Author: Beth Weaver-Kreider

Guest Poet

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In response to my suggestion this morning to write a poem to cheer yourself up, my friend Cheryl Alvarez wrote this tender poem.  Thank you, Bright One!

Personal Choices

Work with the wind and the darkness.
They are your peace.
Hold tight the sunshine when it peeks from behind the clouds
to kiss your beautiful cheek.
Embrace the touch of the one who loves you most
For she knows your soul like no other.
Sing the songs of the birds, they are your harmony.
Today the pain will live among the kisses and melodies.
Let them dance with your tears.

Gratitude List:
1.  Reconciling, clearing the air
2.  The color cobalt
3.  Ancestors
4.  Poet-friends
5.  Leftovers

May we walk in Beauty!

Cheering Up

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The task for today:
Write a little poem to cheer yourself up.  I’m not feeling particularly low, but I was grumpy about going out to shovel yet another dusting of snow off the drive this morning, so a silly bit of rhyme was what I needed.

Don’t be so low.
The snow will go,
spring breezes blow,
the goldfinch and the sparrow
will sing, “Sweet, sweet!”
and you will know
yourself again.

You Are Light!

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Gratitude List:
1.  That reminder: You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth.  Be shiny.  Be savory.
2.  The way the snow defines the shape of the mountains so you can see their contours through their fur of trees.
3.  Making it safely home in that incredibly slippery snow.
4.  Synchronicities / miracles / synergy / magic / coincidence / Universal Intention / Divine Attention: So many words for marveling at the way things come together sometimes.
5.  Heat and light and water.

May we walk in Beauty!

How Deep is Your Love?

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2014 January 099

Gratitude List:
1.  Heat
2.  Light
3.  Water
4.  Sitting Meditation
5.  This day*

May we walk in Beauty!

* Oh, this day!  Early morning, playing paper dolls with Joss.  Eight Dolls From Around the World to choose from, three of them boys, and my son chose to play with the the girl from Tahiti with the flowing grass skirt and flowers for her hair.  She was my favorite, too, when I was a child.  Then art projects with the children, Ellis drawing a schematic for his idea for an electricity generator and Joss drawing intricate tangle-monsters, and then all of us creating layered landscapes.

A calm, quiet afternoon with a dear friend visiting, doing paperwork together at the table like we used to 20+ years ago.

Listening to music from our younger days with the kids.  Here’s the playlist:
Michael Jackson’s Beat It
Weird Al’s Eat It
Boy George’s Karma Chameleon
Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
The Bee Gees’ Stayin’Alive
The Bee Gees’ How Deep is Your Love (my favorite of the set)
Abba’s Mama Mia
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody

Nomads

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We keep reminding ourselves that sometimes after big ice storms, power grids go down for a week, for weeks.  We have been told that we should have power by Sunday.  I keep remembering that there are people who don’t have at least a dozen friends and family offering warm houses, meals, showers.  It is humbling to remember that there are people for whom finding a warm place to stay, to keep their children warm–for some people this is a daily experience, not a response to a storm emergency.  And we have a place to go back to when all is said and done.

Oh, it’s frustrating having to strategize every morning what our day will be like, where Jon will go to keep the children warm while I am at work during the day, when we will go home to that cold house to take care of the cats and the chickens, worrying about whether the pump will freeze, whether the canned goods will freeze, what we’re going to do about the rotting food in the freezer when all is said and done.  But it’s also a bit of an adventure, like going on vacation here at home.  Spending the night with grandparents, eating out as often as we want to.  All is truly well.  What a safety net we have–so many good people offering help.  So much love.

Gratitude List:
1.  Warmth, warm places
2.  Plan B and C, safety nets
3.  Sunlight on snow
4.  The resilience of children
5.  Warmth, warm hearts

May we walk in Beauty.

First Song

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Poetry First Song

 

Gratitude List:
1.  Fish Crows
2.  Rose quartz
3.  Gentle nudges
4.  Finding a rhythm
5.  Poetic voice

May we walk in Beauty!

Still in the Cocoon

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2012 February 041

Gratitude List:
1.  Cocooning, hibernating, torpor, stasis
2.  On second thought: Work, productivity, getting it done
3.  Healing salve
4.  The people come together to bring about change
5.  Dreams

May we walk in Beauty.

