What a great day. A day founded upon love and dedicated to hope.
This may be the shortest post I’ve written in 698 days. However, if there has to be a reason for writing an extremely abbreviated post, I guarantee this is one of the very best.
I don’t think there could’ve been one single thing that could’ve gone better today.
Looking at this photo, and the twinkle in their eyes, how could we not feel hope for the future?
Stand By Me – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-412)
Tonight’s fire was friendly from the first moment I saw it. Nestled in a circle of stones harvested from the shore of the lake just yards away, it’s flames of deep pumpkin, purple, and an occasional splash of yellow flickered on our faces.
All 11 of us (plus an extra few who were already tucked under their covers in bed) were in attendance to celebrate hope in the midst of chaos. Tonight we reminisced with stories of a romantic engagement and laughed at endearing quirks.
Tomorrow a new life begins – one shared by two in a totally new and different way than they’ve ever experienced before. One that is in many ways bigger than one plus one.
Tonight’s fire warmed more than just our hands and feet. And it spoke to us in images often reserved for clouds – at least in my experience.
The message of the fire tonight was crystal clear to me: these two are going to fly. They’ll be protected and loved by each other, their family, their friends – and a myriad of unseen yet powerful guardians.
The guardians made their presence quite clear tonight. “We’re with you,” they said. “Let’s make the magic happen!”
(T-413)
Today was one of those days. It was one of those days that no matter where you look, even if it’s right into the face of a gathering storm, something lovely slips in to bring magic to the moment. Sometimes, even the Spirits of Nature, the Spirits of Place – of ‘a’ Place – conspire to bring rainbows and kisses, two of the most spontaneous yet potentially profound expressions of beauty and whimsy into our lives.
Rainbows. Kisses. Sometimes both at the same time!
Rainbow Sneaking In (in spite of the coming darkness) – Photo: L. Weikel
How can it be? In the midst of all the ugly rancor in the world, all the sadness and darkness, how can it be that rainbows and kisses can show up in our midst, bringing everyone who sees either – or both – a flutter of joy in their heart?
Kissing Trees – Photo: L. Weikel
That’s the magic of the Spirits of a place, of a particular piece of land. Where love is present, All Life springs forward to greet and celebrate it. And I have a feeling that while this is a phenomenon that’s always true, in times like these, when the clouds gathering on the horizon are turning an especially ominous shade of deepest slate gray, the Spirits of a place conspire even more concertedly to celebrate, nurture, and rejoice in that love.
And what better way to express love than with rainbows and kisses?
Or both at the same time?
Kissing Humans – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-414)
I had a chance to experience even more clouds than usual this afternoon and evening! And what I discovered – especially as I go through my photos and feel how they impact me emotionally – is a surprise yearning to pick up a paintbrush again.
Maybe the deep urge I feel to try to capture the images I saw unfolding before me, mountain after mountain, billowing image after the other, was a reaction to a message being blown to me by the Being I captured in the photo above.
Perhaps I’m being encouraged to paint again? I don’t know.
I have to tell you – I’m as surprised as any of you might be at the overwhelming number of times I feel moved to write about clouds. They speak to me. They feel incredibly responsive and supportive.
I feel a trip to Blick Art Store in my future. Wink wink.
Cloud Kingdom Calls To Me – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-415)
I’m not big on speeches. I listen to them when they’re in my face or given at a time that commands attention, such as the State of the Union. But if given the option? I usually pass and wait for the highlights later in the evening. Today, though, a campaign speech was given that was well worth a listen.
That was the case with me again today. I heard that Joe Biden was going to give a speech at Gettysburg and even saw clips of Trump supporters, sadly fulfilling the stereotypes, out and about protesting Biden’s arrival in this small central Pennsylvania town. It didn’t even occur to me again, quite honestly, to pursue watching or listening to that speech.
Late this afternoon, someone I know and respect suggested that this was an outstanding speech, definitely worthy of attention. I started listening, but had errands. I didn’t even get into it far enough to give it a chance.
Then tonight, after our walk, Karl and I had the tv turned up loud so I could hear it while I made dinner. We were watching a taped segment, and surprisingly, the host aired the full Biden speech at Gettysburg.
All I can say is that I’m glad the powers that be kept thrusting this speech in front of my nose. And I’m glad I finally listened.
And so, on the off chance that any of you may have eschewed the opportunity to listen to Joe Biden’s speech at Gettysburg on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 6th – exactly four weeks before election day – I am providing a link here. Note: the speech doesn’t begin until the 3:00 minute mark.
