Fire and Ice
March 10, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I am pining for Spring! And just as we are arduously approaching the vernal equinox…where the light is equal, and the fire of the sun is felt more strongly, we have an icestorm. This icestorm directly preceeding daylight savings time -where we “get more light” in the evening left us without power or phone for nearly 24 hours in the country. What a contrast, this fire and ice dance. Today, the ice is still caked on the trees and looks like rock candy I used to eat as a kid. When the wind blows, the branches crackle and sound as if they will break, but it’s only the ice.
So, what do you do on a power outage? Wimps go to hotels where they can plug in their laptops and swim in the pool and eat out. They go where the toilets flush, the towels are dry and at the flick of a switch the light comes on. TV is available, hot baths and showers, computerized games and telephones. Here on Blissfarm, we just sit and wait and make the best of it. We have a gas stove that can be lit with a match to cook. We always have water jugged up and a drawer full of candles. Boardgames and cards anyone? Flashlights at the ready by each bedside. The girls run about lighting candles and after they are done the house looks like a seance is about to occur. I laid up a stack of books I had been meaning to get to, and knitting that needed finishing, and rested a flashlight on my shoulder to read and knit by. After a while the girls became bored. The excitement of the candles began to wear off and they missed Webkins. So, the girls decide to give us foot massages!
Our son - down at a nearby neighbors house, and ready for an evening of teenaged hootin’ and hollering meets the same power outage. So much for your IM’ing, Facebooking and MySpacing! So much for those computerized games ( we don’t allow at home) Wanna know what they did? They played hide and seek! Teenage boys! We’re talking ready for highschool 14 year olds - hiding, seeking, flashlight tagging and rolling each other up in futons to become “human burritos”!
Good old fashioned fun.
Where we have to go to the nearby run off stream and get a five gallon pail of water just to flush the toilet! ( No running water in a power outage) You have to get crafty. You have to conserve. You have to think and be creative. Phone was knocked out too in this icestorm, so there was no calling your friend to tell them the power was out! No internet. Nothing.
Were we cut off from the world? Hell no.
We are OF the world.
Life has become so fast, so technologized ( is that a word) that we have forgotten how to “be” how to “make do” not having everything done for us - from the auto dial to the answering machine the microwave and electric blow dryer, clothes dryer, leaf blower (what happened to rakes?) The cell phones, the instant messaging, the texting. Automatic cars that park themselves, moving sidewalks and escalators. How ’bout that Roomba? The vacuum that “vacuums for you”!? We take things for granted, and our children are growing up thinking the world owes them a task, a job, a life. My kids don’t know how to make popcorn in a pot on the stove! (Mental note: make popcorn on the stove and show them.) Until last summer at an old camp up north, they had never seen a rotary dial phone! They couldn’t figure out how to work it!
Why do things have to be so fast? I think it’s time to slow down. One reason why I love living in the country is you get the natural rhythm of nature in your face on a daily basis. Seasons change, the sun moves, the ice storm happens. Fire and Ice. Cause and Effect. Yin and Yang. As above , so below. Nature is usually not fast. I try to remind myself of this every day. This also reminds me of something I read by Bruce Chatwin :
“A white explorer in Africa, anxious to press ahead with his journey, paid his porters for a series of forced marches. But they, almost within reach of their destination, set down their bundles and refused to budge. No amount of extra payment would convince them otherwise. They said they had to wait for their souls to catch up.”
We need to wait for our souls to catch up. We need to move through life at a pace that honors the earth that lives within us. I choose to live in connection to nature and her natural rhythms. I honor the earth and her cycle changes. I bend with flexibility at the changes in weather. Living in the country grounds me. I cannot imagine living anywhere else. Though I love what technological advantages exist in my life, I could not imagine living in an urban jungle. Too fast. The extremes, the ebbing and flowing helps balance me. Water seeks its own level and what is ice now will be fire soon. Change is constant.
