WATERFALLS

Aside from Niagara and Victoria Falls which are wonders of the world, I also remember the awesome presence of Trenton Falls in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in NYS, and a refreshing encounter with a gentle falls somewhere in the heart of Kenya.  

But, this, and the many falls I encountered in the heart of Sri Lanka are experiences I shall long hold dear. 

Here, I felt finally at home, if for only a moment in a life's time.

WALKING

Walking to release

In a cool October day

Harvest moon now gone

When breeze cools the skin

And sun shines through the hammock

Of trees on the road

Breathing in its peace

Breathing out yesterday done

The winner takes all!

RAINBOW

When Rainbow appears

After the rain has passed by

Wonder fills the air

Wonder what I did

To deserve such a blessing

Wonder still remains

Rainbow's arch spans space

An aura of  beginnings

Time holds a fresh start

Rainbow lasts forever

Filled with images of now

In heart's memory

POSSIBILITY

When in the place of  contemplation,

A reflection of untold possibility presents itself,

Perhaps, the sheer void of even a fleeting dream,

Is the abyss which invites you

To create your life as a never-before known reality.

Perhaps this dream is already you

And you are awakening to the wonder of you

As you hold its possibility in your hand 

At the sunlit shore of ebb and flow.

Laanne  at Kuri Beach

PAIGE

Granddaughter Paige celebrates a turning point birthday.

This year on August 20th  a blue moon will be shining.

Truly this must be an auspicious occasion for becoming 21 years old.

20 years of exploring and experimenting with being the magnificent radiance of who you want to be in this life's time.

What excruciating pain and, in the very same moment,  ecstatic joy on  this journey of creating yourself has been.

Now at 21, under the light of the blue moon, delight in conversation with this blue moon.

 Let it be your guide in deciding the next twenty years of building who you want to be now.

You are the Maiden of love blooming.

Celebrate Woman Now!

Become Her blessing!

Grandmothers and Mother send you off on your journey with love.

Credit: Dreamstime

DIVINE

Beauty abounds everywhere when beauty comes bubblng up from heartspace ike a newborn spring emerging from deep in the earth.

On days such as this, Divine's light is merely the Sun shining so brightly.

Divine's light around and within embraces everything in one big bear hug.

That every day could be so intinate and each of God's creatures share this unitive experience.

DREAMING

Some dreams come true sooner or later.
some dreams have a way of maintaining their longing status.
Some dreams are obsessions.
Like dreaming the perfect mate will arrive someday.
When the new mate arrives, s/he is perfect, no matter what the dream was.
I often wonder about envious people.
I wonder what envy is dreaming that is in the queue to come true.

BLISS

A momentary plague of self-incrimination.
Only to be reminded that an other's decision, however devastating it is to me at the time, and even with accompanying empathy,  is really not my problem at all.
Simply behold the abundance of blossoming flowers supporting the ecstasy of being alive.
From the grey bleak bench, the support is untold.
And is the bench upon which I sit facing the future??
Oh, yes, indeedy.
From the present, surrounded and supported by pink clouds of blossoms in full bloom, the journey continues into unknown bliss.

From Andree Samuel 

HAWTHORNE

Seems the Hawthorne is overgrowing the juniper now.

Ten years ago,the juniper was thriving and the Hawthorne stayed the same year after year.

Both grow in what is becoming, as it spreads each year,  the shade of a grapefruit tree., next to a flat rock which came from Indiana.

I am amazed by the size of the Hawthorne and am curious to see the berries that will replace the blossoms soon.

I find myself wondering why some things finally flourish.

Perhaps its roots have grown deeply into the earth, sustaining the plant on its own.

But then again, it might have inadvertently received just the right balance of fertilizer this time.

FORGIVENESS

The road to freedom is through the doorway of forgiveness.

 We may not know how to forgive, and we may not want to forgive; but if we are willing to forgive, we may begin the healing process.

 It is imperative for our own healing that we release the past and forgive everyone. 

