Eyes of Change

Packing to move ...

Come along with me

shells & wings & legs & spoons

we'll go adventuring out in the country,

plant new roots amongst the 

nettle, dandelion & clover ...

With eyes of change we'll travel

the earthen roads toward home. ~sjp

Moss Garden

The other day I found, to my delight, several small chunks of moss that had blown off the roof of the apartment building where I live ... and now this moss lives in a seashell in my living room. Who knows how long the thirsty moss will stay alive inside ... but as long as it does it will be a pleasure to live with. 

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines." -Henry David Thoreau

Lost in the Forest : Pablo Neruda

“Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off: it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood—-
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.”

 -Pablo Neruda

Pomelo Heart

Today I tore open a gigantic pomelo so as to eat it's fruit and I noticed that the first torn piece of rind was in the shape of a big heart which I set to simmering on the stove with water, star anise, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon and chile pepper (after I snapped it's portrait ~.~) and now my home smells good and spicy on this chilly day.

Speaking of hearts reminds me of love and something I recently read by Rob Brezsny:

"Have you ever been loved? I bet you have been loved so much and so deeply that you have become blasé about the enormity of the grace it confers. 

So let me remind you: To be loved is a privilege and prize equivalent to being born. If you're smart, you pause regularly to bask in the astonishing knowledge that there are many people out there who care for you and want you to thrive and hold you in their thoughts with fondness. 

Animals, too: You have been the recipient of their boundless affection. The spirits of allies who've left this world continue to send their tender regards, as well. Do you "believe" in angels and other divine beings? Whether or not you do, I can assure you that there are hordes of them beaming their uncanny consecrations your way. You are awash in torrents of love.

As tremendous a gift it is to get love, giving love is an equal boon. Many scientific studies demonstrate that whenever you bestow blessings on other people, you bless yourself. Expressing practical compassion not only strengthens your immune system and bolsters your health, but also promotes self-esteem, enhances longevity, and stimulates tranquility and even euphoria." 

-excerpted from the revised and expanded edition of Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia by Rob Brezsny

Artichoke Flowers

Recently, my dearheart, gifted me with one of his garden's delightful artichoke flowers!

Cabbage - by John Mullins

"Cabbage is like a folded-up flower all tight and closed up from the world or like an artichoke. Why are you closed up from the world, why? You tell me that everyone is closed up from the world? No, that's not true. Here. Let me help you open your leaves, oh leafy one."

Potato & Peanut Birds

Once there was a family of peanut birds and they all gathered together and went looking for their mother ...

At last they found her in a sack of potatoes! She grew a fancy headdress and tail just for them. Together they wandered around happily in the forest, singing their love songs ~!~

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Anshin & Her Timekeeper

My dear friend of a neckpiece - 'The Timekeeper in the Garden of Shells' - has journeyed to Pennsylvania to live with the wondrous Gail Schroeder and her sublime life-size Japanese raku sculpture named Anshin. In Japanese, 'Anshin' means 'contentment, calmness and serenity.

My heartfelt thanks go straight to you Gail for recognizing something kindred in the 'Timekeeper" and thus inviting her to reside with you and Anshin. I just know that the little timekeeper feels very content, calm and serene with you both - and she's probably even forgotten about counting shells for a while!

Dear Sweet Gail, Thank You for 'cherishing' the timekeeper - and in the words of Rabindranath Tagore, I say to you again:
"Let not my thanks to thee rob my silence of its fuller homage."

Special *thanks* to Robbie & William!

Inside Dancers

A lost thing came to me
a beautiful lost thing
it was tumbling around all the time
deep within
turning over and over inside
creating lovely facets
that when held to the light of my senses
pierced me with their splendor
and reminded me that home is my haven
and there are special keys to unlock the doors
as prisms of light swirl and dance in and around
forgotten senses ... wildly new, these inside dancers
and the fullness of seasons belongs to them. -sjp

:: May all of your inside dancers come out and happily play together in this wintry holiday season and the new year to come ::

Kimono Moon

"Noh Theatre is a traditional Japanese masked drama with dance and song, evolved from Shinto rites."


While visiting an exhibition of Noh Theatre costumes, I read this on one of the placards. I just love how expressively it describes the beauty of this art form:

"Noh is a spectacle of such dislocating awe and beauty that a viewer is disarmed of expectations tethered to the world of everyday experience. The luxuriousness of Noh costumes - layer upon layer of silk, pattern upon pattern, wonder into wonder - transports the viewer beyond mere reality into a coalescing and dissolving realm of shapes and signs. Action is pared to suggestion. Hypnotic music and a nearly bare stage concentrate the imagination. Intensity replaces action as the dramatic force. Through these abstract means, the actor takes the audience beyond the particular to the universal, and through the surface to the wellspring of feeling ... a Noh play is completed inside the audience's heart."  -written on placard at a Japanese Noh Theatre exhibition ♥ 

kimono moon beams

draped around your sky shoulders

holding up the night ~sjp

Lanterns & Lights

Hurt upon hurt

they build upon each other

and the barriers they create 

are sullen wingless things

riding the flank of dark stillness

no flight of their own ... sadness personified

Within the realm of reason and longing

these still wingless things are powerless

unless given power by the heart that chooses

to fuel them ... 

And oh how they can lull the senses ... 

Deep inside the chamber of longing

the place that poets know,

that place that is kin to all - poets and dreamers alike

And those that think they feel no song

I am sure they do

It just got lost somewhere inside

But there are lanterns

and lights

that shine the way 

and take one home

to the place that is full of

welcoming arms 

and unspoken thoughts 

Because within this haven of safety

there is no need for sadnesses

There is but need for

the solace that the familiar carries,

the familiar that is ones soul

carried and cradled far within

The home of self

that searches to see, to find, if there is a 

place residing within another - that same sort of place

that sees without sight

and hears without ears

and feels without touch

and sings without voice

The place where senses both known and unknown

sigh deeply - contentedly - free of form - yet completely whole. ~sjp

Rising Above

Not long ago I was waiting in line at a Post Office ... lost in thought I was called back by the sound of a disgruntled voice hollering out, "why don't you learn to speak English!"  I turned my head to see who could have blurted out such a rude thing, but I saw no one ... and next, the man whose station was open, called me and my package over. 

This man was visibly shaken and soon I learned that it was he who had been the recipient of that wretched comment I'd just heard. This man, who had an accent, a charming one, was so flustered by this woman who'd been horribly unkind, that for a few moments he kind of lost track of himself there with me ... he took out his wallet and handed it to me, showed me his driver's license, talked fast to me about what an honorable citizen he has been over these many years ... I told him that I was sure that he had been and to please try to let that horrible statement roll off of his back, but it was evident to me that he was close to tears ... 

All I could think to do was go into my wallet where I knew I had a sheet of "Love" stamps. I quickly tore one off for him and asked him to please put it on his hand and look at it throughout the day so that he would know that he is loved ... he tried to give me back the stamp, saying that it cost me money and I shouldn't give it to him and I told him that I didn't care, I wanted him to have it ... he was then quiet for a few moments as he looked thoughtfully down at the Love stamp. He then peeled off the adhesive and proudly stuck the stamp atop his metal postal employee identification badge. And we just nodded and smiled at each other. It was an experience - both harrowing and tender. 

:: Rising Above ::

there are times

and there are other times

times when the wind pays forceful heed to your hair

by insisting it take on new angles

and times when strife seems to know 

no name but your own

times when the wind and strife

feebly attempt to give your life 

new purpose, darkly calling

there are times when you

faintly answer the wind and strife ... downward times

and there are times more when you don't ... rising above -sjp