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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Talisman

Isn't it funny how we take physical objects and tell them what they are going to be and then sometimes they become that?  "This is my new "my life will never be the same once we finally meet" dress."  Yes, its purple, which I never wear and has satiny bits hanging off it, which I also never wear and I'm wearing flats with it....which I normally wouldn't be caught dead in.  But it doesn't always seem to matter how wrong the outfit may be for the occasion or how dirty the yellow piece of yarn worn knotted around our wrist in remembrance of someone gets, what matters is the faith we put in these objects.  They are our talismans.  They hold the power with which we endue them.   

I stack the too-big turquoise and silver ring that I haven't gotten around to getting sized under the spiraling silver spoon ring with the scarab beetle carved into the end of the handle.  The turquoise my father spent far too much money on at a souvenir shop near the Grand Canyon and the spoon ring is the first gift my husband bought me when we began dating.  

Next, I slip on the silver Michael Kors watch outfitted with the date, a timer, and another circle I haven't quite figured out how to use.  It gives a satisfactory snap as I close the clasp and immediately slides towards my elbow.  It has been sized, but I can't seem to get it small enough for my abnormally tiny wrists.  This piece was a Christmas gift from my brother, and I can't help thinking that he gave me the gift of order.  Dad's gift was of beauty, color, creativity and even space.  And, Todd's gift, though incredibly beautiful, it more than anything promotes stability....keeps the beauty, color and creativity in place.  

On my right hand, I place another spoon ring...this one copper also bought at the Grand Canyon, but paid for by me.  I add a couple of copper bracelets to my right wrist.  Gifts from my mother who doesn't wear jewelry but purchases it for me.  The copper warms me and glows sunshine and strength which my Vitamin D deficient body and soul so desperately longs for.  

The final talisman I wear also slides on to my right wrist....a grown up multi-colored friendship looking bracelet I found at Farmer's Market and purchase for myself and two good friends.  I look down at it, praying that it holds together firmly with the double knot I've tied and that this friendship which has caught me unaware will be tighter for the three of us and not just two.  I think of all these things as I dress for the day.  These pieces, they are my sacred things...guarding against fear, intimidation, and despair, just ordinary objects till I told them what they were.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Introspection from the Interior

I'm a city girl to the core. I love the energy that flows up through the soles of my boots as I take brisk steps on the bustling streets teeming with people.  I sense my own "otherness" yet know completely that I am a significant piece of this puzzle.  Inspiration is forever revealing itself in the sea of faces that envelope me.  Every crumbling facade, tarnished brass door knocker, and tower of steel and brick call to the magic in me.   Yet the power of the Interior speaks to me, as I stare up at the tiny summer waterfalls that cascade down the crevices of the massive mountains.  Here, I recognize my place in the universe. These swollen rivers, dignified Spruce, and endless stately mountain ranges have no need of me.  They stare down Mother Nature and me with their vast systems of roots that continue to perpetuate their story.  Someone called it their "indifference" but I think rather they are teaching me what it means to thrive. Two halves of the whole, I think I need them both.  To contemplate the world around me.  To know myself.  To recognize the next step, or where this part of the journey ends.  Elemental and terrestrial.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Alaska - Haiku for Mindy

light, suffused with you
glisten strong conqueror of
rock and mud and me

Friday, July 20, 2012

Fierce Sunlight

I have to relax in Scottsdale the sun shines so fiercely it yells at my anxieties...pay attention to me...there is no time for you...only I exist. I see the large manhole cover the steam rising from its tortured lid and think of it as a gateway to other more magical worlds.

My body absorbs the heat and calls for more. Between the sun and the desert winds, my soul is wicked dry of anxiety and fears.

To live in a place where the door is turquoise because I made it so...