There are those of us
who converse with Earth,
and listen to her songs.
All beings have a truth to tell.
We all must listen well.
CRR
10- 8-17
I created this scene beneath the shrubs beside my house as we were taking the last of the hurricane shutters down yesterday. I saw the shrooms as a miniature world and knew the wise man had a place there.
Peace and Love
My dear friend Becky and I often share books we’ve discovered and loved. Most recently she shared “Autumn”, the first of four anticipated, seasonal titled volumes of reflections by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard, in which he describes the material and natural world to his unborn daughter with such immersive depth and detail that it moved me (once again) to reflect on how much goes unnoticed as we race from point A to Point B and down our “to do” lists each day. Between arising each morning and collapsing each evening, we’re often blessed to find a moment here or there to take notice, but oh the marvels, the layers, the connections, the joys, and the beauties we must miss.
But just how interesting could reading about a thermos be? As much as war, twilight, mouths, willows, loneliness and rubber boots? My answer is yes, so this is part book review/recommendation, part self-admonition and partly a beckoning to you dear readers. Although I was tempted a couple of times to skip the entries about such things as adders and petrol, I’m so glad I didn’t. For one, I wasn’t at all familiar with the adder since it’s not native to North America. And like me, I bet if you think about it you remember contemplating the liquid rainbow you noticed on the pavement as a young child.
Having finished Autumn, I look forward to Knausgaard’s second volume in this series, “Winter”, set to be published next year. Until then, I’m going to strive to slow down. If just for a stolen daily moment or two, I want to look deeper, listen harder, and open my whole self with intention, so that more of what’s out there, all around, beside, between and connecting us, can be revealed to me. I wish the same for you.
Peace and Love
I was tidying up my home office this afternoon (envision piles of books, journals, clippings, etc.”) and revisited this children’s book. “The Three Questions”, written and illustrated by Jon J. Muth and based on a story with the same name, written by Leo Tolstoy. It’s a beautiful adaptation that answers three extremely important questions relevant to both children and adults.
1. When is the best time to do things? We struggle with this every day. The uncertainty of whether we should do this thing now or whether we should wait and see if this other thing happens first.
2. Who is the most important one? I know I’m here now with this person but maybe I should be somewhere else. How can I be sure that this is where I should be and time well spent?
3. What is the right thing to do? Oh my, this is a big one! Our head may say one thing and our heart another. And of course everyone else has an opinion too.
I’m going to go ahead and spoil it for you because I know not everyone is going to rush out and buy the book. Leo and Jon, (yes, we’re on a first name basis) wrote in different worlds, over 100 years apart from each other but both answer the three questions in the same way. The best time to do things is now. Now is the most important time. The most important one is the one that you’re with. And the right thing to do, the most important thing to do is to do good. In the words of Jon J. Muth, “That’s why we are here.” That’s it people. You, me, all of us, we’re just here to do good. I’ll leave you with those thoughts and the reminder that kindness is contagious. Rub it all over your hands and spread it. Spread it real good. Our world is aching for it.
Peace and Love
Are there mountains on your ocean floor?
Unseen heights of sunken dreams,
castles of orphaned wishes
tossed into wells of hope?
Dirigibles of leaden doubt,
waiting to be melded by beams of light,
into the multicolored hues of possibility
that spread North from the horizon each morn?
Dive deep today.
Climb high.
For it is there,
in that forgotten place
that your treasure awaits.
Whether you woke up today in a jail cell or a penthouse in paradise, alone or in someone’s arms, heart overflowing with joy or erupting with grief, the sun is rising again, creating and sustaining life again, and we have only 2 choices. To allow today to unfold in the exact same way we always have, or choose for it to be different. Even when incarcerated and seemingly choiceless, we have that freedom. The one that makes all the difference. Choose one thing. Smile at a stranger. Chat up your grocery bagger. Walk the opposite way around the park. Challenge your body or your brain. Make that call. Listen to the song of silence, even when, especially when, you’d rather not. Smile at your reflection. Remind yourself of your great worth. Rise up and be sun. Shine the light you seek. And at the end of this day may you sleep well, rinse and repeat.
