Did you ever feel like Life made you take a test before you had time to study more than a few of the lessons? Doesn’t seem fair to me. Maybe the test was just a rehearsal for a more important and inclusive exam, which is still some time in the future and maybe there is still time to master the teachings if we are diligent and recognize the lessons when they flow our way. I don’t think there is need to panic. I think that just the opposite is required. I think we need to breathe deeply and rhythmically in tune with Nature and just open ourselves to the lessons, no matter how difficult or painful they may seem at the time and trust the Forces to help us.

Milkweed Seed at Dusk
“Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.”
― Blaise Pascal
Please let it be so….

Orange Cosmos…

I awoke about 5:30 to the sound of rain gently falling on the glass covering the hatch above my head. The sky was overcast with grey clouds tinged with pink from the sunrise behind them. It was like a soft watercolor. I love the marina on a Monday morning, the contrast between the hustle and bustle and yelling of people happy and excited about going out on the bay in a sailboat or a powerboat is stark.Those of us who are live-aboards enjoy the company of the weekenders, bur also value our solitude. We often sit under the gazebo and exchange stories. Last night I enjoyed the company of a little boy who found delight in the rocks at the boat launch and kept bringing me his finds that I might share in his discoveries of pebbles with various textures and shapes and colors. He brought me pale yellow and rose quartz and limestone streaked with turquoise colored minerals. He brought me rocks with layers of striations and others polished smooth by the sea. They were not large rocks, but instead tiny specimens the size of marbles and their size gave them a specialty I loved. He looked at me and we knew in an instant that the years that separated us mattered not a whit when it came to an appreciation of the gifts of the Earth.

I lay my head back on my pillow and look up and let the atmosphere wash over me.

There is a feeling of tranquility and restfulness this morning. Even the birds seem to be sleeping late in their roosts high in the trees. The weathervanes are still and steady showing the wind from the northwest, more a breeze than a wind. The halyards are silent and the waters calm, causing me to feel a sway instead of a rocking. I am reminded of swinging as a child. Oh how I loved to pump my legs and get my swing going fast and high and then tuck my legs beneath me and close my eyes and let the momentum find a slow and steady pace as I swung like a pendulum, ever slower until I came to a rest. My breathing would slow from its furious pace of pumping the swing high to a deep inhale and exhale.

There was a sweet bay laurel tree near my swing and I loved to take in the scent as it drifted past me. Sometimes the scent melded into a light taste of bay in my mouth. The memory seems to awaken the smell and taste as if I am back on the edge of the deep woods on my swing by my laurel bay with its small and heady blossoms.

All the precious memories of our lives are always with us and as we add layers to the textures of our lives they do not really obscure those memories. They blend and swirl together and become more together than they are apart, a synergetic effect. I recall listening in my youth to Buckminster Fuller expound of this new idea with rapt attention, trying to understand how 2+2 could be 5 or 50 or 500 or even infinite. I didn’t know at the time that it would take years of living hard before the concept could take hold.

Enjoy the moments of today and take responsibility for the opportunities the Universe puts before you. Do not be afraid. Be contemplative and pensive, but bold and passionate with your choice. Turn toward life and remember that these new experiences become part of the new layers of your life.

July 27, 2016…… CAREFREE
“Growing old is unavoidable, but never growing up is possible. I believe you can retain certain things from your childhood if you protect them – certain traits, certain places where you don’t let the world go.”
― Johnny Depp
Sometimes I am guilty of taking life, and myself, way too seriously. When I saw this field of wild yellow daisies dancing to some unheard music being played by the wind I laughed out loud and hiked up my long cotton skirt, and twirled about with carefree abandon to some beat from my heart and soul, thinking how wonderful to feel so free from cares, even if only for a moment.
Love, Light, and Laughter

Slow Down. You Move too Fast…Got To Make The Morning LastPaul Simon

This photograph is a lovely little flower I spotted in a flowerbed.  As often happens, the artist of the flowerbed came out to see what mischief I might be up to. She was a nice lady, originally from a place called Ugley, Indiana. We had a most interesting visit and she told me she just had to get away from Ugley, Indiana because the only place to work when she grew up was The Women’s Institute of Ugley and she just didn’t want to spend her life there. I sympathized and asked how she came to be here. She laughed and said it was a rather long story and included a lot of drama. Said she had been fighting ignorance since 1950 and that it was taking longer than she thought it would. She suggested I come back for ice tea and a chat and she enticed me with the prospect of looking in her back yard where she promised I would find delightfully joyful blossoms of exotic origins.

