Sunday, May 23, 2010

Vivaldi, the gift of an Iris and a windy Sunday!


The wind again is fierce!! It raged all day yesterday, all night last night and started up in full force again today. It is totally miserable. The roof is buckling and the sheep shed roof is almost all in another county by now. I don't ever remember wind so intense, so strong for so long.

I decided to stay inside today rather than work in the garden. The wind is just to strong but when I was out earlier with the dogs (I could hardly stand up and my teeth gathered grit) I noticed a beautiful yellow iris blooming. I have moved, cared for and talked to those bulbs for nearly eight years and this is the first time they have blossomed. It sits amid the beautiful, and ever encroaching catnip. both are a sampling of of today's gifts.
As the wind howls and bangs things I am savoring Vivaldi, the quiet of the day inside and the joy of just being.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dreams


A day to dream? "Our true desires come from our heart and soul, and we need to honor and trust them. Life guides us in the direction it wants us to go through our deep longing. Our desires motivate us to move along our path, learning, growing and developing our unique form of creative expression. Our dreams guide us to the fulfillment of our life purpose." From Creating True Prosperity by Shakti Gawain.

Calling the dreams...the divine sparks to motivate me to fulfillment and life purpose.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

May 13, 2010, snow again!




Yes, it snowed again and even stuck for a while. My little crab apple tree is stylishly adorned with oodles of pink blossoms. She is beautiful. She reminds me that I too can blossom...I just need to do it.

Now this is the scene this morning outside the door...

Needless to say I was not anxious to go outside.


I recently fell from a step ladder and injured a knee. This while quite inconvenient and not fun, has given me time to sit, and sit...and sit...and during that sitting I have been quite introspective and done a bit of reading. The book that spoke the most to me was Atchafalaya Houseboat by Gwen Roland. It is set in a swamp in Louisiana where she (with a partner) built her own home and lived for ten years in relative isolation. She talks about the summer...the heat...July..."We consider the sandbar our office, since we show up there each morning about the same time people in civilization head out for work. Stretched full length upon the damp floor of the executive suite, we firm up the plans for the rest of the day. Some chores call the shots themselves. If the blackberry wine is read for bottling or the elderberries are ready for picking, we have no choice. Tomatoes that were too green for making ketchup yesterday will be overripe tomorrow and so must be cooked today.

If no such crucial matters are pending, we may decide to put the quilting frame in a shady spot for some leisurely patching of our old quilts. Or perhaps a slab of dry cypress will be clamped into the vice under the cottonwoods for some paddle making. Plans made, meeting adjourned, we swim back home.

The planned chores finished early, and the hot part of the day is frittered away by eating and swimming, writing and swimming or just napping and swimming. We make no excuses to anyone. In the late summer the Basin is too hot for anyone who would be shocked by our lack of clothes or ambition. By 9:00 am birdsongs of early morning have been stifled and are replaced by the drone of a single bumble bee drilling into a porch rafter or a cackle announcing that another member of the egg detail has finished her work and is signing out to fluff herself into one of the hen sized holes under the dogwoods...

But with the first hesitant breath of evening, the suffocating stillness loosens its grip on the throat of the swamp. We shake off the drowsiness with a final swim and make a trip to the garden for a half dozen ears of corn and some tomatoes. A boat ride to our crosslines will finish up the supper shopping."

I want to live with that verve, that simplicity...savoring each day, hot, cold, or otherwise...celebrating meals and the day itself rather than rushing and pointlessly squandering my time here on earth. They live on a barge in a swamp! I am ready to move to LA today!

I also experienced this beautiful simplicity in Central America and Africa...I seem to really lose it here. Need some direction...thank you Gwen for the great insights and wonderful feelings of peace.



Sunday, May 2, 2010

Life is not tidy

Rumer Godden said that "It was the small things that helped, taken one by one and savoured...make yourself savour them..." from A House with Four Rooms.
This quote speaks to me especially this morning as on May 2nd, I have awakened to more snow! As I went outside with the dogs I felt at first that I was very, very tired of snow and cold. Then I mellowed into the moment and as each delicate flake swirled around me and landed on me I was able to appreciate. I was overcome with awe for these little flakes swirling all around me and enveloping me. In the moment, even thought I felt at first that May should be snow free, I was able to savour that special moment...in snow!



The dogs have taken up their post as Chipmunk purveyor and watchers. They drive me nuts! They are obsessed with the little creatures. There seem to be many more this year as well...everywhere in the yard. Max and Roo watch, and obsessively chase when outside. I fear gardening will be a real challenge even if the weather relents!