This spring I shall plant a large vegetable garden, and live even closer to the land, eating the food grown on my property and tended with my own hands with the vibration of love as I know this will feed my family best. I will add more chickens and goats. Fresh eggs are delectable, and goats are the best land browsers, twig eaters, and kitchen scrap composters I know. They’re pretty darn loveable too. The animals teach the kids responsibility and compassion, animal kingdom behavior, and build memories of a country upbringing. I will hang the laundry on the line to dry in the fire of the sun, and power of the wind. I will cook over an open fire more often, and sleep under the stars when I can. I will tend the paths to the grove and make offerings along the way, and I will grow pumpkins to share with all of my friends.
Nature is equilibrium. Fire and Ice. Ebb and Flow. Sometimes it takes an icestorm to not “disconnect” us from reality by having no power or phone - but to “reconnect” us to reality, and our truer nature. Being connected to nature by any means is the best thing anyone can do. Spend less time at the computer, on the phone,and IM’ing and texting. Put your hands in the earth, dip your toes in the stream. Have lunch up close and personal with a human instead of driving your car, talking on the phone, and eating your fast food at the same time. Smell the fresh air, hear the birds and crickets or even the subtle crackle of ice on a frozen branch.
Listen. See. Feel. Use your senses.
Don’t wait for an ice storm and power disconnect, to reconnect.
Monday, June 2, 2008
CAT TAILS
Synchronicity is a good thing. Just when you need something, it is there.
I have been taking these country road walks every day, nature metaphors pop out and become good guides. I have been looking at these cat tails in a bog on the side of Swamp Road. They are cat tails that have "gone by". They are no longer brown, slim, and smooth - they are tan, bedraggled looking kind of like a wet cat. However, in these cat tails I see faces. They sort of look like Scandinavian folk art wood spirits - old men with a big proboscis and a cap...or that hindu elephant thing I couldn't remember the name of....
and then my friend Karen mentioned she had her new "Ganesh" on the wall....so I looked it up. There it was! It was what I was seeing! A ganesh within a cat tail! Thank you Karen!
Ganesh:"Widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom"
Cat tail:"The flower symbolism associated with the cattail is peace and prosperity".
I'll take it!!
Metaphors in nature are wonderful, if you know how to translate them. I live by nature's metaphors, it makes life easier. Kind of like watching the clouds in the western sky for weather coming, I look at the trees, animals, symbolism, even numerology, patterns in nature as a guide for life. It works. Try it. These things will tell you what you need to know in the now. Be present and in tune. Little messengers...
I have been taking these country road walks every day, nature metaphors pop out and become good guides. I have been looking at these cat tails in a bog on the side of Swamp Road. They are cat tails that have "gone by". They are no longer brown, slim, and smooth - they are tan, bedraggled looking kind of like a wet cat. However, in these cat tails I see faces. They sort of look like Scandinavian folk art wood spirits - old men with a big proboscis and a cap...or that hindu elephant thing I couldn't remember the name of....
and then my friend Karen mentioned she had her new "Ganesh" on the wall....so I looked it up. There it was! It was what I was seeing! A ganesh within a cat tail! Thank you Karen!
Ganesh:"Widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom"
Cat tail:"The flower symbolism associated with the cattail is peace and prosperity".
I'll take it!!
Metaphors in nature are wonderful, if you know how to translate them. I live by nature's metaphors, it makes life easier. Kind of like watching the clouds in the western sky for weather coming, I look at the trees, animals, symbolism, even numerology, patterns in nature as a guide for life. It works. Try it. These things will tell you what you need to know in the now. Be present and in tune. Little messengers...
