Category: Blog

26 August 2023

While it may seem that the world still maintains its frenetic pace, something since the pandemic feels decidedly different.

Many of us, maybe of a certain age, watch and assess with different eyes, driven by a heart that’s paused, maybe voluntarily, to consider events, circumstances, and reactions in a silence imposed by confusion without many answers or actions. There seem to be few solutions rising to implement with courage, especially depending on what moves the spirit to action.

As children, we tread a careful line of obedience and love, IF those were the models given – more or less imperfectly as families go. Then we become parents, or aunts, uncles, good friends and we assume the responsibilities, passing on the cycles of emotions as we have absorbed them…or not.

As we have grown we have been given a bounty of emotions, situations, lessons. If these charges do not include Truth and Love, the impact can be noticed in how we “freely” think, feel, speak, and act publicly and privately.

And if at the heart of that freedom, there is no moral compass to define and guide us, desperation, decay and confusion replace the lucidity of Love.

22 August 2023

The end of the traditional summer season of plenty begins to occupy spaces of back-to-school and business-as-usual. But, there has been a recent shift in perceptions, energies, and behaviors since the middle of the 2010s decade.

Walking this morning on the grass to the stone path around the house, I picked a few zucchini flowers and some small squash. Thoughts strayed from years of childhood, scholastic life, career choices in the US, overseas, trials, tribulations, triumphs, family, and friends who are still present and those yet to arrive, those who have faded from this life in one way or another. With a start, a flitting house wren hopped on the fence within my reach and tilted her head, as if to draw my attention back to the present where a perfect sunflower smiled to offer the joy of this day to me, to anyone aware enough to appreciate the moment.

While traditions surround us in a very material sort of way, they bring with them the “spirit” of ancestors, symbols of a past to which we all belong. And because space-time has been getting a fashionable update since the images of the Webb Telescope, it may be time to reassess how much each of us truly believes in spirit – that mystery that wakes us from slumber.

It may be difficult to perceive. The struggles that seem to have risen in the constant negativity of the news often compound our angst. Yet the more focus is absorbed by the negative, the less time we have to transform it into anything positive.

Sitting in my car, waiting for the arrival of our 15 yr old Black Lab mix from a vet check up and diagnosis, I noticed the tree next to which I was parked. It didn’t seem to be a young tree, but its leaves were billowy green in some spots, while in others, there were no leaves and even the branches were brittle, dried, and failing. Out of an undiscovered portion of sky, a fossil-gray bird landed on one of the barren branches. It eyed me and hopped into the maze of dying branches and leaves remaining. It may have been a Catbird or Mockingbird, either of which has a distinctive call in Nature.

We all wait…in this struggle. Whether it be to determine if a failing tree will fight neglect and lack of stewardship to live, if a beloved pet has difficulties in her final years, or how we will accept and be present in compassion, comfort, and strength to accompany difficult transformations. While one individual most likely cannot change an inevitable path, the role each of us plays in being present, compassionate, kind, and acting from a place of Love makes us Creation’s “instruments of peace.”

It may be difficult to perceive. The struggles that seem to have risen in the constant negativity of the news often compound our angst. Yet the more focus is absorbed by the negative, the less time we have to transform it into anything positive.

Sitting in my car, waiting for the arrival of our 15 yr old Black Lab mix from a vet check up and diagnosis, I noticed the tree next to which I was parked. It didn’t seem to be a young tree, but its leaves were billowy green in some spots, while in others, there were no leaves and even the branches were brittle, dried, and failing. Out of an undiscovered portion of sky, a fossil-gray bird landed on one of the barren branches. It eyed me and hopped into the maze of dying branches and leaves remaining. It may have been a Catbird or Mockingbird, either of which has a distinctive call in Nature.

We all wait…in this struggle. Whether it be to determine if a failing tree will fight neglect and lack of stewardship to live, if a beloved pet has difficulties in her final years, or how we will accept and be present in compassion, comfort, and strength to accompany difficult transformations. While one individual most likely cannot change an inevitable path, the role each of us plays in being present, compassionate, kind, and acting from a place of Love makes us Creation’s “instruments of peace.”

7/4/2023

The heat and humidity didn’t make the day any better. Although some plants thrive, others struggle–much like the fauna in our world, as well.

During the day, the crack of fireworks popping breaks the stillness, and reminds me of what truly matters and how rabbit-holes engulf the unsuspecting.

