Part 1 All the kinds of Happiness as all the myriad beings experience it and this is really very much a Journal Page,  maybe Pages,  on going for a while,  and it's important to say that i am referring to my own very singular sense of Happiness which i very well understand is mine and mine alone,  that Others have their own truth about Happiness.  We do not need to be the same.  It's GOOD that we are not the same.   It makes the Whole of What It Is.   So i am just going to rattle away here for a while and lets not jump to any conclusion because things might change half way through.  I'm just looking for something that i feel is about the Next.  Right now i Don't Know.  And if no one feels the urge to comment this is very OK.

 

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Tay's Artwork.   The other day for no reason i knew,  i tied a strip of black and white at the North.  Today i was Looking.   And thought about the 4 directions,  the 4 seasons.  North Winter   East Spring  South Summer  West Autumn.   These from old Native teachings i studied long ago.  So, i realized they still stand,  these definitions of direction/season/human doings and the thing of Circle remains.    There are many small things presenting recently,  bits of conversations,  things that hold me in place for long moments,  fears that seem to be asking to be faced.   And the Dreaming.   The Dreaming has changed.  Still as crazy as ever but people and things of TODAY are being incorporated.  This i view as significant.  It's New.   
And yesterday,  i woke to that "Narrator Voice"….that tells me it's time to Work.  I've written something here about Narrator Dreams in the past,  but i don't remember where.  But again.  The Question of the Narrator the other morning upon rising to Daytime consciousness was:

What makes you Happy?   What is Happiness to you?

And as i sat there in the Morning Chair in the still dark,  i realized i was Stumped.  

I quit THINKING directly about this and let the questions simply be a very dim undercurrent to the day's doings.  But they did remain as if painted in a very soft but vibrant pale blue color.  Happiness.  

So i don't think i want to say anything else about this this evening.  Just Put It Here to come back to.  And on that  Woven Circle that Tay made,  i did do something.  I thought to tie threads on it to signify moments of the BRIGHT kind of Happiness….the kind that just takes your breath for a second before you move along.  So i tied two strings today.  One maroon one for Tay bringing me a grub and the second a bright turquoise for the oh so Excellent and Loving Sound of a Sandhill Crane this morning.   A day early,  they are Returning.  MIGRATION.  They are coming back.  Which fills me with Such Relief and Such Deep Gratitude for the Mystery.  Fills me with Happiness.

The cloth…just more grass seeds

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Part 2

Mike of Thelma and Mike of Southwest Native Plants who i went Yerba Mansa hunting with a little while ago….called.  He had also been investigating the Large White Grubs and had actually gone further than i got:

 

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OK.  Grubs can be identified by the configuration of their butt holes and the hairs around them.  FACT.  eeee.  I looked and thought.  and looked and thought.  Do i want to go Out There and turn up a grub and hold it with my oh so great long forceps that i stole years and years ago from the University of Michigan and sit with a Magnifying Glass and look at it's butt?  ACK and NO but…in the interest of Permaculture…………………………. maybe it's my responsibility.  So i thought i'll sleep on it.   Tay had been in and out all night.  In/Out   Out/In.  and this morning as i set out to feed Goats,  there in the middle of the path,  a Grub.  It's head was a little squashed but it was alive.  When she digs them up, she just looks at them and then goes on to something else.  But this one was placed in the exact middle of the path.  I go back and forth on that path so many times a day that anything at all New stands out in Neon.   Not to regular Vision,  but a kind of Sensing that says: LOOK

so i had my gloves on and i just picked it up carefully and took it over to place in the jar lid and go back In to get the magnifying glass.   And i looked.  a Crescent butt hole.  Wasn't sure about the hairs.  Couldn't really see that well.  But a Crescent butt hole.  And i had to go to work so i left it in the lid

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When i got home, it had died.   Died.

Died.

Am still feeling this.  Hence the Maroon thread on the Circle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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19 responses to “Part 1…Happiness Part 2….Not for the faint of heart”

  1. Joan@CopperCreekers Avatar

    the directions are part of my Small Journey ideas. along with the colors and the circle of spiraling around and opening up. animal totems and symbols/runes. these things to represent myself in cloth and thread.
    HAPPINESS i think if we’re not careful in our chase and pursuit of happiness causes us to leave on the side of the road eating our dust as we speed by.
    this cloth to me is like the north direction even though the colors are autumn… the north… hibernation… time of going within..so much going on and becoming… dreaming
    and please don’t be hurt but (honest no pun was intended) looking at the grub butts and clicking to enlarge to try and see better…
    i cracked up… Ooooooooooooo i just saw all of us leaning in noses pressed to the screen looking at….. gigglesnortgiggle
    GRUB BUTTS
    o lordy grace. you are wonderful (((big hugs)))

