straight weeks. They were 26 and 5 the next season and were conference champs both years (he scored 31 in a nationally televised tournament game). The following year he signed with the Crailsheim Merlins in Germany’s Pro A League and had a great rookie season. “Following in his Father’s Footsteps” (as a Wurzburg paper put it), he also played for Cuxhaven, Gottingen, Wurzburg, Vechta, Hagen, Dresden, and Karlsruhe. He was always near the top in both free-throw and 3-point percentage and led the league on a few occasions. With a “jump shot will travel” motto, he helped lead his teams to the playoffs every season and four times to the league championship! Jer was truly an all-around player who knew how to make the players around him better. I never missed a game as they were all televised and I could stream them. I made it to Germany four times to watch games, get to know his coaches and teammates, and visit old friends. Between dance performances and basketball games, my wife and kids made me a very lucky husband and father.

We’ve made many trips to Germany. When we visit Ulli’s family, we almost always stay with Helga and Wolfgang (Ulli’s second-oldest brother who died after a brief and harrowing illness a few years ago). They have the biggest place with the most rooms and are genuinely happy to have us as guests. When my parents came, they stayed with Birgit and Peter (who could speak English and he and Dad would converse about politics and economics, but mostly about trees and agriculture). The entire crew would get together on their porches and gardens, but also at Fernblick (a hilltop restaurant with a “far view” of all five surrounding villages) and at Dad’s favorite, Frohn Bugel (an old classic German restaurant in the woods that serves apple wine). All three of our kids were baptized in Altenmittlau, the Meier’s hometown, and quite a few of Ulli’s family members–and there are a lot–were there. She has seven brothers and one sister and many nieces and nephews. As I mentioned on a previous page, my family count is over 40 while Ulli’s is over 70. When you start adding the extended family members of spouses, the numbers get really high. I’ll never forget Kurt and Brunhilde’s (Ulli’s parents) 50th wedding anniversary when my mom got up (with some goading) and pointed around the room while naming all 50 of the Meiers who were at the banquet. Obviously, our families are very close.

We’ve also made many trips to visit my family in Cadillac, Michigan. It’s always an incredible joy. The cousins are very tight, and we spent many Christmas and spring-break vacations at the Wakula Motel in Cocoa Beach, Florida, while they were growing up. Another favorite meeting place is Copper Harbor in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where my mother was, for the most part, raised. One of many unforgettable moments was when Jeremy proposed to Gloria on the top of Brockway Mountain. We would drive up there often to watch sunsets, but it was still amazing that she had no idea what was going on. We polished off many bottles of champagne during that sunset. Gloria has a wonderful family but unfortunately also lost her father a couple of years ago. Her mom visited us recently. Gloria, aka Mariel in Mexico, has three sisters, a niece, and a nephew. We spent two wonderful vacations in their hometown, La Paz, in Mexico’s Baja California Sur. The first one was for Gloria’s and Jeremy’s wedding, which was an enormous affair with some song, dance, and hardcore partying. While Ulli and I have visited friends in Iceland, our family has also made a couple of trips back to Maine to visit our close friends. The last one was to pick up Belle who had just completed hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Julia blessed us with our first grandchild, Mayson, on August 18, 2013. She was living in Atlanta and we headed up the minute she started feeling labor pains. May was supposed to have a water birth but slipped out just as Julia got to the tub. Julia said it was the most miraculous experience of her life. By the time we arrived, May was washed and waiting for us. She has owned me since the first glance. Julia and May lived in a couple different places in Atlanta (including Decatur) and then Chatanooga and now Boulder. They also lived with us for a number of wondrous months in between moves and still come to visit when they can, and we also visit them. I recently spent four days with them in Boulder and went to May’s third-grade graduation, explored the city, and hiked every day–including Mount Sanitas, Flatirons, and Red Rocks. May and I also hiked to a local park every morning. It’s been one of life’s great joys watching and participating in the magical evolution of her mind, body, and spirit. Every day we get to spend with her is an irreplaceable gift. She is brilliant, funny, an amazing singer and dancer, and–like her mom–a sensitive soul filled with limitless compassion.

