Happy Monday! And Happy June 1^st! Last night I finished scoring the last group of poems for Kakalak 2026. I need to let them simmer for day before I look at them again and finally upload them to the publisher, but it feels good to have that part of the process complete. I celebrated.

Does this look familiar? Do you or did your mom or grandma have one? This is my button tin but the one holding my heart was my grandma’s button tin. (And they always seem to be tins, don’t they.) Mine is purely functional; Grandma’s was a toy. I liked the sensation of scooping the buttons with my hands, hearing them cascade back into the Danish Butter Cookies ‘treasure chest.’ It did seem like a treasure chest, especially with some of the more unusual buttons. I have a couple of them.

If you look closely, you’ll see three buttons covered in leather weaving. They look like buttons off the cuff or breast of a man’s corduroy or tweed jacket. I can almost picture my grandpa having the corduroy, but I can imagine Grandma wearing both! Another button I have from her cache is a wooden ball with swipes of yellow, red, and green paint, giving the appearance of Chinese alphabet characters. I wish I knew what that one once graced.

One button I don’t have from her collection is a black one with a ‘rhinestone’ in the center. That was a favorite and I’d try to wear it like a diamond. Of course, there was no way to actually keep it on my ring finger, I had to squeeze it between that finger and my pinky (which is famously short) by the eyelet on the back. The diamond was a bit off-center but when you’re five or six-years-old one can still imagine a brilliant centerpiece on your finger.

I thought of button tins a while back when a friend and I were discussing current affairs. She remarked she didn’t really watch much news–especially politics–because it just didn’t interest her … then immediately launched into one social issue that really does bug her. She made her case and point for several minutes while I said nothing. She finally chuckled and said, “I guess that’s not something you think too much about.” I laughed and admitted, ‘Not really too much.’ then thought to myself, it’s just not one of my buttons. Though I respect and understand why the issue is one of hers.

I do have a button (or two or three) of my own and one is LGBTQ rights and equality. June is LGBTQ Pride month–whether federally recognized or not–so as we begin this month, I reflect on the continued need for this designation: protection and support. I have enough LGBTQ family and friends, that if I were to count them on my fingers and toes … I’d run out of fingers and toes. Yet even if I didn’t witness first-hand the effects of the hatred and restrictive legislation targeting this community, I’d hop on my soapbox. My Catholic Church has its faults, but my Catholic faith teaches me to treat others with dignity, especially those in the margins. Unfortunately, those in the margins are usually treated with less. Because of my intimate circle of family and friends, my awareness of LGBTQ prejudice is heightened all the time, but during Pride Month I turn away from those trying to hurt them and focus more on the reasons to celebrate them. So, to my family and friends, Happy Pride Month!

I think it’s important to have our buttons pushed occasionally. The energy spurs us to do something constructive — protest, donate, vote, but most importantly make the time to talk and listen to each other. Another game I played with Grandma’s buttons was finding the matches. I had to pay attention because sometimes the differences were so subtle, buttons looked more alike than different. Maybe when we talk and listen about our own ‘buttons’ we’ll discover we’re more similar than different, too.

If today is the first day of June, then obviously yesterday was the last day of May. Two years ago, it was the day Hubby and I finally entered the plaza at the Cathedral of Santiago. We were tired, crying, in disbelief, exuberant. We sat on the sun-warmed pavers over an hour hardly talking, simply watching other pilgrims enter with similar expressions of awe at the sight of the cathedral, and in what had been accomplished, no matter where they started. Last night we celebrated. The more time passes, the stronger the pull to return.

Since I didn’t do a Book Review Monday! last week, I’ll be back next week with an extra one. It’s an older book, but one a Grand and I both enjoyed. As my Rowdy Readers group transitions into something else, my oldest Grand and I Zoom book club each week. I bought her a bookmark with the saying, ‘A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.’ I’m doing my part to be one and encouraging her to become one.

For the first time in a few years, Hubby and I aren’t traveling anywhere big this summer. Awaiting Grand #9 is part of that! With Kakalak moving into its next phase, for the next several weeks I’ll have more time to play in the dirt and plant bushes where I’ve whacked privet, and make final tweaks to my own poems for the Sisters’ collection.

How will you be spending your summer? I have to admit, I’m a bit envious of those of you traveling across country by RV and Harley-Davidson three-wheelers (you know who you are). I hope all of you have a great week wherever you are, doing whatever makes your heart happy. See you on Monday.