Enough

No light
but the one
that flickers,
the one that calls you home to me...
Lone suspire splits stillness
and shadows.
vacant fingers,
the space between
them,
tracing fingers laced
that are not there
but move in phantom sway.
ever closer
hollowed silence
echos long -
begging for words
to be spoken, pressed
against the hush
of my open mouth
 and You say
My words are enough.
ears strain
for voice like honey
to trickle
trace along the half-moon
of my shoulder
and windswept brow.
You whisper wine,
breathed smooth
against my helix curve -
I am enough.
Bird
solitary on a roof -
Your feathers find me
and that is
enough.

Whirlwind and Wonder

Due to the nature of a whirlwind, I am pressed for time to post right now.  It is 1:00 AM and I am still working...but I will return.  I have gleaned so much wonder right in the midst if it that bears sharing.

Coffee - Copeland

Gratitude...

21.  Discovering new music.  I credit my son for introducing me to Copeland the other day, and lo and behold, I heard this while rolling down the road listening to my Coffeehouse (what else?) channel.  Lovely...

There's a love that transcends
All that we've known of ourselves
And I'll wait for it to come
I'll wait for it to come
Well it's got to be strong to touch my heart
Through its shell
And I'll wait for it to come
I'll wait for it to come

Waving Wildly Across the Ocean

I just have to say....HEEEEEELLLLLOOOOOO! To my friends across the ocean in the Ukraine and Germany and Peurto Rico!  I am so glad you stopped by!  If I could hug you, I would, in good Southern fashion...and then probably ask you, "How's your Mama?"

M83 - Farewell, Goodbye

Kiss on the mouth, bliss of a touch
Hand in a hand, killing the fiend
I'll write my love on more than a thousand weeping willows

A walk on your voice
So far, so close
A whispering child so cold, so mild
All the colors mixed up in falls of rainbows

Tears on your neck, holding you near
Sparkling shells, three comet tails
Hoping for some magic to make your heart beat next to mine

Shiny island, blue underground
My every day is fading away
I'm flying through the wind and whistling some strange melody

Hang on to me getting out of my corpse
Please don't leave me watching you from the clouds
Melancholy, you'll join me soon my love 
Feeling frozen, I'll warm you every night
Falling asleep

I'll travel in your dreams 

?

Do I really have anything worthy to say?

Let Me Introduce Myself

Hello!

How are you?  How have you been?  I have been moderately intentional (is that an oxymoron?!) about 'laying low'.  But here I am...nice to get re-acquainted!  These days are peculiar - it's the only way I can describe them.  Better peculiar than dull and unassuming.  So what have I been up to?  Wouldn't you like to know?

What number was I up to in my Gratitude List?  Here are a few...

8.  What's better than getting skin the shade of cinnamon sugar might just be a cinnamon sugar scrub...this spa thing has taken many different and wonderful turns since jeju...I was the humble and grateful recipient of such scrub while in Miami...the smell of cinnamon is quite heady, I have found...I take it already on the inside, and experienced it on the outside.  Intoxicating.

9.  Witnessing the Sculptor of the clouds at work...

 Is there anything more breathtaking than the view of clouds being shaped from a plane window?  True masterpieces.

These are completely out of order and mixed up, by the way....makes life more interesting.

10.  To back up and get all out of order...look at this stunning Contrast.  I love them.....this one was painting on the morning sky...

11.  Inuksuk left on the Miami shore...

I have had these built for me, or found, on the sands of Australia (my brother), the crest of a volcano in Guatemala  (my daughter) and Argentina (my dear friend, Alisha).  I build another on on the shore of Miami....

12.  Standing in the breeze of a random Tuesday while The Most Important Day occurs for hundreds of freshmen...their faces were priceless.  Namely, I have met Beth, who I have seen again through her dorm window and she spotted me and shouted, "hey!!!"  And I shouted back, "Hey, Beth!!! Beth, right?' And her eyes lit up.  "Yes!!!'  Hey!!!"

13.  Coming outside JUST IN TIME....

14.  There is just something so primal about connecting with silence and earth...and a completed job well-done....pulled weeds today.  

I watched, with baited interest, ants scurry and collect their young to hid them below the earth...

15.  Meeting first blush in the mere moments it was present...

16.  Stretched out on the warmth of the last of summer days...

I must be one of the only forty-year-olds that still come outside to sprawl on the driveway to watch the bats circle and dive overhead....