She saved me
Softly sharing time’s touch, tonight, holding her as our eyes meet she shines a smile so magical the second her tiny hand wraps around my heart. I always liked Atlanta, but now with May here, my fate is sealed: we will shake membranes in rocking chairs (like this one). We will dance on ocean waves each time she visits. Suddenly, I see clearer than ever: my kids are your kids as their kids are our kids. Yes, she is safe within my arms, making it easy to sense every cell cherishes connection. There are no secrets. We are our relations, forever one (exactly as granddaughters affirm). She is where I belong! Tomorrow morning, as I leave with the ache only love can bring, I will kiss her with everlasting hope of landing softly, wherever she goes.

Julia worked as a model in Atlanta before May was born, but realized she had more to offer and started her journey of soul exploration, focusing on yoga. It was her calling. Over the past ten years, she has become a certified Kundalini, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga Yoga instructor and a Reiki master and has been offering in-class, person-to-person, and online sessions everywhere she goes, including New Mexico, California, and Costa Rica. She is successful because she sees each session as a new beginning and an opportunity to help people to heal, transform, and reconnect with nature. She is committed to helping others and is constantly seeking ways to help peace and love prosper. She is the first to admit she is not perfect, but she knows that to forgive and love oneself is the only way “to center our mind, body, and spirit in a transformative way… We must acknowledge that life is challenging, but through empowerment, we are able to take on those challenges with renewed strength, grace, and joy” (https://juliadunbaryoga.com/).

CLICK HERE: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-julia-dunbar/

Jeremy and Gloria blessed us with our second grandchild, Jaxson Jeremy Dunbar, on March 31, 2019. Jer was playing basketball for Hagen so Jaxson has both an American and German passport. During the offseason, they would stay with us a couple of months each summer and we had a blast–some golf and lots of tennis. Gloria was the Great American Conference female tennis player of the decade and she was my partner in our highly competitive doubles matches. Jeremy retired earlier than expected because of all the Covid restrictions and they moved in with us in the summer of 2019. He worked HVAC for nine months then got a job with a military contracting company called Oasis, which, to site their home page, “is a leading technology services company and trusted partner to the Department of Defense and Federal Agencies supporting them to achieve success in their mission-critical Programs.” His job is challenging, exciting, and keeps him in the field, on computers, creating reports, traveling, and fulfilling a variety of missions. Jeremy is an honest, sincere, and hard-working person who has a magical effect on people and is truly respected and even treasured as a friend and co-worker on basketball teams as well as workforces. They are planning to buy a house as soon as the market stabilizes, but in the meantime, it is wonderful having them around and having Jax spread joy and laughter to his “Mimi” and “Pa” every single day. He is in preschool twice a week, takes tennis and soccer lessons, and just walked out on the porch and asked me if I want to play basketball.

Love

Pure and simple

cleansed of desire

open to all being

ahead of all plans

free of all things

past. Unchanging

yet always new.

Powerful and gentle

near and unending

love abides.

