I Am That

It’s morning, and again 
I am that lucky person who is in it. - Mary Oliver

He said, "Never in my life have I ever found a four leaf clover."

"Really", I said, "I find them all the time".

"ALL the time?", he asked dubiously.

"Well, not all time as in every day, but all the time as in at least once a year", I said.

A few days later, I was walking back from the mailbox when something caught my attention near the front stoop.  I looked down and at my feet I saw a GIANT four leaf clover!  I picked it, took a photo of it, then sent it to his phone before pressing it into a book.

Intimate With the Dust

Last week S ran to me with an injured toad.  Its foot was bleeding.  He handed the toad to me and I found a safe place in the garden where it could rest and recover.  Then a few days ago he appeared on the patio, its foot healed.



I was walking by. He was sitting there.

It was full morning, so the heat was heavy on his sand-colored
head and his webbed feet. I squatted beside him, at the edge
of the path. He didn’t move.

I began to talk. I talked about summer, and about time. The
pleasures of eating, the terrors of the night. About this cup
we call a life. About happiness. And how good it feels, the
heat of the sun between the shoulder blades.

He looked neither up nor down, which didn’t necessarily
mean he was either afraid or asleep. I felt his energy, stored
under his tongue perhaps, and behind his bulging eyes.

I talked about how the world seems to me, five feet tall, the
blue sky all around my head. I said, I wondered how it seemed
to him, down there, intimate with the dust.

He might have been Buddha— did not move, blink, or frown,
not a tear fell from those gold-rimmed eyes as the refined
anguish of language passed over him.

— Mary Oliver, “Toad”

Mother's Day: Peace of Wild Things

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.  For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. — Wendell Berry

For Mother's Day we took a trail ride in the mountains on horseback. I've missed the rush of it, the dust on my skin, the scent of horse breath - and most of all - the language that has no words but is every bit as real and true...and of course, the peace of wild things.

Deep Trees

Joy 
 is a taste before

it’s anything else, and the body

can lounge for hours devouring
the important moments. Listen,

the only way
to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it

into the body first, like small
wild plums.  - Mary Oliver

When I watched you climb
to the top of that plum tree,
my mind flooded with memories
of my grandmother
standing beside her beloved plum tree
in a bright yellow spring dress and gloves.
I imagined her standing beside me
 watching you climb to the top,
petals falling like confetti,
sticking to our hair.

His Great Grandmother, Mary Cook, in the late 60s.

And the Winner IS....

Whatever you have wanted,
you've been given,
now go and live in that kindness. - Rumi

Comment 15, Paula JK!  Thank you all for playing with me.

*If you have left an anonymous comment without an email to reach you regarding a win, you must contact me to provide your shipping address by the end of the week. Unclaimed prizes will be donated to charity a/o given away locally via random acts of kindness.

I'll Remember This

A year,
ten years from now,
I'll remember this;
not why,
only that we were here
like this, together.  - Adrienne Rich

 
When Words Fail Her (Journal completed after Embodying the Conscious Feminine Workshop 2013.)

Astonishing Light of Your Being

A celebration with dear friends.  Homemade pizza in a clay oven.  Conversation and laughter 'round the bonfire.  Squealing kids zooming overhead upon a zipline.   Sun setting on the bay.

Time Flies: Mother's Day Giveaway

I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable beauty of heaven
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.
 ~ Mary Oliver

A few years ago, while my son and his friends sat on the floor creating their own talisman necklaces with colorful beads, I decided to make an early Mother's Day gift for myself. I made myself a little bird's nest with one tiny turquoise egg to represent my son. I wear it on Mother's Day or whenever I need to remember my own divinity. 

Each year for a limited time in my etsy shop, I offer this Mother's Day talisman to you...to remind you of your own divine nature.  The proceeds of this sale help support Mighty Girl Art empowerment camp.  The early birds get the worm and I will stop taking orders after May 6th.

In honor of Mother's Day, I will be giving away a custom nest necklace to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment here, tell me something good!
 