Thursday, May 29, 2008
HEARTS
As I was returning from my late morning walk with Bindi, heading west, the morning sun at my back I happened to look down. There, scattered on the dirt, road I live on was a variety of leaf stems that had fallen from the canopy of hardwoods above. It just so happens that the arc of the stems that were haphazardly strewn about the road, were casting a mirror image shadow type thing that created a HEART. Some were laying on the ground flat, some were humped up, creating this shadow effect. Hearts were all over the ground in front of me. As I trudged up the hill I began to see Heart images everywhere in nature. I could see the "v" of the bottom of a heart in the tree branches, imagining the rest of the heart above, I could just "see" it. I could see curvilinear lines creating the "top" of the heart and in my mind's eye, completed the bottom. Tire treads in the dirt road created what looked like the "cleft" of a Heart. The leaves of the Cottonwoods, Poplars, Aspens and Birches have incredibly Heart shaped leaves. The breast of the Robin in the Buckthorns looked like part of a Heart. Hearts were popping up all over.
Hearts have traditionally represented Love. I began to muse about my love of nature, of the Goddess in all her wonder. Lucky for me on this late morning it was perfect weather, sunny, warm, a breeze on my face (who can go wrong in that?) making me even more thankful to Mother Earth. I sent silent blessings from MY Heart to Gaia for all of this beauty and for all She does to take care of us, feed us, nurture us, support us.
We must remember to return the love, to be thankful, to do our best to give offerings back to the Earth. We must conserve out natural resources, live a little closer to the earth, and wake up and remember that She is a living, breathing entity. She is us, and we are Her. We come from Her, and return to to Her.
All it takes is a moment of conscious gratitude. A prayer or meditation, an offering. A song sung to the Earth, or a drum beat of vibrational energy returned. Caring for and feeding the creatures, tending the plants and trees. Respecting the cycles, and acknowleding the beauty in nature; in the Goddess.
Make a rock garden, plant a tree, feed a chipmunk. Look for the Hearts that are everywhere around you and let inspire you to Love the Earth, and realize that you are not Apart from this, but are Part of this.
Hearts have traditionally represented Love. I began to muse about my love of nature, of the Goddess in all her wonder. Lucky for me on this late morning it was perfect weather, sunny, warm, a breeze on my face (who can go wrong in that?) making me even more thankful to Mother Earth. I sent silent blessings from MY Heart to Gaia for all of this beauty and for all She does to take care of us, feed us, nurture us, support us.
We must remember to return the love, to be thankful, to do our best to give offerings back to the Earth. We must conserve out natural resources, live a little closer to the earth, and wake up and remember that She is a living, breathing entity. She is us, and we are Her. We come from Her, and return to to Her.
All it takes is a moment of conscious gratitude. A prayer or meditation, an offering. A song sung to the Earth, or a drum beat of vibrational energy returned. Caring for and feeding the creatures, tending the plants and trees. Respecting the cycles, and acknowleding the beauty in nature; in the Goddess.
Make a rock garden, plant a tree, feed a chipmunk. Look for the Hearts that are everywhere around you and let inspire you to Love the Earth, and realize that you are not Apart from this, but are Part of this.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Promise and Hope
In the middle I am. Must be having a midlife crisis, thought it seems cliche. Not an exact moment, rather a cycle.....that spans years. Like 5-10 years. Around 40 you realize you are not 30 anymore. 50 seems too far off to think about right now. But 45. Seems right smack dab in the middle of 90. A good life expectency - 90 seems to run in my family give or take a few years. So here I am in the middle. I turn 45 on April 12th. I am just now in the middle of raising my family at 45 as most of us mothers are 'starting later' to have babies. I had Garrett at 31, Hayley at 33 and Megan at 35. Baby #4 who would have become Annabel was miscarried on Valentines Day 2001. She would be in 1st grade now. My parents are getting older. 70. I am feeling that pull now as the only daughter to begin helping my parents into retirement - or whatever "stage" that is.
Downsizing, decluttering, the passing on of ancestral possessions to ME. I am not sure I am ready for this. When my mother was 45 it was 1982. I was out of the house and on my own, my brother soon to follow. My mother's mother came to live with us. I feel straddled between my parents growing older, and my children growing up. FAST. I am not ready to take on the care of my parents. I need breathing room! I need a vacation before all that starts! Thats supposed to happen when my kids are grown and in college - like give me another 10 years!