It’s only about 22 minutes long. I think you’ll find it’s worth it.
It’s a speech aimed at shifting perceptions, expectations, and aspirations.
If nothing else, we owe it to ourselves to allow for the possibility that it’s not too late to save our country from the carnage DT is relentlessly trying to wreak upon us. We owe it to each other, ourselves, and our children to dream this vision of our country into being: stronger, more diverse, more free than we’ve ever been in our history.
October’s not over yet, my friends. In fact, we’re only hitting the one week mark tomorrow. I’m guessing you’re possibly rethinking my entreaty to keep track of your perceptions of what’s going on all around us this month. If you haven’t been writing things down and keeping track yet…I challenge you to reflect upon the myriad of shockers we’ve survived already in the past seven days.
Time’s not up yet.
And as we continue to negotiate these turbulent beyond measure times, keep the embers of hope and determination reflected in Biden’s ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation’ speech tucked away in your heart, refusing to be doused by all the awfulness being heaped upon us right now.
We will persist and we will prevail. We must.
(T-416)
I’ve always loved living where four distinct seasons occur. And I’ve never quite been able to name a favorite season. Each has its own unique charm and reasons to love it. But I have to say, this fall, beginning just at the equinox (September 22) and persisting into this October, has kissed us with some rapturous beauty.
On our walk this evening, it was almost as if Karl and I were struck dumb with the surreal beauty that kept unfolding around us. Funny thing is, not only was it unfolding around us, but it also felt as though it were wrapping us up, cocooning us, enfolding us in a warm embrace of hope.
We are being subjected to some pretty thick and intense propaganda lately. We’re being whipsawed from one dire situation to another, one outrageous slashing of norms and decency to the next.
As a result, we’re left feeling vulnerable and raw.
And what message do we keep receiving day after day? Take a walk. Look up. Immerse yourself in nature. Listen to the crickets. Notice the clouds. Watch the wind swirl the leaves off the trees and carry them miles away.
Hopefully, this pandemic has shifted all of our lives enough to make every single one of us realize just how important maintaining a direct connection with Mother Nature.
If you’re still on the fence, I offer you the two photos I’m including in this post. Look at them. They are unfiltered.
I love how rays of light piercing the sky the way they are in the photo at the top of this post make me feel that hope is alive and well and an utterly vital sense to have and maintain.
And then – I don’t know what to tell you. The photo below, which is simply a shot of some of the wonderful trees lining the dirt road that we walk along every night, makes my heart want to break wide open in an outpouring of joy.
I realize that sounds radical and a bit weird. It’s not necessarily a unique or special photograph in many senses of the word. But there’s something about it. Every time I look at it, I feel a tug in my heart. I almost feel tears starting to form. I can’t explain it.
But maybe you will feel it too.
And if so, then my work for the evening is complete.
Sunset through the Trees – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-417)
Given that we’re starting a new week, I asked for some collective guidance, because surely we could all use something to hold onto amidst the insanity. Lo and behold – yet again, we receive the same basic message.
There’s no way anyone would’ve believed it if one of us had time-traveled back ten months to our naïve selves celebrating on New Year’s Eve and described what we just witnessed in the last six days. And I literally mean just the past six days – starting with the debate debacle, which is now taking on overtones of suspiciously germy intentions, and ending with the Ride to Nowhere DT indulged in early this evening.
I kid you not. I consulted the Ocean Oracle and simply asked what we need to keep in mind this week as we seek to maintain some semblance of balance and normality in these distinctly imbalanced and abnormal circumstances. I chose Crab – Lateral Thinking.
I’m going to quote the entire passage directly from the guidebook because, well, it all feels relevant. Do with it what you will:
“It just wasn’t working anymore. The way he was doing it was just not working. He had gone down to the beach to think. His head was full of ideas, different avenues, where to go, what was the best way, which way would work. Thought after thought after thought. Round and round and round. He settle himself by a rock pool and stared into the deep blue water left behind as the tide receded. Movement caught his eye. It was a crab, seemingly trapped in this space. He watched as the crab moved this way and that, trying to get himself out of the pool. Back and forth, round and round. Still, the crab could not breach this prison. He watched as the crab stilled itself and then began moving in a different pattern. This allowed him to break free and move off in an entirely new direction, freeing himself from that which confined him.
Are you being pinched by a situation where your regular thought patterns, your regular mode of doing things, is not working? Incorporate lateral thinking, thinking outside the square. Remove yourself from how you usually attack situations. Shift your perceptions. Try a different tact to help come clear from what keeps you stuck.” (emphasis added)
Only one short month ago, we received our first clear message that we are to begin shifting our perceptions if we’re to successfully navigate these extremely unsettling times.