CRR
9-24-17
As I held the ladder and drill for my hubs, I kept getting distracted by the flitting, diving and dancing of butterflies and dragonflies in our back yard. Much to his chagrin, I said “I swear they’re speaking to me!” I mean who can blame him? Nobody wants a looney-tunes wife. But I know they were there for a reason, as symbols of endurance, hope, change and the deeper meaning of life, their message was clear to me. No matter what occurs, the sun’s gonna rise tomorrow and there will be beauty and goodness to be found.
Peace and Love
One year later. Some things never change. I could have written this last night.
Peace and Love
She doesn’t listen. She’s impudent that way, my muse. Coming and going as she pleases seemingly without a thought of the repercussions for me. So familiar. Is she me or I her? A question for the ages, the slowly aging from lack of sleep, and the up for hours mid-night. I awake wondering what she wants, mind ricocheting from one byte of memory to another. Is she intuitive? Does she foresee? Might she simply be attuned to the body she inhabits or am I experiencing the effects of Mercury in retrograde? I’m not completely sure what that even means but we are all part of the cosmic portrait, the energy of the universe. Atoms dancing in invisible valences with ghostly attractions and all. I’ve ruled out indigestion, heartburn and physical pain. There’s no bun in the oven doing somersaults. No caffeine aftermath. Perhaps she has something of value to say…
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The cancer of hate cannot be cured by the razing of monuments or the National Guard. Its legacy envelopes our pure and precious babies, infects institutions and poisons the rivers of love that nourish souls. The vitriolic vocabulary of hate turns hearts to stones that we hurl at the “others”. The blighted run-off of hate pollutes our ground water and infects history’s open wounds. Hate-mongers and terrorists among us propagate fear in people too conjoined to screens to notice the underlying decay of a society. What will remain when our amniotic legacy becomes toxic? How will one find shelter beneath a leafless tree of life, poisoned by its own caretakers, the spores of love no longer carried by the winds? How many of us are willing to shine our lights onto the shadows of those who seek to destroy what they do not understand? In the words of Chet Powers,
Love is but the song we sing
Fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why
Come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
Some will come and some will go
We will surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment’s sunlight
Fading in the grass.
Come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
Come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
If you hear the song I sing
You will understand, listen
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command
Come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
I said, come on, people now
Smile on your brother, everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Right now, right now.
Songwriters: Chet Powers
Get Together lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Listen to this song at https://youtu.be/tsxVGb2d9dw
Peace and love
CRR
8-19-17
Through neon noise
and simmering static.
Fragments of images
splashing on the screen,
signals crossed and split
amongst summer storm clouds,
yet a harbinger of hope appears,
calling us to action.
Carry on the good fight
you heroes and heroines.
The world needs your heart,
your love,
your light to shine
and spread peace.
CRR 8-3- 17
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*Photo credit -Coleman Carnegie Langshaw
I take lots and lots of pictures with my iPhone. I have a hard time deciding which ones to let go of, so I just buy more storage on that mysterious “cloud”. An incredibly large percentage of my photos, those that aren’t of the most beautiful grandchildren in the world, (I’m a very, very young Mimi) are of the sun. Setting, rising, just shining its light and being the awesome life giving star that it is. I’ve forgiven it for my smidgen of skin cancer. I mean, you play with fire, sans Coppertone because it didn’t exist way back when, you’re bound to get burned. The good news is that it was all excised and not on my face, although it was dangerously close to my new fake boobs. Whew! Dodged a bullet on that one! Even better news is that I have a good supply of super duper ($$$$) scar cream left over from that particular augmentation and I purchased a new arsenal of SPF 50 beach clothing. Anyway, back to the sun speaking to me. Not in the “out loud and I might need a psychiatrist and meds” kind of way, just in an inspiring way. I don’t usually know what I’m going to say about a particular sun photo, I just know there’s something to say and I look at the picture and write. Maybe my words and photo will speak to someone else too. Maybe you.
Peace and Love