17. Waiting for the streetlights to come on...

18.  Making wishes on the tiniest of stars

Do you see it?

19.  Daughter getting her license..... bittersweet.

20.  Trading Silver...I had a moment of nostalgia and tears over this one... I traded Silver in for a smaller, more fuel-efficient version for my commute...Goodbye Silver....

Hello convertible...

Hat, sunglasses...standard summer apparel.  

Wild Horses by Mazzy Star

mazzy star-give you my lovin

M83 - Moonchild (Official Video)

On an M83 kick right now...while constructing long lost posts..... in love with a voice...that is just amazing.

M83 - Too Late [FULL SONG W/ LYRICS]

Have I shared this already?  I'm sharing this again, if I have...I love.

Bird on a Roof

"I lie awake, lonely as a solitary bird on a roof." Psalm 102:7

Gifts of Grace

4.  Watching two rabbits play chase in my yard.  They circled each other and bantered for ten minutes.

5.  Being surprised with the car of my teen dreams as a rental for our time in Miami.

6.  Soaking and absorbing all the healing properties of salt and sea.

7.  Being awakened to go watch the most stunning sunrise I have ever seen.  Yesterday morning the entire span of the horizon and stretch of beach was awash in lilac and lavender.  It started with a red dot for a sun and burst into amethyst.

This isn't my photo but it was like this, only more lavender to the sky as well.

I have had limited internet up to this point.  Hopefully it will improve now and I can get back here, although at the moment my thoughts are all white noise and quiet.  The crashing waves and salty air are a lullaby, singing me to stillness.

When Words Just Aren't Enough

Sometimes it's better to put love into hugs than to put it into words.  ~Author Unknown

Embrace

A hug is the shortest distance between friends.  ~Author Unknown

Magic City

I'm leaving on a jet plane (had to throw in that John Denver reference...) in the morning headed to Miami.  I am always charged about getting to go to a new place to explore.  Greg has an SEO conference there and I get to tag along.  The trip is part conference-part anniversary get-away.  I can not WAIT to get this bod out in the salty air and soak in all that iodine-rich water.  I look forward to this last 'hoorah' before everything starts? ends?  I will take pictures, exercise on the sand, read and write, and hopefully get here to the 'Hammock' too.  I look to restore and enjoy the respite.

Dancing With My loneliness By Schiller

Found this great 'chill out' artist, Schiller.  There are numerous songs by this artist that connected with me.  I also loved 'I Feel You' and 'Delicately Yours'.

Eucharisteo

Eucharisteo–Greek.  yoo-khar-is-teh’-o. Verb. Definition: 1.To be grateful, to feel thankful. 2. Give thanks

A synonym for gratitude is grace.  I am learning the art of gratitude, that is woven in rich fabrics of grace.  It amazes me how books come my way, well timed and exactly what the inner rhythm of my life is strumming.  Recently I read the book, one thousand gifts by Anne Voskamp.  I am behind so many others who have read it, but like I said, it is timely.  

One phrase (of many) that struck me.  In it Anne Voskamp writes:

"The root word of eucharisiteo is charis, meaning "grace".  Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks.  He took the bread and knew it to be a gift and gave thanks."

He saw the bread as grace.  

What if we viewed everything.....absolutely everything as grace in our lives?  You only have to read this book to find that yes, grace can be found, hidden in the deepest fog, the darkest night, the most woeful winds.  

And the ordinary.

The common day.

The familiar.

 I saw this picture and it leapt at me with abundance.  Abundance in simplicity.

Outpouring in singularity.

Filling up by emptying out.

For me lately, life really is a bowl of cherries - literally.  I am eating them by the bowls full.  I can not get enough.  I just popped one a minute ago.  I can not stop...and I don't think I want to.

I am learning (always learning!) so much about the body right now and health and nutrition. I am convinced that as we, as a society, have detached and disconnected with so much in our world that keeps us grounded, healthy and whole, we have also separated from the bond with our bodies.  Look around.  Bodies are becoming more and more distorted, as if in rebellion, or a cry for someone to take notice that something is.not.right.  Read medical journals or articles from the field of medicine.  We are becoming a more ailing, more medicated creature by the day, and it is alarming to me.

So back to cherries and grace.

I looked up the nutritional value of cherries and was blown away at what I learned, especially considering my own body's call of distress...If only we will quiet our own self-will (the will that stomps an indignant, toddler foot in tantrum for all the junk food it could want), our bodies will tell us what we desperately need...and what we do not.

