Only If You Run (Julian Plenti)

I've said previously that the golf course in our condo complex is now closed, which of course was no problem since neither of us play golf.  The plus side is that we now have full access to the golf-cart-turned-walking paths, a much more expansive and scenic route.  Another plus is that now my husband and I are walking at different times (trust me, it's for the best!), and I've been able to enjoy my music again, plugging my earbuds into my phone Pandora app.  We have a diversity of stations, and putting it on Shuffle becomes a nice mix of Joni Mitchell, Dar Williams, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Todd Snider, Amy Rigby, Danny Schmidt, Brandi Carlile, The Avett Brothers, Indigo Girls, John Prine, Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, and of course all the other random artists they sprinkle in who have the potential to become new discoveries.  That's where today's title song comes in.  Never heard it before, and now it's a favorite.  Boom!

Of course, I have a lot of Christmas/holiday music on there too and, every time one comes on during my walk, I stop, skip ahead to the next song, and resume walking.  Pandora allows you only so many skips, and then you just have to keep listening.  The other night (because I was on a phone call with my daughter) I left the house at 7:30 p.m., not my usual 7 p.m. start time, and by the time I was on my second loop of the golf course, way toward the back of the property, it was getting very dark.  What comes on but the soundtrack to the movie Halloween, scary as all f*ck, and of course I had run out of skips.  Eek!  I honestly expected something horrible to happen (such a cliche) but, thankyoujesus, I lived to tell about it...  :-)

From now on, I will listen to every single Christmas song, saving my skips for situations such as this [ominous music plays] (closed captioning text while watching The Outsider...  👀)

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 15, 2020
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope that during the coronavirus crisis you have been entertaining wild truths and pondering the liberations you will initiate when the emergency has passed. I trust you have been pushing your imagination beyond its borders and wandering into the nooks and crannies of your psyche that you were previously hesitant to explore. Am I correct in my assumptions, Leo? Have you been wandering outside your comfort zone and discovering clues about how, when things return to normal, you can add spice and flair to your rhythm?


SONG:  Only If You Run by Julian Plenti

BOOK:  Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

POEM:  Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale by Dan Albergotti

Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.

Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
each of your life’s ten million choices. Endure moments
of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you.

Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound
of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart.

Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope,
where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all
the things you did and could have done. Remember
treading water in the center of the still night sea, your toes
pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.

QUOTE:  "Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew.  This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.  We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it." ~ Arundhati Roy