this will be 16 years here.    i have watched.  closely.  days and nights,  seasons.  changes.  it began from nothing and went to something then to many things and finally to more than enough.    i've learned more than i'd ever imagined learning,  more than i knew there was to learn.  and it could be that i might say, just this much.  but, what i am facing is that there is so much more and i most likely will leave before ……before….before who knows?

Clarissa Pinkola Estes said something like        Stand and face what you know.

to me…this has always meant, since i read it in Women Who Run With the Wolves

has always meant….don't turn away, just stand.  look.  see.  watch.  and then

keep standing, looking, seeing, watching.

so hard is about love.  hard is about loving a Place.  loving it in all it's changes, letting it teach me.  so much.  this is partly what i wanted to talk about when i have approached the word of sustainability with Wendy , Grace and Mending and Deb G.    my understanding of that word has changed over time, just as everything "out there" has changed and is changing.  what was it?, that i thought i was sustaining?  the most recent answer to that would be………my own imagination.  but as i am here, in this changing spring to summer season, that is different than any of the 15 that have come before,  it is teaching me. 

and this is what is hard.  i wanted to just turn away.  i wanted to just make it ….what?          well…i am finding i don't have those words yet.  so…i won't rush this.  will wait.  it will come of it's own accord.

Deb G stitched a moonflower.  which reminded me to go out and look…which made me see  something that i might have forgotten and           missed.   it is very quiet and private, really. 

007 

like this is too…another one, remember?002
 
 

 

 

 

 

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26 responses to “about hard”

  1. Valerianna Avatar

    Another one! So mysterious…
    And I so know what you mean about loving a place. I can;t imagine leaving here. There are other places that call me, but there is deep wisdom and medicine in this forest, I am where I need to be. Many blessings…

    Like

  2. handstories Avatar

    thank you, grace, for sharing this step, stand, stand, look process with us. you are making hard beautiful in a way.
    and that flower, i am lost in it.

    Like

  3. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    cindy…that flower blooms in the night. she is just
    getting ready.
    yes. hard IS beautiful in a way.
    it’s complex….watching closely…..not “excusing”
    anything. not making hard beautiful or beauty frought
    with hard or “letting go and surrender” something that they really aren’t. working at keeping the bullshit
    at a bare minimum. tricky business.

    Like

  4. handstories Avatar

    but you’re doing it, and you’re doing it with and as…grace. and that’s beautiful, too.

    Like

  5. Jacqui Avatar
    Jacqui

    Dear Grace
    When I read your post from yesterday these are the words that came to me:
    Give your heart to the wind
    and let what comes to you
    spread its wings
    around the endless possibilities of you.
    Give your heart to song
    and hear those possibilities become real.
    See the beauty in nature
    and be guided by the mirror
    that is your own transformation.
    Take these wings of words
    let them enfold your heart
    and sing.
    Kindest Regards
    JAcqui

    Like

  6. KaiteM. Avatar

    pushed or pulled?
    and who is doing it?
    yourself or others?

    Like

  7. Penny B Avatar

    Dear Grace, My response would be exactly like Valerianna’s.
    I have lived all over the world but it is only now in my woods with the smell of the ocean in the air that I feel I belong. Perhaps it is because for the first time I have time to just breathe and be with nature.
    Your moon flower is nearly as beautiful as Deb G’s stitched one!
    Take care.

    Like

  8. jude hill Avatar

    i have no moonflowers this year. they didn’t make it.

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  9. judy keathley Avatar

    i think it is hard —
    to not turn away —
    when you know you will at some point walk away from this place –
    you will move away —-
    & it will stay —
    & continue—without you —
    but to stay until you go —-this is hard–
    to begin to leave now can seem sometimes like it will make it easier–
    that if you stop watching & looking & listening as carefully as you always have –then it won’t hurt so much when you go —-
    you will already be partly gone–
    to be fully present —
    still–
    to stand
    as if for the first time –as if for the last time —
    with non-attachment —
    i guess just with love…

    Like

  10. Acey Avatar

    will it seem too strange or presumptuous to confess that I have been waiting for this post? patiently and with trust, enjoying all that comes before but waiting for this one nonetheless. Much is explained to me concerning the way my hand stops just shy of the bottle promised to you. why everything IN the bottle and my sense of this new healing landscape has whispered insistently “no not yet”. not for the reasons I imagined concerning myself and stuff I am going through that makes it somewhere between challenging and disrespectful to work energetically for anybody but myself. Because of you. Because of this post. Flower medicine is so incredibly wise that way. Time to fill the box at last…

    Like

  11. Nancy Avatar

    JAcqui- This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

    Like

  12. jude hill Avatar

    hard is about soft then…

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  13. judy keathley Avatar

    i think so —-
    maybe hard asks for soft from us—-
    or contains soft within it—

    Like

  14. Deb G Avatar

    I am thinking many things…a few of those thoughts…”hard” for me has been about letting go, about facing that maybe something isn’t as sustainable as thought. And sustaining imagination, that’s important, maybe one of the most important things we can hold on to. Possibilities… Your datura, that’s about the magic of possibilities for me. That something would bloom in the night… And a “sustainable” life style, I don’t think that means much if it doesn’t sustain our souls…

    Like

  15. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    and many blessings to your forest…or rather, the forest
    that has taken you in

    Like

  16. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    JAcqui…your words are Wings and Wind
    Thank You!

    Like

  17. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    she saw it even before it happened here

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  18. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    so interesting, how things go…..

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  19. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    to stay until i go.
    you see it…………..yes.
    to stay until i go.

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  20. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    flower medicine.
    ready.
    i wasn’t before.

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  21. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    Deb…will come back to these words tomorrow.
    need some time with them.

    Like

  22. KaiteM. Avatar

    TypePad HTML Email
    ok,
    but i asked because you always sound very unsure, very uncertain, almost
    grieving.
    i didnt need an answer for myself, i just want you to think
    carefully for YOURself.
    love,
    kaiteM.
    http://kaiteyarngarden.blogspot.com

    Like

  23. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    Kaite…one more day and i will be able to talk to this
    thought you bring…and just to say in the moment, yes.
    I AM unsure, uncertain. and yes. i am and will
    grieve.
    and i very much hold close to my heart your thoughts
    about things when you sense them….
    one more day of going Off into the other world and then
    i will be home and will talk some of this…..not for
    you, but for what is taking place.
    MUCH love,

    Like

  24. Tammy Avatar

    Well I feel as though I stand on the edge listening to all of you that seem connected to each other with your words and wonder what this is all about .. and yet somehow I hear something that resonates with me .. can’t put my finger on it .. but I sat on my front porch tonight and looked out over my yard and the road that passes by my house and the breeze is cool and I think how much I love this place… how I love the quiet and solitude that this land gives me and how it quiets my soul to just be out in it. I am so happy that my mood has lifted and .. that everything is going to be ok..
    And thanks Grace for stopping by my blog and suggesting National Geographic .. that is a huge compliment .. not sure they are quite that caliber but .. i do love to take photos of interesting things .. and they sure fit the bill.

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