DSCN3722

this morning…for not even Some moments,  maybe a moment or two and then it was like it had not been this way at all.  just a regular sky.  if i'd been sitting on the toilet i wouldn't have ever imagined this.

blink your eye

then i sat with the match boxes for a while before going to do cat duty at Allans and on into town for the 50lbs of dog food which i forgot the other day.  To the dollar store for mailing tape.  even to Walmart for sculpy and acrylic paints to send to the kids.  ok and all that with a quick stop at the grocery for Tamari as long as i was there.  it was very windy,  but well…that's how it is sometimes.  And i made it home,  unloaded what i'd bought and it was picking up.  Sitting in the Morning Chair,  having a hard and raw conversation with daughter Jenny who called,  talking,  thinking, talking and it was more…Wind.  More and More seemingly by the moments and i am talking to her about why someone might want to partner up,  all the reasons we are familiar with why we wouldn't,  but looking at why we might want to,  like how Alyssia might want to,  and i talk about how it is when stuff is going on and there's only One of You and no one to say to….eeeeeeee, what are we going to Do????????  so you just need to say it to your dog and your dog is counting on YOU….lying so close to your leg

and as we are going over this,  it's not new,  but we are revisiting it from a newer angle,  there is a great deep  POP.   a pop.  but a strange BIG pop and i go to the door of the ROOM,  expecting anything and

DSCN3735f

 

DSCN3736f

the old dead Russian Olive bird viewing tree.  Snapped of at the base…at earth.  Snapped.  The sound was the snapping off,  i could not hear the sound of the crash in the Wind.  Maybe it was silent.

it fell perfectly.  Some upper branches on the steps of the door of the ROOM.  it fell over the milkstand but only bent the thing that holds the bowl,  only bent it….didn't break it.  It fell nicely over one of the feed bowls,  did not squash it,  fell next to the clothesline pole…Next to it,  fell just to the side of the windows of the ROOM,  so close,  but just to the side.  

it's down.

this hurts.  that it fell.  it WAS the most glorious tree until the insects came that caused it's death and then still for so long,  it was glorious because birds still loved it and came and i could so easily see which were in the neighborhood on their migration,  who was here to nest for the summer.  It provided shade for the Goats,  even tho there were no leaves,  just its shadow…then they  would line along the shade of the shadow,  you've seen pics of this here.

it's down.  Tree.

and the walls of this home,  a trailer home,  an OLD trailer home billow back and forth with the Wind,  it's clear that the walls are no longer attached at the bottom.  I'd never thought  about how a trailer home has a lifespan but i am seeing this now.  Life span.  National Weather Service says the Winds are 30 or 40mph.  Not true.  I know Wind.  These gusts are more 50/60.  and steady.  Hours now.  Tay stays close.  Her body touching my leg at all times.  We are One,  she and i.  We waited till 4:30 to take feed and water,  hoping for a slight let up.  Not.  So we just went.  Feed flew everywhere.  They scrambled and called out,  wanting me to make it different.  Not.  As i type this,  it continues.  

They say that WIND will increase here.  As Things Change.

it's dark now.

 

DSCN3727f

this morning,  before all this,  i added Ionian Blue and Baked Earth to the breasts of this angel.  She is good.  She is Feminine.  still.  but Destiny can make whatever it is she makes of this.  That cartoon face on the other side,  which is what she looks at a lot on her whatever it is,  the computerized thing that i can't think of the name of now, but her thing…those animated beings that are large eyed and supposedly female…i need this angel being here to send to her.  The feminine Principle is changing.  But i want very much this angel,  this bald naked  angel for her.   The small blue bird.

 

DSCN3731f

one of the sides.  She has a thing of FEEDing.   Still,  long after she has been gone,  i find little places here and there where she has put little things,  beads and dry flower buds,  tucked here and there,  to feed her imaginary world.

 

 

 

Posted in

27 responses to “at the Mercy of”

  1. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Walls billowing…..Oh my. I’m with you in the dark and thinking of cement blocks…well, dreaming of a cement block home sunk into a dug out root cellar…solid, dependable in high winds…and windows and doors with screens and shutters to close and bolt on the outside when it’s needed. Just dreaming.
    Still headed to melding households? Not so easy to just slide into a new configuration. Lucky you two can be so honest with one another.
    Sad to lose the old shade tree and bird perch. If you are there in the Spring perhaps a new something?
    Stunning morning sky!

    Like

  2. Mo Crow Avatar

    red sky in the morning
    sailor’s warning
    and so it goes
    I love this time of the year, letting go with love for all that was and looking forward to what the New Year will bring…

    Like

  3. handstories Avatar

    Today Moon & friend were remembering when the old apple tree fell at our old school, during recess & how everyone was fine, and it was sad and a sign I said. And here, your tree. They are wonderful giving things. And I love your way with matchboxes- am in love with Julian’s, the little boat, and Destiny’s is beautiful, with pieces of you both.

    Like

  4. Nancy Avatar

    Among the trees removed around here, we also had an oak split and crash 16 yr ago. I can still hear the sharp sound and the flash of blue as the transformer at my neighbors blew. We had wind AND rain last night, so loud. I’m grateful for the graceful fall of your tree and know well of loosing the trees we love. And the disequilibrium of your words here. ❤

    Like

  5. julie Avatar

    Since you love questions,where are you with the vision of compound living in Califronia?
    The tree falling as this awful year ends and an ominous future hovers is almost unbearable.