Five days ago, that message was reiterated, albeit simply via my own spontaneous suggestion that we engage in some deliberately thoughtful tracking of our perceptions as we encounter each day in this potentially provocative October – what with its two full moons and myriad other powerfully challenging astrological aspects.
No sooner had I spit those words out when, well, ‘just another day in 2020’ unfolded.
So let’s do this. We cannot shift our perceptions if we’re not aware of our initial perceptions. We must start questioning how we look at our world. What are we willing to accept as normal? Do our assumptions about people, institutions, structures in our society, still have validity?
What are we seeing? What are we hearing? Is it too difficult to believe our eyes or ears so we tell ourselves it’s not what is right in front of us?
Clearly, our perceptions are a key to navigating these times. To shift them, we first must know what and where they are now.
(T-418)
I hope you had a chance to get outside today to take in the brilliance of this early October perfection. Oh my goodness, from the crisp clarity of the atmosphere to the leaves on the trees just beginning to tease of the palette to come, today was most definitely a day to spend as immersed in nature as possible.
I’ll admit, at the moment I have about four running ‘to do’ lists ebbing and flowing between my Day-Timer (yeah, I’m a pen-and-paper list maker) and my journal and even the backs of a couple of envelopes. I’ll also admit to being a tad obsessed with tracking the ongoing drama and cascade of disinformation emanating from the Administration.
I made an effort to listen to the Medicine Cards* I chose this morning: Deer with Grouse underneath. Deer, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, urges ‘gentleness’ as a primary message. Grouse has a lot to do with motion and encourages us to pay attention to how and why we move about in our lives.
A factor crucial to crossing off a few of the things on my lists required me to run out to an art supply store about 45 minutes away. It’s weird to me how different it feels now to pick up and go to the store. There’s an undercurrent of stress to it, which surprises me each time I encounter that tension and identify it. Traveling to places where there are a lot of people walking around has an effect on me now that I honestly never would’ve dreamt of a year ago.
After I secured a small tool that I hope will solve all my current creative issues (I’ll find out tomorrow), I noticed how edgy I was feeling. I was driving home but knew I could not go home until I made a much-needed pit stop at the Tohickon. I needed to honor the main card I’d chosen (Deer) and be gentle with myself – especially after running around doing errands and dealing with people (Grouse).
Cascade of Leaves – Photo: L. Weikel
I pulled up to my favorite spot, where, depending upon the depth of the creek on any given day I can walk out into the middle of the flow and sit on a boulder or I can just lower my windows and stay in the car, watching the water stream past only yards away from me. Today I chose to remain in my car and write in my journal. There’s so much going on both in the outside world and in my own inner life that giving myself permission to simply honor it all by recording it felt like a gentle indulgence.
At one point, a huge gust of wind came and swirled through the upper branches of the trees lining the Tohickon. The noise created was hard to describe – far, far more than a shushing and yet with overtones or perhaps undertones of birdsong. But then I realized, looking up into the sky that there were hundreds and possibly thousands of leaves cascading through the air. There was an entire layer of leaves that did not look like they’d come from any of the trees near me that were definitely being carried by winds aloft. I had to squint to make sure they were in fact leaves and not a flock of tiny migrating birds.
I tried to take a photo but it doesn’t even remotely capture the magic – not even when I try to zoom in so you can see the leaves a little better.
Photo: L. Weikel
Later, Karl and I took one of our longer walks and encountered a field full of deer. I took it as a good sign that they seemed to be completely at ease with us as we walked along the road right beside them. (Granted, the deer around here are a rather entitled lot, as was evidenced the other day when two walked into our driveway and started munching on our hostas.) But I also know they pick up on our energy and it’s not uncommon for them to bolt if our energy is too jagged for their liking.
So all in all, I feel as though – at least for this afternoon – I successfully navigated my little tributary of the treacherous waters that come with living in the midst of a pandemic, extraordinary economic strife, and an unprecedented assault on our democracy (to name a few stressors affecting all of us) and managed to find some calm.
I cannot thank the gentle spirit of Tohickon Creek and the winds aloft enough for sweeping my head and heart free.
Deer in Field 3 Oct 2020 – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-419)
I’ll bet none of us expected today to unfold the way it did. Which is not to say any of us who’ve been paying even half attention to the way the Coronavirus is being handled by the Administration are surprised. While that may be true, even by the standards of this chaotic presidency, today was a doozy of a day.
