I have been invited to attend something different…..it is a Reveal. Now for those of you not in-the-know or who don’t follow any ghost hunters’ type of program, this is where the hunters come in with their findings after having checked out a particular location.
The particular building is an old one, having been located on that spot for over a hundred years, so it stood to reason there might possibly be spirits from another time….The building was formerly a church, now used by the town’s Historical Society as well as various community groups as a meeting hall, some of whom involve children. Once such group has had odd feelings/sensations when going upstairs into the church proper by themselves.
In any case, this sounds like it could be interesting, on many levels. For starters, I was raised as a Catholic, and ghosts are not something usually accepted in that faith – angels as messengers of God yes, spirits of long-departed persons no. Now, add to this that over the years I have sidestepped some of the Church teachings of my youth because I found them to be close-minded and out-of-touch with the common man…their lack of acceptance of who/what a person is with their insistence that the only RIGHT way was theirs, has made it very difficult for me to claim myself as a fully practicing member of the community. I tend to accept people for whom and what they are, irregardless of color/gender/creed, and yeah, that goes to having a belief in the supernatural and what are considered to be pagan faiths. As far as I am concerned, it does not matter what your God or Goddess is called….all are names for the same being(s). Seeing God only as the one you cannot see who expects obedience to all His dictates is a bit hard to swallow right now….Seeing him/her as that spirit embodied by the earth renewing itself and sustaining you, THAT makes more sense to me. And how, you wonder, does this connect to my attending a Reveal? A number of reasons including curiosity – who, when, why, etc; education – paranormal study is a bit of science and faith, and philosophy – understanding the undercurrents of why a spirit chose or was caused to remain, what message they may have for us, how is their past connected to our future, and more importantly, will our belief or lack of such cause their feelings toward us to change?
So…will I accept this invitation? Will I go to satisfy a curiosity, or to connect with something unseen? Will I find answers to the un-asked questions that I keep buried deep? Will attending change me?....hard to say, but certainly something to think on a little more, and perhaps to attend….we shall have to wait and see…..
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
..there's gold in them thar' ......
It's morning here, and the usual rush of activity in the house goes on...daughter trying to get her things ready for school but seemingly too busy listening to her iPod to really get anything else accomplished...dogs underfoot alternating between people, hoping that someONE will feed them their breakfast...sounds of traffic outside including the rumbling roar of the schoolbus as it heads up the hill to start it's first run of the day...And me, I stand at the back door with coffee in hand, enjoying the growing glow of sunlight on the treetops......a few moments in time is all that glow lasts, yet it is enough to calm the disquiet and allow me to start my day on a bright note....so here's to your starting your day and savoring the gold......
Saturday, September 4, 2010
it's a-maize-ing
It never ceases to astound me what joyful treasures there are to be found in the mundane.....take for instance, the back yard, severely in need of mowing. The hubster and I just realized this weekend that we have a rather unusual if somewhat surprising piece of greenery growing in this yard.....
As you can plainly see, not your everyday variety of lawn grass, is it? How it got there is unknown......it's another one of those little surprises we have come across. The other one was a wildly overgrown sand pile (buried at the back end of a working sand-pit) that had a vegetable garden growing in it, complete with green tomatoes (at least 6 plants),several vines (not sure if squash, melon, or cucumber), I believe there was at least one pepper plant, and several stalks the hubby thought were corn until I looked at the tops. When I later went online to scope out grains, I was able to identify it as millet....Not sure where the seeds for all of these came from, another little mystery to ponder during the dog days of summer....
As you can plainly see, not your everyday variety of lawn grass, is it? How it got there is unknown......it's another one of those little surprises we have come across. The other one was a wildly overgrown sand pile (buried at the back end of a working sand-pit) that had a vegetable garden growing in it, complete with green tomatoes (at least 6 plants),several vines (not sure if squash, melon, or cucumber), I believe there was at least one pepper plant, and several stalks the hubby thought were corn until I looked at the tops. When I later went online to scope out grains, I was able to identify it as millet....Not sure where the seeds for all of these came from, another little mystery to ponder during the dog days of summer....