 Louise Hay

To will to forgive. So there it is. Doesn't get any better than this.

The hawthorne, after ten years, has decided to become the alpha-plant, replacing the juniper. Both bear healing berries.

SATSUMA

Two years ago, I was gifted with a satsuma orange tree.

Last year, it produced tiny oranges which were bitter tasting.

The satsuma, for those of you who do not know, is a large, sweet orange, much like a tangerine in that it peels like a tangerine and pulls apart like a tangerine. 

It is much larger than a tangerine and sweeter.

these buds are blooming for this year's possibility of a large, sweet crop of satsuma's.

We'll know in a few months. Lots could happen in the meantime.

MILKWEED

For several years after I purchased the milkweed from a sale to benefit the school's butterfly garden, the newly transplanted plant, which came with a cocoon already attached, resulted in the emergence of butterflies.

Then there were none.

Cocoons attach to the plumbago and yellow butterflies emerge, sometimes massively.

A black, yellow, and white striped caterpillar, eats up all the parsley and eventually there are several monarch butterflies. I have never seen the cocoon. 

But, where have all the caterpillars gone that attach to the milkweed?

Such is life on my little plot of land here in Crescent City.

PLANTING

Dick hires a young man with an extra helping of energy.

This weekend the two of them planted the garden.

The garden consists of a 15'x25' plot created over an old septic tank and several pots.

Potatoes are already coming up and are about ready to be covered over for the next growth spurt.

Various veges are planted in neat rows with wooden stakes to mark their whereabouts.

Pots of varying shape and quality hold several types of peppers and tomato plants.

Greg emptied the old soil from the pots, added new, mixed it with mulch, while Dick planted away behind him.

They dug up a dead guava, replacing it with a Norfolk pine which had been the holiday tree.

Greg harvested all the grapefruit and took it to the Christian Service Center to distribute to those who come there for the food bank.

What would the aging do without the partnership of youthful energy to facilitate the love of a garden growing.!

Freshly transplanted tomato

EUCALYPTUS

Not native to Florida, the eucalyptus was imported and planted in swampy areas.
This tree has an enormous ability to draw in the water around it.

Inspite of its value to the vast swampy areas of Florida, environmentalists have waged a campaign against its planting.

Florida is kind of like that with people, as well.  Although everyone is a transplant from somewhere else, there is a sense of ownership entitlement by those who have been here for three or four generations.

Like those who settled here so long ago, and those who are coming these days, the eucalyptus tree in Florida promises to be around for a long time.

Some campaigns - like "native trees only"or mindsets about belonging only if rooted in several generations here - are just not going to survive.

We all belong where we are and have the right to live purposefully right here and now.

Silver dollar eucalyptus

DUCK

A life's time is a great adventure.

A life's  time is a perilous journey. 

A life's time is a scramble.

A life's time is also like a duck resting on a lake in the rain. 

buoyant, peaceful, impervious to being soaked, and fragile.

It is the fragility that calls to be so grateful for the time we have, 

beckons us to live fully with great joy.

The fragility also carries a buoyancy, and a  deep instinctual trust.

Enjoy today. Live it all up!

 Feel the bliss it has to offer. 

Tomorrow, a friend may not be here or you may not be here.

First Lake, Old Forge, NY, August 2012

PIZZA

The only food better than a sandwich is pizza, unless it is a pizza sandwich.

I am very good on keeping to my dietary restrictions, those which accompany this aging process.

However, once I start eating pizza, that's it. It's pizza time!!!

When I taste a pizza that is "just like" the pizza I grew up with, it's more than pizza time! It's veritable banquet of continual eating.  Fortunately, this happens only once in a blue moon.

I did not have even one slice of pizza in Italy. All the pizza I saw looked more like the tomato pie that  I also grew up with and never acquired a craving for.

Now, let us consider the pizza sandwich... 

One sight along the way in Assisi, Italy

AMBLING

I am working hard, not so much physically, of course, but I have been spending most of my time in my creative center, accessing and processing ways to market an upcoming conference to a new audience.

