March 28, 2007

BLOG BREAK …

Skyward view from the sands of Waikiki.

The blog is on break for a few days …. while I catch up with a few deadlines, research, contest judging and life in general. Be good while I’m gone

March 23, 2007

OBFUSCATION

—Synonyms 1. muddle, perplex. 2. cloud. 3. to make obscure or unclear.  4.darken

Some days are just like that. Beautiful in their own way, though. And you know the sky will clear.

My Path: 5km, speedwalk (knee is not happy at a jog), in layers upon layers of mist that sifted the mountains in and out of vision — here now, then gone. And soft rain.

My Sound: Birds. Drips. Rivers. The snap and woosh of conifer branches releasing a winter’s worth of snow.

March 22, 2007

SPRING SNOW

There’s still snow — every day. Better than rain, I suppose. My imagination, however, is in a much warmer place Which is good, since we’re without hot water as well for a few days. Don’t ask. It’s a long story.

March 20, 2007

SPRING FOR JOY!!

Start your engines people — it’s the first day of Spring. Well, it is in the northern hemisphere. The world is now balanced between light and dark, day and night, and it’s a time of fresh green sprouts, buds and eggs and fluffy baby things  –  new beginnings. Even the bears are awake, stretching, and looking to a new day.

I think this is the time we really should be making those new year’s resolutions. It’s more natural to start afresh at this Pagan time. The earth’s rhythms are right. The light is right. We’re done with hibernation. It’s time to move.

Or is it just me?

My Path: 5 km at a speed walk (knee handling okay)

My Music: Just the birds and the brook. And some crows — I just can’t count their squawks as bird song. They’re awfully excited by the melt at the moment  … lot’s of strange looking things suddenly to be found to eat, and fight over. Noisily.

March 19, 2007

A MUSE MOMENT

I was thinking about the muses today — those boys in the basement, as King would have it. Or the girls downstairs, as Crusie might call them. Or the connecting with the universal subconcsious in a Jungian sense. And I was thinking about the symbols some artists give their muses.

I don’t have a specific image for my muse per se, but I do have a totem — two actually — that embody my ‘passion’, my will to create or ‘do’, or ’strive’. They capture the essence of drive and inspiration and tenacity for me – when I find it  — and I realized I’d neglected summoning their images this past winter.

One of my totems is a great buffalo. He thunders alongside me on my left, hooves striking earth hard. Connecting with rhythm. Forecful. Primal. Dark. Wild. Both gentle and fierce. He doesn’t judge. The other is a fire sprite — something ephemeral, mischievous, light, fast, sometimes wicked. She finds things amusing a lot of the time, she plays with meaning, and she can burn if you try and contain her. She hovers up in the air on my right.

The buffalo came to me in a dream last year. Call me weird, but I began to feel him running at my side when I ran very far, and long, and very alone in deep mountain forest. The sprite arrived shortly after. I liked their company (yes, I know, the men in white coats will be here soon), and I began to work at conjuring their images and drawing on their forces while I ran. I guess it’s because I haven’t been running for a while that they left me. But when I remembered them today, I realized why I’d been missing running so badly.

It was more than just the run. I’d lost my spirit guides. I need to get back. I start tomorrow, baby steps, to see if my knee will hold. If not, I’m going to be one sorry puppy.

What about you? Do you have a muse, or totem that inspires you?

March 18, 2007

DAYS OF DALLIANCE

I feel I was a tad lazy writing-wise this past weekend. I watched movies, read, ate well (too well), and went for long sunny walks. So why do I feel guilty? We need to take time to remember why we love to write, right? C’mon — someone please make me feel better about taking a weekend off.