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a while ago Jude was talking about her notebooks and i remembered.   I have always loved  Office Supply Stores.   I remembered how much i had off and on loved Binders.   Then,  these particular binders,  i think they're called Project Binders.  Their soft covers and slim.   not a school binder,  but i did love those too.  But in the last 20 years sometime,  i loved these,  to hold pages of writing but also clear page protectors that i could slide clippings,  photographs,  magazine images into,  even dried blades of grasses.   I had many.  Many never used,  but you never know,  so you get extra.  When i left N Mex i took them to the thrift shop except for this one which was down in one of the bins at Campsite B.   All the talk of notebooks had gotten me going..something New amidst re Repeat of the days,  amidst this limbo i was/am experiencing with cloth making.  Just something different.  When i retrieved it from the bin i saw that there are many of the clear page savers inside.  YEs!,   and i ordered some unlined notebook paper from Amazon.  Which was delivered to Alyssia's address on Thursday while i was there.    it has some tooth….takes graphite,  more Yes.    On friday,  i set the beauty Full blank pages in.   Just sat.   feeling it.   

 


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then on my left,  atop the basket was this and i slide it in to a first page protector which also had a black insert.  

 


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yesterday, early,   i thought.   Maybe.   and unrolled this Cloth that Crow had been keeping.   Slipped that in too.  am not sure at all about how that feels…it being contained?  i don't know.  But for this time being,  it will be ok.  it's a little too long so extends beyond the cover which i like.

 

 


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and then the blank pages.   What do i want to write in here?   For so long now i have used the stenographer's notebooks and for any drawing,  the hard bound sketch notebook.

 


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time to finish the day,  feed and give water and as i went down the Hill,  Tay bolted and there at the bottom were the WolfHybrids from next door.  oh, e and i yelled in my most terrible way and they ran with Tay behind and me behind more and across over and across the meadow to their fence line but got stopped and Tay is running back and forth,  they just freeze and are totally focused…the Wolf…but then neighbor Dave appears,  their rope leashes in hand saying he heard me yelling…and as he always does,  he says they are just curious,  won't hurt anything and as i always respond,  maybe not until they do and i again tell  short version of my days with my wolf/hybrid,  the heartache of that just so he knows i hold nothing against them but just DO NOT WANT THEM HERE,  CANNOT HAVE THEM COMING and he says i know, i know,  and he leashes them but wonders how to get them back over the fence and i stand silent then say we will walk to the gate so he gets himself over the fence and we go,  me and Tay ahead,  him and his dogs trailing across the meadow along the Goat path above Campsite A and the Wall Garden over to the road and down to the gate.  He tells me as we go that his mother who is in her 80's cannot do anything and he has to go everyday for her and his woman Angela who had a stroke a couple years ago doesn't go out because of the virus so that too and i say yes,  i understand,  i don't go anywhere and he says,  Do you like it here though?….he always asks that….and i say yes.  I love it and we got to the gate and i said thank you Dave,  you are a good neighbor.  And he goes off down the road,  a man of a certain age and his two huge dogs.  He's lived there 20 years and doesn't have electricity either.

and it's getting late by then,  Evening has begun and i give water and begin to walk back Up and suddenly there is no Evening anymore but something very Different and Un Identifyable   a complete SHIft and it began.

Thunder.

no Goats to be seen and Rain began.  It had been forecast.   It had been 90 something all day but suddenly was NOt.  I came in and closed the windows,  ran back out to close the one that needs to be manually opened and closed outSide,  back just as the downpour came.

Sudden DARK and 

THUNDER that was Everywhere,  that filled the entire space of EveryThing,  Dimensional Thunder,  3D  Thick,  Rolling,  All consuming all space of Hills and Valleys,  everywhere at once,  filling all space,  all things,  Thunder i had never known before reaching into and under and into my bones,  this tin house shaking and vibrating with each ROLL,  stones on the window sill falling to the floor,  Rolling of its self into its self,  rolling rolling rolling non stop…no pause…non stop lightening flashing but inconsequential within the Voice of the Thunder. 

Rough gods i thought and closed my eyes.   I saw all the news  clips  of cities on fire,  human beings in the streets,  i watched in my mind and suddenly thought to do Tonglen.

am so grateful to have this practice in this time….so Strong,  the anguish that i breathed in….to feel that…to feel that as i heard the Rough gods all around.   Yes.   Yes.   Now's the Times.  

