Wednesday, December 29, 2021

From "An Irritable Métis" (Chris La Tray) / Late December 2021


I've been reading Chris La Tray's substack ever since discovering it by way of  Elizabeth's substack.  Grateful for the ever-widening community of kindred spirits who are connected through blogging.

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The snow and ice here have re-created something like the first days of COVID.  Few people out on the roads.  Many who might have gathered without vaccinations and without masks have had to stay home or near home here since Christmas Day due to snow and ice making travel not an option for most of us.  The forecast offers no end in sight.

This morning I was talking with a friend who teaches high school English in Baltimore.  She reports that the COVID situation there is as bad as it was before vaccinations became widely available.  

Looking out my windows to the east in the past few days:







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Sunday, December 26, 2021

Honoring the long life of Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) in the early morning hours of a snowy day in late December



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The snow began falling lightly here after dark on December 24 and fell steadily all day on December 25.  Something prompted me to take a quiet peaceful 2-hour walk in the snow.  Because of wind and rain, I've not been walking much in the past few weeks.  Looking at the forecast, it appears that we will have snow on the ground and unusually cold weather for at least the next 10 days, with a low of 7 degrees predicted for today.

It's December 26 now.  I woke up just after midnight and learned that Desmond Tutu had died and decided to stay up and post something.  

Saturday, December 25, 2021

... the close and holy darkness ...


"One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six ...

... I got into bed.  I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept."

(Dylan Thomas)

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It snowed a little bit last night, as promised, before I went to bed.  We've had no snow to speak of until now.  When I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning, there was only a dusting of snow.  Just now I looked out again in the darkness and see that it is snowing steadily. 

December is full of celebrations from numerous traditions and days that are meaningful to me because of what happened in my life on those days.  It is a joy to celebrate all of the days in December, including those of Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Ramadan when it occurs in December.

And then a New Year begins in January.


Always sending love to blog friends near and far.

Monday, December 20, 2021

In the last days before the Winter Solstice 2021


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It's cold and clear here today.  When I looked out early this morning I saw that Scudder Pond froze overnight.  I haven't seen the Pacific Ocean since 2008 and may not see it again, but can hear it if I pay attention to my breathing.  

Bellingham is located on the Salish Sea, which meets the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles to the west of here, as the crow flies.  There is no quick and easy way to get to there from here.  The journey begins with a 1.5-hour drive, mostly on 2-lane country roads, to a 30-minute ferry ride and then more than 4 hours, again on 2-lane country roads, before arriving on treacherous bluffs that overlook the Pacific Ocean.   

I'm grateful for the nearby presence of salt water, lakes, rivers, creeks, ponds, marshes, forests, and the rain that is so much a part of life in Western Washington.  I dream of visiting the Pacific Ocean again, but it seems more and more unlikely for various reasons due to my life circumstances. And yet, who knows what the future will bring?

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Here is what Morelle wrote from the Scottish Borders today:  

Walking by the river the other day I realised that the solstice is more than a moment or a day marked on the calendar. It felt as if I entered a different place with a different atmosphere, one that side-stepped the framework of time. A stillness, a peacefulness, a pause, a sense of intimacy with the bare trees, the river, and the overcast sky with its range of subtle greys. This solstice zone. 

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Friday, December 17, 2021

Joni shining






SHINE

Oh let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on Wall Street and Vegas
Place your bets
Shine on the fishermen
With nothing in their nets
Shine on rising oceans and evaporating seas
Shine on our Frankenstein technologies
Shine on science
With its tunnel vision
Shine on fertile farmland
Buried under subdivisions

Let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on the dazzling darkness
That restores us in deep sleep
Shine on what we throw away
And what we keep

Shine on Reverend Pearson
Who threw away
The vain old God
kept Dickens and Rembrandt and Beethoven
And fresh plowed sod
Shine on good earth, good air, good water
And a safe place
For kids to play
Shine on bombs exploding
Half a mile away

Let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on world-wide traffic jams
Honking day and night
Shine on another asshole
Passing on the right!
Shine on the red light runners
Busy talking on their cell phones
Shine on the Catholic Church
And the prisons that it owns
Shine on all the Churches
They all love less and less
Shine on a hopeful girl
In a dreamy dress

Let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on good humor
Shine on good will
Shine on lousy leadership
Licensed to kill
Shine on dying soldiers
In patriotic pain
Shine on mass destruction
In some God's name!
Shine on the pioneers
Those seekers of mental health
Craving simplicity
They traveled inward
Past themselves...
May all their little lights shine

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Women who renovate / "... I'm taking my time for a number of things that weren't important yesterday ..."


Above is a small farm in Norway that Ellen bought.  She is in the process of renovating the old house on that farm and is documenting her progress via a blog.  Ellen is the daughter of my friend, Linda, who was one of my first friends when I moved to Bellingham in 1974.  Linda died peacefully in late December last year.


Some of you may know Bev, originally from Ontario, who also has blogged about the old house pictured above which she bought in Nova Scotia in 2010, while living in Arizona, without ever having seen that house in person.  For a number of years, she spent the winters in Arizona and worked on the house during the remaining months.  She is still working on the house and lives there throughout the year and blogs occasionally.  Bev was one of my first blog friends.  I was drawn to read about the life she and her husband lived in Ontario and fascinated by the story of their life together and her engaging photos of what to me was an unlikely subject -- insects!

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I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
I'm filling the cracks that ran though the door
and kept my mind from wandering
where it will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
See the people standing there
who disagree and never win
and wonder why they don't get in my door

I'm painting my room in a colorful way,
and when my mind is wandering
there I will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
Silly people run around
they worry me and never ask me
why they don't get past my door

I'm taking my time for a number of things
that weren't important yesterday
and I still go

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
where it will go
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go

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As the end of 2021 approaches, I'm looking at some of the holes in my life, some of which don't need fixing.  Sometimes it is good for rain to get in.  Sometimes the holes do need fixing.  This calls for discernment (-:

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A few days ago, while talking with a friend on the phone, I looked up to see a Great Blue Heron flying in the direction of my porch.  The heron flew within 10 feet of my porch and then circled off to the left and across Scudder Pond and landed in one of the cherry trees that are on the far side of the trail that leads to Whatcom Falls Park.

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My friend with his grandson:


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My first blog post was on December 8, 2006.  So many changes since then.  So many changes still to come!