Time to swelter, y'all

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The fourth was a lot of fun, as it has been for me ever since I moved to Capitol Hill. It's our summer feast of abundance, the secular summer solstice.

As usual I went down to the neighborhood parade. It gets bigger and fancier every year. I remember the first Barracks Row parade, not that many years ago. It was plain, even rag tag. I loved it. The parade is evolving, of course - like everything does.

I saw many neighbors and friends who had no qualms about walking out of the parade for a hug and hello. Cheerful! I saw several kids whose mothers I worked on while they were pregnant. Those kids are big now! Good lord.

After that I cooked for several hours, then shuttled my offerings to the house on Tennessee Avenue where we feasted, toasted, laughed and danced - at least Manuel and I danced.

I saw only the locals in Lincoln Park shooting off chintzy fireworks. I was tucked inside the well insulated chateau by the time the big fireworks took place. There was no anxious dog to try to soothe. I read my book about the reindeer herding people of Siberia for awhile, went to bed early. A perfect day.

As if in shamanic alignments with the secular solstice, today and for the foreseeable future, it's going to be hot and humid. Ah, summer in the swamp. It's brutal, but it's a part of the landscape here, and here is where I live. More than where I live, Washington DC has become my home.

Those kids - whose moms I worked on before they were born - those kids are BIG. Wow. I've been here a long time. My blood is the Potomac River, my bones are local granite. I am part of the landscape.

Onwards into the sweltering summer. Shalom.