Monday, August 30, 2010
the color purple
...Purple...such an interesting color in all its varied hues....and one that seems to play a recurring role in my life this year...
Take for instance, the flash of a purple thistle flower seen while riding along a trail, which on repeating that trip fails to be found anywhere. Or the purple stain of crushed blackberries when you pick a too-ripe berry that squishes between your fingers. Or the purple bruise you get when you slip into an unseen gully reaching for those little fruits. Or the purple of elderberry jelly my hubby had with breakfast. Or the purple shadows that come with the sunset.......Hmmmm.....purple.....
With all of these 'subtle' hints I've have been getting, I believe I will need to dye some fiber purple.....and, since I'm in the process of spinning up some black alpaca for a fair-isle sweater, I think a touch of purple in its magenta-pink hue will be just the thing to make it sing. I know I have several shades of white, cream, and light fawn alpaca fibers that will look awesome in this color...what you do think ?
Take for instance, the flash of a purple thistle flower seen while riding along a trail, which on repeating that trip fails to be found anywhere. Or the purple stain of crushed blackberries when you pick a too-ripe berry that squishes between your fingers. Or the purple bruise you get when you slip into an unseen gully reaching for those little fruits. Or the purple of elderberry jelly my hubby had with breakfast. Or the purple shadows that come with the sunset.......Hmmmm.....purple.....
With all of these 'subtle' hints I've have been getting, I believe I will need to dye some fiber purple.....and, since I'm in the process of spinning up some black alpaca for a fair-isle sweater, I think a touch of purple in its magenta-pink hue will be just the thing to make it sing. I know I have several shades of white, cream, and light fawn alpaca fibers that will look awesome in this color...what you do think ?
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Berry-time ! .. and the Circle of Life
It's been an absolutely wonderful weekend...blue skies, bright sun, slight breeze...all in all, a great weekend to be out and about in the great outdoors. We had already noticed the abundance of green unripened fruit in the blackberry brambles this summer, and with it being a bumper crop in the works, I persuaded DH that this year we needed to pick enough to make a batch of blackberry wine...we need 15 pounds for the 5-gallon carboy....so, earlier in the week my daughter and I had been out and picked several pounds – I did manage to get 3 pounds in the freezer and left the rest for munching.....she managed to demolish the remaining 1.5 pounds in a day, leaving DH somewhat disappointed as he likes to eat them as well, so he had to go scope out the back field and did bring home another bucket full...Anyway, once the sun was no longer directly overhead yesterday, the three of us went out to pick more fruit – came home with another 6 pounds, and planned to head out early Sunday to pick more before the sun started beating down on us again. It's unbelievably incredible the amount of fruit out there...you start picking on a couple of stalks, and every time you turn elsewhere, or bend down, or move a branch, you find more and more and more....by the time we called it quits for today and headed home, washed off what we brought home (each of us had a bucket to start the morning with), weighed it and packaged up what we needed....and yes, still managed to leave 3 pounds of blackberries in the fridge for eating and to make smoothies with tonight. Total count of fruit harvested this weekend: 18.25 pounds....yes, eighteen plus....and we could have continued to pick if our buckets hadn't all been full .....
Being out in the woods and fields picking fruit is in and of itself a great way to spend the day....add to that the fact we never left our property, we heard/saw evidence of the multitude of wildlife that we know is there (and I am sure with our crisscrossing the berry fields, spooked several of the smaller creatures such as the mice and squirrels, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our newest neighbor, a small hawk). For that matter, this morning at one point I left the field and wandered down an old trail and further back into the woods....told my hubby later on that I had heard something “purring” at one point while I was stopped. Now, given the fact that this is a ways out and in woods where there is known to be numerous assorted sizes of predators, I highly doubt that it was someone's family pet....and we know for a fact that there is a bobcat, or family of, living in the immediate vicinity. Was I worried?...no...a purring cat is a contented cat, so since I was not disrupting a hunt or getting into a rock pile that could potentially hide a den, I think the big cat just watched me go about my business and left me to it without showing itself....Because I know we have these in the area (along with fox, weasel/fisher, hawk, eagle, coyote, and occasional bear), I am very conscious of where I go and keep my ears and eyes alert to what is around me as the last thing you want to do is come up unaware on a mother bear with cubs. So, other than my encounter with the unseen cat, the hawk flew over our heads several times to see if we had jumped anything of interest, and we did see a small red fox at the edge of the sandpit...yeah, the hunting for our local predators is fairly decent. There is abundant small rodents, rabbits, grouse and partridge, raccoon, porcupine, beaver, turkeys, deer, and moose.
