of Alyssia's face. She must have been Four years. She sat so patiently while i applied all the wet strips of plaster gauze. Until they dried enough to finally remove from her. I think, in El Cerro Mission, N Mex? the figure holds a frayed Sweet Grass braid a Cottonwood branch
one of the early ones
in the storage tubs at B. Was looking for something else but…..these photographs and others……. in a handsewn Envelope from the Gallery that i was involved with. Art dolls. Fiber figures. I am surprised at how deep the feeling is….still….it's been many years. This is the last one i made. The best. except for the one of The Child…..lifesize with it's facemask from one i made of Alyssia her probably 4 yo self
preparing that part of the bed to receive the green bean seeds……digging in the top soil there,
THIS
i'd forgotten that i stuck a sweet potato there, one that had been overlooked and developed eyes but then didn't flourish planted either but today…..This. Proving that You Can. Grow food. Will give it to Alyssia for her toaster oven….they can share it. Each a tiny bite. with butter. From B Garden.
she does preside. i planted the tomatoes. and cucumber starts. never before, cucumber starts…always just seed but had gotten these from Alyssia's friend's new greenhouse business and i'm glad i did….it's late. i sprinkled the amendment, dug the holes, added the one table spoon into each and gave water. Here we go again. In the world, So many things are different. This ritual remains the same. Plant. Give water.
my Butterfly Calendar…made in China for me says today is Earth Day tomorrow, both Passover and Full Moon
lets just think about that for a minute.
an Email yesterday from Work that Reconnects a LIVE webinar Joanna Macy. Live. Probably most of us know her and her work….she's DONE so much, written so much for me, specifically: Active Hope World as Lover World as Self and then Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory : The Dharma of Natural Systems
this Webinar for Podcast it says: " dialogue between Joanna Macy and Jessica Serrante. In the first ten episodes of this podcast we journey through the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects, via kitchen table conversations…..about how we can live with our hearts in tact in these wild times. Together they explore what it truly takes to stay resilient, joyful, and motivated while confronting the climate crisis" Joanna Macy. Live. via Zoom. Once in a Lifetime. She will celebrate her 95th birthday in this next month of May, 95. Click to register and i do and like she is the cost is $ 25 or 35 ….i can do that…..
but then i get to the part where it's Saturdays, 10 to 12 am Gathering at the Well time
once in a lifetime hers and mine
?
on the sled. composted….decomposed….. Goat manure and bedding straw from the Rain House. that sat, all the
"winter" months in a pile. Loaded here to travel down to the Garden and be mixed with garden soil from somewhere like Home Depot or Tractor Supply That Jenny brought soon to be in the landscape pots to receive seeds.
coming back up from B Garden, pulling along the "sled" that i'd used to take down the bag and box of amendment, being out of breath, out of steam…….i stopped to lean into the tree. Into and against a tree. squatted. breathing. resting. and as i am doing, with the teachings of both Sharon Salzberg and Eckhart Tolle i breathe. i find the awareness of the Now. The Present Moment. just this single moment.
looking down i see this very small green plant in the brown dirt of the road. its white flowers. These flowers, even smaller than the pink one yesterday….two of these the size of that single rice sized pink
and i would have thought….oh….little plant ……..and moved right along. noticed and the Mind moving right along to what's next but now…..in the present Moment of this Single Now Moment, i linger. Their smallness inconsequential to their Beingness, their real excellent Beingness the vibrance of their Life Force there on the side of the road in the dirt and gravel they are Flowers, like tulips, a rose, daisy no less except that the Universe evolved them to be small. Why? and i see that i am still so much a servant of the Mind…..all these questions when
just sitting WITH them would be enough
if you let your gaze just roam, lightly you see them almost everywhere. Tiny single flower atop a "tall" stem. Only one at a time. maybe can say the size of a grain of rice if it was round. Impossible to photograph without blur because of movement and movement even when there is no perceptible breeze…..just the breath of the Hill So small but so sincere in Being
emptying the GroBags into the rest of the beds there was this tangle of roots and the odd forms ????? they looked like some kind of egg of something but were not.. were dry and hard ish , I left this draped on the back of one of the plastic adirondack chairs and when i got back today, there was no sign whatsoever of them.
i will never know.