I miss the days where things were simple, where there was promise and hope felt each day when the kids were little. Before they entered public school.Naps. Wonder. (when walking on our country road one day with Garrett in hand and Hayley in stroller I pointed out the growth of moss on a boulder to which my son looked at me in amazement and said:
"Mom, that's not moss, that's broccoli" and kept trudging up hill, proud of his proclamation
I miss all of that. My kids are growing at warp speed. I do not hold them back, or hinder their growth and independence.......however the melancholy sets in from time to time, as I recall simpler times filled with promise and hope. It was just THERE. I guess I have to look a little harder each day to find it, to see it and feel it again. Garrett's music does it for me. Hayleys beauty and compassion does if for me. Megan's angelic singing voice and visual art does it for me......and Mark's strength and perseverance.........
In the mean time I can keep baking muffins with the kids, knit baby sweaters for friends, color with crayons, read aloud to the kids at bedtime, and plant my garden this spring and await the promise and hope of a bountiful harvest of vegetables that start as seeds and grow into something splendorous.
Growth, change and evolution can be painful, and at the same time grand. Depends on how I am looking at it and what I am looking for that day. Today seems bleak, the schedule overwhelming, my family spiraling in different directions. I long for a hearty rosemary chicken dinner, candles on the table, my family in one place. There's Promise and Hope that will happen on Sunday! Maybe we can even color after dinner and read books aloud.
Downsizing, decluttering, the passing on of ancestral possessions to ME. I am not sure I am ready for this. When my mother was 45 it was 1982. I was out of the house and on my own, my brother soon to follow. My mother's mother came to live with us. I feel straddled between my parents growing older, and my children growing up. FAST. I am not ready to take on the care of my parents. I need breathing room! I need a vacation before all that starts! Thats supposed to happen when my kids are grown and in college - like give me another 10 years!
I miss the days where things were simple, where there was promise and hope felt each day when the kids were little. Before they entered public school.Naps. Wonder. (when walking on our country road one day with Garrett in hand and Hayley in stroller I pointed out the growth of moss on a boulder to which my son looked at me in amazement and said:
"Mom, that's not moss, that's broccoli" and kept trudging up hill, proud of his proclamation
I miss all of that. My kids are growing at warp speed. I do not hold them back, or hinder their growth and independence.......however the melancholy sets in from time to time, as I recall simpler times filled with promise and hope. It was just THERE. I guess I have to look a little harder each day to find it, to see it and feel it again. Garrett's music does it for me. Hayleys beauty and compassion does if for me. Megan's angelic singing voice and visual art does it for me......and Mark's strength and perseverance.........
In the mean time I can keep baking muffins with the kids, knit baby sweaters for friends, color with crayons, read aloud to the kids at bedtime, and plant my garden this spring and await the promise and hope of a bountiful harvest of vegetables that start as seeds and grow into something splendorous.
Growth, change and evolution can be painful, and at the same time grand. Depends on how I am looking at it and what I am looking for that day. Today seems bleak, the schedule overwhelming, my family spiraling in different directions. I long for a hearty rosemary chicken dinner, candles on the table, my family in one place. There's Promise and Hope that will happen on Sunday! Maybe we can even color after dinner and read books aloud.
Listening
They say our body tells us what we need to know.......if we would only just pay attention. Well, since I arrived home from Mexico, I have had problems with vertigo - which thankfully has subsided. Vertigo -balance........a bodily sensation sending me a message about balance. Am I in balance? What is out of balance? So the vertigo leaves........but this peculiar EAR thing stays. I am not one to run to doctors for antibiotics unless I am dying and they have done an actual TEST to see what BACTERIA is present that antibiotic will work on. ( So many doctors placate parents or impatient patients with antibiotics to make them feel like they are "doing" something about it. Otherwise it is worthless to put antibiotics into the system, making our bodies antibiotic resistent - for when we really need them. So, I belive this is a low grade, hanger onner, ear infection of the mild and annoying type. Some days it feels like tension, some days it aches, some days it's not there. I've been back from Mexico ( where I contracted the origianal cold virus) for 10 weeks now. Now I'm getting a little ticked off, as chronic annoyances like this on top of the daily grind just makes me logey and irritable.
