I woke this morning wondering what it would be like to be the wind and not the cave.  I consider the shift.  How light and curious might I be?

Then I read that a red Pegasus has been placed on a post near where I live.  People are curious so on Next Door, a source of local news, I learn this:

The Pegasus is the signpost I use for the child therapy garden I created during Covid. It helps parents bringing their children for therapy to find the garden. I chose the Pegasus because it’s a symbol of the ability to use imagination and creativity to build resiliency and integrity, even (and especially) in life’s most challenging moments. I’m glad it brings joy to people driving by, and hopefully, is a whimsical reminder to keep your spirits up in the darkest of times.”

These may not be the darkest of times, but almost a year ago now we saw a dramatic change in how we navigate our lives. 

I come to Alan Watts: The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance.

Today I’m with these words from the poem “Above the Paradox Valley” by Rosemerry.

The wisest part of your body

knows to run when it hears

the first crashes of rock fall.

It does not pause then to consider

metamorphic or igneous,

nor does it hesitate to wonder

what might have pushed them down.

The whole poem is here:

Last night I walked outside and smelled spring.  Today I see it, and yes, that’s here, not everywhere.  I reflect on Rumi:

We began as a mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again.

I love the image of my life as moving in a spiral like the formation of a Nautilus shell, or like the labyrinths I love to walk where I move in and out to get to the center but today I come to Guy Davenport, the author of The Geography of the Imagination.  

History is not linear; it is the rings of growth in a tree.

This works for me as I resonate to trees.

Many of us are now enthralled with the octopus after reading The Soul of an Octopus and watching “My Octopus Teacher”.

Now I learn that the octopus and the nautilus have three hearts.  Imagine that!  Maybe that’s what this country needs to visualize as it turns from egocentric theft to love, empathy, compassion and care for all.

I rise and dress, then, take some steps backward and the world opens up before me. 

Try it.

Try walking slowly backward and see what happens, notice what wakes.

I fill the coffee pot with water, noticing if there is any extra effort.  Where are my shoulders?  Are they moving, resting, assisting? Are they, too, involved in and excited about water in a pot coming to a near boil to pour over beans from somewhere else, not here?

I remember Barbara Kingsolver’s book on spending a year consuming only what was local. Coffee was an exception, as was chocolate. Flour is challenging, though honey can be substituted for sugar.

I walk outside and the half moon is shining with a rainbow halo around her.  Perhaps, she, too, finds new ways to play with matter and light, savoring the geometry and curve of spacetime.

It’s Groundhog’s Day and Black History Month.  Meanwhile more tents are set up by those who are homeless.

I’m paused to receive it all.

The Peace Pilgrim wrote and said: 

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.

If you’re not familiar with her, here’s inspiration on how to live and celebrate each moment of each day.

https://www.peacepilgrim.org

It’s the last day of January.  We’re still in unsettled times with the pandemic and corruption in our government so deep it would defend sedition and treason.  I go back through my journals on the last day of the month, and this month has been shocking.  To read again what happened on January 6th and in the following days and weeks is hard to believe, so I go to Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor.  

“What we “radiate” into the world, the “waves” that emanate from our being, that is what will remain of us when our being itself has long since passed away.” 

I find comfort in waves.  

Meanwhile the full moon from Thursday moves toward the new.

Hazrat Inayat Khan asks: 

Full moon, where will you be going from here? – Into a retreat. Why do you take a retreat after fullness? – To make myself an empty vessel in order to be filled again.

Yes!

This is my intention for the day.

I start my day perusing photos and videos of my grandchild, and reading Heather Cox Richardson.

I’m with a suggestion from Elizabeth Berg. Take titles from the books on your bookshelves and make a poem. I’ll do that later today but right now I’m with these words of Jarvis.

I thought it would be an honor to put Harriet Tubman on the $20.00 bill but now I see that it’s not the right thing to do. She can be honored in a more honest and productive way. You can read Jarvis here:

https://www.freejarvis.org/updates-1/jarvis-journal-faced-with-a-twenty-dollar-bill-full-essay-1?fbclid=IwAR2Lnzhm3S4htycHatp-kE147-Dt-s43jVPvVVgU-58VwPbSGT_TgHAqXgI

A friend tells me her daffodils are popping up. I go to the grocery store and there I see shiny yellow faces – daffodils. Home, I put them in a vase and come to a book I’m editing for a friend. Her words lead me to this link. Tap your feet and bounce.

Rain in the night and more rain coming.  I exult in the cleanse, and these words of William Blake: 

Mere Enthusiasm is the All in All!