Bowl of Oranges (Bright Eyes)

Last Friday, I promised to elaborate on "two perfectly-made-for-me opportunities presented on the proverbial silver platter" at a later date... and that time is now!

~ Okay, I still adore Anne Lamott, and Patricia Lockwood, and Maizy Rae Bukalele... but Cynthia is my new spirit animal!  I was with her for three hours this morning, and she shared her time, energy, and passion with me.  From avocado gleaning (we harvested 2 crates/70 lbs. worth and dropped them off at a local food bank) to fire cider (she gave me her recipe!) to CSAs (starts up in the winter, and I plan to join), and everything in between, I learned so much, and will also begin working in the community garden every Thursday.  As I said:  Mind Blown!

I am excited about life again, re-emerging from my comforting dormancy to challenging growth, with this new connection making me feel that I am exactly where I need to be, finding the balance between doing well and Doing Good.

Cynthia is writing a few books:  the focus of one is Sustainable Ways to Make the Community Better (she is most definitely a conscious bridger, which Dar talks about!), another a cookbook (for some of the less common foods that are able to be grown prolifically in our area), and a few e-books about herbs and their uses for illness/health/women/aging, etc.  She does speaking engagements, teaches classes, sells the fire cider, tinctures, herbs, plants, seeds, etc. from her home.  What an inspiration, and I am beyond excited to contribute my enthusiasm as well as skillsets to The Caring Community!

~ Then, my friend Sandy, knowing of my obsession with language as well as my craving for intentional connection, told me about this project, which spoke to me too.  "We’re willing to bet you’re just like us— eager to make a difference and craving a chance to use your words for good. We hope you know you serve a purpose here and that your words do count. If you’re looking for ways to start shaking up the world today, browse our ways to get involved..."  I just bought the very cool Sun Science stamps and, having no commitments tomorrow (after a very busy last three days), will sit down and write to all five spotlighted recipients (with five new prospects each month).  The World Needs More Love Letters indeed... 💞

My gifts of “time and talent" (I *did* donate "treasure" to various causes/organizations/individuals throughout the pandemic) have gone under the radar during these last 18 months... and it feels like a new day, month, year... 💫

NR:  Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Crosby

SONG:  Bowl of Oranges by Bright Eyes (thanks to my son Rob for the heads-up to this song... 💓)

BOOK:  Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

POEM(S):  The Seven Of Pentacles by Marge Piercy

Under a sky the color of pea soup

she is looking at her work growing away there

actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans

as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.

If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,

if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,

if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,

if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees,

then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.

Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.

You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.

More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.

Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.

Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.

Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.

Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.

Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving.

Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,

a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us

interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:

reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.

This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,

for every gardener knows that after the digging, after

the planting,

after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.

You See, I Want a Lot by Rainer Maria Rilke

You see, I want a lot.

Perhaps I want everything:

The darkness that comes with every infinite fall

And the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing

And are raised to the rank of prince

By the slippery ease of their light judgments

But what you love to see are faces

That do work and feel thirst.

You love most of all those who need you

as they need a crowbar or a hoe.

You have not grown old,

And it is not too late 

To dive into your increasing depths 

where life calmly gives out its own secret.

QUOTE(S):  "The power of imagination makes us infinite." ~ John Muir

"In times to come, when we are all gone, people not yet born will walk in the sunshine of their own days because of what women and men did at this hour to feed the sick, to heal and to comfort.” ~ John Dwyer