In Branson for Thanksgiving

The trees are stunning here still turning brilliant colors, I will have to take some photographs. Well, that is after, I find skates and a place to go skate here. Anyone know where to find cool things here in the Ozarks? I am suffering from nature withdrawal, and I am unsure where to go here to hike, etc. Any sugggestions would be appreciated.

To Blog or Not to Blog...that is the question....

One of those days, looking from my window here, the sound is blustery. I can see the movement of the water, it's rough, and trees are being blown about. Whidbey Island is shrouded in a light fog.

I need to go skate today. I hope it isn't windy East of here at the trail.

I leave tomorrow for Missouri for a visit and Thanksgiving.... so , I have a million things to do, but there is something about blogging, or journaling that have always grounded me, for so many many years I wrote every AM of my life when rising, and it is life giving.

Unsure why, the Artist Way, says it is because we give the sensor time, but I never listen to that when I write, the sensor just stops and I am here fully present with my expression, and that sets the tone for the day. I used to always write with pen in hand. now I type so much since I became a computer person ( yes, I have a flat screen for a head). And now when I write by hand, my writing is awful and my hand cramps, and I am still not a typist! Look out ofr typo's!

I have to get centered here, and get myself just perfectly in this moment, it is like yoga practice, I guess, where you just move beyond the small mind and allow the one mind to be seen, and just express that oneness. That is when it flows, the inspiration comes, and it is effortless, the words are always the right ones, and there is no thinking going on. It is like being totally absorbed in working with your hands, on the wheel with clay, or sewing, or anything that brings you fully present, and peaceful.

The lack of resistance, when you come to accept what is, anxiety, experience it, fear, feel it, not resisting, you become free.
Journaling, this keys you in to that place of knowing...I write so that I can breathe.

....Ending to a long day

I skated almost 2 miles one way, and on my way back it began raining, not hard, just softly. I was wearing glasses," I need those little windshield wipers that the crabs on Mustang Island have to wipe their eyes," I remember thinking, as I skated faster and faster to get back to my car, chilling a bit as the rain quickened.

I hadn't brought my camera, I thought it would just be a winter scene, no golden leaves, but I was wrong. The trail, of course, did have some leaves littering it, and they were slickery devils to skate on, but high up in poplar trees standing in rows on barren branches, perched birds that looked like some unfallen leaves, stuck there. They were singing, and it was all so beautiful. I was reminded that beauty was everywhere, if you just go out and immerse yourself in it. Surely it is in other places, too, I reckoned, other than the Pacific NW!

I drove from there to the local bakery for rosemary onion bread and curry, and went to see Kimmie.

Diane was back, too. Diane shared her pictures, and she looked so great, just everything about her was beautiful!

Kim and I are collaborating on a few cd's for Crissmiss. I have a selection of classical, she is getting a selection of Crissmis music together, I am supplying the photos for the jewel cases, and she is doing the graphics.

I love collaborating, what a gift that is, in itself. All in all, it was a nice, peaceful day. A day I would share with any of my friends living world wide, and I think of all of you, and wish we could be together again.

Life is such a mix of bittersweet, old memories flood in, and it is so strange sometimes to realize that we are only seperated by time, from being what we were then. I always think of Dickie this time of year, since she died 2 years ago around Thanksgiving, and of course, I think of many many people around the holidays that are no longer here in this life with me anymore. Spending Thanksgiving with Doris and Don, and they are now gone.

Missing you all so much, and the ways you enriched my life!

Oh time, if only I could harness you!

Blogging on....

What many people do every day a million times, what I do that makes people wish I wouldn't, blog on, log on, blogging too long. So what are you supposed to do when you are wide awake at 3AM suddenly, and for the day?

It is too dark to take a walk, and besides, the fog is very very dense now, and it may relent, burn off, blog off, it may recede from my window and reveal water in the Sound beyond.

Fog is one of my favorite things in the world, it softens a hard life, with color that expands beyond it's composition, almost like a blur in time. When the sun rises, I may drive to the trail and skate, watching the fog as it hovers over the morning in the countryside.

Is there really life anywhere but here in the PNW?

Oh dear , I am hopelessly in love with nature here, oh nature, marry me!

My proposal for the day!