I am looking to begin my own 1000 gifts of daily grace-they may be documented here, or in my handwritten journal, a sticky note or a scrap of napkin in a restaurant, but I will allow my gratitude to fill my days, each one a gift given by the ultimate Giver of Gifts.  Some may accompany verses, or thoughts spilled like yarn if the gift so inspires.  Some may simply be words and/or pictures.  

So I begin now.

1.  A family that can see the dark shadows that may cast long across my face - and cover me in love despite.

2. Bowls brimming with scarlet rubies of nature's perfection.

3. Glistening ice melting on bare stomach in the sun.

All gifts for a day occupied of grace in the ordinary.

Tea Delight

Recently I instituted in my own life a 'tea time'.  I won't go into the whole health focus right now.  That is a (lengthy) post for another time.  So in my consistently inconsistent (those who know me well, and/or follow this blog know all too well this paradoxical bit of my nature) effort, I decided one day this summer to have a daily tea time.  I reasoned:  a) tea is good for you (as long as you chose wisely the kind of tea you use) b) this fits well within my intent to be intentional as being 'slow dripped' in life - you just can't hurry sipping tea out of delicate porcelain cups c) I will finally make good use of my cup and saucer collection.

Today I chose a new tea:  a basic organic green tea.  I smiled to see this little 'nice-y nice' on the envelope casing the teabag:

Isn't that so polite and gentle?  Not just 'Open Here' but 'Please'.  I love it.

Today's choice of cup: shamrock.  To go with my 'green' tea.  Of course.

Can You?

Can you be 'Happy' and cry at the same time?  Does that ever happen to you?  It's one of those contradictory, opposite emotions that can swell and fill while emptying everything all at the same time.  It's like the sun breaking through the pouring rain.

Friday Fridge Poetry (delayed)

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

There are two that held me captive last year.



The better sounding version of this is no longer available but this is it - The Haunting by Anberlin

Up on this hill, in this uncanny house
The wind makes this place creak, the lights they are flickering.
The moon she is lurking, the clock it stopped working
At a quarter past three.
There's something dancing here in the shadows
And I wish it were us.

You haunt me baby, you haunt me here tonight.
You haunt me baby, you haunt me here tonight.
Tonight.
Tonight.

Can't get your memory, off of my mind, my mind.
Just want your heartbeat, on top of mine, of mine.
There's something dancing, here in the shadows
And I wish it were us.

You haunt me baby, you haunt me here tonight.
You haunt me baby, you haunt me here tonight.
Tonight.
Tonight.

Up on this hill, in this uncanny house.
Your spirit I can't see, but I still believe
I can feel your breath on me.

You haunt me baby, you haunt me here tonight.
You haunt me baby, you haunt me here tonight.
Tonight.
Tonight.

Up on this hill, in this uncanny house.







Beautiful...


A finger's touch upon my lips
It's a morning yearning
Pull the curtains shut, try to keep it dark
But the sun is burning

The world awakens on the run
And will soon be earning
With hopes of better days to come
It's a morning yearning

Another day, another chance to get it right
Must I still be learning
Baby crying kept us up all night
With her morning yearning

Like a summer rose, I'm a victim of the fall
But I'm soon returning
Your love' s the warmest place the sun ever shines
My morning yearning

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

I adore John Denver.  Always have.  I 'inherited' that love.  I hear this, and I am seven again, standing on my bed in my room in Bryan the color of sunshine, singing this into a hairbrush.

Fast forward and I am dancing, a pig-tailed Courtney on my hip, and singing this to her in our empty living room in St. Mary's before we moved up to North Georgia.

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument

Not long ago, I rooted around in a box of memorabilia and found my flute and all the sheet music from the days of band.  I still had the music for this song that we began learning from the very start in sixth grade.  I gave it a whirl, and while rusty, could still play this...

Play Catch-up

It's been a weird few days, as Daughter and I have both been sick with different things, but we've both been wiped out, nonetheless.  Here are the few of the last 'song-a-day' entries, some of which I don't have a selection that fits.

• Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh - I do not have a song that makes me laugh.
• Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play - anything on a guitar or cello.....would love to play either or both
• Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty-Huh?  I am not sure I 'get' this one...So I shall skip.

I'll finish up the last few '30 Days' entries, post my Friday's Fridge Poetry and move forward (I think...).