Island Women's Presence and Teachings

I am grateful for the wisdom of several island women who work in relationship with Nature. You may be interested in their work: Julie Charette Nunn at http://www.crowsdaughter.com/ , Penny Bauer at http://www.bauerstudio.com/, and Mara Grey at http://www.natureweaving.com/. Traveling from Scotland several times a year, Fionntulach, anam cara and carrier of the Ceile De tradition, comes to an island retreat to bring teachings of the order. See http://www.ceilede.do.uk/ .

A favorite writer - a new website

David Abram
Wild Ethics

http://www.wildethics.org/

The royal purples of Michaelmas daisies and ripe plums are banners heralding the new season. Again, a liminal space for me that calls for another shift...

Autumnal Equinox...Harvest Home...

Well, the experiment is what it is... I repeated my experiment from the Spring Equinox hoping that the Autumnal Equinox egg would also stand in fine balance.

I will just have to consider its equilibrium being in place on the horizontal plane. A glorious day, however. Autumnal Equinox.

Reporting on Work

New works for my G-3 semester....part of Packet#1

The Apple Tree Garden at Chinook

I volunteer at Whidbey Institute on south Whidbey Island. I suggested a blog to welcome and educate people about the plant residents and the healing space therein. The gardener's daughter will be designing one quite soon, so there will be a blog for Chinook's Apple Tree Garden. I have been asked to provide images. Recently, I put together three items for the bulletin board as visitors cross the threshhold.

Recovering from a state of self-forgetfulness,

I have caught myself counting the stamens of a flower.

~~~Tufu

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Observe the wonders as they are around you. Don’t claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.

~Rumi

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The child awakens to a universe.

The mind of the child to a world of wonder.

Imagination to a world of beauty.

Emotions to a world of intimacy.

It takes a universe to make a child,

both in outer form and inner Spirit.

It takes a universe to educate a child,

a universe to fulfill a child.

Each generation presides over the meeting

of these two in the succeeding generation.

So that the child is fulfilled in the universe

and the universe is fulfilled in the child.

While the stars ring out in the heavens!

~~~Thomas Berry

In Balance! Join the Experiment!

Mark your calendars! Very soon on September 22, 2008, I hope you will consider joining an experiment. It will be the Autumnal Equinox, equal day/night, in the Northern Hemisphere. The Equinox arrives in Pacific Daylight Time at 8:44 a.m. ---- 10:44, CDT; 11:44 EDT; 15:44, UT or GMT. I will be repeating my egg balancing experiment that happened on Spring Equinox in April. There is a window of opportunity, several hours on either side of the exact time. Use a raw egg - not hard boiled. Try this with me and report your results!

Blackberries

The blackberries are ripening just out back, and I spent a few minutes early this morning listening to the very happy birds while I was picking. Our variety is actually the invasive Himalayan blackberry. The oldest stalks are the diameter of small trees. They'll overtake trees and hillsides. The deer feed on them.

The old plum tree is loaded and needs another week to ripen. I gathered one that dropped, and it reminded me why I love to dry them and make jam. I wonder how mashed ones would work for pigment? I see an experiment brewing.

Collaboration with Snail ala Studio Libertiny

Well, I was inspired by Thomaz Libertiny and his bee colony. I wanted to do a collaboration with someone from the animal kingdom. Here on Whidbey there are multitudes of slugs and snails. I remembered last winter waking up to glistening trails all over my livingroom rug. Several snails had been at work while I was asleep after escaping from the planter I brought in from the yard. So for a collaborative project: "Ah, perhaps a glistening design on velvet," I thought. The snail agreed to come in if I brought the leaves. I placed a velvet square in a glass pie plate and nestled the leaf with snail inside. By morning there was a glistening path on the velvet which made me notice the lint. Where oh where is the snail? He had climbed out of the pie pan and glued himself onto the lens of my glasses on the counter. OK, so it is 2-Dimensional, not 3-D like the honeycomb vases. But I like the potential of how I might enhance the shimmer pattern. It is a Work-in-progress, and snail has been returned to its garden home for more green leaves. Is this art or a diversion from writing a gazillion job applications?!

I'm thinking of the lesson of the snail and being placed in a new situation not to our choosing. We can just make our path --- make it glistening --- and stay true to ourselves. No hurry. We carry all we need with us, a pureness of being. Those who do not understand may call it slime, but it is evidence of a true path. We may have to make our way across the darkness, but we can get to the other side. We climb out of the dark unknown and maybe into another unknown, but anchor ourselves to tools of seeing. We trust all the while that we will be returned with care to our home.