The circle of life...we find evidence of it every time we head out into the back woods...occasional small skulls after they have been bleached by the sun, antler scrapings on saplings, multitude of hoof prints crossing the old railroad bed near a known wild apple tree that quickly show small and large deer as well as the occasional moose (several sizes of these as well)....we have also chanced to find the partially eaten remains of a deer or moose on occasion near the trail (found usually because of the smell emanating from it) which because of it's size had to have been brought down by something fairly fast or large, which ultimately becomes food for many of the smaller predators once the hunter has had his fill.....Even the plant life shows the pattern of life and death....what once was a great open field is now not quite so wide, the small saplings that used to line the edge have grown tremendously and now form a canopy above the slower-growing plants...DH and I were just talking about that this week while walking down the old railroad bed about how we could 'see' into the woods whereas we had not been able to do so several years ago......the forest is growing up, the undergrowth that had originally clung to life after the forest was originally logged – this has reached up and taken hold of their position as the next generation of future logging, all that remains as undergrowth now is that which thrives in the cool and damp beneath the canopy....the ferns and moss, and the baby trees that need the protection from the weather that now shelter under the parent trees .....life at the edge of the woods as we see and understand it, each plant or animal or bird, all following their own cycle of life that may or may not culminate in their landing on our dinner plate or heating our house ........
Being out in the woods and fields picking fruit is in and of itself a great way to spend the day....add to that the fact we never left our property, we heard/saw evidence of the multitude of wildlife that we know is there (and I am sure with our crisscrossing the berry fields, spooked several of the smaller creatures such as the mice and squirrels, a fact that did not go unnoticed by our newest neighbor, a small hawk). For that matter, this morning at one point I left the field and wandered down an old trail and further back into the woods....told my hubby later on that I had heard something “purring” at one point while I was stopped. Now, given the fact that this is a ways out and in woods where there is known to be numerous assorted sizes of predators, I highly doubt that it was someone's family pet....and we know for a fact that there is a bobcat, or family of, living in the immediate vicinity. Was I worried?...no...a purring cat is a contented cat, so since I was not disrupting a hunt or getting into a rock pile that could potentially hide a den, I think the big cat just watched me go about my business and left me to it without showing itself....Because I know we have these in the area (along with fox, weasel/fisher, hawk, eagle, coyote, and occasional bear), I am very conscious of where I go and keep my ears and eyes alert to what is around me as the last thing you want to do is come up unaware on a mother bear with cubs. So, other than my encounter with the unseen cat, the hawk flew over our heads several times to see if we had jumped anything of interest, and we did see a small red fox at the edge of the sandpit...yeah, the hunting for our local predators is fairly decent. There is abundant small rodents, rabbits, grouse and partridge, raccoon, porcupine, beaver, turkeys, deer, and moose.
The circle of life...we find evidence of it every time we head out into the back woods...occasional small skulls after they have been bleached by the sun, antler scrapings on saplings, multitude of hoof prints crossing the old railroad bed near a known wild apple tree that quickly show small and large deer as well as the occasional moose (several sizes of these as well)....we have also chanced to find the partially eaten remains of a deer or moose on occasion near the trail (found usually because of the smell emanating from it) which because of it's size had to have been brought down by something fairly fast or large, which ultimately becomes food for many of the smaller predators once the hunter has had his fill.....Even the plant life shows the pattern of life and death....what once was a great open field is now not quite so wide, the small saplings that used to line the edge have grown tremendously and now form a canopy above the slower-growing plants...DH and I were just talking about that this week while walking down the old railroad bed about how we could 'see' into the woods whereas we had not been able to do so several years ago......the forest is growing up, the undergrowth that had originally clung to life after the forest was originally logged – this has reached up and taken hold of their position as the next generation of future logging, all that remains as undergrowth now is that which thrives in the cool and damp beneath the canopy....the ferns and moss, and the baby trees that need the protection from the weather that now shelter under the parent trees .....life at the edge of the woods as we see and understand it, each plant or animal or bird, all following their own cycle of life that may or may not culminate in their landing on our dinner plate or heating our house ........
