The Standoff

It was a beautiful blue sky October day as I was driving down and around a lovely small resevoir. Until they caught my attention and imagination. About a dozen hawks flying and gliding on a strong breeze round and round while at least fifty or more Canada Geese stood their ground right below. It was a sight to behold. The hawk shadows loomed large and low circling over the geese. All of the geese were upright with stretched necks in alert position and huddled en masse. I am sure their adrenaline was running high. At least mine was as I watched them. I was driving a ten ton dump truck (with farmers plates) from the job site so my vantage point looking down at this scene was almost hawk-like and nearly as surreal. If only I could have stayed long enough to watch the scene play out. Would the hawks attack? Would the geese storm the hawks? Or would it be just a standoff? I loved the October blue sky today, and the great creatures that inhabit its realm.

circling overhead its shadow larger than life

Couples Duel - Right vs Left Brain

Couples who love and live together often find that their approach to housekeeping (as an example) are at odds.  Why?  We know that opposites attract presumably for balance, flavor and some excitement. As a result we tend to label ourselves and each other as neat vs sloppy, emotional vs stoic, morning bird vs night owl etc.  You get the picture.  Usually the labels suffice, and we accept our own and our loved one's traits as just that and who we are.

But what happens if you are not living with a loved one and these traits show up?  Who do you blame for not putting stuff back in its rightful place?  Who do you turn to when something is lost that you know was put away in a safe place not too long ago?  Moi?  That just won't do.

Finally, I figured it out.  Left Brain vs Right Brain.  Let us use my foibles this morning as an example.  I went looking for a pair of shoes to wear to a funeral.  OK, so they are not a pair that I wear regularly.  I looked in all the usual shoe storage areas at the bottom of my two tiny closets (old house-type closets).  Not there.  I cleaned and organized these same closets hardly six months ago. They have to be there but they're not.  Where did they go - but more importantly "WHY CAN'T I FIND MY OWN SHOES?!?!?

"Aha"  The transfoming and transcendent aha moment hit and bit.

Because I went looking for them in the still dark early morning time/space continuum with my RIGHT BRAIN, when in fact I organized and stored them originally with my LEFT BRAIN.  How can I possibly locate such a mundane item when I am in dream almost sleep mode?  Right Brain wants to lazily yawn, stretch and possibly get back under the covers.  Left Brain (in a mostly dominant right-brain person) kicks in at a more reasonable time - after brushing my teeth, washing my face and opening the door to a blast of very cool air.  Left Brain could then easily rise to the occasion (sic) and  and logically figure out where the shoes are.  Very plausible explanation.  Why else would a reasonably sane person (let's agree to this for the sake of argument) circle a small area for so long looking for something that she put away in a logical space so as to avoid this very same scenario?  It's simple.  Look for life-living stuff with Left Brain.  Search out artsy poetic stuff with Right Brain.

Anyway, I put together a properly respectable and rather subdued outfit to attend the funeral.  My red shoes were a comfortable fit and after all the fuss rather in keeping with my Right Brain accessorizer.

                                                                                                

the red shoes

a small gift

boxing them

Summer 2011

Happy Hour at Bill's, LBI

Sailboats and sky

Sunsets

Bill's famous rum punch (only two per happy hour)

You can feel the storm approaching

Always sharing great food

What's a bar without Tiki tacky?

Always sharing the day's beach & sailing tales

The first wedding of the youngest generation

Waiting their turn

Their vows - the night & the height of Hurricane Irene

What hurricane?

The lovely bride

The lovely mother-of-the bride

Starting to really party

Reception at The Community Art Center - Media, PA

A fun mother & daughter

A family reunion

Cousins

The end is near

Sanderlings on a deserted beach

So long 'till next summer

Such awesome beauty right to the end

glistening sea
once a sandcastle
stood this ground

So long beach - see you next year

The hummingbird, the sage and the rain

After the hurricane and now torrential rains (over three inches and counting) a hummingbird comes just before twilight and sips the nectar from the ruby and blue sage growing outside my window. The bird is just unfazed by the wind, rain, power outages and a rather stressful winding down of summer days. In fact, it seems quite oblivious to the fact that it has a thousand mile commute ahead, flutters about for a few months and then turns around to do it all over again. Since this little bird has been a regular visitor over the past month or so I decided to look up its symbolism/medicine. According to Ted Andrews in his book 'Animal Speak' hummingbirds are "very playful even when bathing. They are hard workers and fiercely independent" Hmmmm. sounds like someone I intimately know...

"The ruby-throated humminngbird is a wonder of migration...and is a symbol for accomplishing that which seems impossible. It will teach you how to find the miracle of joyful living from your own life circumstances".

That's the secret - joy in the mundane. Playful work. Presence.

I can do that! I just need to be reminded now and again by a playmate who comes after the rain to sip the nectar offered by the colorful sage plants who too have their own story to tell.

blurry rain
the hummingbird and the sage
still savor the light

deep into the wail

blue again
no summer sky
blue...that blue
deep into the wail
of a saxophone blue*







feeling blue all day and anxious -  that 'late summer is slipping away feeling' and I'm not sure I'm ready to let it go and then there's an earthquake on the east coast that everyone felt but me even though I've rattled through two or more before this one

earthquake...the night wobbles anyway**

late summer edges begin to fray the sepia tone sunset

oh well, late summer blues and sepia tones are also fruit to taste and savor for their own ripe richness

deep ridges
       in a piece of driftwood
               ...wanting more

*     published Modern English Tanka

**    published Presence 



Dancing Under the Stars

A rare delight. Last night I went to a friend's "club" event which was located out-of-doors on the bay. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvre followed by dinner and dancing on the deck. There is something wildly freeing about dancing under the stars. It feels like the wind, water and sky are participating - even encouraging. I love it. A five piece band played and grooved with its audience. The sound was retro-reggae with the band doing every cover song to inspire creative movement.

The crowd was a wonderful mix of friends and strangers, youth and elders, shakers and the shaky. Dancing together mixing partners and derriers loosened the crowd in a joyous chorus. The ultimate antidote to all the partisanship that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. And did I mention that the music rocked?

Whooee. Fast-forward to the next morning and the after-glow of a rare event when all the elements come together to create a magical time of dancing and sharing a child's knowing of how to have fun. The only thing I would do different is one less rum punch, twenty less minutes of dancing and ice on my sore ankle. But that's only because it's the morning after. Last night was heavenly.

Dusk, docks and toes

It was a tough weekend. Heat index above 100 degrees in the sun. The air was limp and languid. So was I.

After a four-lime rum punch

I took the camera by the bay to capture color, light, texture and I got toes

Chipped nail polish and woodgrain go well together

another look at the life of a tree

Day is done. Always filled with poetry of sky and water, light and color, wind and stillness.