It’s the 44th day since my brother passed and a day to honor those who’ve died while serving in the Armed Forces.  

I pause, slightly stunned, as though I’m a bird who’s flown into a window and fallen for a moment.  I shake myself awake, sit outside as squirrels run up and down the trunk of the redwood tree. A woodpecker pecks into the trunk of a tree on the other side of the deck. I feel that peck as though my insides ask for a nest, request room for breath and rest.

I’m reflecting, reflected like the marsh I photographed this morning. I stood there feeling how what’s reflected is simply that. It causes the water no pain.