Where are You?

Whatever happened to

The brave young men?

They're meditating

With the trees and

Listening to tales

Of the breeze

What has happened to

The kind young women?

They are working

Deep in the cities

Learning to serve

With sunshine smiles

While ragged aggressors

And shark-suited oppressors

Clash for 'equality'

My brothers and sisters

Balance the weather

With dreams of Forever

A. Hart, Baddeck, NS, 1981

Doing the little things

     I must mop! I've thought about the state of the world's trouble spots and decided the best thing to do is stick to my own flow of stability and small meaningful daily activities. It matters how we live. 

 

     I would not be caught at a podium or in the back of a pickup truck with a megaphone yelling liberal values and challenges into the crowd's applause. I will not likely be writing op ed's for Time or the New York Times although I've considered it occasionally in the 45 years I have lived outside the United States. I can, however, care for the sick and help harried mothers with spunky children and shop frugally and watch my fossil fuel footprint. I can write to sad parents and friends and paint the light coming through the dark and meditate to a happy harmony of sounds and thoughts.

     What else CAN we do in a time that seems the insane and uncaring are surging to the front of loud and killing activities? Living a quiet 'good' life has it's frustrations. The news is bad all over the place. With the internet and communications so instant we are vicariously included in happenings the world over. Ignoring all the chaos doesn't quite work. In this age of emerging 'awareness' of our interconnectedness we are affected whether we like it or not. Beyond religious dogma we all know this is an experience with certain value lessons personal and collective. How to negotiate happy daily life and social safety and fine values when so much seems to be flying out the window of sane humanity? The opposites are in play.

     Beyond seeming opposites there are spaces to think and feel true beauty and kindness. There are areas of activity that weave the fabric of fun and celebration. Magic is all around us. It takes faith in our own individual goodness and in the benevolence of the Unknown design to be able to keep to the life-giving rhythms available as we travel through time. Are we a bad species? Is the Shadow in charge? Is it all worthless?

     Mop the floor. Plant a seed. Give a smile. Allow some appreciation for your own vibrating self. 'Other' may be an illusion. Who knows? Someone will love you if you let them. In the right way. Because they love life and find meaning in the breathing of it's promises. Carry on!

Travels in Time

 

     From the dry Chilean hills and rough Pacific surf to the heat of Miami to the early spring chill in Missouri and back again through Florida to cold wet Nova Scotia: It was an unexpected detour to rush to see my mother for the last time on this Earth. She died peacefully March 22 in the morning. I saw her the night before and felt I got there in time to tell her she was loved and greatly appreciated. She was good and true. She lives in our hearts and minds, DNA and habits

     In still chilly April I retreated to a northeastern shore in Canada to see old friends and watch the winter turn to spring. The horse and artisans and goats are at home there. Most of my gang has 'come from away' (COA'ers) and made inroads into the woods and shores building homes and lives intertwined in the interest of self-actualization. There is an underlying harmony and respect for individuals and a learned patience for eccentricities that the locals have established. The feuds are heartfelt and dealt with in some humor and story telling perspective. The weather is a key presence and control. Fiddle music keeps us warm and jigging free.

    The city guys learned to fish on a cold rough sea. The ladies carry wood, bake from scratch, and help build their houses. Everyone has an art, craft or hobby in the interest of creativity and development. Most have eliminated the tv dramas of our larger culture and see happenings with a viewfinder once removed from the hype and extreme opinions. To build your life in a new land with kind and inventive neighbors is a good way to go. Self education, sharing, and physical vitality are so much a part of the lifestyle there it is a norm.  

 

I am back in the city now with kindred friends cooking up some fun in this September season of my Life. 

 Cherio, carry on!

Rarefied Worlds

    We visited a remarkable environment last week. It is one of those places that is a constant work of art being created, a world of its own. The entire time-space-mind-feeling atmospheres are enclosed with good intentions, cooperation, inspiration and appreciation. Have you found places like that in your life? They make the mundane seem dull in comparison.

    The big farming plantation we visited is run by a family dedicated to natural lifestyle and self sustaining technology, vision, and ever-changing developments. The children of the parents fit right into the scene as do some of the locals and enthusiastic world travelers who pass through. This eco-creation is in a valley in Chile. There are other places where I have found the same high spirit of endeavor and success: in the hills of St. Ann's Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia communities; with acoustic musicians in the countryside of southwest Missouri; among masters students at an art college in Totnes, England; on a small urban farm on top of a wooded hill in Halifax.