Grateful that I don't have to do it all by myself, I nevertheless am totally invested in this conference's success with the addition of new comers.

It was I who ventured into the notion of inviting a new audience to come and learn about us.

I feel like Beethoven in Amadeus (I should be so lucky) with Antonio Salieri lurking in the background ready to sabotage at every opportunity.

And yet, when I take time to step back, reflect, and take some discontinuous time to renew, Salieri fades into the background, assuming a position of the status quo while I continue t0 venture beyond that which has been.

A walk on the beach, writing a blog entry, a good laugh over a glass of wine, a day of meditation - whatever it takes to return to ambling through that creative place toward that which I have chosen to see through to its outcome.

Then I thought, why not do both at the same time - amble and create!

Leanne and I ambling along Kure Beach one morning

CARDINAL

Old cat, Bo, thinks he is a bird.
He has been seen perched on a small round post, looking like an owl.
Cats aren't normally inclined to do so.
Last Spring, he settled himself in the key lime tree on a nest of bird eggs,leaving all the eggs ready for hatching soon.
The mother bird was most distraught for the duration, however, letting us all know, loudly and clearly.
This week, Bo is sitting in the grapefruit tree, home of a blue jay nest and a cardinal nest.
Much to the dismay of both mothers, Bo, did not budge from his post on a limb near the nests.
So, until the squawking finally woke him, irritated at the intrusion, he  left the tree to the birds.
Old Bo will is surely waiting to go to the heavy side layer and return as a mother bird.
Hopefully, he will return to my trees when he does, for he is a dearly loved, this gentle friend.

Cardinal on the fence, announcing irritation at Bo's intrusion.

SISTERS

An old folk song has been swimming in my head lately and I find myself wondering about its real meaning.

It goes like this: "I had a sister Sally, she was younger than I am. She had so many sweethearts, she had to deny them. But, as for sister Sara, you know she hadn't many, but if you knew her well, she'd be grateful for any...don't let her die an old maid, but take her out of pity..."

Easily, I can relate it to the difference between when I was young and now, but I'm finding there's more to it than that.

There's Sally who chooses among many options .Then there's Sara who is grateful for life as it is given to her.  

These two parts exist in all of us - one is Sally and one is Sara. They are sisters.

Perhaps, too, when I was younger, I focused on choosing among the many possibilities and today I focus on choosing gratitude.

TIME

I have a tendency to measure time's passing with each daily visit to the pill box.

I count out the pills out every two weeks.

Lately, it feels like time is going by very quickly, as judged by seeing that a week has passed "already"
.
This time passing quickly can be a blessing if there is to be longevity -plenty of time for milliartins of experiences ahead.

This time passing quickly can create a sense of urgency if the last day appears to be coming sooner-than-later. Bucket lists of fun times fall by the wayside, unfinished business is tended to in a timely fashion.

None of us really knows where we fall on the spectrum of longevity  and sooner-than-later, whether at the pill counting out stage or any age. Ain't it the truth!!

A stairway in Assissi - one up, one down?

POMEGRANATE

The pomegranate is a powerful symbol as well as a truly unusual fruit.

Every year I have a pomegranate on the table during the holidays. 

For the most part it goes uneaten in preference to dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds - which don't feel like seeds at all..

The covering of the seeds are a sweet-tart experience. 

Unlike watermelon seeds which get spit onto the lawn, I still do not know proper etiquette for disposing of pomegranate seeds.

The pomegranate has medicinal qualities and therefore, in some cultures, is a symbol for the medical profession. Most of us, today, know it as an antioxidant. 

How boring, considering the rich ancient lore available about the pomegranate. The pomegranate for some religions is a symbol of life and hope, and has been known to be used as a potion for producing offspring.

 

Just to look at a pomegranate's scarlet hues, evokes mystery, wonder, and a certain sense of amazing presence -  noble fruit filled with seeds, and red juice which drips like a fresh wound's bleeding when cut open for the first time.