I just dug up the dead stump of a bush that bloomed beautifully near our front porch for many years including the day Julian was born – our first spring in Boston in 2006.

For many years, the flowers were a signal of Julian’s birthday and the arrival of spring.
Over the last four or five years the bush slowly flowered less and finally died.
This morning I took out an axe and pick and pulled up the stump. It came out of the ground in less than 10 minutes.

I was looking for a song to fit my feelings. Flower’s grave by Tom Waits felt like the right choice.
Lots of cycles of change in our world now. I am doing my best to keep my balance and perspective in the middle of it.


Someday the silver moon and I will go to dreamland
I will close my eyes and wake up there in dreamland
And Tell me who will put flowers on a flower’s grave?
Who will say a prayer?
Will I meet a China rose there in dreamland?
Or does love lie bleeding in dreamland?
Are these days forever and always?
And if we are to die tonight
Is there a moonlight up ahead?
And if we are to die tonight
Another rose will bloom
For a faded rose
Will I be the one that you save?
I love when it showers
But no one puts flowers
On a flower’s grave
As one rose blooms and another will die
It’s always been that way
I remember the showers
But no one puts flowers
On a flower’s grave
And if we are to die tonight
Is there a moonlight up ahead?
I remember the showers
But no one puts flowers
On a flower’s grave
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