Song for Brigid’s Day

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Song for Brigid’s Day

Do you feel how the world comes alive?
How even underneath its coat of snow,
inside the bright crystals of the ice,
something in the Earth is stirring?

Within your own eyes I see it rising–
in this breath,
and now this one–
the Dreamer is awakening.

The dawn has come,
spreading its golden road before you,
asking, “Will you step upon the pathway?”

As you move out onto the road,
Brigid’s sun upon your face
will trace your outline full behind you,
defining you in the Shadow
which will be your soul’s companion
into spring.

Gratitude List:
1.  Thaw.  Mini thaw, if only that.  Gets the flow in motion.
2.  Ceremonially welcoming children into community.
3.  This moment (usually in late winter or early spring) when I suddenly notice how the children are shifting into their next developmental and growth stages.  They’re starting to look spidery, all legs and arms and teeth.  Their faces look pixie-ish, like changelings.  I remember this from when I taught school, how there came a point each year when it seemed that all the children had grown just a little beyond their boundaries, like their skeletons had suddenly stretched, how their language and expressions changed.  Today, on the backs of their shoulders, I can see their wing-buds popping.
4.  Mimi’s Banana Bread
5.  All the many different ways we are, how sometimes our challenges actually hide our truest gifts, how the One Thing that is all of us together is enriched and deepened by the individuals who are so varied and diverse.

May we walk in Beauty.

River and Bridge

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Bridge

Faerie Tree

   Gratitude List:
   1.  Starting the morning with Hezza-by-the River.  Visitations by magical birds, playing
Chinese jumprope with Kira, faerie house, the golden road of sunrise unrolling a road to us,
sparkling ice crystals floating on ice islands down the River, ice skirts on the trees. . .
2.  Launching
3.  Oh, did I mention the bridge, Bridge, the bridge?
4.  Ending the day at Francie’s party with old friends and new, delicious flavors of pot luck,
felting with Janet, telling stories, singing with Viv on the spoons. . .
5.  Brigid’s Eve.  Imbolc.  Candlemas.  Groundhog Day.  One more step out of the darkness.

May we walk in Beauty.

Clearing, Culture, and Civilization

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A little sun, a slight shift up the thermometer, and I catch my stride again, find my way back into my life.  I’m glad we got all those boxes of Giveaway ready earlier in the week.  I know that packing boxes would not have helped to lift me out of the puddle of winter blues–it requires too much psychic attention.  But carrying them out of the house and putting them in the trunk, taking them to Reuzit–that was a definite pick-me-up.  Now the energy flows through the house with a little more grace.

Beth’s Personal Remedies for Winter Blues:
(not guaranteed to work for everyone, but it might be worth a shot)
1.  Make Gratitude Lists
2.  Notice the shadows and footprints on the snow
3.  Do yoga tree poses.  Lots of tree poses.  And king dancer poses.  And warrior poses.  Laugh when you fall.  Keep trying.
4.  Get rid of Stuff.  Being a Manager of Stuff is energy-sapping at the best of times, but in Winter, it’s numbing.
5.  Sometimes: Give in to it.  Wrap up in a blanket on the recliner, read a book, and drink lots of tea.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, I found this great little list at the Pachamama Alliance:

Not Shopping List     I posted it on my Facebook site, and people began to add to it:

Recycle
Dumpster dive
Joyfully do without
Wildharvest
Re-vamp, re-fashion, create

So many good ideas.
What would you add?
How can we support each other in community
to do these things rather than settling for the easy path of buying more
plastic junk that won’t last and that we don’t really need, and probably don’t
really want, if we’re really honest with ourselves?


Gratitude List:
1.  A good tutor.  I feel much more confident about my computer savvy after just an hour of good help.
2.  Fish tacos
3.  Conversations about grief, sharing stories, opening hearts.  I have such wise, compassionate friends.
4.  Conversations about Culture and Civilization–more good semantic distinctions to be made.  Civilization has gotten us into a peck of trouble, has it not?  How does it differ from culture?  What do we pass on to our children–what culture do we share with them?  I have such wonderful, thoughtful friends.
5.  The light within us all.  I don’t know how to write this one, because it comes out of a really challenging conversation about why people harm other people, even when they know better, about why people engage in bullying behavior.  I recognize too, that I have shadows myself, some unhealthy shadows.  That’s crunchy.  But liberating.

May we walk in Beauty.