All week long, although I made it to the Moving Pen group on Monday, and to Marvin's gentle yoga Thursday where I hardly managed 'child pose', but it helped just to move.
I also got to the library for a new audio book: "The Daughter of Time" by Josephine Tey, and the post to mail valentines to three dear friends
You can tell I'm muddled because I'm repeating myself (already posted this) Today, I pulled myself together and, despite frigid temperatures, hurried the few blocks to my Italian barber, Andy, for a hair cut and some tender care. It works every time.
I've basically spent the week in bed sleeping my life away, and I'm about to have some wicked home made mushroom soup and fall back under the quilt, super grateful to have a home, and a quilt to retreat to. ~*~ Valentine's Day Sonnet XLIII by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
Eudaimonia (Greek: εὐδαιμονία) Commonly translated as
happiness or welfare; however, "human flourishing" has been proposed as a
more accurate translation. Metta (by Sharon Salzberg) http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/facets_of_metta.php
Yoga for Mental Wellness Twice weekly in the morning this wonderful way of practicing. Meditation New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care I have, along with many others, entered the 'Commit to Sit' initiative for ninety days beginning January 14th-ending April 4th. Each day prompts are sent from "The Whole Hearted Way" by Eihei Dogen,
translated by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, and we sit wherever we happen to be, knowing the entire community is with us wherever they are.
Generosity (A surprise birthday gift from Cynthia Craig) We meet at 'Windthread', Grace Forest's blog. These Medicines are fine organic herbal products sent by one who is concerned with the well being of others.
It just felt full ATMOSPHERE Several friends stressed, myself somewhat sleep deprived, world news disasters and their aftershocks, the neighborhood sagging under the weight of garbage in clear, black, and blue plastic bag, vehicle-traffics swoosh, beep, thud, clatter and screech, students rolling in waves and gaggles, pouring into the many schools, into the streets buzzing with construction noise, into chain stores and thrift shops, into the bars and clubs, into apartments no longer silent. Illumination of the electrical sort obscures night, while the lack of it obscures day behind storms of activity
ELECTRICITY I've adjusted somewhat at last. Liberated this hotplate gem from the topmost kitchen cabinet, memento of past emergencies
Time to make a hot soup, so
stripped three ears of raw corn
steamed Carrots, Fennel. Onion.Garlic
added a quart of chicken broth and enjoyed a bowl Even the compost looks pretty enough to eat. CONSTRUCTION Commences at 7AM-ends at 4PM daily Cracked place on my floor
Since the ceiling's been removed I see right through to the apartment below
Another cracked place
In fact, my floors suddenly have a whole lot more creaky places than they had before the work began down there. This is the third D/R in the past eight years. I'm wondering how much more of assaultive events the old prewar structure can take before imploding.
AIR AND LIGHT Walked around the church garden
Sat in the shade, thinking about butterflies
This bush ready for Monarchs
GAS
Can you see the tiny arching blue spot at the center of this shot?
It's the flame at the back of my stove! Con Edison came, without warning, this morning, accompanied by our unhappy Superintendent, whose life has been made miserable these past weeks, not just by the lack of gas for his wife to cook with, but also due to the extra labors he's been forced to perform for all the apartment dwellers.
Thus ends the outage July 23rd through August 22nd not with a whimper, but a flame. WEATHER Cool reverted to hot and humid, plus the charge of
energy swirling around me has me dreaming of more vegetative
landscapes, wider skies and the company of critters with straight forward agendas, little baggage, and not constrained by
fear of extinction.
Like deat Melanie, who lives at a local store
YOGA Had a restorative hour with others at 'Gentle Marvins' FRIDAY Lucked out with this 'gladiola' discard free from Trader Joe yesterday
Lotus like color
softens the view
Onward to the weekend, where an essay on friendship, two dinner invites, and a friend's birthday for which I'm making an organic vegetable soup await my pleasure, and, if external weather and internal energy allows, I'll cut back the ragged edges of the garden, throw a bit of plant food around the flowering perennials, and gather in some Echinacea. Thanks for keeping me company friends.
"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." --Ralph Waldo Emerson--
