A man I hardly know

Wanted to stop by with his brother.

He’s a freindly chap who helps his girlfriend

With Open Studios.

Something I participated in

About two years ago….

Turns out he’d like to find a two bedroom

To rent in Lyons….and

His brother who lives in LA

Had just been on a Buddhist retreat

So, I asked him what he had discovered and

He said

“The magic in everyday life”

And walking over the bridge- he mentions

The sound of the water.

Spirit beings will show up when needed-

BIrds and Birders and Beings

Swooping in here unexpectedly

Restoring the balance.

“““““““““““““““““““`

Ram Das – said-

We are “just” walking Each Other Home…

No small thing this kind of stroll

“““““““““““““““““““`

I scrape the pealing paint from the bridge

Wearing an old blue shirt

Like my dad used to wear

Working on the boat-always in need of repair.

It’s my heart today in need of repair

Someone I love is suffering

She says- the hardest – is the uncertainity.

It never feels like enough to be a witness

But it’s the best we’ve got.

“Swing low- sweet charoit

Coming for to carry me home

Swing low sweet chariot- coming

for to carry me home.” I hum—feeling

The sound of my voice in the empty air

“A band of angels lookin after me”

And so it is….

This journey we are on together

Into the unknown- an unknown

( most likely) we are totally familiar with

But on this side of things – it’s a gate

A mysterious other.

Present in this moment

Is all there is- ever..

As my friend Bobby says….

I love you always and forever.

I kiss you America

I kiss you awake

And oh it hurts to feel

How we have gone asleep at the wheel

Careening down the road

So much damage – we don’t even know…

But on the personal level…..

I know this amazing group of women( in their 70’s)

Elders in my town.. who quietly are doing the work.

The steward of the labyrinth

Maintaining it’s earthie chi with grace

Or the wise women behind the creation

Of our local botanical garden with it’s wells trimmed paths.

Or my friend, who weekly organizes us to protest- sign in hand

Wearing Red White and Blue glasses….

We kiss you Awake- America.

Heart in hand- hand on heart.

““““““““““““““““““““

Painting by Childe Hassam

The Auenue in the Rain- 1917

Joanna Macy put it this way…

“It is a good thing to realize that falling apart

is not such a bad thing.

Indeed, it is essential to transformation

As the cracking of outgrown shells.

Anxieties and doubts can be creative

not only for the person

but for the society because

Our fears permit new approaches to reality.”

“What disintegrates in periods of rapid thransformation

Is not the self- but it’s defenses.

Self protection restricts vision

Going to pieces however uncomfortable

Can open us up to new perceptions”

“In our culture , despair is feared and resisted

Because it represents a loss of control

We dodge it by demanding instant solutions to problems

We seek a quick fix.

Acknowledging our despair

Involves telling the truth about what we see and feel-

Truth telling is like oxygen-

It returns us to health and vigor.”

“Pain for the world

The outrage and the sorrow

breaks us open to a larger sense of who we are.

It is the doorway

To our mutal belonging in the web of life”

You are not alone

We are part of a vast- global movement

The epochal transition from empire to Earth Community

This is the great Turning.

And the excitement , the alarm

Even the overwelm we feel

Are all part of our waking up to this collective adventure.

In the evening the cold air from the mountains

Swoops underneath the hot air of summer

I too am Katabatic

As I expand – into what is expanding in me

Pushing out

The tightly held old ways of being…..

What no longer serves.

Each dark night ( of the soul)

Removes one more chunk of the gunk

This weeks self portrait is only a temporary reflection,

Things are really moving.

Love’s got us – a strong wind in our hair

And on the water.

Watching the wren bring food to her babies

And listening to their tiny happy cheers

“Yeah a bug from mom”

My tuning forks healer ( lucky me)

Said “You have to feel it to heal it-

Those deep layers and it’s uncomfortable”

So much was buried until later-

” Well- later is now.”

The system wants balance as it wobbles….

Lightning strikes and pounds the sky.

Not mind- centic ( what I usually rely on)

It is the nature of nature itself

That can be trusted.

Bare feet on the ground.

Love Sally

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-pys5g-18d8593

Snake Medicine – the yin/yang of a marriage

It’s gifts and it’s “Oh My God are you kidding me?”

Last year on our anniversery John was bitten by a snake

A real show stopper…

But it was the return to being a dedicated partner that I needed.

In times of crisis –

It’s easy to set down ones burden basket

Being with the WHAT IS is such a relief.

The presence is a present.

We were married in a year of the snake

She is our quide- shed that old skin and begin again

But each year grow wiser- if you dare.

No wonder I am such a bad ass

According to my astologer …

My past life as an overly contained nun

Is now busting out at the seams…

With the same devotional quality- gone rogue.

““““““““““““““`

I am making a visual rosary

“Hail Mary Full of Grace”

(I took out sinners and Jesus too)

And people have asked me if I am catholic

And I haven’t understood

How this prayer found me… but it fits

In it’s the devotion to the feminine journey

Birth and death and return to birth.

I have done 54 blue and white drawings of her

As in 54 rosary beads…

Like clean laundry – drying in the sun.

Images of the Divine- She

Ours alone to claim or let go.

No rules, dogma or words…

Only HER.