Nicotina Mutabilis

This is the Nicotina Mutabilis, a flowering tobacco plant. The name mutabilis literally means changing. It's mutable. Each blossom begins as a white cloudbursts that shifts to a blushing pink and deepens to a lusty rose. This lovely plant reminds me that I have a constant choice in life. I can greet uninvited change with resistance, blame and judgment. Or, once I pass through the unpleasant feelings, I can accept change for what it is: inevitable. It's neither personal nor unfair. It simply is the way of things.

I admit that my obsession with how life "should have been" has kept me stuck. I've often looked at life through the rearview mirror of resentment and victimhood. Today I choose acceptance, and I'm primed...not for passivity...but for moving forward here and now. I notice the changing pigments of my life and relish the subtle hues of this moment.

Nicotina shifts:

White. Pink. Red. Spinning beauty

Out of constant change.

The Sweetness of Dogs

In memory of Jimmy (pictured with me), who was a sweet dog if ever there was one, I offer this poem that Mary Oliver wrote about her dog Percy. Jimmy left this world two weeks ago, but those of us who knew him carry his gentle sweetness in our hearts. Jimmy, you looked at each of us like we were your perfect moon, when, in truth, you were ours.

The Sweetness of Dogs

What do you say Percy? I am thinking

of sitting out on the sand to watch

the moon rise. Full moon.

So we go

And the moon rises, so beautiful it

makes me shudder, makes me think about

time and space, makes me take

measure of myself; one iota

pondering heaven. Thus we sit,

I thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s

perfect beauty and also, oh! how rich

it is to love the world. Percy, meanwhile,

leans against me and gazes up into

my face, as though I were

his perfect moon.

- by Mary Oliver in Evidence -