Winner will be chosen by random generator and announced on Tuesday morning, May 7th.


Happy Mother's Day!

Made so and rooted by love,
Wendy

Easter and a Tale of Three Tails

"There is time for everything 
and every thing it its time." - E. Aster Bunnymund

"Mama, it's hard for rabbits to hide all those eggs", he said clutching a love-worn plush bunny.  "Flop", is his given name.  The brown hare arrived in his Easter basket when he was just a babe and has been his steadfast sleeping companion ever since.

I too had a prized plushy as a child, and it was also a rabbit.  He had long satin ears, the color of sky, and a white fur body.  Today, a vegetarian, I cringe at the thought of a real rabbit fur plushy, but as a wee girl I carried him with me everywhere and often by his ears.  Then one day I accidentally dropped him in the toilet.  The bunny was rescued and  washed which rendered him misshapen and matted.  The only recognizable features were his ears.  I was inconsolable.  So, my parents searched high and low for another.  Unable to find a twin, they found a plush kitten made of rabbit fur that was a very close match.  Unbeknownst to me they performed and ear-ectomy on the rabbit and transplanted them onto the kitten. 

When they presented him to me, it was as though they had performed some sort of magic.  I could not tell the difference.  Except for one thing.  I buried my nose in the fur.  It had a scent.  I will never forget that scent!  A heavenly scent, woodsy and wild.  The bunny had been my sleeping companion for some uncountable years.  I don't remember when my rabbit left.  One day he just disappeared as mysteriously as he arrived.

Time passed as time inevitably does.

I was 30 years old, living in New York City, and having the kind of adventures that grown-ups have.  I celebrated this pinnacle birthday with a sunset to sunrise party on the roof of my flat in Greenwich Village.  After the festivities, when everything settled into its ordinary rhythm, I received a visitor.  A friend came bearing a birthday gift.  He placed in my hands an adorable white and tan kitten with eyes the color of sky.  "Elvis" was his given name and I buried my face in his fur and kissed him.  The kitty was my steadfast sleeping companion for the next 18 years of my life.

It is said that olfactory memory was developed during evolution to help animals recognize other animals.  Herein lies one of the truest truths that nestles in my heart.  You see, I had forgotten about my childhood bunny until my 30th birthday, until the moment I kissed my kitten.  He smelled familiar.  He did not smell like my other cat, Sid.  He smelled unlike any other animal I had ever known.  I sniffed again and suddenly that unforgettable scent released all the memories of my childhood rabbit in vivid detail.  I couldn't believe it.  He smelled exactly like my rabbit.  I looked into his sky blue eyes astonished and breathed in the scent of him again and again.  Time passed as time inevitably does and Elvis disappeared from my life as mysteriously as he arrived...

and every Easter the cottontail delivers delightful treats to my boy- and a basket of sweet memories to my heart.

"Mama, can we get another cat?"
"One day."
"When...what kind?"
"Every thing in its time...I will know him when I smell him".

Hidden

Found

In his basket were tiny gifts all wrapped in grassy hued tissue paper: a bunny kaleidoscope, a balloon copter, an aquatic sandwich shaper, Satch-centric vintage hankies for his Spring allergies, a mushroom pencil sharpener eraser combo, and a carved wooden bunny pen!

His parental units equipped him to shoot for the moon.

Mission: Mizzou 2013

Scenes from our Spring Break Roadtrip wherein we:
collided with a snow storm,
ate a lot of food,
learned the history of nearly everything,
went snowboarding on a golf course
got stuck on ice at said golf course,
got the car towed at said golf course,
listened to Jupiter,
discovered the sunstone,
built a helicopter,
laughed with loved ones,
climbed an Indian Mound,
created a children's book,
while The Great Robinsky managed to escape the lens,
and the Bunnymund saved the day.








 

 

 

Wreath made by Sally Wood of Napa Valley Grapevine Wreath Co.   Sally has closed her company after 30 yrs, but she still has some wreaths left and they are 15% off.  Contact her at the email address on her website for details and ordering.

 Home sweet home...