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the symbol of magic,  Real magic went across.   I look and think that it may not at all be artistically "correct",  but it is what it is for this Story.  How in the cold days that we call Winter,  it is" as if" and IS that an additional dimension of Sky appears,  how Sky becomes All there Is.  So for the sake of the story.

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and then the pale light of Sun was begun

And i was hoping for some subtle way for this to go,  but,  it seems not…..

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One of you kind and loving souls Out There in my Real World sent this.  Not wanting to tarnish Tay's ever growing reputation as Good Dog,  i didn't want to tell the truth.   It arrived on a day when evidently a substitute UPS driver was working who dropped the package over the fence onto the little bench there.  I had heard the toot toot of the truck horn but was on the phone and it was some moments later that i looked out to see

Turquoise

her standing over Turquoise

She had taken the bubble wrap envelope off….not neatly,  in shreds,  but miraculously, the book itself was saved.   

I'd hoped someone would email me,  wondering if i got it?  Nope.  So  here we have it.  

it IS    an extraordinary book.  And although i knew that she had died,  after reading some,  i looked her up,  Ellen Meloy,  and saw that she died i think two years after this book was published.   I don't know HOW she died,  or rather, from what,  all i've seen is that she died in her sleep.  She was 58 years old.   And somehow it makes the words i am reading all that more poignant.  They are so FULL of sensuality….the Sensing of things….the telling of the sensing….

and she is gone.

so i read it as if she is talking to me from wherever it is she has gone to,  to tell me what i need to Look  for,  how i need to look  and how so vitally important that  Looking is.

"….in the desert there is everything and there is nothing.  Stay curious.  Know where you are…your biological address.  Get to know your neighbors…plants, creatures,  who lives there,  who died there,  who is blessed, cursed.  What is absent or in danger or in need of your help.  Pay attention to weather,  to what breaks your heart,  to what lifts your heart.  Write it down."    Ok and Yes, Ellen.

 

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18 responses to “More”

  1. Dana Avatar

    “an additional dimension of sky”….how wonderful. And awesome. Your towering flowering sky is an awesome presence with unmistakeable magic.
    I wish I had sent the book…I didn’t….but I think I need to read it.

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  2. Mo Crow Avatar

    it is a favourite book, she is a fierce brave writer & reminds me of you Grace but I didn’t send it either!

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  3. grace Avatar

    here i am, late evening, early night, trying to decide whether or not to add another big wood to the fire or let it go
    and Neighbor Margie’s son’s truck comes, i can identify it by it’s sound, young Robert, Strong Man, and he is there, across the road, at her house and she is neighbor.
    Listening.
    Responding to Place.
    We all do it and need to do it MORE.
    Yes. it is a message from this woman. So…, yes. Read it.

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  4. grace Avatar

    fierce. so strong. fierce. I love the word fierce.

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  5. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Here is an interview with her from NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1150399
    Love how the cloth is progressing.

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  6. grace Avatar

    DEAR michelle…thank you for this, her voice as it was when
    she Lived and spoke

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  7. patriciaspangler47@gmail.com Avatar

    there is so much dynamic energy in this cloth. the wonderful line of magic, the sharp angle of what i can’t see as anything but “her back.” the tilt and looking of the face. wide open. facing. so vital and alive.

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  8. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    oh grace ..so glad it arrived..things were a bit twisted in my life at that minute..and i just trusted it would arrive..will send an explanation..it was funny ..i sent something to several people that day and no one got the notes..oh well surprises and mysteries..
    and staying curious
    because i do pay attention to what lifts my heart..and being here lifts my heart..
    gentle day grace

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  9. .cynthia Avatar
    .cynthia

    oh thank you..long night and the is perfect..

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  10. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Noticing…paying attention. Weather, sky. We have lived in many places, many climates but nowhere has the sky and weather been such a daily companion as here in the high desert. As soon as daylight arrives, curtains drawn, first look always to the sky, then if it is not too cold and it can get really cold here…a walk outside, cup of coffee in hand, steam from the cup clouding the vision for a moment…the feel of the day from a slight breeze, birdsong, and if the neighbor’s dogs are out with their keen ears that hear the sound of the sliding glass door unlatch. a boisterous greeting. Autumn is my favorite season but there is something here in New Mexico about bare branches, tree silhouettes that frame the sky in winter and bring the expansiveness of it all, front and center.
    And to bring it back full circle: on a family get together last spring, my nephew called me over, we were all outside in front of one of our favorite cafes, our grand kids running around, the rest of us meandering; I had noticed my nephew walking, looking down, bending down now and then. He said he had a gift for me and it turned out to be a piece of raw turquoise. I would not have known it but now, I too look when we are out and about. The piece does not remotely resemble jewelry, it is not shiny, but looks more like turquoise paint spatters on a trapezoidal stone. What it does have is an amazing feel to it as my fingers wrap around it… Noticing, paying attention, the treasure found…the stone is a powerful presence.

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  11. Liz Avatar

    Grace – I am reading this right now and at first thought it had been written by someone younger, perhaps because it read much like Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I will enjoy it all the more knowing you are in the process of reading it, too.
    And 58 … my age …

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  12. Liz Avatar

    And looking again (as I am wont to do) … seeing the pale winter sun … I’m liking that a lot

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  13. vicky aka stichr Avatar

    Grace! I have been absent from blog land, doing other things. Today I jump in and find the orange shirt bit…..so of course I have to see more, so I slowly go backwards through your pages and come to the Orange Shirt, oh i do love that orange shirt. I laugh, you prefer the raw side of it. I think it needs both sides. I really think that drawing on it is a grand thing.
    Your wall is like mine, covered with lifes bits.

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  14. grace Avatar

    am SO GLAD that you see these things…”her back”…YES!!!!!!!
    the tilt, the looking, facing, vital, alive

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  15. grace Avatar

    yes. SO much arrived. and Thank You beyond Thank You….
    how it is now, confused, curious, surprising
    and so Beauty Full in all that

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  16. grace Avatar

    you have this. This stone. which in this moment is “just” a stone.
    But it also is not.
    and so.

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  17. grace Avatar

    you are so
    YOUNG

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  18. grace Avatar

    yes. the raw. the Other side. softer. i can love this softer
    Other side. I will be sending some to you still, because you
    love Both.
    xoxoxox

    Like

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