My weekly installment of an excerpt from my novel. A day late this week. Sorry ’bout that.

“Maybe? Right now I just wish I could just go back to being my old self before I met you.”

“Russell, do you really wish that? I’m seeing somebody changing, like a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon. Growth is hard. Very hard. I have hit many bumps in the road like you’re now experiencing. Believe me, I have. But the good news is, it gets better. Are you really in love with me?”

“Yes, no, I mean I don’t really know. I don’t think I even really know what love is. I just told my sister that I loved her, and she acted weird. I don’t think I ever told anyone I loved them. God, Hanna, I feel like such a mess.”

 Slow days of winter.
 Long nights of darkness.
 Meditate.

Main Street.
Empty.
I go to the desert.

Happy New Year . . . 

 A new year comes.
 A old year goes.
 So what’s new with you?

I have an added note to my daily Haiku posting today. Yesterday I picked up a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s latest book, “Three Simple Lines” which is about her trip to Japan researching the Haiku Masters Basho, Shiki, Issa, Buson, et al. Just in the first few pages I have gained a new insight to the art of Haiku. The biggest one is that it does not have to adhere to the five-seven-five syllable lines as I was taught back in a college lit class. The other is that it is not only just three simple lines, but three simple lines that convey a message that can be taken either literally or with a deeper meaning of the Zen mind. So for now, Happy New year and here is today’s Haiku for your thoughtful pleasure.

The old man plods slowly 
with his gnarled stick.
The mountain was high.