I discovered that the President and Melania had tested positive just after I published my post last night. Which makes the rapidity with which events seemed to degrade today all the more stunning. And the casualties keep mounting as I sat here this evening. Yet another Senator tested positive this evening (Sen. Thom Tillis) and then – just after 10:00 p.m. – Kellyanne Conway.
And I will admit it: I fell asleep. Literally. In the midst of all of this, I just conked out. And I just woke up, almost by chance, with but a few minutes left to crank out a post.
I did manage to take a wild photo earlier this evening of the full moon, which is still essentially full as it casts a brilliant light in the night sky, and Mars burning brightly beside it.
It surprised me that the moon seemed not to be minimizing Mars’s dazzling light in the least, which of course was because Mars is a planet – quite close by – as opposed to a star millions of miles away. A full moon often detracts from our enjoyment of meteor showers and the like because she drowns everything else out. Not Mars. Not tonight, anyway.
Mars may be small compared to stars, but it’s feisty. And it doesn’t seem to want to play second fiddle to anybody – least of all a mere satellite to the Earth.
I hesitate to guess what the third day of October will bring to us. It almost feels like October is a bizarre form of Advent Calendar – with a surprise behind every door.
Stay safe out there. Wear your masks and wash your hands. But mostly, try to stay home. It’s not worth it.
Mars & Full Moon (close up) – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-420)
Doesn’t it just figure that this most provocative and transformative year of 2020, October plays host to two full moons? The first full moon was today, October 1st. And of course the second one will be on, you guessed it, Halloween. Because what could possibly be more in keeping with the year 2020 than having a so-called “Blue Moon” occur on Halloween?
Tonight’s moon, which I’m dubbing Sheila’s Moon (just because), was especially photogenic. I actually took the photos I’m including in tonight’s post last night. I’m glad I did, because the sky clouded over this evening before I had a chance to experience her in all her glory.
I did, however, encounter a Cloud Woman this evening, running across the sky with arms flung back, her long hair streaming after her. She appeared to me to be running with abandon – not in fear, but rather in joyful delight that she had such gorgeous fields to be skimming over, toward a sunset that could melt the hardest heart with its sumptuous colors.
Cloud Woman Racing Across the Sky – Photo: L. Weikel
Yes indeed, joyful abandon is the emotion I sensed emanating from this Cloud Woman racing across the sky. In fact, it’s possible she was prancing ahead of the rising full moon as a sort of curtain-raiser or cosmic warm-up act for the main event.
And perhaps she is dancing October into our awareness. If that’s the case, it occurs to me that we might want to engage in some quick reflection and notation. What do we notice at the edges of her skirt that she may be whooshing into our life?
Cloud Woman From Afar – Photo: L. Weikel
Indeed, let’s pay attention to, hone, and take stock of our perceptions! Take a few minutes to honor yourself and your feelings by jotting down what’s going on in your life as we experience this Harvest Moon at the inception of October. What thoughts occupy your mind? What hopes and dreams are you contemplating? Of course, there’s a lot about the outside world that you might want to document for posterity. But what’s also going on in your personal life? What emotions are you experiencing? What musings do you have about your life, your relationships, your place in the world?
When you think about the range of possible changes in your life, let them flow onto the page. From a numerological perspective, I’ve been taught by Alison Baughman that it behooves all of us to pay particular attention to what unfolds in our lives during October (yes, of every year), because October, being the 10th month, is a ‘1’ month – and hence is a reflection of what we might expect in our year ahead.
So as we skip across the sky with our Cloud Woman, perhaps we can set a little reminder for ourselves to take stock each week – perhaps at every quarter phase of the moon as she dances from full to full – and pause to reflect and record our perceptions of what’s going on around us, both globally and intimately. Each week might reflect what we can expect for each quarter of 2021.
It could be a fun exercise. It’s possible we might see one expression of a situation or issue or relationship now and see a shifting of that into a higher octave next year. The trick is documenting it now and then tracking it later.
But first let’s just see how this wild and wonderful October plays out on its own. What will we be thinking about and experiencing just four short weeks from now when the Blue Moon beams its light upon us on All Hallow’s Eve? We think we won’t forget these times, but I guarantee: so much is flying at us every single day, we will be astonished and grateful for having kept track. And you never know how our perceptions might change if we give ourselves permission to take the time to notice what’s really going on in our lives.
Lighting the Way to Our Future – Photo: L. Weikel
(T-421)