So, I've had it with the golfball lymph nodes in my neck. Otherwise I have no symptoms , save the occasional ear jab that just pisses me off. I'm goin' in! Breaking out my arsenal of remedies! I'm going to really get rid of the annoyance once and for all. I've taken Tylenol, Garlic, Omega 3's, Multivite, Herb teas, Spirulina and Calcium (its what I have on hand. ) Next. hot compresses to the neck. Peroxide in the ears, push more fluids. Grapefruit Seed Extract gulped down in water - ick.
Then, for the real work.....the internal work..... WHY my ears? WHY my throat ( which doesn't hurt, but it's where the ache is.......) WHY do my ears and throat ache? What are they trying to tell me? The ache is not pain really, it's ache. Plain old ache. Throat - Expression. Throat chakra - color blue. What am I not expressing? What am I holding back that is "balling up" in my throat? What needs to be let go? Ears: For hearing, for listening. What is it that I don't want to hear?
Perhaps a meditation to listen to what I don't want to hear, to say what I need to say. If I listen lately all I seem to hear is bickering in my house. Disprespect. Who wouldn't want to shut their ears to that? The vibration in my house is bring up old crusty issues from childhood where I was not respected or listened to , or worst of all ;physically tossed out on my ear. Ouch. I seem to have been transported back through a time warp - to a place I thought I had forgotten. The lump in my throat that always felt like I needed to release and cry but was always told to shut up, buck up, , get over it, build a thicker skin. What do I need to EXPRESS? Hmm. Only to have it fall on deaf ears? That won't work will it.
Perhaps an open letter to my family to "say" what I need to say and get things back on course where we are more respectful and loving, peaceful and calm, compassoinate and caring. Perhaps a letter to my family of origin to "say" what I need to say, to release and burn the letter in a ritual fire........
I think what I need to express is that I matter, you matter, we all matter. Let's start listening. If our ears are shut or otherwise clogged or aching, we cannot hear. If we can't hear another one's pain or joy, our hearts are not open. Open hearts, open arms, open ears, more peace.
In the quiet of today I can get there. A hot pot of tea, I have Amish Cinnamon Bread baking and the house smells humble and cozy. The spring birds have at last returned and I can HEAR their song. I have three precious hours before the madness of kids tumble in ....with tea I will go LISTEN to what my ears and throat have to say. And, instead of sharing through voice, I think I will write what I want others to HEAR.
Read silently, they can do their own reflecting. No more bickering. Open hearts, open arms,open ears, more peace. Maybe this is what my ears and throat are telling me. My body wants more peace. In the hurried pace of today's living this is what we need. More peace. Slower pace, Simpicity. Calm. From that place within spirit - we can rise up into our creativity, our clarity, our potential and be conscious human beings making a difference in the lives of our children and on the planet.
Go, and listen to your body talk, your soul needs. When we are in rhythm with our bodies, we are in rhythm with the Goddess, Gaia, Mother Nature. There is peace in that place.
So, I've had it with the golfball lymph nodes in my neck. Otherwise I have no symptoms , save the occasional ear jab that just pisses me off. I'm goin' in! Breaking out my arsenal of remedies! I'm going to really get rid of the annoyance once and for all. I've taken Tylenol, Garlic, Omega 3's, Multivite, Herb teas, Spirulina and Calcium (its what I have on hand. ) Next. hot compresses to the neck. Peroxide in the ears, push more fluids. Grapefruit Seed Extract gulped down in water - ick.
Then, for the real work.....the internal work..... WHY my ears? WHY my throat ( which doesn't hurt, but it's where the ache is.......) WHY do my ears and throat ache? What are they trying to tell me? The ache is not pain really, it's ache. Plain old ache. Throat - Expression. Throat chakra - color blue. What am I not expressing? What am I holding back that is "balling up" in my throat? What needs to be let go? Ears: For hearing, for listening. What is it that I don't want to hear?
