For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.
*T.S. Eliot, line from The Dry Salvages, out of Four Quartets Continue reading Music Heard so Deeply, That it is Not Heard at All
A little memory – a treasure to cherish. Rummaging in the Antique Store with my boys, looking through playthings of the past. They call me to try on a beautiful faux fur, and it fits, and it’s glorious, and I am the toast of the town. The large Islander man at the back counter with the massive smile and the tiny woman wearing all … Continue reading Sweetness or Stuff
Always the lists. Give me too much free time between calls at work, and a fairly slow day with no nearby neighbors to visit with, and I used pages and pages of scratch paper to make lists for the New Year. Lists about working out, and menus, and lists of chores and how to rotate them. Lists about writing and making time for the things … Continue reading Learning to Laugh
Driving straight into a thick blanket of fog, I wondered about our world, the darkness and lack of visibility we are entering. I remembered the blizzard in the Little House on the Prairie books that hit suddenly while children were at the school-house. They formed a line with outstretched arms – trying to get all the children home in a storm of wild whiteness. Only … Continue reading Microcosm & Minutiae
Another bad thing in a world of bad things. I have not become numb, that is not what has happened. I crumble with each new attack, with each new assault – foreign or domestic. And then I disconnect, and block out the media, and become absorbed in my kids’ interests and the activities we can do together to fill our world with joy. I didn’t take … Continue reading We could Hug More!
In which I accidentally discover the Ridiculously Perfect Meditation Stance for a dork like me! Continue reading Monkey Brain and Geese Chatter
This is not a reference I throw around lightly. This is something I have studied. I worked at the Anti-Defamation League in San Francisco when I was younger, helping maintain their library of groups they watched for hate crimes or atrocities in the making. Every day, researchers would hand me stacks of articles from periodicals around the world to chronicle and file. They kept records … Continue reading Horrifying Comparison of Adolescence
Being on the right side of the brain is a little like being on the Left Bank in Paris: relaxing while watching the passing show, listening to the music on the corner. It’s a place to sit around and tell stories and wonder about it all – and most important, to slow down. Call it crazy or lazy, this wisdom may be found only … Continue reading Right Brain, Left Bank and Parenting through Teenage Angst
It’s Tao Tuesday! As always, I will refer you back to the original page, Tao te Ching Daily, and her series, Tao Tuesday. There, you will find rich discussion and articles from every chapter of the Tao, spanning I think a couple of years. I’m just starting over here, and relishing the discipline of looking at these brief words and finding the wisdom and beauty … Continue reading Easy, Now, Grasshopper!
Today, while doing chores, I listened to a book on tape from the library called, “How the Universe got its Spots.” (This is a link to the Amazon book, because I couldn’t link to the book on tape for some reason.) The gifted young cosmologist Janna Levin sets out to determine the size of the universe, along the way providing an intimate look at the … Continue reading On Motherhood, Physics and Relativity
Reflections on The Tao te Ching – Chapter 1: The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet … Continue reading Darkness within Darkness
What a completely blissful day. These are the new rockers we picked up at a garage sale this weekend, and this is the view looking out onto our back field in Southern Oregon. It goes on and on and we end up with stunning sunsets all summer long. I sat out here and read the first chapter of The Conscious Parent for a new reading … Continue reading Endless View from Rocking Chairs
It is easy for me to think I’m learning a lot by bouncing around from web article to web article. And, I actually do have pretty good taste in reading, I think. I’m reading some of the #longreads and the well-thought-out literary reviews. I’m doing some fine reading. But every now and then, I have to decide what areas of my brain I want … Continue reading Plotting my Areas of Growth
Today, Bean and I had some errands to run, and I chose the Pandora Station “Peter, Paul and Mommy” for our musical background. We sang along to Feed the Birds, from Mary Poppins, and some Simon & Garfunkel, a little John Denver, songs from The Sound of Music and we sang Puff the Magic Dragon (twice) and I cried. I have always cried every time … Continue reading Magic Dragons and Refusing to Grow Up
#blacklivesmatter Continue reading She Thought Perhaps Azalea
Katagiri Roshi says, “Our goal is to have kind consideration for all sentient beings every moment forever.” This does not mean put a good poem on paper and then spit at our lives, curse our cars, and cut off someone on the freeway. It means carry the poem away from the desk and into the kitchen. That is how we will survive as writers, … Continue reading Let the Whole Thing Flower
Just the other day the thought hit me that I would rather take a curvy road any day over a straight shot. On a long, straight road, there is no mystery, no surprises. It can become monotonous. A curvy road keeps you on your toes. You have to be alert to the swiftly changing road conditions. There is a spike in adrenaline around every … Continue reading Curvy Roads and Short-Cuts
Bean, my first-grader, was telling me over breakfast the other day how beautiful snowflakes are if you look at them closely, and how there are no two alike. He was very happy to share this information with me. And today, I am happy to share a pink variation of this idea with you. Today, as the world is exploding in shades of pink, I … Continue reading Blossoms and Blooms
Tao Tuesdays: Thanks to Amy Putkonen of Tao Ta Ching Daily. Chapter 78 Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the … Continue reading Calm as Water
What would parenting be like if we used the Rules of Improvisation in our interactions with our kids? I’m not suggesting this entirely. I’m just wondering. Right now, I’m reading Amy Poehler’s book, “Yes Please.” I’ve always liked her – but didn’t know what a pivotal player she has been in the world of comedy. I didn’t know that she was a part of the … Continue reading Say Yes
I like Aha Moments. I’m an Aha Moment Junkie. I have them all the time, and revel in the ways my mind can become excited all over again about a new idea. And then another one, and another one. I’m like a kid in a candy store of thoughts. They’re all so sparkly and shiny and delicious. Which is one reason I love to read. … Continue reading Words and Thoughts that Change our Molecules
Let me preface by saying that after writing today’s reflection, I feel raw because of how much I have to learn. This motherhood thing is ever changing, constant learning, every day more to understand about ourselves and therefore how we parent. I choose to keep thinking that every day I am trying to be better, but a lot of times, I feel the weight of how … Continue reading Lessons in Learning
There may actually be too many things percolating in my head this morning, for any of them to come together into a cohesive thought, but I’m going to try. I am happy to announce that I do not think it is possible for words or books to disappoint me. Wednesday evening I finished book two in the All Soul’s Trilogy, by Deborah Harkness, and I’d told … Continue reading Ancient Alchemy in Matters of the Heart
“The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree,” doesn’t nearly say it all, in our case. At this stage, the apple is still growing, still attached to the limb, still gaining sustenance, growth directives and habits from me. Me and my husband, of course, it’s just that my husband has so much cool to convey and pass down. I am the uptight one, the … Continue reading On Apples Staying True to Form
Filed under: Lessons learned from a Rap Artist, and Color Me Surprised. It’s not that I dislike rap music. I get the inherent poetry of the genre. It just hasn’t been a form of music I consciously seek out for pleasure. I’m close to fifty-years old, and I think I just missed this art form. Today I heard an artist speaking on the radio … Continue reading Remember to Remember
