Today, I drove The Great River Road to deliver my handcrafted jewelry to an art gallery/gift shop in McGregor, Iowa. It is my 6th season there. Usually, I also volunteer there several times during the tourist season and this activity garners me more as a consignee. This year, I decided to not volunteer due to a new job and a more limited schedule for that type of activity. We will see how it goes. The new gallery manager is super organized and efficient. I had my 85 pieces of jewelry checked in, stickered with a price tag, and inventoried in the space of 30 minutes.
As per usual, my mind rambled on this trip. It can be beautiful – very beautiful, in fact. But, today, I saw the damage of recent flooding. Eroded hillsides with exposed tree roots and fresh swathes of mud showing themselves regularly as I looked out my car windows. The Mississippi River, which can be sparkling, blue, and inviting, today looked cold, harsh, and gray. I noted several white pelicans resting or flying as they migrate through our area. A Great Blue Heron was seen flying over the flooded sloughs. My third sighting this week of one of my favorite birds. And, tiny ducklings, as well as baby loons, were noted floating on the surface the calmer inland waters that had formed new rivers in the last few weeks during our winter thaw.
The color of the sky and water, a muddled gray, matched my mood today. Thinking about my week, it seems like I’ve been on a roller coaster ride that has provided the height of thrills but also bottoming out borne of frustrations and possible reconsiderations. A free verse poem formed in my mind.
Since Sunday
Since Sunday, I have laughed with great joy
and, I have cried, with similar anguish.
I have felt confident,
only to have that confidence crushed.
I have been weak and embarrassed, but
also strong and brash.
Longing for understanding, I explain
but find I do not I convince.
Sunday, I stood with joyful pride.
Monday, I sobbed.
Tuesday brought recovery, excitement, and peace.
Wednesday was an oxymoron of mutual understanding and admiration,
followed by some dismissal, and questioning stares.
Thursday, today, brought another trip down
The Great River Road
and a grayness that
revealed all my emotions Since Sunday.
Perhaps, it is the grayness of Maundy Thursday or the burning of Notre Dame
that has colored my day.
Perhaps, it is more personal than that.
Perhaps, it is the erosion and flood waters that flanked my path.
Perhaps, it is more personal than that.
All I know is that I have seen Gray Since Sunday.
The Apples in My Orchard 
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