Thursday, August 12, 2010
the realm of possibility
Found something interesting last night while reading….for a change, just reading for the sake of enjoyment, in this case a book I had read some time back but recently started re-reading. It always amazes me that in doing so, something new ‘clicks’ and makes the mind race in new directions….To preface this, I ought to tell you that I am a huge fan of the King Arthur/Camelot/Merlin novels – fantasy/magic/romance….what more could one ask for? In any case, what I am currently reading is “The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley and enjoying it immensely. Came across this passage that was supposed to have been instructions from the Druids to the young priestesses of Avalon…”..If you would have the message of the Gods to direct your life, look for that which repeats, again and again; for this is the message given by the Gods, the karmic lesson you much learn for this incarnation. It comes again and again until you have made it part of your soul and your enduring spirit…”
Wow…there is power in those words...”…that which repeats, again and again…” All too often something happens in our lives that we, for what-ever reason are not looking at it beyond the surface projection. Take for example running into a friend you haven’t seen for some time but everything clicks into place like no time at all has parted you. The conversation picks up where it left off…the point in your relationship has neither stagnated nor rescinded into the distant past, it just is and moves forward from here. You connect with someone you knew through work, someone who had jokingly (you thought) said you needed to come work for him…..now you start to wonder at the wisdom of this thought when he returns and again proffers the same thought.
So, is there some truth to these words found within a book of pure fiction?..or is it fiction? How many times do we unconsciously or even consciously, refuse to see the pattern emerging before our eyes? Is it possible that something exists beyond the normal scope of things that moves us towards something or someone, and for whatever reason we deny this pattern of events? Is the truth beyond our scope of imagination? Are we too level-headed to allow the non-rational to take hold??
…and there you have it…I accept the fact that there are things/beings beyond this plane of existence…I am learning to listen to, and to watch for, the clues that come my way. In the faith that I was raised in, this would not be an acceptable alternative, to follow or believe in what used to be called ‘the Old Ways’….but there is something to the earth magik’s, and listening to the message resonating from the ground beneath our feet and the skies above us…..what patterns are we missing that has been repeating for some time now, who’s call continues to grow stronger because we have not heeded it as of yet? What changes could be wrought in our lives if we stopped and listened, just this once…?
Wow…there is power in those words...”…that which repeats, again and again…” All too often something happens in our lives that we, for what-ever reason are not looking at it beyond the surface projection. Take for example running into a friend you haven’t seen for some time but everything clicks into place like no time at all has parted you. The conversation picks up where it left off…the point in your relationship has neither stagnated nor rescinded into the distant past, it just is and moves forward from here. You connect with someone you knew through work, someone who had jokingly (you thought) said you needed to come work for him…..now you start to wonder at the wisdom of this thought when he returns and again proffers the same thought.
So, is there some truth to these words found within a book of pure fiction?..or is it fiction? How many times do we unconsciously or even consciously, refuse to see the pattern emerging before our eyes? Is it possible that something exists beyond the normal scope of things that moves us towards something or someone, and for whatever reason we deny this pattern of events? Is the truth beyond our scope of imagination? Are we too level-headed to allow the non-rational to take hold??
…and there you have it…I accept the fact that there are things/beings beyond this plane of existence…I am learning to listen to, and to watch for, the clues that come my way. In the faith that I was raised in, this would not be an acceptable alternative, to follow or believe in what used to be called ‘the Old Ways’….but there is something to the earth magik’s, and listening to the message resonating from the ground beneath our feet and the skies above us…..what patterns are we missing that has been repeating for some time now, who’s call continues to grow stronger because we have not heeded it as of yet? What changes could be wrought in our lives if we stopped and listened, just this once…?
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