ANOTHER NEW MORNING

Am finding myself with very little energy on these new mornings. Or the rest of the day, for that matter. Will post again when my energy comes back. It always does. 

Just finished re-reading Toil, by Jody Proctor. One of my favorite books, published in 2000. RTN was a carpenter. Toil helped me understand just what it might have been like for RTN to have made his living as a carpenter.

A well-loved place

"The remedy of all blunders, the cure of blindness, the cure of crime, is love."

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

STAND UNDER THE OAK

"They walked softly here. So will the others, the 

ones I seek.

The only way I can think to find them, the only 

archaeology that might be practical, is as follows:

You take your child or grandchild in your arms, or

borrow a young baby, not a year old yet, and go 

down into the wild oats in the field below the barn.

Stand under the oak on the last slope of the hill,

facing the creek. Stand quietly. Perhaps the baby

will see something, or hear a voice, or speak to

somebody there, somebody from home."

                  

                 Towards an Archaeology of the Future

(page 114, WAY OF THE WATER'S GOING:  IMAGES OF THE

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTAL RANGE, with 

photographs by Ernest Waugh and Alan Nicholson

and text from Ursula K. Le Guin's ALWAYS COMING HOME)

("Person with Questions," gouache and watercolor on 

Arches watercolor paper, painted by am in the early 1980s)

Thank you to all who continue to visit NEW MORNING 

IN THE NORTH COUNTRY. I am grateful for your

presence.

OBOE SLEEPING ON A HOT DAY

TALKING SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious."

(Albert Einstein)

AUGUST FLOWER

OBOE'S YOGA PRACTICE

THERE WAS WIND BEFORE THE RAIN

"Think of it; all that speech pouring down." 

(Click to see complete quote at Whiskey River)

ORANGE IMPATIENS 8 A.M. / I'M PATIENT

Today my Zen Calendar says: "When you get free from certain fixed concepts of the way the world is, you find it far more subtle, and far more miraculous, than you thought it was." (Alan Watts) A few days ago I got my turntable out of the closet, along with my collection of Bob Dylan albums. "What's the matter with me, I don't have much to say . . . " (from "Watching the River Flow" -- Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. II, 1971)

"Your vision will clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." (Carl Jung) "No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear." (C.S. Lewis) "Fear is felt in the upper chest and breathing passages. It is a sense that somehow our life and survival are being threatened. It is felt as a sense of dread and anxiety which eventually spreads throughout the entire body." (John Friel and Linda Friel)

NEW MORNING AT SCUDDER POND

A while back, my sister emailed this video to me. It just takes a few minutes to watch. I've been meaning to post it.

I've been listening to a CD with the title of "Graceful Passages." I bought it at the hospital gift shop during my father's last years, the years that followed the death of my mother. I was drawn by these words on the back of the CD case:

"A powerful tool for the grieving; a healing comfort for the heart." -- Stephen and Ondrea Levine

"Music with spoken messages and prayers, presenting a peaceful reflection on the eternal questions of life while helping us care for ourselves and our loved ones. Spoken by:

Ram Dass
Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh
The Very Rev. Alan Jones
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D.
Fr. Maximillian Mizzi, O.F.M. Conv.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
and other mentors and guides.

Introduction by Ira Byock, M.D.
Foreward by Sam Keen
Epilogue by Kathleen Dowling Singh, PH.D.

Epilogue:

PRAYER FOR PRESENCE:

Let us be the ear that listens without judgment and with deep compassion
to all that the voice of our loved one has to say in the phase of Chaos.

Let us be the still and quiet point of acceptance where the personal life is
reviewed and resolved, honored and released.

Let us be the silent and understanding companion to the voiceless time
of Surrender.

The love will endure, never fear. In fact, beyond the personal self,
love just gets stronger, purer, freer, deeper. Go there with your
loved one.

Sit and breathe with your loved one, matching your rhythms.

Sit and meditate with your loved one, matching your visions.

Sit and pray with your loved one, matching your deepest longings.

Let us share, far beyond the last breath and even through a breaking
heart, in our loved one's Transcendence; the entrance, at the edge
of life, into the peaceful luminous Center."

I had put the CD away before my father died and completely forgotten about it until a few weeks ago.

















"So happy just to be alive
Underneath the sky of blue." (Bob Dylan, "New Morning," 1970)

TALKING WESTERN SKY