i am just going to write something here.  it won't be exactly or maybe anywhere near exactly what's on my mind.  but i'm going to just say it and then let go of trying to talk about it for now.  afterall, it IS September. 

what word to use? is the issue.  concerned is is too little to convey,  heartbroken is too dramatic.  so the word i want is somewhere inbetween concern and heartbreak i guess.   and although everything is within this,  the focus for me is of the planet earth.  i came into this life having  a true passion for all of it;  what was under my footpalms,  above in the sky,  all beings,  human and the rest.  it simply grew and grew as the years have continued.   and  i hope i am wrong.  i hope i am over reacting but really, i think not.  i think that           convenience             and  the illusion of what we are NOT doing TO  this planet  will replace all that i love.   this does not make me afraid.   i         think       i believe,  that as it goes along, we will come to understand what we must do next and next and next   until things become quiet for a while or until there is no next.    and i understand that i need to go further in understanding how to Continue with these thoughts above.   right now, they are just a little raw.   but, as it goes,  i've said it.  that helps.

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the jungle of wild morning glories

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the salt cedar, blooming         yet again           considered an invasive.   i wonder.006

Locust pods.  this year,  in more abundance than i have ever seen them before.      ?

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the kids and i think of it as the Snake Tree.  this is not true color, but the sky is overcast and the lighting odd, so i just made it a little odder.  it's things like this that i "look to" in this work of trying to understand Continuing 
 
 

 
 

 

 

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28 responses to “it’s not just August, to be honest.”

  1. jude Avatar

    yes. i am glad you said it. so that is what that is. we have them here. the locust trees. i feel a bit like that tree.

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  2. handstories Avatar

    at first the word “troubled” came to mind, but after the rest of your words, and the images, that beautiful salt cedar, i’m thinking that you are heavy with love. xo

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  3. deanna7trees Avatar

    all that you said…i understand…that is why i have learned to live in the moment. i can express my thoughts but i can only control MY thoughts and MY actions, not the thoughts or actions of anyone else.
    so i live in the moment and in the moment, i am happy.

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  4. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    sister…you found it, or them. the words. heavy with love.
    yes. that’s what it is. from now on, i will use those words.
    yes
    yes
    and yes.
    thank you….
    and along with these “moments” of loveheavyness, always comes
    the question of What am I doing????to counter balance it all?
    in your case, you teach children. that’s HUGE.
    and you still have Blue and Moon to be responsible to. another Huge.
    i ask self tho, what, grace, are you DOING?

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  5. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar

    Hi Grace,
    Hey -it’s the start of autumn. My favourite season: melancholic, foggy and rainy (well,this part of the planet!), falling leaves … I try not to think too much about the future – it sometimes scares me. “What am I doing?” – good question! We all made desicions in the past or yesterday or five minutes ago that are relevant to our future…a year ago, my future didn’t look to bright…but suddenly and unexpected I discovered a blog and with that came a new focus on my free-time, and some amazing people!!
    So -that’s good news!
    Years ago I bought a postcard:
    “Everything will be okay
    in the end.
    If it’s not okay,
    it’s not the end.”
    My mantra!!!
    By the way – I love the word “loveheavyness” –it’s going to join the list of my most beloved word!!
    Take care,
    eva

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  6. Deb G Avatar

    I don’t know Grace… I’m like Deanna, living in the moment and loving what I can in the moment and doing what I can with the moment I have… I’ve been taking a lot of comfort in this recently:
    http://mnmlist.com/small-changes
    I just came inside from from sleeping in the sun, I was finally too hot and it woke me up. Now I’m going to go decided what to do with some of the tomatoes I bought at the farmer’s market yesterday.

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  7. Valerianna Avatar

    I found a moment in my life a few years ago when my heart cracked open – WIDER – than ever before, so that I couldn’t keep from sobbing when a row of old pines were cut down IN CASE there might be another ice storm, when the plow guy plowed up part of my garden, when a friend had someone come over to take something from her little retreat camper here and he ran over my lovely ferns, all turning orange for autumn – and their response was that they’d be back next year- and things in the world were just falling apart – I couldn’t stop sobbing and holding my heart… and it seems like it’s just kept getting more intense.
    I think I reached a place of surrender – and that was that. I am different now, something has shifted, but there are moments when it is all too unbelievable and I’m overwhelmed, and I have strategies for coming back to center.
    Sometimes I think that I want to build a WAILING WALL at RavenWood. Women could come and just
    wail with the wall and leave offerings… I think we need to reclaim wailing, its a good strategy when we want to say something but mostly we have intense emotion and not many words… I have been profoundly helped by allowing myself to wail when I need to!

