Planned another hiking post today but found this and its message seemed too important to ignore.
life
Gratitude
Thanksgiving brings so many thoughts, including thoughts about the divisive political discourse in the country now. However, it seems more productive and in keeping with the day to focus on gratitude. As I write this I think of both personal and broader things for which I am grateful, one of which is that I live in a country where divisive political discourse can actually and legally occur. Now to the more personal (even though I think the personal is political, I will not focus on that)–here is my starter list:
-my family–daugher, son, and grandson; daughter and grandson will join me shortly to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
-my mother’s pumpkin pie recipe which my grandson will help me prepare when he arrives; he says it is the only pumpkin pie he really likes.
-my job which I truly love–teaching public high school; my students frequently make my day.
-where I live in beauty truly on the Rim of Wonder.
-my health
-my friends
-my ability to travel to all sorts of fascinating places
-a life I love
Gifts–Isabella and Roses
For the last month DJ Knopick-Barrett, the Production Manager for Amarillo Opera, has stayed with me–her third time to do so. When she was last here, in early summer, she took hikes with my dog Isabella. I had no idea she had also photographed her. Isabella died not long before DJ arrived this time.
DJ said her goodbyes this morning and I left for work. She had a late morning flight. When I returned home from work today, I was touched nearly to the point of tears. DJ not only had photographed Isabella, she had enlarged the photo and framed it.
Memory
“People always remember things the way they want to remember them instead of the way it was….” Mira Ptacin.
Dream
“A dream is a wish your heart makes.”
anonymous child
Gratitude by Esther Nelson
Here in the USA I hear so much complaining even about trivia and so little gratitude. I have also come to realize that gender still defines so much, limits what girls in particular think they can accomplish; girls still try to, as this essay notes, “make nice”, often failing to accomplish all they can be. It remains remarkable and a puzzle, as this essay notes, how some people can rise above negative circumstances while it destroys others.
I’ve been in the midst of moving for almost a year, yet am still not finished with that onerous task. My youngest son and family recently moved into the place I’ve called home since 1980. I bought a small house in the vicinity and have just settled in after spending four months painting, cleaning, and hauling box after box to my new dwelling. At the same time, I’ve been traveling back and forth to New Mexico busy with painting, cleaning, and remodeling my “retirement house.”
I’m tired. Am also experiencing emotions that I thought I was impervious to. I never perceived myself as somebody having an attachment to place, but a month or so before moving out of my old home, I began to feel nostalgic. There was so much I didn’t want to leave behind–the woods, birds nesting in bushes around the property as well as on top of…
View original post 965 more words
Sacred
Warm summer raindrops on my face
Crimson cardinal drinking in blue birdbath
Feather grass waving in the wind
Last lavender and white iris before first frost
Cups of coffee from Chiapas at 6 in the morning
The sunning rattlesnake lying by my feet
Horses running wild and free
Facebook messages from friends far away
Waterfall’s roar after the thunderstorm
Night songs–coyote, cricket, nighthawk, frogs, hoot owl
Life
Modern Politics and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Who would think that a Mexican woman who wrote poetry more than three hundred years ago would have anything applicable to today’s political arena? About one and one half years ago, my daughter returned from a business trip with a little gift, a translation of Sor Juana’s work. It is not the sort of literature I sit down and read all the way through. It is deep, questioning, the sort of literature you savor here and there. A few minutes ago I opened the book once again to read one of her ballads–typically referred to as romances. However, this is not exactly a romance. It reads:
“One who is sad criticizes
the happy man as frivolous;
and one who is happy derides
the sad man and his suffering.
The two philosophers of Greece
offered perfect proofs of this truth;
for what caused laughter in one man
occasioned tears in another.
The contradiction has been framed
for centuries beyond number,
yet which of the two ways was correct
has so far not been determined;
instead, into two factions
all people have been recruited,
temperament dictating which
band each person will adhere to.”
This is only a small portion of the ballad. It is ballad 2 in the translation by Edith Grossman. The introduction to the book is by one of my favorite authors (I have read all her books published to date), Julia Alvarez.
Instructions for Life
touch sky
reach stars
sing to moon
dance in rain
whirl with wind
be bold, brave
make life matter
Four Reasons We Need To Reclaim The Power of the Divine Feminine Now by Mary Petiet
Why is the divine feminine so important? What does it promote that values others, our planet? This says everything I could have said myself.
(Spoiler alert: She’s already here)
The power of the divine feminine taps into the power of life. The power is accessible to everyone as the equal opportunity energy surrounding and connecting all living things. The power is ancient, and meditative practices such as yoga, which in Sanskrit means linking to the divine, can connect us to this power. When we make the connection, we find the balance we need to realize our highest selves, and through that balance we can realize the highest self of the larger society. To reclaim the divine feminine, we need only remember, and as more and more of us remember, we heal first ourselves, and ultimately the planet.
1. She is the route back to the self.
In her mother aspect the divine feminine offers a route back to the self and She is all-inclusive. She embraces all of creation, men, women and nature, and we…
View original post 501 more words