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  2. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    exposure I think…died of exposure and may have been out on the path doing that when you found it….needs to be under stuff. Hmmm. so what does it mean finding our which kind of critter it is (was)? What does it mean to you? Maybe you’ll say in the next post or answer here.
    You know, when the “what makes you happy” appeared I immediately thought–no disturbances. I mean I think what makes me happy is a lack of chaffing (noise, neighbors, unpleasantness of the human sort)–I like activity, and I can struggle with real things…but I prefer no interference, and a certain easy peacefulness. i worked with my body today with purpose (yoga) and felt good for hours. that made me happy. neighbors have been thoughtless and loud since about 8PM, angry voices, slamming doors. That makes me unhappy. Small adjustments in how i think of them (I don’t get angry) work okay. It’s tricky to live so close to others.

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  3. Saskia Van Herwaarden Avatar

    that last sentence Michelle, yes that’s the tough one, living close to others
    we are fortunate to live in a detached house surrounded by our own garden with only neighbors on each side; it’s a small house for 4 people, but the space around it more than compensates for lack of interior space, and even then the neighbor’s noise (which only annoys me coming from one family, not the other couple, hmm suppose that says something about me) can be irritating beyond words, I tend to ignore and mostly manage to forget, but still there are times when I’m bloody pissed (pardon my language)

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  4. Saskia Van Herwaarden Avatar

    oh my lordy Grace, you’ve taken your research to the next level, albeit on a level I could never have predicted. looking at grub butts, what will you do next?! haha, getting over that yuck-sensation is the pathway to a new world…..
    have just dyed and washed a vest (yet again for more staining) and one of the stains looks a lot like your grub, will post a pic

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  5. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    You know I’m the first to admit that I’m squeamish about certain crawly things, big worms, grubs and the thing that will not be mentioned that slithers…so why then have I stared for a while at this little grub, curled up in death and felt a sadness…maybe because underneath I know its value and the gift that it gives with soil.

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  6. jude Avatar

    a credent butt-hole. i will carry that with me today. all in a day. each one, so much.

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  7. patricia Avatar

    it looks like a smile to me–that crescent butt-hole. maybe i’m tetched–but i think it’s really kinda cute.

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  8. dee Avatar

    thoughts of happiness, the gifts of Tay left on the path, your willingness to pursue (in face of ICK factor), the tying of ties to a circular woven wicker base…. there really is a very large circle here, and I am glad to be able to walk in from time to time.
    and I am most especially intrigued by the Narrator Voice Dreams. So compelling!

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  9. Mo Crow Avatar

    good on ya for getting down to the nitty gritty of those grubs! I have a magnfying lens that we keep in the car for just this sort of thing!
    reading ‘Ellen Meloy’s ‘The Anthropolgy of Turquoise” and when you mentioned dreaming I had to go and get the page I read last night before falling asleep and have written it out here-
    “The Mohave & other Colorado River people put great stock in dreams. Any skill or power, any knowledge of love, war, or gambling, for instance came through dreaming. Dreams shaped a life, and all dreams retold would unfurl as journeys. The journeys described when the dreamers traveled, what they ate, where they slept, the creatures and landmarks they saw- the equivalent, in a stretch, of a travelogue of a great Mohave trek.
    Dreams remembered over time became oral myths or “dreamed singings”. In these song-stories the telling varied. The plot and tune remained fluid, and few events occurred other than the journey itself. To tell your story you recited the names of things, the springs, rocks, plants, animals, stars, mountains, rivers. To tell your story you sang a map. You set geography to voice.”

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    Yes. Grub butts. I think it can’t get better. Looking, studying.
    I want to hear more about your colors and spirals and totems and runes. TELL!

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. we all want no disturbance and
    disturbance
    means so many things, different to each of us
    but it is There, the disturbances and how we meet them, go with it,
    it’s a challenge

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    waiting for the grub stain

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    i did too. the sadness. It had been busy before Tay brought it.
    And i think she was careful, but her teeth are big. And she brought
    it by it’s head so it’s butt was good to look at.
    And i emailed the Bug Man of the Albuquerque Journal who over the years i have come to love, who helps Everyone with their Bug Angst and is also one who loves the Earth and after i emailed all of my
    facts and info his response was “I’d leave them alone”. and so.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    all in a day…
    isn’t it just so Amazing?

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    i did too…..O a smile! yes. i wonder which is mine?

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    i’m glad you come “from time to time”

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes, Dreams of the people, yes.
    My dreams tho are a little Ify. Very Crazy.

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  18. Mo Crow Avatar

    you sing your dreaming here in this blog so beautifully

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    that’s the DayDreaming

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