8.15.15 How we become filled

Maui a few years ago, when my oldest got married. The lava so sharp beneath your feet, amazing that it had flowed from the fiery core of earth. 

The bright yellow tropical fish feeding all about the waters, darting in and out. 

My feet, warm, in the waves. The wind streaming past us, as my son stood watch. 

How we become filled by a moment, drinking it in, and then it remains within us, within reach, forever.

8.15.15 Bathing suits and shorts and superhero underwear

Summertime. when they woke up,
and put on their bathing suits or shorts
or superhero underwear

So they could drip watermelon down their chins and bellies and let it
stream down their legs

So down at the Mill River Pool, or in the back stream,
or the little puddle pool in the back yard
they could get wet and dry and wet and dry
all day long.

8.15.15 The realm of our unconscious inhabitation

Interesting how simply 

our intent can pull our thoughts and feelings

from the realm of unconscious inhabitation

out into the land of conscious awareness

making them then fair game  

for shifts, growth, change.  

8.15.15 "Tibi ipsi dic verum" To thine own self, speak the truth.

8.15.15 "Language covers up the visual thinking we share with animals. "

" Language covers up the visual thinking 

we share with animals ." 

Temple Grandin

 

8.15.15 As August rumbles slowly toward the middle of its time

     In the herb garden come evening , the dew grows heavy and nourishing to the dry soil, as August rumbles slowly toward the middle of its time. 
     It's now that I sometimes remember younger days, with younger children ; all that hubbub of saving the money for school clothes , supplies , thinking ahead of possible alluring breakfasts; lunches .
     Having the last Cape camping flings , allowing the last sleepovers , as we slowly moved our bedtimes back on track.
     Quietly making arrangements for tutors, helping them get into shape for tryouts, as each of them readied themselves for prime time , once again .
     Always I was grateful to be self-employed, so there was no need for them to be in summer programs 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. But rather, some volunteer work , some paid , and lots of lazy time off .
     Oh, life with kids is so on on.. And yet, in between the outrageous and the sublime, in retrospect it was all so fine .

8.13.15 the elegant blossoms

The Ruby Throated Hummingbird had a delicious breakfast this morning, on the elegant blossoms of the opal leafed Penstemon.

8.13.15 Where the clean stream was wrestling its way

Early, off we went, to the dark quiet evergreen forest. Where the clean summer stream was wrestling its way down the ravines toward the Connecticut

8.13.15 While walking along a path, along came a hiker with her two dogs

While walking along a path in South Amherst, as Dante raced about through the deep stream. , along came a hiker with her two dogs , acclimating herself to her backpack , in preparation for a several month hike . Think of that ! We talked about the day, her trip, and then off she went, a bounce to her step, as she disappeared into the forest .

8.13.15 Ah, the happiness summer brings.

8.13.15 This morning I woke to find

This morning  I woke to find the land awash in its soupy fog, all things softened ; the edges kinder , with the muted sounds of stream and wind , now and then the insistent call of lingering crows.

8.13.15 "Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary."

"Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. 
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. 
Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees 
every thousand years. 
Listen to carrion--put your ear close,
and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
                          Wendell Berry










"Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in their lap.
Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts."













"Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection. "

8.12.15 Those hot hot summer nights....

     I remember all the hot hot summer nights, sweat rolling off us all, putting my kids to bed upstairs, wish wishing there would come some kind of small breeze in through our night. 

     After getting them situated in various places,with the various needs, foot massages, stories, drinks, mishaps, struggles and end-of-day emotions, the older one heading up while the younger two were settling down, 

     well then I'd sit in the hallway with my 12 string, my song books, and they would make their requests. 

   This was always on the docket, with the youngest ones pealing away from their beds, the sweet story of Stewball, 'come a dancing and a prancing, out ahead of them all' .

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