As long as there is still light to illuminate, choosing to find and follow that light is an imperative in one’s own well-being. Noise and flash produce those momentary drives intent on derailing whoever follows for the gain of others–merely another shell game. Until…my spray of refreshing water before nightfall on the portulaca blossoms offer me the curiosity and wisdom in this new mantis’ greeting. Be still. Listen to Everything, especially your soul.

25 June 2023

Sifting through scraps of paper I sometimes keep because of clever wording of a thought or saying I’ve read or heard, I found one in particular that had me imagining brothers and sisters bent into curving lines and shadows. “When the world doesn’t listen, be the one who does.”

Thousands, maybe millions exist, slumping in their seats – institutional chairs, trash piles, curbsides or dark corners of hostile rooms. All discarded amid the noise, popularity, celebrity. Many more just without any space to curl into. Others, I’ve passed at random moments with angst during my lifetime on deaf streets in Manhattan and Milan. And today, not having witnessed Mumbai, Mogadishu, or Mosul, would I still have the strength of heart to look, limit my thoughts and just… listen?

26 May 2023

In silence, I listened.

To the wind. To foreign words, in sound and song.

To those strangers who didn’t care.

To friends who still don’t call me correctly by name.

To the aging smiles of a married couple dining on meatball heroes.

To confessions and emotions of the cherished, in pain through their grief.

I traveled anyway, alone to this harbor. Not knowing why.

I prayed in breaths.

I thought of Rumi, wisdom whispered in words.

I turned to one, then another, and another, and…only to find myself – sore and lost.

I limped up hills and through holes, in solitary, as life persevered.

In silence, I surrendered to trust, this time, not knowing what else to do.

And after the uneasy night, life transfigured into a birth of discovery

that only listening and seeking can grant,

mirrored by a melding fusion of words rising with a dawning sun.

20 May 2023

Today’s low pressure system circles the Island spilling storm waters in torrents through neighborhood streets.

I watch the mourning dove from my window below. She sits unsteady with stoicism in the fork of a branch on her haphazard nest of twigs and twine, weak and waiting.

Conversation tonight with a friend who lifted me through darkness, then, reveals her confusion, her expectation of death nearing each day.

I can only listen, with gratitude for then–present at every breath…and I must in silence let my heart only answer.

This spring’s pallid purple clematis climbs and stretches bold with size and largess, to confront the impossible

despite the awareness that surrounds, even the flowers know enough is enough…

7 May 2023

An aching body at 4:00, trying to recover from penetrating days of work: cold, damp, indecisive.

So much needs to still be done.

A random bouquet from Monday, gesturing a gift from warm wishes: allergies, uncontrollable, debilitating.

So little it takes to give a smile.

A seven-day passing, blooms fresh and alive, most feeling their distinction: absorbed, basking, exaltation.

So rarely are reasons refined.

You whisper through a small glass of Dolcetto from your hills, Le Langhe, as I drift in this silence.

So prescient confide cues undetected, unseen…time and again.

4/21/2023

Many years ago when I was just a child, my godmother and aunt, treated me to a Broadway show – Mary Martin in the Sound of Music. I’ll never forget the Playlist, songs, inspiration, and captive imagination that sparkled my awe, just waiting to explore and absorb the evolution of that story.

I can’t sing well, but doing so evokes very deep feelings of joy as well as sadness. Discussing spirituality, our roles in life, our directions, witnessing Love, art, music, compassion, relating to all that surrounds, gives me a sense of joy and belonging that many, today, just seem too busy to “pay attention” and absorb in their daily lives.

Today, I was honored to be in the company of three incredibly exemplary women, engaged in discussions about Life, Creation, and our roles in bridging an old world, and the new one emerging.

On the drive home and after hours of discussion, I neared home and turned onto the familiar street, catching sight of an incredible sky — that yes, spoke through its unusual pattern of clouds that seemed as Hills in the Sky. I had to stop the car at the side of the road to take a camera shot before these wisps dissipated into their azure past.

Then, for the first time ever in this place, after arriving home, I caught sight of a pair of Rose Breasted Evening Grosbeaks in our backyard. The bright red coloring of the male against his stark white and black body lured my unsuspecting attention. Later, I saw what seemed to be a brown finch, however, after some research, it probably was a female brown Evening Grosbeak. Again, something I have never witnessed in my over 20 years on this Island. The Message? – Pay attention to details and the messages they seek to convey and transmit to your heart & soul. Find the connections all around us.