Perhaps a meditation to listen to what I don't want to hear, to say what I need to say. If I listen lately all I seem to hear is bickering in my house. Disprespect. Who wouldn't want to shut their ears to that? The vibration in my house is bring up old crusty issues from childhood where I was not respected or listened to , or worst of all ;physically tossed out on my ear. Ouch. I seem to have been transported back through a time warp - to a place I thought I had forgotten. The lump in my throat that always felt like I needed to release and cry but was always told to shut up, buck up, , get over it, build a thicker skin. What do I need to EXPRESS? Hmm. Only to have it fall on deaf ears? That won't work will it.
Perhaps an open letter to my family to "say" what I need to say and get things back on course where we are more respectful and loving, peaceful and calm, compassoinate and caring. Perhaps a letter to my family of origin to "say" what I need to say, to release and burn the letter in a ritual fire........
I think what I need to express is that I matter, you matter, we all matter. Let's start listening. If our ears are shut or otherwise clogged or aching, we cannot hear. If we can't hear another one's pain or joy, our hearts are not open. Open hearts, open arms, open ears, more peace.
In the quiet of today I can get there. A hot pot of tea, I have Amish Cinnamon Bread baking and the house smells humble and cozy. The spring birds have at last returned and I can HEAR their song. I have three precious hours before the madness of kids tumble in ....with tea I will go LISTEN to what my ears and throat have to say. And, instead of sharing through voice, I think I will write what I want others to HEAR.
Read silently, they can do their own reflecting. No more bickering. Open hearts, open arms,open ears, more peace. Maybe this is what my ears and throat are telling me. My body wants more peace. In the hurried pace of today's living this is what we need. More peace. Slower pace, Simpicity. Calm. From that place within spirit - we can rise up into our creativity, our clarity, our potential and be conscious human beings making a difference in the lives of our children and on the planet.
Go, and listen to your body talk, your soul needs. When we are in rhythm with our bodies, we are in rhythm with the Goddess, Gaia, Mother Nature. There is peace in that place.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
BOUNDARIES
Merrian Webster defines a boundary as " something that indicates or fixes a limit or extent "
Life is full of metaphors. As a Certified Feng Shui Consultant, I am trained to see, feel, and hear the metaphors in any environment. What is this room trying to tell me? What does this house say? How does the energy of the land feel? What's the message? Our environs are simply a reflection of what is going on within ourselves. Walk into any party, past any establishment, or pull into a driveway, if I utilize my keen skills of observation, silent intuition; there's the answer. Anyone can do this. Once you learn how to navigate in this manner, life becomes easier. If we are still enough to absorb, and can find that place of awareness inside of ourselves, we go with the flow of life instead of against it. We get what we need to know in the moment. Kind of like listening to your body, but that's another story.
So, as I look around my house, my property, I begin to get a sense of blurred boundary lines. What am I supposed to be getting here? These goings on I observe are cues to my subconcious to take note of the message "boundaries" as it is applicable to my life. It says " pay attention, there is something here for you."
"Fences make good neighbors" they say. We are five, living in one small house. We share our house with three dogs, three cats, two hamsters and a guinea pig. That's indoors. Outdoors we have seven pygmy goats and 14 chickens. Peculiar things are going on, as I begin to take note that: Four of our goats are wandering the lawn in search or tasty trees at precisely 4pm every day. They've broken out of goat jail and hopped the fence - that has been trampled down by snow all winter. The other three have not figured it out. I call them the "brothers four" as they saunter up and down the snowy lawn in ganglike formation. First to wreck more of my big pine tree at the corner of the ice rink, then to peel bark from the sumacs. Next up on my front porch looking for a free handout. It is Spring, we still have snow; they are restless and in search of fresh grass. They leave Cocoa Puff trails everywhere. Magically, by nightfall; they end up back inside the barnyard. Whatever you read about goats is true, they hop fences and eat anything. Cunning little devils.