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  8. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    what beautiful words here, what a beautiful heart that
    find these words………
    a Wailing Wall
    this touches me deeply.
    surrender…well, that means so many things and for me,
    so many things at so many different times. and how
    do we know, if we are in fact working from within
    surrender
    i often think i am, but my way is to also question.
    what i see/feel. who i think i am within it.
    i can just so vividly SEE the instances above that you
    tell
    and that’s exactly what it feels like to me, the general
    response to all these shifts of the earth…
    thank you so much for the images you give me today with
    your own heart…it makes a difference

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  9. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i love this tree. i put it in a “wrong” place 16 years
    ago…it should have been more central, but is by the
    fence, the road side fence.
    all the thinking i’ve been doing this summer about
    the difference between sustainability and Self Sustaining.
    this tree is SELF SUSTAINING. it simply GROWS. stronger
    and stronger. no matter anything. a very focused tree.
    aren’t the pods just so great?….that rattle….
    we (grandkids and i) used to dance with them. we danced
    for toads and the bullsnake and the two Fionas, the sister
    guinea hens would join in. those were valuable times.

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  10. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    well…i am not interested in control, but i feel like
    i AM responsible for my own expression of Life and for
    me, that does include using words to say things outloud.

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  11. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    Eva…yes. isn’t that just a perfect way to say it?
    Heavy with Love, LoveHeavyness……..yup.
    and i have received my most excellent mail…
    how amazing is that. What grade do you teach and
    what do you teach?
    xoxo

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  12. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i think we all have different ways to express things, have
    very individual ways of experiencing. that’s why i often
    hesitate to say much about what’s really on my mind because there is no immediate conversation, no facial expression, no way to exchange back and forth to clarify.
    but just to say, having these Love Heavy feelings doesn’t
    take away any of the joy of THIS moment, or expectation of
    joy in the next. things that make me joyful are pretty
    simple and most likely will remain so. and the moment is
    always, uh, Full. and in it’s own way, Fine.
    so why am i whining? i guess because i believe that if
    we (humanity) are going to make decisions by default, we
    should at least be aware of it, be conscious of it. say,
    well, it’s just too much trouble to do otherwise. well,
    there i go again.
    but i know you have read Derrick Jensen. i guess he and
    i are somewhat alike….in our thinking anyway.
    i just have a real thing about making excuses. and maybe
    that’s what gets to me. in my world here, the common
    thinking is that it’s just “human nature”. well…..
    so…anyway…yup. the moment. love and more to you….

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  13. Deb G Avatar

    I am glad that you are finding joy in the moment…that’s good. Yes, “decisions by default,” letting others make decisions for us, just letting it be “human nature,” all frustrating. And I thought of Derrick Jensen after I read your post, was thinking about what he had written about hope. Love to you as well…

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  14. Valerianna Avatar

    Yes, surrender is a word that has layers… and different meanings depending on where I am on my spiral life labyrinth. Glad a small bit of my musings could make a difference today. Maybe – no ALWAYS I am buoyed by deep truth-telling and honest connecting.

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  15. joe Avatar

    looking into this “snake tree” is much like looking into the very patterns of life of which you speak. they twist and tangle…but somewhere deep within…or just on the surface…there is a pattern. a sense of path. the trick is to let go of our attachment to what will..what may…what could become…and to simple allow what is. to be. at this moment, i can almost hear the rattle of so many lovely locust pods in the air….

