from Veronica

Veronica says "I've been going to Evanston every Wednesday for a few months. On Lake Shore Drive, a little bit north of the North Avenue bridge, is a long stretch of grass next to the lagoon. One day I saw a stand of yellow trees. I thought that they were newly budded weeping willows. But then slightly further up the road I saw huge, mature trees in yellow and blue! Every time I passed those trees I wanted to see them up close. So today I did. I took the North Avenue exit. I had to drive pretty far to find a parking space and found myself at Lincoln Park Zoo. I walked through the zoo and back tracked until I found the trees. On my way I saw the lions, reindeer and a South American mountain goat. I followed a path to exit the zoo and finally was upon them. Magnificent dancing trees! I took several pictures with my phone. I wanted to take pictures further back, but as I was walking I got attacked by some orioles, apparently guarding their nest. They not only swooped down on me but also pecked me on the neck. I wasn't hurt, though and it made me laugh.

I walked back through the zoo. I visited the penguin house. I stopped to look at the black rhino and talked to the keeper for a while. I actually learned something.

A perfect way to "follow the day" as Marcel liked to remark. "

from Rick

Rick says "We were at Marcel's place at Queen of Heaven on his birthday, climbing trees, trying to get a Spiderman kite stuck in the nearest one, planting pinwheels that radiated out from where he lies to all the surrounding sites, and laughing and crying. How else to spend the day? Joying in his existence (and mystic presence), and grieving at his absence."

from Justin

from Lindsie

Lindsie says " my trusty accomplice, mike, and i spent the wee hours drinking whiskey, watching owls, and playing music in trees. marcel, as ever, was an inspiration for a beautiful night."

from Abby, Ann and Ben

from Jenny

Jenny says "once marcel and i spent an afternoon up on bernal hill in san francisco. i come here frequently and sit and remember him. aside from great views, bernal has tons of angular trees and steep hillsides to climb around."

from Chris and Autumn and kids

Chris says " I really wanted to climb one of these very special old oak trees on our farm in Iowa. When we went to shoot the photos, it looked like getting up in the tree would not be possible. I reached for my inner Marcel, found some foot holds and climbed. Getting down was a different story."

from Michael and Tom

Michael says " As you know we've been on the road for the past month (rather Marcelish in of itself). A couple nights ago we ended up at a BBQ in Des Moines. Tom picked up a guitar and led a group of strangers through House of the Rising Sun. I entertained a few ideas (tree climbing, wrestling with Tom, taking something apart) but settled on drawing a cubeman into the dirt on the back of our van. "

from Colin

from Ed

from Cindy

Cindy says "Thinking of Marcel while holding my guitar which he sometimes played too. Remembering him with a smile for his kind soul and creative spirit."

from Carl

from Tony (and Lucy)

from Stephanie

Stephanie says "This tree may not look like a daring, Marcel-ish one to climb... but I did try to find one of those. And I fell out of that tree... So I decided I needed to try a tree with some history. This is one near my house in Oak Park and I climbed in regularly back in grade school. I also carved my initials in it (yes, very shameful. bad child Stephanie) and you can kind of still see them in the branch I'm sitting on (so sorry, tree!). I decided to take the photo with my copy of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek because when I last visited Marcel in St. Louis, he was reading it and spoke very enthusiastically about it and since he was always spot on about these things, I went out and picked it up."

from Seth

Seth says "Here is a photo of me and my Dad Wayne playing Go - a game that Marcel taught me and I taught to my Dad. We play often. "