Showing posts with label stones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stones. Show all posts

Monday, February 27, 2012

Things That Made Me Smile Today

My back yard smelled like Santa Fe this morning, thanks to pine smoke from the chimney and the fresh coffee in my cup. It took me on a cold, bright vacation to the fall of what seems like a hundred years ago. The smells whisper to me of promise, of joy in the midst of uncertainty. Of presence in the midst of hoping. Of a story I will some day tell. I wanted to sop it up like honey with a bit of warm tortilla, crunchy with cinnamon and sugar and yielding soft in its interior.

My true love sent me notes today. Sent me such silliness in the midst of business, strictly business. He popped up there on my screen and said hello, I love you in a thousand different ways that made me laugh. He reminded me what's good, what's right, what's true. He told me things that only I would understand. He was a tangible presence there, like a hug from far away. He made me wonder why I thought anyone else ever mattered.

My muse visited me today. In spite of his being a wee bit battered of late, he came to say hello. Yes, my muse is male. No he isn't real. He's just visits me from time to time and brings me treats of words. Phrases and ideas that tumble around and fall out through a pen that moves so smoothly, uninterrupted. I thanked him for his time and explained I'd love to stay and chat forever, but there was this laundry to be done, food to be made, people to tend. He said it was all right, he'd just hang out in the back of my mind a while. He kept me company while I worked.

These little people in my life with their speeches and their declarations, their moods and their mischief. I looked at them through new eyes today. The eyes that say that's good, that's right, that's how it should be. They whirled themselves green on the playground; fell tumbling, laughing to a heap of suddenly longer, leaner arms and legs. Arm in arm they skipped away to find the next adventure. They have their secret language, the language of being born of the same womb in different times. The language of eyes that match each other's and barely distinguishable laughs. Their world is two halves of a whole, a yin and a yang and a hop, skip, pounce, giggle. My eyes said that's good, that's right, that's how it should be.

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com
There are things you'll never know. The things that make me cry. The things that light up the inside of my head like too many fluorescent bulbs and make me cringe and cower. The things that hurt and annoy and break. The things that seek to destroy. The things that bring me to my knees. There are things you'll never know because they aren't worth knowing.

These things that make me smile, though; I collect them like stones and carry them in my pockets. Their weight is ballast. Their clam insistence holds me to center when balance is precarious. These stones shelter me when the outside is scratching to get in - whining, niggling, insisting upon itself. These warm stones that fill up the pockets of my thoughts: the scents, the sun, the soul mate, the source, the smallness of hands and feet with great big souls. These are the things that made me smile today.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Collecting Stones

I found some lovely little stones on the internet a few years ago. I was intrigued by them and read them, turned them over in my mind, reveled in the idea of them, stuck them in a pocket of my mind somewhere and forgot about them until I noticed a badge on Judy's lovely blog,  Life...Minute By Minute.

The River of Stones is a blogging project started by Kaspa & Fiona over on Writing Our Way Home. Take some time to check out their lovely blog. It's as relaxing as a facial and a massage - with smooth river rocks. This river that they started is an exercise in mindfulness. The idea is to really take notice of something every day and write about it. Not an epic poem, or a long winded something or other, just a small stone. Distill the essence of something every day into a few powerful words. This is so far up my alley it's on my back doorstep. So, in addition to my daily posts where I will be doing my usual nonsense, I have added a page on the right there, right near me and my house, where I will be adding my stones daily.

My sister undertook the 365 Photos project for 2011 and it was a tough challenge, but she's done it and the results have been amazing. Not only does she have 365 gorgeous pictures from each day of the last year and a record of one year of her life, it also pushed her to pursue her photography to heights she never would have done otherwise. The finished album is also a beautiful distillation of the things she saw to be most important in her life every day for a year. The whole project turned out to be so much more than the sum of its parts. In a way, I'm hoping these stones will add up to something surprising. A mosaic of a year in the life. We shall see...

If you are so inclined, check in from time to time and see how these stones are piling up. I think this is such an incredibly beautiful project and my mind is already running in 17 different directions with it. One of the directions has been to promptly get this song stuck in my head. There needn't be much comment on that.

I am too tired to adequately describe how positively giddy I am to be participating in something that, a few years ago, I admired from afar. I looked on wistfully, thinking: wow, what an amazing community of thoughtful, creative people. Now somehow I've sneaked in the back door (probably because I brought Bob Dylan along) and it makes my head spin with delight. I owe it to you. All of you who click by and egg me on. All of you who think and write and do so well in your own corners of the webs and inspire me daily. I am really beginning to love this blogging thing.