    Like

  6. cynthia Avatar
    cynthia

    oh to lose a tree is so hard..and right now loss seems especially difficult..sending love and gentle day grace
    When Great Trees Fall


    by Maya Angelou
    May 28, 2014
    When great trees fall,

    rocks on distant hills shudder,

    lions hunker down

    in tall grasses,

    and even elephants

    lumber after safety.


    When great trees fall

    in forests,

    small things recoil into silence,

    their senses

    eroded beyond fear.


    When great souls die,

    the air around us becomes

    light, rare, sterile.

    We breathe, briefly.
    Our eyes, briefly,

    see with

    a hurtful clarity.

    Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

    examines,

    gnaws on kind words

    unsaid,

    promised walks

    never taken.

    Great souls die and

    our reality, bound to

    them, takes leave of us.

    Our souls,

    dependent upon their

    nurture,

    now shrink, wizened.

    Our minds, formed

    and informed by their

    radiance,
fall away.

    We are not so much maddened

    as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of
    dark, cold

    caves.


    And when great souls die,

    after a period peace blooms,

    slowly and always

    irregularly. Spaces fill

    with a kind of

    soothing electric vibration.

    Our senses, restored, never

    to be the same, whisper to us.

    They existed. They existed.

    We can be. Be and be

    better. For they existed.
    i will miss the tree pictures and all the wonder they held.

    Like

  7. jude Avatar

    trees falling are such a big thing. even when they are dead already. probably with out wind they would stay much longer. I lost all mine in wind. Maybe the birds will come to it just as is. they do here. Another way that I annoy the neighbors. Can it be firewood?

    Like

  8. Deb G Avatar

    There is so much in this post for me Grace…my own version of it. Sending you love.

    Like

  9. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Even down, this old Russian olive, shares it’s beauty; even falling, it tried to do the least harm; even gone to the ground, it may still be a place for the goats to climb over, stand on; even now, it gives and holds…

    Like

  10. Dana Avatar

    I have never seen a tree break so completely at the groundline. It left its roots, or its roots left it.

    Like

  11. beth Avatar

    The amazement of those sunrise colors. The amazement of falling perfectly…

    Like

  12. Martine Bos Avatar

    Oh the wind and the tree. Life is colorful and harsch at your place………
    Are the goats allright?

    Like

  13. grace Avatar

    yes…sometimes i think like this…the earthen home, blocks,
    strong, safe, root cellar like…it’s my immediate response anymore, but still, the home PERCHED so tenuously…that has it’s draw too. as it always has.
    melding…melding has it’s stuff. Honest…we work at it.
    there can be no replacement because the Goats would
    eat it
    what is gone is gone

    Like

  14. grace Avatar

    i’m trying, Mo

    Like

  15. grace Avatar

    the matchboxes right now hold so much together

    Like

  16. grace Avatar

    disequilibrium
    this.
    so much.
    disequilibrum

    Like

  17. grace Avatar

    it is.
    almost
    unbearable
    almost
    but then, we bear it.
    How resilient we are because we DO. We do bear it
    the vision of the compound seems to be on PAUSE. this is good.
    Leaves space. Leaves breathing for BOTH, no matter how it goes
    now. Either Way. and there is good feeling for this.

    Like

  18. grace Avatar

    i love you
    a ton
    these words…breathed from the woman, Maya Angelou, who is gone, like this Tree here is gone, i am
    HELD
    gently and closely
    because you have come here and given these words
    i am held. closely. gently.
    I would hold you back in that same close and gentle way

    Like

  19. grace Avatar

    i don’t know if i could burn Her. ???
    and the birds, 2 of them, did come.
    Goats look.
    We dont know yet.

    Like

  20. grace Avatar

    isn’t it just so WONDER FULL that we all have our own versions
    of it all????????????????????? isn’t it???????????????????????

    Like

  21. grace Avatar

    it’s so amazing, looking today how her branches just
    TOUCHED
    the Room….brushed…softly touched
    so
    CARE FULL in the falling

    Like

  22. grace Avatar

    i’ve never seen this either…???? That old Cottonwood stump that is out there…it still had roots
    here, just a so total letting go. Today, late, the
    Goats licked the base of the tree

    Like

  23. grace Avatar

    as i look today…the perfectly is beyond Perfect

    Like

  24. grace Avatar

    Goats are good. They are safe. SAFE.
    they are trying to understand. But they are Safe.

    Like

  25. Nancy Avatar

    Beautiful. Thank you.

    Like

  26. Nina Avatar
    Nina

    Trees of any kind, anywhere, are so precious, and yours was very special. And, very special in how it fell. I am not sure I would move it either. Can the goats get shelter on one side or the other from the sun even as it is?
    I love seeing fallen trees in our Maine woods. So many animals make homes, or take nourishment from the bugs that eat the tree fiber away. So glad no goats got hurt, and you didn’t have a house disaster with it as well.

    Like

  27. grace Avatar

    it’s now days later and everyday i think how so so gently She fell,
    so care FULL y. It’s hard to take it in. and Yes. i will leave
    her big body as is.

    Like

Leave a comment