Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Stuff gets done here

recent posts

  • Goes around, comes around

    A while ago, I had a lovely lunch with a friend. I brought her a very small vase with a couple of dahlia blooms from my garden.

    Last week at our Nia dance class, she returned the vase with these pretty pink blooms, geraniums, I think.

    I put the vase in the cup holder in my van but forgot to bring it in when I got home. Next day when I got in the car the blooms were so bright and welcoming I decided to just leave the vase there and see how long the flowers lasted. It’s been seven days. They still look fresh.

    Every time I get in the car they make me smile. They remind me how a small gesture can linger on and on.

  • Slow down

    It’s dark now at 6 a.m. Summer has flown by, rich in big moments for my family — love and death and tenderness. And all around us, as always, the great cacophony of the world.

    Autumn’s coming, chill mornings, heavier skies. Before letting summer go I want to savor a few moments, not the big ones but the quiet ones.

    Coming around a bend on the Stockholm Archipelago Trail last June, we noticed this bent pine close to the water. A fleeting view on a walk along a distant shore, it rings now in my mind like a deep-voiced bell.

  • Joyful noise

    I’ve been to a few concerts over the decades, big names, medium names, small wonderful names.

    But seeing Jon Batiste last night at the incomparable Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene, was the first time I ever saw a performer get a standing ovation for just walking on the stage at the opening of the concert.

    What a joy to get to see his talent shining in real time and space. The image above came at the end of the concert, right before Batiste and his troop moved off the stage in a New-Orleans-style dancing march through the audience.

    He started the concert alone at the piano. For me, his artistry and his deep love of people and of music, will continue to resonate.