Annabelle is my inspiration. An adventurer extraordinaire, she hiked the Appalachian Trail, climbs mountains, lives the van life from time to time, paints, writes poetry, and is a sensitive soul and the kindest, sweetest person I know. Belle lives her convictions, which she is not afraid to share with anyone and everyone. A self-proclaimed vegetarian at age seven and vegan at 14, she is a true nature lover, having served as the volunteer coordinator for the Orlando Earth Day for several years, assisted in beach and park cleanups, helped build oyster reefs, volunteered at the E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center, and cared for wolves at the Seacrest Wolf Preserve. She spent a year with AmeriCorps and has participated in protests, campaigns, and rallies to protect animals, save wetlands, and preserve ecosystems. After receiving her B.S. in Environmental Studies at Central Florida University, Belle worked for a year as the Executive Assistant for the Seminole County Commissioner. It was a great job but, after a year, she knew she would never be happy with a desk job. She needs constant contact with nature. The dragonfly and wolf are her spirit animals and she has a huge dragonfly tattoo on her back to go along with the ahimsa symbol on her shoulder, a turtle on one calf, and a yin-yang circle composed of two curled cats on the other. Josiah, her long-term boyfriend, is a perfect partner. Just as adventurous, he loves to climb, skateboard, and travel to the wildest bounds nature has to offer. They are currently living in Portland, Oregon, where they both are setters in a climbing gym. Josiah is a photographer and gets gigs producing videos for events, especially skateboard competitions. Belle also works at Migration Brewery and a coffee shop where she often displays her art. On days off they explore wherever their hearts lead them. I recently spent five days with them and we hiked through parks, to breweries and vegan restaurants, along the Columbia River Gorge, up and around the waterfalls of Multnomah, and around the McMenamins winery–where we had a number of luscious pinot noirs. The following words spilled out the day Ulli and I brought her to her AmeriCorps assignment in Vicksburg, Mississippi (Grayson’s a friendly cat who sat with us outside our room at the bed-and-breakfast called Annabelle’s).

Till We Meet Again

Sitting here with Grayson trying to fill my heart’s hole as the sun sets across our porch one hour after a bug-spraying truck chased us inside Annabelle’s room. Sadly we share joyful memories as tears fall we capture your essence minutes before saving a frog from the pool. I cannot stop thanking fate you stayed with us last night in strange old Vicksburg where brothers killed slavery and each other making us wonder if human nature will ever gently evolve. Abruptly we find you on a path only you can navigate. Every mile home grows more soulful as your music grips our minds and years roll down my cheeks because I love you more than life.

Till We Meet Again

Sitting here with Grayson trying to fill my heart’s hole as the sun sets across our porch one hour after a bug-spraying truck chased us inside Annabelle’s room. Sadly we share joyful memories as tears fall we capture your essence minutes before saving a frog from the pool. I cannot stop thanking fate you stayed with us last night in strange old Vicksburg where brothers killed slavery and each other making us wonder if human nature will ever gently evolve. Abruptly we find you on a path only you can navigate. Every mile home grows more soulful as your music grips our minds and years roll down my cheeks because I love you more than life.

As of August 12, 2022, Ulli and I have been married for 38 years. We have as much fun as ever. We continue to grow, change, and enjoy each other’s company. After 20-plus years of teaching dance at the college and also working at Brighton Jewelry, she got her real estate license but hasn’t done much with it because, just over a year ago, she became a full-time Delta flight attendant. She never ceases to amaze me. I hope to fly to Munich with her this Thanksgiving so we can revisit some of our old stomping grounds. My soul mate, mother of my children, and primary source of happiness, I love watching her do life’s simple rituals, such as brushing her hair, watering her garden, and doing yoga. There is nothing as peaceful as walking the beach with her. There is nothing so meaningful as the family we have created.

Growing Young

I enjoy sitting back to watch sheep graze near the fence behind the house where our children were born just in time. I could have been a sad old man before these raindrops caught my tongue on this porch where the stage is now our actor. Move closer. Time can be stopped. Simply tip back your head and feel the water melt your face. You are my mystical experience. I love the way the forest draws us nearer. Scattered beams of light make darkness more enticing. It’s like our first dance after the kids leave and we realize how young we’re meant to be. I love your wrinkles and the winsome sparkle in your eye. Let’s die together in these woods doing things we could never forget.

A Boundless Sense of Family

As the eternal now weaves me into you and this sand beneath our feet shifts dunes daily along streams where eagles soar and relatives on bikes meander around lakes of neighborhood reunions prove inside here we can never be apart. Each is a part. The sun sets in one direction despite the various sides we all choose! Paths to seashores involve returning home whenever you can. We’ll be waiting in worn-out chairs looking out these windows of Self. Ha! Release pain with every hug “hello”—who were you expecting? Imagine trading faces and not changing a single thing. We are our relationships.

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. — Mother Teresa