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  16. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    joe
    yes. deep within and on the surface. both, the pattern.
    oh, the attachment. ah, the attachment.
    it’s the attachment, yes. to what will or will not
    i think you do hear the rattle.
    it is so beauty full, that sound.
    thank you very much for coming and for your words.
    we continue, yes?
    love, g

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  17. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    Grace, you ask yourself what are you doing? you are doing exactly what you are doing…being YOU. from where i sit, you seem to be touching many people, just by being who you are, a lovely caring human being. touching many people in a positive way, there has to be some merit in that. dancing with your grandchildren rattling seed pods, such a gift. life is in fact much like your beautiful snake tree. warmest wishes marg. oxox

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  18. Tammy Avatar

    Valerianna, I loved the words “my heart cracked open”. Several years back my soul broke open. At some point I will have a cloth that references this fact. I wanted to say though that having your heart or soul cracked open is a good good thing. I think the opposite of that, of having it closed, is a harder way to live. I think the word that says it all is open. Open allows new things in.. hence pain can bring much goodness to ones life if only you can wait till it comes. And tears remind me of rain. I have often said my heart rains and beauty grows. I wail too.. i love the idea of adding your wailing wall… loving big can bring big wailing. so i add to the truth telling honesty.. and I feel more connected to those with .. hearts cracked open and heaviness with love.. big love and gratitude. 🙂

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  19. jude Avatar

    i imagine the sounds of those times.

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  20. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar

    Hi Grace,
    I teach Maths,English and Art/Drama. My students are between 12 and 16 years old.
    I just watched Jude’s slideshow “Magic Cloth 1” – wow, how amazing is that??
    Started a new piece yesterday – I always come back to the woven pieces…this time I tried to incorporate a nine-patch…doesn’t work well. Don’t know why.
    Take care! Cheers
    eva

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  21. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar

    Hi Deb,
    I’ve just checked your link “small changes”. Simple words right to the heart of the matter! Thank you, I am going to copy it into my diary!
    Best wishes,
    eva

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  22. Linda Avatar

    once long ago in the 80’s there was this movie about what would happen if the nuclear bombs exploded in the US.. it was suppose to scare us all..
    there was this one scene of a woman standing at her sink doing the dishes. her husband had just been killed in the fields by some gang.. life was in chaos all around her and she was doing the dishes and cleaning the sink and hanging up the towel.
    sometimes i feel like that. it is usually just fleeting, but it is scary to look around you and see so much wrong in the world and we just keep going as usual. i never know what else to do, but do my little bit to make it better. it is a little bit, but all i can do.
    i also love your tree. i seem to plant them in the wrong place too, but they grow anyway.

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  23. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    oh yes, i rattle along. sometimes though IT all looms
    so incredibly LARGE, the doings of this world, that i
    feel like i need to become larger myself and meet it all
    head on, Face to Face and stand my ground.
    as Clarissa Pinkola Estes says…Stand. and Face what
    you know. paraphrase from Women Who Run With the Wolves
    i just have to go through these times and question myself.

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  24. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    i remember that scene. so poignant
    it’s really the planet, the Earth itself, that is of
    my deepest concern…that we don’t allow ourselves to
    care enough that maybe we are numb to it all or something
    That tree actually has all kinds of children popping up
    …i think i’ll move some around again. the two i did
    last year are doing great. it’s that ingrained MidWest
    appetite for variety that trips me up.
    daughter Jenny always did say…why don’t you just plant
    what WANTS to grow… i kindof ignored her.
    hmmmm.
    thinking of you as you are at your Retreat……….

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  25. Linda Avatar

    thanks grace.. retreat over and done. back to work and feeling sad about not having all the time in the world.
    i get the midwest thing… from illinois..
    september is hard for me. i am too much of a summer girl. having sadness over loss of light. makes all these conversations of the earth seem sadder.
    glad you think of me.. i do you as well..

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  26. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    oh wha. that’s what always makes me hesitant. making
    someone feel sadder, or worry even more than they might.
    i wish more than anything that i could figure out a way
    to write about my concerns while somehow conveying the
    way i feel about them. i really don’t feel sad.
    i feel like i think is appropriate to the situation
    humanity has created and continues to create. it IS,
    i suppose, sad, but well…it is what we HAVE. i am
    a part of all of it so it’s what I HAVE, too.
    well…i’ll keep working on it.
    love to you, summertime girl

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  27. Patty M Avatar

    A snake tree. What an image that is! May I use this in my sewn images?

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  28. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar

    HEY Patty! hey, hey!!!!!
    Yes…i would love to see that!!! i will get some good pics of
    it that might work well for your using.
    xoxoxo

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