The Winter Winds

By

What will happen?

This question is like a looping track in my heart and mind a lot of the time these days, even though of course it has no answer, no matter how much it plays.  So I find ways to stop it for a while by doing simple chores, being out in the garden, listening to music, watching the sunrise and sunset, and petting the cats.  And every moment that the track loop is off is a chance for me to live in the now, which feels much better than anyplace else. 

But yet, there's just no way to get around the knowledge that there's a severe storm on the horizon and growing closer.  Knowing that it will arrive in 2 months, it's natural to want to prepare for it somehow rather than simply stew in my fear and anxiety.  But the most difficult thing about preparing for this storm is that, unlike a weather event, plywood can't prevent the damage and bulldozers can't clean it up afterward.  

So despite my loathing for the Project 2025 "Mandate for Leadership" book, I've started reading it.  This 900+ page manifesto details such a diabolical power plan that can't help but inflict human suffering and environmental destruction from coast to coast.  And with dark and deep ripples across every ocean, around every continent.  All living things it touches will be damaged, that is, except perhaps the rich and powerful people who created this monster.  Though maybe they too, will be destroyed by it.  It's a very unpleasant task to say the least, but I feel like I owe it to myself to get the whole picture... and maybe just maybe, I'll gain some understanding of how to prepare for the storm before the winter winds arrive at my doorstep.



Popular posts from this blog

The Moon, Earth, & Sun... and vultures

By
Image
Last fall, I had two very magical encounters with vultures, and I am sharing them now in honor of this year's Arivaca Vulture Festival! On the morning of September 30th, I woke before dawn with the glow of the full moon coming through the windows. Known annually as the Harvest Moon, this one was also a "super moon", and I stepped out onto the patio to gaze upon it as it set over the giant Cottonwood trees.   Its brightness far out-shined the fading stars and the glow of dawn that was beginning on the east end of the sky. The breeze was crisp and cool, and the smell of fall leaves filled the air.  What an amazing time to be outside, with nothing but nature all around.  Then I saw that the vultures were out!  Hundreds of them were playing in the night wind, silently gliding, some only 50 feet over my head.  I had never seen such a sight.  On a typical morning, my routine includes getting up around dawn and having plenty of time to drink my morning cof...
Read more

How Did I Get Here?

By
Image
The first Bards and Bratz event at the Arivaca Dancehall happened on the afternoon of October 1st, with the theme "How the Heck did I Get Here? and Why am I Still Here?"  I decided to write a poem for the occasion, and below is Part 1, accompanied by photos of the Arivaca Cienega taken in 1993 during the very first trip Uno and I made to this area: HOW DID I GET HERE?                   Frosty, pink dawns in the Cienega; Red-winged Blackbirds calling from the Cattails; Deer standing in knee-high March rain; New leaves on the Cottonwoods; Black Vultures playing with the wind; Ginormous Barrel Cactus; Mergansers and Buffleheads in the Willow Pond; Pied-bills in the Grebe Pond; Lark Sparrows darting in and out of the trails; White Kites and Northern Harriers hovering overhead; The warm warm sun, shining on Vermillion flycatchers; The bubbling of the creek over rocks and downed logs,   a ribbon of g...
Read more

In Living Color

By
Image
 This summer has been a magnificent feast for the eyes, with an abundance of butterflies and bees in my home garden as well as in the Pollinator Garden at the Arivaca Dancehall.  In the midst of 19 months of hard and dusty work on the dancehall project, the sight of all this natural beauty has refreshed and renewed my aching body and brain more times than I can count.  I am grateful to all the winged wonders that have crossed my path during that time, and in so doing have brought their living color into my life and lightened my load in every way.  Below are some of the "flying jewels" that I have managed to photograph and video during the last couple of months.   These are actually Queen butterflies at the Arivaca Library :)
Read more