 

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21 responses to “tonglen rough gods”

  1. Mo Crow Avatar

    (((Grace))) you are a beacon of light in these dark days
    namaste

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  2. Dana Avatar

    There is something so satisfying about the containment of a notebook. It is a sort of framing device that lends context and consequence to stray and random items.
    A neighbor with wolf dogs sounds scary to a keeper of herd animals (and others), but it seems like you are forging a reasonable relationship with Dave and that must be comforting.
    We had thunder today too, but just the feeble distant Northwest kind. Your storm sounds rough indeed.

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  3. Michelle Slater Avatar

    Blessed be thee, thy wisdom and compassion. Blessed be the rough gods, and all beings. May you be safe, May you be Happy and May you always have what you need dear Grace.

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  4. sparrow Avatar
    sparrow

    “…it’s a
    little too
    long so ex-
    tends beyond the
    cover which I
    like…”
    loveyougrace

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  5. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Tonglen…i had to look it up. Yes.. so appropriate.. You teach me so much. Storms scare me and i would have been shaken up.. your ability to pull deep inside and find a calm place is reassuring. I learned at a young age to always move forward in the most positive manner. I come here for strength..from you grace and your commenters.

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  6. jude Avatar

    I somehow contain Tonglen, it’s an auto response… though I never knew the word before today.
    We had the big thunder the other day. I never saw soul-o hide under the bed before.

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  7. Deb G Avatar

    I think it was last year we had the storm like that. I sat on the floor in the middle of the living room with Lola, away from the windows, the house shook. Yesterday there were a few good rumbles and lots of heavy rain.

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  8. Liz A Avatar

    thunder here, too … day after day … the kind that makes you curl up, get smaller … hiding from the wrath of it
    I am intrigued by your book, how it holds cloth … how cloth reaches beyond the edges …
    and tonglen … I, too had to look it up … found this, written just last week by Pema Chodron
    https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-tonglen/

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  9. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Echoes of the weather here too in New Mexico; the last two nights, the skies darken at dusk, you can sense what is coming, the wind changes, it carries a smell of wet and despair; thunder moves across the sky, dancing in sync with the anguish and anger that is moving across the land…but the rain, last night, only about 15 minutes worth was unlike any that I have known…
    the rain last night came down in huge drops that seemed to sizzle as they hit the ground, never enough to totally drench but to make a pattern of sorrow-tear drops…
    I sat outside for a bit and what came to mind was an image of a colossal umbrella, all of us underneath, not in shelter but in a gathering and stitched on the umbrella was one word, VOTE.

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  10. Acey Avatar

    felt totally engrossed in your words. have been keeping the practice of conscious breathwork that includes breathing through the heart. treating it as a lung ‘of rainforest proportions’
    am trying to develop an ongoing routine where I do this in specific locations. Not in any kind of rote order but more spontaneously. whenever I remember and it feels appropriate.

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    i am dim, flickering

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    i like that…very much…a framing device….tool….
    thank you for this
    He is just a person. with dogs that are too much for him, but he loves. Before i got here, they were running a lot and the across the way people had animal control gather them up. The fine is STiff. He tries now. Is pretty successful. At least Tay alerts.
    in a way he is the greatest neighbor….i see him on the road maybe once every couple months. Otherwise, nada. They don’t use this side of their land up there. They are quiet, as in not there. It could be very different with different people.

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. Blessed Be. All.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    i love you back and yes…that it extends a little
    just enough

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    Peggy…i love the storms. That
    THUNDer was so exhilarating in it’s POWER…..
    so reassuring that EARTH RULES.
    just moving, asking questions, trying to understand…
    it grounds us
    I love you

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    sitting in Tonglen
    letting the thing of the “other” seep. seep. in
    to experience the “otherness” to be one’s own. Self.
    to live. everyday. with your neck under someone’s boot with nothing to indicate it might ever be different

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    they are not “usual” here

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    SO GRATEFUL for this LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    Marti…yes….the Thunder there….always so Grand
    this particular one was so different…the only word i
    can find is dimensional…i’ll keep trying
    i hope….Vote. But we are strange people

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. Inhale through the crown chakra and exhale through
    the Heart

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  21. Liz A Avatar

    so grateful for this word …

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