Rainy Dais Newsletter: Summer Solstice 2026

Daisy and Sean-Martin at the Boise Center in Idaho for a Wassmuth Center Fundraiser - 2023

Well, folks, my husband and I did a thing. We sold our house in Idaho and moved to the 'Couve! Apparently, that's what the locals call Vancouver, Washington--not to be confused with Vancouver, Canada. And yes, believe it or not, Sean-Martin IS smiling in this picture.

Please accept my apologies for having to forgo this year’s spring newsletter, but everything changed for us so quickly. We got an offer on our house in six days, and you’d' have thought our butts caught fire. Somehow, we were able to put legs on this whole venture and get ourselves packed up and on the road in barely a month.

I didn’t write anything—nary a shopping list—for almost two months, let alone a newsletter!

On March 28th, our 28th wedding anniversary, we packed up the moving truck, kissed the best real estate agent in the world goodbye (LOVE YOU, ROSLYN!) and celebrated by changing our whole dang lives.

We’re enjoying apartment living, the gorgeous scenery, the cooler climate and living on the Columbia River. Spending time with our grandbaby boy (Wiggle) has been a gift. We only wish we could have brought all the people we love with us, starting with our other two grandbabies. (Giggle and Squiggle.) We’re also looking forward to yet another change. Our FOURTH grandbaby will be landing on this planet sometime this December. So, if y’all can think of any other ‘Iggle’ names, we’d sure like to hear them since we are running out of appropriate options.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably figured out that I’ve also changed my website! I hope you like it! I hope you’ll check in often and recommend it to your friends and family, especially if they’re readers, writers, educators and/or advocates for a better, kinder, safer world.

Change like this can be exciting—especially when you're largely in control of the circumstances and your agency is intact. But there is so much uncertainty these days and folks in this country and around the world are facing changes that have been imposed upon them, and that is absolutely terrifying. I don’t know about you, but I, for one, am finding it increasingly difficult to change my debilitating trepidation and fear into actionable courage and hope.

But I must.

We must.

I want the best possible future for ALL of our children and ALL of their grownups!

I love this quote which is often attributed to St. Augustine:

Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are Anger and Courage.

Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

Those who have front row seats into our lives have borne witness to every time we’ve lost our damn minds over the state of the world and the toll it’s taken. But they’ve also seen how we’ve shown up. I don’t know about you, but I’m all over the place. There are days I feel like maybe I’m making a tiny dent in all this injustice and, by lunchtime, I’m seriously questioning my own sentience. But we are here… in this timeline… on this planet. And we must meet the moment.

I have found great strength and comfort from a poem by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes called:

We Were Made for These Times

Click on that title and give it a read. If you love it, let me know. If it gives you the strength to find that delicate balance between anger and courage, let somebody else know. If you’d like to invite your friends and family to subscribe to this newsletter, please feel free to invite them at www.daisyrainmartin.com.

I’ll check back in the fall.

Love y’all,