06-NOV-2007
Presence
It's now 4 a.m. Tuesday morning and I'm hoping that after I write this entry I'll be able to fall asleep. I tried at 2 a.m. but had no success. I don't believe in the afterlife, neither heaven nor hell, but I do believe in Presence and I'm feeling my friend Mary's presence tonight. I lay in bed trying to remember what photo I'd framed and given Mary when I visited her up north in July, but I couldn't dredge it up from my memory. I don't know why I even thought it mattered. I have yet to cry for her and maybe it's unshed tears that are keeping me awake. Or maybe it's not Mary at all; maybe it's nothing more than my body trying to adjust to this new season. Who knows? I sure don't. One thing I do know, though: for me, sleeplessness has generally accompanied an internal shift of some kind. In the past, it's been one of the first signs. OK, my eyelids are getting heavy. It's time to try again.
By the way, I took this photo of the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes during their rehearsal on Saturday. They were lined up in front of the window at the Birmingham Unitarian Church where next Friday's CD Launch will be held.
Oh, I almost forgot! A few hours ago I put up a new gallery of portraits.
CLICK HERE to see it. Nine of the twelve photos have not been posted before.
05-NOV-2007
November
November has never been a favorite of mine, but so far this year has been different. Because the hot weather extended into October, everything was slowed down. As of Sunday when I took this photo, this pile of leaves was one of the few on the street where I like to scoot. Normally at this time we're raking the last of the leaves, not the first. This year's colors have been more gold than scarlet but that might be because our nights weren't cold enough until lately. Global warming must be at work here. But, for me as a scooter-rider, conditions have been pretty close to ideal. I gather that's going to change. Snow showers are predicted for Tuesday. It's been sweet while it's lasted.
04-NOV-2007
We Are One
"We are one - one human family - one Earth community,
a common destiny for all."
Yesterday (Saturday)I was with the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin. Many of these women from Michigan and Ontario have been singing together since the early 1990s. In September 2002 they answered the call of the composer, spiritual feminist, social activist Carolyn McDade to begin work on a CD project called "O Beautiful Gaia." This call was much deeper than simply to sing; it was to embrace the earth with every fiber of their beings. To study, reflect and act to save this precious planet that is so threatened by our human choices. And not just the planet itself, but all who call it their home, especially the creatures and plants whose very existence is endangered in all parts of the world. In the spring and summer of 2003, three communities of women--Atlantic Canada, Atlantic New England, and the Great Lakes Basin--recorded their portions of the double CD, "O Beautiful Gaia." It was launched in Autumn 2003. I was privileged to be part of this project.
And now, in Autumn 2007, a new CD is being launched by Carolyn McDade and hundreds of women across Canada and the United States, including the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin. This brand new CD--"Our Heart Is Moved"--is at its heart a choral and instrumental interpretation of The Earth Charter, a visionary and profoundly realistic document completed in 2000 after years of communal deliberations by thousands of individuals and groups across the globe, people who recognized the choices we humans have to bring "peril or promise"--from another song on the new CD--to our earth and its countless forms of life. The women I was with on Saturday were preparing for next weekend's CD launches in Detroit and in Windsor, Ontario. They brought tears to my eyes. After two years of not singing with these wonderful women, I will be rejoining them after next weekend's launch.
I have just finished listening to "My Heart Is Moved" CD. The title says it all: my heart and mind and spirit are forever moved by this extraordinary gift to our world community. Let me encourage you to go to the "My Heart Is Moved" web page, and order at least one CD if at all possible. If you need someone to mail it to you, just let me know. I will see that you receive this CD wherever on this great and glorious planet you live.
CLICK HERE to go to the "My Heart Is Moved" web page. If you'd like to get to know Carolyn McDade and her work,
CLICK HERE. To read The Earth Charter and its history,
CLICK HERE.
By the way, the sheet music on the piano in my photo is to "We Are One," the song I quoted at the start. It is on the CD. And I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that Mary White was a beloved member of this community of singing women. She will always be with us. After all, we are one.
03-NOV-2007
Matt bench presses 245 lb./111 kg.
Whenever I see my personal trainer Matt LaCroix working out, I am sure we're a different species. He says everything is relative; that when I do some of my exercises, he's equally in awe of me. By the way, DON'T try this at home, at least not without a spotter! And keep in mind that Matt weighs a mere 280 lbs/127kg...all of it muscle!!!
02-NOV-2007
Mary White, a falling leaf (composite photo)
On Thursday, November 1, my friend Mary died as gently as she had lived. Her beloved family (of blood & choice) was with her the last days of her life. But her daughter Beth realized that her mother needed to be alone for the final act of letting go. So, early Thursday morning, everyone left Mary's bedside--even left the house--and Mary soon released her grasp on life and passed into another sphere. Five hours later, in Seattle, Washington, my niece Gretchen and her husband Matt celebrated the birth of their first child, a little girl they named Madalyn. And the cycle continues...
In response to my photo blog entry for Thursday, my dear PBase friend
Ai Li sent me a message privately. I am grateful she has agreed to let me share her words here. Ai Li writes, "Life meets, life leaves. Life takes, life gives. Life doubts, life believes. Life dreams, life wakes. Life remembers, life fades. Life loves, life hates. Life quits, life tries. Life lives, life dies. Life laughs, life cries... Life is indeed a riddle that no one has understood, because no one knows what tomorrow holds... How will it be today? We are alive this moment, yet we know not for how long. There is much happiness in one moment, while just the next, carries so much grief. And so, life remains an unsolved riddle..."
01-NOV-2007
laughter
Life is no respecter of consistency; it brings tears and laughter alike. Often within minutes of each other. As my friend Mary White is releasing her tenuous hold on life, my dear husband Ed is exploding into laughter at something I said. Life and death. Different sides of the same coin. We were born to hold such paradox within our hearts. But is it really paradox? Or is it simply "what is." The wonder of being human, of being alive. Death is just another face of life, just as tears are another manifestation of laughter. All of a piece. Everything in balance. An integrated whole.
