Feathered

"Birds do not cling for long. Earth is but half way for them, midway between the ancient waters of their genesis and the heavenly winds of a brief lifetime. They are messengers between here and there, binding humus and heaven, at home in both places. I need the sight of their flight. Birds penetrate the sky's depth, drawing invisible patterns, articulating the emptiness. They fly my eyes into winds and clouds and the crowns of the high cottonwoods. I scan the patterns they weave, chasing them into invisibility."
Meinrad Craighead
from "The Litany of the Great River"

The Sound of Sunshine

While browsing Amazon I came across this so checked out the video on YouTube. It is a really simple upbeat song that so speaks to me today. I Need some sunshine, any way I can get it. I dedicate this to all who would like some S*U*n*S*H*i*N*e and a dancing tune!

Like A Season

In spring, the land is littered,

as if winter had been, perhaps,

only the wash of a large wave,

now receded, now leaving

only our autumnal remains.

A walk past the brackish waters

at the edges of the river,

itself, a passion of movement.

A gull-shriek, high,

the peace punctured,

and I begin to wonder -

is even inland a harbor

under a great swell of ocean,

and is love, like a season,

only as long as a wave?

~ Lillian Baker Kennedy

Together

In this fateful hour, I call upon all heaven with its power
And the sun with its brightness
And the snow with its whiteness
And the fire with all the strength it hath
And the lightning with its rapid wrath
And the winds with their swiftness along the path
And the sea with its deepness
And the rocks with their steepness
And the earth with its starkness.
All these I place,
By Heaven's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.
traditional Welsh

Help Japan

Help Japan



My Childhood Friend

Watching CNN like god and waiting for Anderson Cooper to tell me no radiation will blow across the Pacific and mutate us here on the coast. I am not ready.
My tears are flowing for the folks in the land of the Rising Sun.
Send $$ to Red Cross if you can.

Ripple

We are all okay here. The tsunami warning sirens started at 5:30 am. We were safe at our house so we did not go to higher ground. We are a quarter block from the beach but near the longest and steepest beach access stairs. So we are up about 50 feet from beach.
I stayed up all night watching the news and am praying for Japan. I lived there for 3 years and love it very much.
Life here on the Oregon coast just got a little more interesting. I know if the earthquake is on our side of the Pacific we would have only 10-15 minutes warning. I never really forget that. The boys and I were ready within a few moments of first siren to hightail it out the door and up the nearest hill on foot. Some of our neighbors took off in their cars and returned later this morning. The waves are still not normal, but no damage in my part of town. Information still coming in from all sources.

I almost posted this photo with the title 'ripple' yesterday before the earthquake hit.

This Is What I Want Today

a nice cup of cocoa and toast. perfection. to hell with the carbs

Mad Men

Just say no! Don't do it! Tender mermaid beware the temptations of the dry world. 

Who Waits For Thee ?

Fly Away

That is my mental state right now - fly away, as in gone.
Too many things to worry about and I don't really feel like worrying any more.
It gets old.
But if I don't worry then no one else will and then the worrisome things will get in the unguarded cracks. It feels like that.
Yesterday let alot in thru the cracks. Snafu's came rolling in like the crazy typhoon winds and howling rain we are having right this minute. (And yes, drips are dripping in thru the roof too. The 60 mph south wind drives the rain under the shingles.)
Just one thing after another went wrong (people, meetings, cars, computer, money and more) and I was laughing it off all day and sort of looking at it in a detached way. Being very witty and glib. But now it is after midnight and I am tired and reality looks alittle different this time of day.
So if I had a glass of wine I could toast to the unforseeables I am unprepared for, because they undoubtedly will come any ole time.
I was a girl scout and the motto is be prepared. but are we ever really? Maybe it is my optimism. Optimism can be like a fancy hat, if you accidentally sit on it it gets crushed. My hat got sat on.  I feel crushed.
I am a survivor though. By morning I will face the new day smiling. And my fancy hat may be a bit askew, but I'm gonna wear it anyway...

Alignment

Woman is a verb,
active and passive.
She cannot miss a curve
on the quickened artery
studded with warnings.
Calculating safe distance
in a resisting world
she travels with the flow,
prismatic and swift,
and considers the advantage
of soft luggage.

         Ethel Fortner
         "Roadability" from Clouds and Keepings

With L•O•V•E To All

Happy Valentines Day my lovelies!
(lips)

The Heartbreaking Beauty of Words

When they ask to see your gods
your book of prayers
show them lines
drawn delicately with veins
on the underside of a bird’s wing
tell them you believe
in giant sycamores mottled
and stark against a winter sky
and in nights so frozen
stars crack open spilling
streams of molten ice to earth
and tell them how you drink
a holy wine of honeysuckle
on a warm spring day
and of the softness
of your mother who never taught you
death was life’s reward
but who believed in the earth
and the sun
and a million, million light years
of being.
''Catechism for a Witch's Child'' by J.L. Stanley
      I read this on the lovely Sea Angels blog and had to stifle a sob that leapt into my throat. The power of simple words strung together astounds me. The tenderness of the human heart is so profound and poignant.

Flying Too Close to the Ground

"Women are angels and when someone breaks our wings we simply continue to fly ... on a broomstick. We are flexible like that ..."