Simplify with just a couple of flowers. You don't have to do a whole big arrangement.

We have a couple arrangements of piano pieces, a xylophone rag or two, an arrangement of an orchestral piece, an arrangement of a piece from an opera composer, and a quartet for mallet percussion and some other percussion.

As soon as I turned the key I saw it hanging, the color of fire and sunset. the colour of flamboyant flowers. ‘If you are buried under a flamboyant tree, ‘ I said, ‘your soul is lifted up when it flowers. Everyone wants that.’

She shook her head but she did not move or touch me.

Simplify, simplify.

I imagined that a better world would be less complicated, less involved, and with less need to mass produce doorknobs and lock sets, electric outlets, power cords, frozen chicken wings, packages of steak, rubber bands, and a million little foam earbuds that slip over the broadcasting end of an iPod. I'd stand staring at Jenna's room, the recycling porch, and imagine what my life would be like if I could squeeze all my worldly possessions into a space like that.

It's a big couple of months for me.