Shaman

My profession provides all these positives...music which dances in your heart, singing to greet each hour, stories to weave for delight and awe, and silence, yes much of that for dreaming and meditation, for listening...the silence 'twixt the tone giving shape to the tune.
It's a wonderful life, and a life-affirming profession.

A metaphor for our times

Springlike warmth after the subzero cold! A benediction. Yesterday the goldfinch returned to our feeders after long, long absence. I haven’t seen (although I have heard) a chickadee in months. This past summer, new neighbors cut down a magnificent soaring old pine tree, habitat for so many birds and other creatures which kept our garden alive and colorful. I mourned the tree, and I have mourned the subsequent disappearance of many old friends who formerly visited our backyard feeders. They fled the violent death of a tree which has grown on the edge of our two properties for generations. A metaphor for our times, when wars of all kinds rage.

The gardener longs to till the soil, but must wait a while longer. Meanwhile, the warmth caresses my face and hands as I fill the feeders I have kept stocked as best I could while the weather itself seemed to wage war.

But blessings have returned, and I am grateful for them.

The prose also rises.

Whew. Article done, resting now, like bread, to rise. Then an edit. Then a bake. Then a mailing. Then on to book #1 of 2.

Speaking of baking...I have added rolls to my regular baking output. It's weirdly primal, baking bread, isn't it? I also baked my own "cheese snack crackers" and I think that Cheez-It may never see us again...

Stuff I'm doing

Practicing my Irish for tomorrow night's singing at BOCO's World Fest.














Trying to write an article (thank heavens for deadlines)...then two books on the table, one that needs editing, one that needs more than a half-dozen opening paragraphs. Yesterday I realized we had no wine in the house (things get very lean in the house at this time of month). This last qualifies as an emergency. (‪#‎firstworldproblemsfersure‬)













Democrats: DO NOT toss negativity. Leave that to Republicans. Support whichever Democrat gets the nomination and let the hate-slinging before and after emanate from the Republicans, who give every indication they love to wallow in slime.

Welcome the coming of Spring

Yesterday I changed all the garden flags from winter scenes over to Springtime ones, because it was Imbolc eve. Well, how do you like my magical powers over the weather today?

Upsetting trends!

I read these stories today and they really upset me.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/12/forest_kindergarten_watch_kids_in_switzerland_go_to_school_outside_in_school.html
"In their new book, The App Generation, education professors Howard Gardner and Katie Davis argue that kids today are becoming more risk averse. “Rather than wanting to explore, to try things out by themselves, young people are always pushing to find out exactly what is wanted, when it is wanted, how it will be evaluated, what comes next and where we end up,” they said in a recent Q-and-A....."


http://www.scarymommy.com/pedal-desks-for-elementary-schools/


"An elementary school in Kentucky is installing “pedal desks” so students can pedal while they work. Estes Elementary School kindergarten teacher Faith Harralson won a $12,000 grant from the school system to install “pedal desks” in her classroom. Harralson said the desks help “when kindergartners get tired of sitting still.” Yeah. You know what else helps with that? Recess....."

 YIKES.

Maybe we should just return free, unencumbered, unmediated, non-directed childhood PLAYtime to the kids for heavens' sake! I laid in the grass watching ants build their nests, explored the creek in the woods near the house and caught tadpoles, made up my own games with others and with myself (I had a swell Swiss Family Robinson/Robinson Crusoe setup in the back yard where I reenacted scenes from the books, made acquaintance with fairies and nature spirits, rode my bike everywhere (it was actually of course a white and silver stallion cleverly disguised as a bike). I can only shake my head over "kids don't know how to explore." So sad.

Farewell 2015....

The final bloom of 2015. Many buds on plant, waiting to bloom for 2016. And so it goes...