Of Loss And Leaving

I lost a dear friend Wednesday. 

I held her in my arms until they took her away from me. 

The older we get the more often we travel this road.

I want off. 

"Where you come from is gone, 

where you thought you were going to never was there, 

and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it"

Flannery O'Connor ~ 1925-1964

Baby Zucchini

Weekly Draw: Celtic Book of the Dead ~ Rainbow Stream Island

The twenty-forth card in the Voyage of Maelduin takes us to the Rainbow stream. An island that offered, simply for the taking, a constant stream of salmon. The wonderment comes in, not at finding food readily available, but that is was never ending bounty of the earth.

I'm reminded by this card of the goodness at hand this time of the year. The garden is giving up the most wonderful carrots I've ever eaten, fresh beans off the vine, combined in the steamer pan with little four to five inch zucchini, heavenly. The leaf, head, and butter lettuces and the tomatoes. The ear corn and winter squashes that come soon. The beauty of the gladiolus and sunflowers tucked in here and there.   A calming peaceful relaxing place, that reminds me pharmaceuticals to fight cancer are only the tip of the island...there's a world of natural helps every where I look.

Last night we had three small zucchini for dinner that were grown within fifty feet of our back door.
I estimate they cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $371.49 each. ~ Andy Rooney 1911-2011

Good News Bad News

Weekly Draw: Sacred Path Cards ~ Storyteller

This might be child or doll, holding many people in her arms, on her shoulders, hanging onto her hair. Her eyes are closed and her mouth makes a perfect O. Are the little people creating her stories for her? In the ears out the mouth? Are they the story? All the little people are smiling, this bodes well for the tales that will be told.

I'm reminded by this card of good news bad news. Given a choice what would you always choose? We've had both recently and sitting here thinking about the choices, I think I always choose the bad news first. Get it out of the way, and good news may help the bad news...Either way it gets woven into the stories of our lives and are what make us who we are.

"Don't kill the messenger." ~ Sophocles 496-406 BC

Fight or Fall

Weekly Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Shaman of Sorrows

I suppose grief and sorrow strengthen us. For what I don't know as the older we get the more likely the sorrows will be closer to home and all the deeper. I wouldn't go back a day but looking forward fills me with subconscious terror.

I'm reminded by this card we can fight, or fall victim to the grims. There is no point in pre-grieving, nothing is served by early sorrowing. Today is what I have, and that is enough.

"No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning." ~ Haruki Murakami 1949-  Norwegian Wood 

Vigilant Gratitude

Draw of the Week: Creatrix Oracle ~ Gratitude

I've been thinking about gratitude lately, specific, not random mumbling of the everyday kind. Sometimes I wonder if exposing that gratitude to the light of day isn't just me whistling in the dark like my green nail polish, making it a sort of false gratitude. (how many times can you get gratitude into a paragraph...)

I'm reminded by this card to take nothing for granted because life turns on a dime, to be vigilant with unadorned heartfelt gratitude.

"Make a pact with yourself today to not be defined by your past." ~ Steve Maraboli Life, the Truth, and Being Free