Winter has left us with lots of fencing to fix if Spring will ever get here. The boundaries between dogs and goats has become blurred. There is a hole between the dog yard and the barnyard. the dogs commune with the goats on the goat side and become one herd: dogs eating Cocoa Puffs and leftover grain. (Dogs, like goats, will eat anything left to their own devices) The goats visit the dogyard and nibble on the bark on the more tree filled dog side, and chew the roofing off the doghouse.
Bindi my Boston Terrier has give up her "little bed" to sleep in the big dog beds, or human beds. Barn swallows have taken up housekeeping in the pole barn where we park our cars and poop on the roof of the Volvo. Cats have taken over the dining room chairs. Doesn't matter which one, it's the one I want to sit in that moment.
Kidstuff is everywhere. Everywhere it doesn't belong ( after I have spent years anally organizing boxes with labels, drawers with slots, bins with names and a set of hooks for each in the mudroom) Hayley has grown to fit into MY shoes now as they disappear, Croc by Clog, Shoe by Boot. She "borrows" my Clinique Happy perfume. I know she wants to smell like Mom but............it's MINE! Where's the boundary?
Megan who now has pierced ears, frequents my earring collection. My sterling and peridot pair disappeared on St. Patricks Day. Did it occur to anyone that I might like to wear green that day? In its place she left a pair of guitar earrings on MY dresser.
Garrett and his musical equipment has taken over. I have created a nice area in the basement for his "stuff" ( half dozen guitars, 4 amps, keyboard, microphone) yet it still migrates. Picks. Guitar picks. Everywhere. I created a "pick pot" for him.......a place to centralize all of these picks that float around the house like cosmic dust - but somehow the pickpot is empty. The bottom of the washer has the picks. So does the dryer, the couch cushions, the floor and I even found two down at the grove wedged into the seat of a summer lawn chair that had been buried under snow since fall.
Boundaries.
What does it all mean? My environment is nudging me, giving me a wake up call if you will, to take a look at the roll of boundaries in my life. It really is not about animal fencing or scattered picks, or the invasion of personal space. It is about my internal set of boundaries. How much is enough? How far do I go? When is a good stopping point? How much flack are you going to take from that person? Where do you draw the line and keep your personal integrity? Is this my issue to take care of or theirs? Where do I stop and the other person begins?
I have never been too good at boundaries. I'm an all or nothing girl. I tend to do too much, and rush in to take care of someone else's drama. I find it hard to stop what I am doing if I am on a roll....
Drawing the line as a parent: knowing what is good for your child no matter their age. Every day I get better and better at boundaries. Fixing the fences inside myself. Erecting new ones. Taking better care of myself and knowing when to stop pushing - a chore or a conversation. It's a process. I use the metaphor of the fencing for this in my mind as a tool to keep me on course.
Respect toward self and others is a boundary, one we are working on in our house. Space, possessions, language. Living in community , in this case a family of five; requires good boundaries. I suppose fences make good families too, so long as there are gates between the fences so we have the opportunity to be in each others lives, and at the same time be mindful of healthy boundaries.
Thanks to the goddess and my animals, who teach me so much.
Life is full of metaphors. As a Certified Feng Shui Consultant, I am trained to see, feel, and hear the metaphors in any environment. What is this room trying to tell me? What does this house say? How does the energy of the land feel? What's the message? Our environs are simply a reflection of what is going on within ourselves. Walk into any party, past any establishment, or pull into a driveway, if I utilize my keen skills of observation, silent intuition; there's the answer. Anyone can do this. Once you learn how to navigate in this manner, life becomes easier. If we are still enough to absorb, and can find that place of awareness inside of ourselves, we go with the flow of life instead of against it. We get what we need to know in the moment. Kind of like listening to your body, but that's another story.
So, as I look around my house, my property, I begin to get a sense of blurred boundary lines. What am I supposed to be getting here? These goings on I observe are cues to my subconcious to take note of the message "boundaries" as it is applicable to my life. It says " pay attention, there is something here for you."
