what saves me

 spring is only eight weeks away.  have hope. there is a new day dawning.

The baby Osprey was crying-calling from the river nest yester then he/she flew to a nearby tree branch and mournfully cried some more~~’no parents were in sight at the Moment to bring her treats~~~ saw a GBHeron in the river and an adorable nuthatch on a nearby tree~~ these birds are what save me~~ marsh woman

I have been a way for a long time.  But I am back and will be sharing a lot of new writing in the very near future.  

Have hope. There is a new day dawning. Spring is only eight weeks away. The osprey will be returning. The hyacynth will be emerging. 

Titmice in the can. Morning doves in the box - safe home

Stay safe, take care, and we'll get through this time of coronavirus.  

Titmice in the can. Morning doves in the box.  Sounds like a secret code but it’s a confirmation of the sweetness that simple sights, sounds and objects bring when you are surrounded by a cold spring and safe at home

A qigong proverb says that ‘When the mind is distracted the qi scatters.”  When your mind is centered at home, and you are safe, you can gather your energy around you and feel the opposite of scattered. Many of us have had a variety of whirling experiences that quietly resolve themselves the way once turbulent water flows down an untroubled tributary. The whole cycle might have been essential to bring you to this place.

I know it is a terrific form of amnesia, which should have its own special name, that has me fall in love again and again with where I live.  Yesterday, the sky was low, snow felt near. As I walked down along the river it felt as if I were feeling this sense of loving the area for the first time. That is the sweetness of amnesia. The river of forgetfulness that Odysseus crossed caused troubles. This one causes us to be aware of sweet moments. I know that the complexity of life often has us scrambling and we can’t see to see.  When we forget to be present it’s a lot like squirrels storing acorns all over the place. The squirrels don’t remember where they are. Instinct tells them to save them. Their fine sense of smell works to find them. When sweet amnesia let’s another memory wash ashore it is from our store of good things that we either deliberately or forgetfully accumulate. 

On the long stretch home, I thought of my friend that walks the beach every morning.  On a daily basis I spend more of my time with the wetlands. It is where I live. In the winter I can see groups of buffleheads with their crisp black and white colors, or hear the starlings’ whistles, or see the swans that look like the boats we used to ride in Asbury Park when we were kids. They’re all there along the river. I didn’t have to remember them. But I did remember how lucky I feel to live here. John Burroughs wrote, “To find new things, take the path you took yesterday.” I did take the same path home and I remembered.

In the morning, I looked out and saw that a blanket of snow had covered everything. We had cleared a path for the birds so that the ground feeders could get some seed. It’s not a code, just to remind you how all of this began. The titmice are in the can of seed hanging from the shepherd’s crook and the morning doves are in the box lid we put on top of the snow and filled with seed. The squirrels can’t remember where their acorns are so they also make runs at the box. Their sweet sense of smell will wake with the warming spring.

aint' it the truth though

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean,
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minute,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity. 

–Julia A. Fletcher (1823–1908

plant a seed, teach the people

 never saw this quote.............with all the world in some kind of jeopardy, my mind first goes toward the global warming and then snaps back to the political..........the idea of planting trees, which was the key revolution for Kenya and the peace that people like Wangari Matthai brought to her country through a green, planting trees, civil action - seems mild and maybe not enough. But somewhere along the line of my life i remember reading a great poem that ended each new thought with 'that's enough' - or maybe I made that one up in my head. the idea was simple. that with each thoughtful, communal action, know that it was enough. it was what you could do then and there.  or maybe it was about blessings? that each good thing was enough to fulfill your life?  maybe that was it.  what is enough in terms of our personal wish to help with so many places, people and programs needing that support?  I don't know. But i never saw this quote and i really like the hope that's implied in our ability to create positive change - immediate and long term

plant a seed, teach the people

 never saw this quote.............with all the world in some kind of jeopardy, my mind first goes toward the global warming and then snaps back to the political..........the idea of planting trees, which was the key revolution for Kenya and the peace that people like Wangari Matthai brought to her country through a green, planting trees, civil action - seems mild and maybe not enough. But somewhere along the line of my life i remember reading a great poem that ended each new thought with 'that's enough' - or maybe I made that one up in my head. the idea was simple. that with each thoughtful, communal action, know that it was enough. it was what you could do then and there.  or maybe it was about blessings? that each good thing was enough to fulfill your life?  maybe that was it.  what is enough in terms of our personal wish to help with so many places, people and programs needing that support?  I don't know. But i never saw this quote and i really like the hope that's implied in our ability to create positive change - immediate and long term

after Stalking Wolf, Apache Elder, from I'm a moose

Grandmother, eagle woman and sister of the crow women

Who dance in circles that keep the eternal connection open and powerful - 

You have been a strong and constant presence in my life

 and I seek you when I go to my spirit home.

 I trust you and have deep respect for your presence.

 I feel the deep connections you have to the great spirits, the elements of living beings 

bodies of water, to the plants and trees, the movement of all with the wind and through

 their own unwinding energies.

Deep mother, grandmother, I’m grateful for your presence in my life.

Teach me to surrender the energies that do me no good to the column of wind and fire that 

turns with the crow woman’s dancing and keeps the eternal connections between the worlds.

Show me how to be tenacious and use the energies I have to move like the rivers, to bend

wth their flow, to follow the trails and winding movement of streams, under the sun and 

moon toward the place where you sit and hold us in an embrace of love and wings.

everything is a weave

If you would imagine the visual and physical weaving and changing and shifting and fractaling of everything that is memory, life as it is, time, living, the mundane, the sun or wind, the sounds of birds; or even Molly's chortle - all are a part of our interior worlds. All are a facet that we can pull from that brain or heart or combination thereof that is warmed by the channels of our blood and comes to our ability to talk it or share it somehow through the fusion of electrical energy and our shaping it through the wheel of our beings. Geesh. It's just a flat out miracle really.  All of everthing in the interior of our brains and souls and spirits, that is what I saw as Mrs. Scattergood's world and wanted to share through the narrator's voice in riding the waves. The relationship we have with the world around us includes nature. It includes the air, the wind, the earth we touch. But we forget that we touch earth. Instead, many people walk around and pay no mind to the earth beneath them.  Of course, even those who do make the connection and have the awareness of the earth, of nature, and the elements, aren't always connected to that awareness.  It's probably not possible to always have that awareness riding alongside the walking and traveling you must do; or the interactions you have throughout your day.  My wish though is that somewhere in everyone's day, at least one moment was connected to earth, to nature, to feeling the wind or any element that is the life of the planet. If we're not connected it's hard to care. The more connected, the more care.  I am riding this believe.  That's my wave today.