Lately it’s been a daily-ish experience to kind of have my head, unexpectedly of course, snap around and wonder what just happened here? It’s almost as though Sleeping Somebody just woke up and however much sleep is rubbed from the eyes, it’s still an unfamiliar vista.
Staring at the now Very Big fennel area in the garden, which was seeded four years ago, I not only wonder where the time went but who was that masked person who planted those seeds? The descendants of Tyrant, the OG Hummingbird, flock around the feeder now and eat all together. We can see the markings of everyone who went before, including the amazing copper hummy we saw last year. Spring came and went, in the usual quick fashion of this place, with incredible lush swaths of green everywhere and the wild flowers blooming as if in arranged bouquets, short to tall, complementary colors. Lots of new cows and goats and lizards. It took about a month but now everything is dry and crisp for the most part, the snow and cold are a memory, and the rabbits are once again lying in the relative coolness of shade spots on the driveway.
I’m feeling the permanence of the impermanent, maybe. We try, all of us I think, to throw off the weight of entropy, of inertia, what F. Scott Fitzgerald called the dead hand of the past, and live our lives. At least we try to do that when we commit to being present, feeling what we’re feeling and following that, in an effort to find Peace of Mind. And when we are able to do that? There is a brilliance to things that is almost blinding, They race by, they stand still, but everything is somehow different in its unfamiliar familiarity. It’s a flow, a big river of energy and light and stops and gos.
Our quotidian struggles have come and gone and been replaced by new ones, of course. (Notwithstanding the periodic bleak moments that happen when I hear “the news” however briefly and it seems like we are in a Really Deep Hole that Goes On Forever. Like seeing that a municipality in Oregon is going to spray a 200 acre organic farm with Roundup to “eradicate weeds” so, I’m guessing, they won’t grow on the Interstate. Uh. If that isn’t a deep hole I don’t know what is.) The leap into the 21st century continues and I only cried once. So I’m proud of myself, continuing to assume that my learning curve will be a curve and not a sheer drop off a cliff. Photography, for example, how to actually get the pictures somewhere else than the phone….my oh my. But, hope springs eternal. In other news: The Dog did something strange and had to be rushed to the Vet a week ago, an untimely bank account draining, equanimity squashing ordeal. However, he appears to have been restored to vim and vigor from Whatever Happened (see?) and once again I am overwhelmed with gratitude. The xrays revealed that he has an absolutely splendid trachea and spine, so there was that as well. His Legend Continues of course. He had to be sedated and when he woke up and came out to the waiting room? He bounded out with a huge grin, trotted briskly over to the reception counter, stood up and put his paws down as if to say, hey! I’m here! Where are the treats? Drinks for everybody! The staff continued to tell the tale of it later in the week when I went in for…well, more treats…and they pointed to me and said, you should see HER dog! In other good news all the seeds I planted germinated….still waiting on the culinary herbs but it may already be too hot for them. The Partner has done a stellar job of clearing grasses and mixing soils and transplanting tiny tomato seedlings. The beans are in, soon to be followed by winter and summer squash, melons and cucumbers.
The continuing sense of deep unease and doubt is something I’m trying to experience calmly, in order to deal with it without screaming. Admittedly life here is a matter of continual touch and go, new gnarly things rear their heads constantly, and we watch our opportunities to adequately support ourselves dwindle. Most of this has to do with things that are entirely beyond our control, and the only influence we have is in how we think about these things and each moment as it happens. Given that there is so much beauty and reward here even amidst the challenges, it’s pretty disorienting. It’s a strange business working on equilibrium and basic happiness in view of the fact that everything dies and is reborn, over and over, and we really don’t have much clarity about that for the most part. Nor are there really any reliable guidebooks, other than those containing what is often referred to as “perennial wisdom”. It takes some time to absorb that perennial wisdom, let’s just say. I’m wondering how to get it to work at the checkout stand in the grocery store, for example. As in, why NO. That total is NOT OK. How about a whole lot less?
In the end it probably comes down to good housekeeping. Not only can you not take it with you, you shouldn’t lug it to the departure gate either. Nothing stays the same, even when the architecture and firmament are recognizable. This is actually a good thing, and leads me to my personal big question, which is: why why why why why is there all this fear? All the acting out, selfishness, war, unfairness in the world….has a substrate of fear. So really. What are we so afraid of? Even in the worst circumstances peace can be found, the moving river of whatever this is moves, you take the next step into the what is, if we’re honest, always unknown. But it isn’t necessarily BAD. In fact, it’s often really good. Nothing to fear. Maybe that’s what’s been happening.
Blessings and thanks!
Boozilla: learning to fly one room at a time 