"Fences make good neighbors" they say. We are five, living in one small house. We share our house with three dogs, three cats, two hamsters and a guinea pig. That's indoors. Outdoors we have seven pygmy goats and 14 chickens. Peculiar things are going on, as I begin to take note that: Four of our goats are wandering the lawn in search or tasty trees at precisely 4pm every day. They've broken out of goat jail and hopped the fence - that has been trampled down by snow all winter. The other three have not figured it out. I call them the "brothers four" as they saunter up and down the snowy lawn in ganglike formation. First to wreck more of my big pine tree at the corner of the ice rink, then to peel bark from the sumacs. Next up on my front porch looking for a free handout. It is Spring, we still have snow; they are restless and in search of fresh grass. They leave Cocoa Puff trails everywhere. Magically, by nightfall; they end up back inside the barnyard. Whatever you read about goats is true, they hop fences and eat anything. Cunning little devils.
Winter has left us with lots of fencing to fix if Spring will ever get here. The boundaries between dogs and goats has become blurred. There is a hole between the dog yard and the barnyard. the dogs commune with the goats on the goat side and become one herd: dogs eating Cocoa Puffs and leftover grain. (Dogs, like goats, will eat anything left to their own devices) The goats visit the dogyard and nibble on the bark on the more tree filled dog side, and chew the roofing off the doghouse.
Bindi my Boston Terrier has give up her "little bed" to sleep in the big dog beds, or human beds. Barn swallows have taken up housekeeping in the pole barn where we park our cars and poop on the roof of the Volvo. Cats have taken over the dining room chairs. Doesn't matter which one, it's the one I want to sit in that moment.
Kidstuff is everywhere. Everywhere it doesn't belong ( after I have spent years anally organizing boxes with labels, drawers with slots, bins with names and a set of hooks for each in the mudroom) Hayley has grown to fit into MY shoes now as they disappear, Croc by Clog, Shoe by Boot. She "borrows" my Clinique Happy perfume. I know she wants to smell like Mom but............it's MINE! Where's the boundary?
Megan who now has pierced ears, frequents my earring collection. My sterling and peridot pair disappeared on St. Patricks Day. Did it occur to anyone that I might like to wear green that day? In its place she left a pair of guitar earrings on MY dresser.
Garrett and his musical equipment has taken over. I have created a nice area in the basement for his "stuff" ( half dozen guitars, 4 amps, keyboard, microphone) yet it still migrates. Picks. Guitar picks. Everywhere. I created a "pick pot" for him.......a place to centralize all of these picks that float around the house like cosmic dust - but somehow the pickpot is empty. The bottom of the washer has the picks. So does the dryer, the couch cushions, the floor and I even found two down at the grove wedged into the seat of a summer lawn chair that had been buried under snow since fall.
Boundaries.
What does it all mean? My environment is nudging me, giving me a wake up call if you will, to take a look at the roll of boundaries in my life. It really is not about animal fencing or scattered picks, or the invasion of personal space. It is about my internal set of boundaries. How much is enough? How far do I go? When is a good stopping point? How much flack are you going to take from that person? Where do you draw the line and keep your personal integrity? Is this my issue to take care of or theirs? Where do I stop and the other person begins?
I have never been too good at boundaries. I'm an all or nothing girl. I tend to do too much, and rush in to take care of someone else's drama. I find it hard to stop what I am doing if I am on a roll....
Drawing the line as a parent: knowing what is good for your child no matter their age. Every day I get better and better at boundaries. Fixing the fences inside myself. Erecting new ones. Taking better care of myself and knowing when to stop pushing - a chore or a conversation. It's a process. I use the metaphor of the fencing for this in my mind as a tool to keep me on course.
Respect toward self and others is a boundary, one we are working on in our house. Space, possessions, language. Living in community , in this case a family of five; requires good boundaries. I suppose fences make good families too, so long as there are gates between the fences so we have the opportunity to be in each others lives, and at the same time be mindful of healthy boundaries.
Thanks to the goddess and my animals, who teach me so much.
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