    People are productive and the life is magical when working together to build a vision incorporates allowing the dream to grow with respect and skillful work, joy for the small things in life and understanding of the worldly perspective the endeavor brings. They can let it flow with deep commitment and ease of expectation.

    Lets find our heart places and give them a boost of appreciation and participation! 

 

Meaningfulness

     Time is ticking right along. Northerners are counting 6 weeks to spring and southerners are soaking up the sun. There have been glitches in smooth going here and the setbacks, although minor, can take on super importance when they seem to challenge ease and comfort and equilibrium. Forward motion is conditioned with detail work.
     I am trying to communicate with an insane cursor. It does what it wants and makes no sense with its maneuvers. Holding on for a new computer till I get back to my familiar world is tricky.  If you don't hear from me, send mental messages, please.
     We have visited with wonderful friends and visitors, celebrated meals and birthdays with wild little boys banging and jabbering and laughing, a teenager who got her fruit and whipped cream birthday cake smashed in her face, big dogs barking at the gates, and a shedding cat who sits on the dinner table. There is a village nearby full of shops and studios where pottery is made. The whole town is a pottery factory. We got a piggy bank for a gift to a guy who is buying up mountain land in the south. Pigs are traditional good luck symbols here.
     My painting is ok, the colors and feeling are growing more appropriate but the local women's studio shop only wanted the small postcards, not the landscapes I am trying to do with some level of Chilean essence. Oh, well, living is learning and learning is a huge part of living. Enjoy the time and see the grace in the unfolding!
https://www.facebook.com/taller.domingo 

 

Communication

 Away from the maddening crowd!

    
    We humans have so many ways to interact and to communicate in our worldly reality. It amazes me the lengths we go to to misinterpret. The art show is supposed to be open at 10 am and NO ONE shows up to open the school classrooms where over 100 artists' work is exhibited. The friend will pick up the borrowed party items at an established time and day and shows up 3 days later unannounced while the host is in the shower. The politicians and educators are at least a decade (or 2) behind the real needs of the populace. We find fleas on the cat after she has scratched her fur off her body in clumps.

    The mis-inderstanding we have come to gives us room to self-create but does nothing for union of action or heart. I haven't seen much disparagement here on the shore in Chile but it is present. I can't understand the words in Spanish but I listen to the vibes of the spoken word and watch the actions of the people. How to find harmony and balance?
    Caring is important to equilibrium and so is stability. If you think you are a victim of another's attitude or action you won't feel like cooperating. The ever present sense of competition has gotten out of hand in most interchanges today. Will he cheat me? Will she turn on me? Can I make a promise and keep it? Should I trust myself, let alone someone else? Will the plane leave on time? Will the storm close down the roads? What if the internet crashes or the banks fail or I get really sick? Should I do more, should I care less, etc and etc. Meanwhile, we drive in clumps and honk at disruptions.
    There is a way to come to ease and trust with the whirl of past present future. It seems to grow as one matures from being immersed in daily commerce to quiet time alone and with other species and elements. There is a world of people creating balance and peaceful thought/feeling/action. Always has been, always will be. Finding them is a gift of life if you want that quality. If you love the chaotic marketplace and unpredictable mass dance, Go for IT! For me, a little of the latter goes a long way.

B'days

    Birthdays in our family go for at least a week. This time it is Sarah's 32nd. The last week has been a mix of perfect weather and irritating glitches in progress and events. However, we persevere. I am walking carefully with gimpy knee and hoping the car is returned from the south very soon. 
    Last evening we had a Mexican theme party with friends from around the world. I listened to the river flow of Spanish and used my pidgin and hand signals to communicate. Much of the culture here is about wine making. Los chilenos aman su vino! There are many beautiful vineyards here, large and small, growing and producing wine for international sales. Wine makers come from Europe and the US to work or learn. 
    I am trying to make the tiny vegetable/herb garden flourish in dry season and bad soil. The gardener is confused when he comes to work and the plants have already been watered. I asked him for compost and he brought a bag of sticks and rotten leaves. I must learn more words! 
    Painting is progressing slowly as I watch the sky and sea, study the trees and the rock formations. The colors are different from other places I have lived and it is a wonderful way to experience a place by absorbing and transcribing the impressions as they develop!