I often think of Nature as a teacher, a really great teacher that presents the material is such a fashion as to entice and lure the student into self discovery. We live in a time of burgeoning technological advances. Our lives have become fast paced and structured for us around this technology. Historically, advances in technology have freed man up for more leisure time, but it seems that the new technology is so different from the past advances in that it creates opportunities to fill the leisure time, not with watching the corn grow but with opportunities to make the bank account grow. And that my friends is a powerful draw.

The technology has opened up an infinite array of possibilities. This is terrific but it is also a great responsibility. Time management has become a challenge. I know, I for one, can lose myself in cyberspace for hours at a time. Am picturing me with LT II (the name of my laptop) and a video clip of the day advancing rapidly though sunrise to sunset to sunrise with LT II and me still sitting there.

So, am going to wander as I ponder, or perhaps ponder as I wander today and see if my Teacher, Professor Nature has a lesson for me. I have no doubt she does. I will start with whistling an old Paul Simon tune, “The 59th St Bridge Song” or as we called it “Feelin’ Groovy”.

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Just kicking down the cobble stones

Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy

to be cont…

Simple JOYS

We are only here for a short visit so don’t hurry and don’t worry. Worrying only complicates the simple.

May we learn to breathe deeply of Life and to savor the quiet simple Joys.–

Love, Light and Laughter,

Zahn

“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”Eckhart Tolle….Sweet Gardenia In The Rain….Sometimes this old world just moves too fast and makes me dizzy and I fear I might just fall off. That is when I know I have to be really still and look at something so great and marvelous that it defies thought and inhale the scents and the beauty deep into my soul…

Nature does nothing uselessly…Aristotle

In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks…John Muir

PURPOSE

As Spring turns to Summer it is time for showcasing Paulownia trees again. They have been in bloom this month, growing wild in the woods and along the edge of forests. I am only aware of them when they bloom in the spring. The blossoms are fragrant and beautiful, a lovely sapphire blue, not unlike wisteria, and hang in clumps. The Paulownia is native to China and Japan and has been grown there for centuries. It is revered. It is one of the few hardwoods that can growback solely from the root and is only slightly heavier than balsa wood.

In China, the tree is planted at the birth of a girl. The fast-growing tree matures when she does. When she is eligible for marriage the tree is cut down and carved into wooden articles for her dowry. Carving the wood of Paulownia is an art form in Japan and China. Several Asian string instruments are made from the Paulownia, including the Japanese Koto and the Korean Gayageum Zithers.

Every living thing in this world has a place and a purpose and a beauty all its own.

Dusk on the Water…osprey viewed from a small dinghy as she passed overhead…May 24

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.” 

― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

PERPETUAL BECOMING

In truth it feels right to say that I am always changing, but to say that the morph is just another layer on my life implies a covering like a new coat of paint and that isn’t right.

 Sometimes the Changing is more like an added piece to the puzzle that gives dimension to my Being, or another daub of color on the painting that is Me.

The little girl who lost her Momma before the Time of Remembering is still a part of me and I see her sometimes in the reflection of the still river. 

Then again we see not only with our eyes, but with our hearts and souls and our perspective is skewed by our experiences and our desires, so perhaps we change our interpretation as we flow with the Perpetual Change.
That means I am a work in progress…
I recently watched Night Train to Lisbon and was totally blown away by Pascal Mercier’s writing.

“Given that we can live only a small part of what there is in us — what happens with the rest?” 

― Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

Begonia Bud; You can see the future lying just beneath the surface, the hidden beauty.

“Stand up for your conscience. Use light to reveal what is concealed in the darkness. Use truth to fight the lies, and the heart to fight the mind.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

I believe that a moral law lies within us. I believe this truth is our conscience. I believe we must be on guard. Do not let the proclamations set forth by loud people who encourage us to give in to the baggage of darkness and fear so many of us carry smother the goodness. It isn’t easy to live according to the righteousness of our conscience when there are so many people telling us to bury that and embrace the darkness of hate that often lies in the guise of truth. The struggle within can be a torment and can fill us with pain and desperation, but struggle on and allow the love and kindness of the truth blossom.

Words from an old hippy lady living on an old sailboat

Love, Light and Laughter

Zahn