Once Again

“Grace is the permanent climate of divine kindness; the perennial infusion of springtime into the winter of bleakness.” 
― John O'Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Renewal 2011

Beginning again for 2011. Happy New Year!  Since my last entry, I have completed an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Spirituality with Goddard College.  I'm a graduate faculty advisor for a Prescott College student and a Poetry and Short Story mentor for an undergrad at Prescott.  A few weeks ago, we welcomed baby Elsa.  My granddaughter is beautiful, and I have shifted generations.

I'm writing from a farmhouse in Illinois. I am visiting my son.  Each morning, I watch the sunrise clearly on the prairie's horizon past the harvested cornfields. Today there is no water....I checked, and it's frozen out at the well.

Discoveries - New Moon & Solar Eclipse

Encounters On Which I Count

This morning I took an early morning bike ride to Meadowbrook Park. Along the path, I thought I saw another stag beetle like the one I photographed yesterday. When I hopped off the bike and stooped down, the tiny creature reared up hissing and brandished its pinchers at me. I had an encounter with a small crawfish (crawdad). It was making its way through the puddles from yesterday's rains toward the creek. I tried to reassure it, and it started grooming its antennae over and over with little feet.

Earlier in the week, I interviewed at Champaign County Forest Preserve's Homer Lake. Twin fawns were grazing at the entrance. Further into the park, I came across a deer getting a drink in the slough. Dragonflies were abundant and "fishing" on the lake surface.

Independence Day

Watercolor by Ann Johnson

Chartreuse on Cement Canvas

Digital images by Ann Johnson
Ephemeral Maple Flower Spirals by Ann Johnson

Breathe with the Tides

Video and Poem, Humble Flow, by Ann Johnson

Humble Flow

She used to speak with THAT TONE
and the raw sense of self-assured knowing
until the Universe humbled her
and she accepted the offer.

[Note: begin soundtrack for the transformation –
Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror)]

And now she watches energy flow
through a lens of contemplation.
The lens of amusement became self-righteous and cynical
and was discarded.

So, take the invitation to walk with her,
to breathe in and breathe out,
to step between the tides.

See how bids are made
for the wave to crest
at one shore or another.

How some keep the harbor free-flowing
and others begin to erect a dam
while standing on the peir shouting,
fist to the heavens.

How even others wander the pebble beach, chanting,
dip their toes in the waves,
then move out into the current, past their knees, immersed
to the level of their open arms and hearts.