Path series & transitions- a gift contribution -- #2

Contributed by Julie Hansen

Julie: Sharon, I like the paths blog. There is a poem that Emma wrote that I thought of it right away.  

It's a gardening poem about growth, but the growth is life as well as flowers. 

Sharon:  I do like the poem and a lot. I look the liberty of adding in specific pictures to illustrate ideas that came to mind... the amazing face of the female snapping turtle-- ancient, wise, kind, fierce and a four season series that I have always loved.

Female snapping turtle works to fit through fence into field on her way

Growth

I can see you now,
eyes closed and arms full
of flowers, still dripping dirt,
roots lolling around your fingers,
as I look out through the kitchen window.

You told me the names of the flowers once,
but I can never recall them,
and I suddenly have the urge to ask
you what they are,
because I don’t want to keep forgetting.

Your glasses have slid
down your nose just a bit,
and it makes you appear much older
(perhaps older than I’d like
to admit you are).
I can see your mouth open,
sighing with the strain of age,
as you stand to survey your work.

You take a breath, eyes gazing,
a sense of accomplishment draped
across your squinting eyes, and your half-open mouth.

I can see you now
lean the rake against the tree,
the sun dipping into the mountains behind you,
and I commit this image to memory, because I am terrified
that one day I’ll forget it.

       ---Emma Hansen

Female snapping turtle makes her way across a field, close up

The path through the woods from the garden in all seasons- a circle without ending that always includes renewal

It's coming on Harvest aka autumn

Before the 16th century, Harvest was the term used to refer to the season. However, as more people  moved from working the land to living in towns, the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn began to replace it as a reference to the season.  The alternative word fall is limited primarily to North American English.

All cultures have an Harvest festival, and without exception the theme is a celebration of food (YIPPEE!) and eating.  A good food celebration included elaborate feasts and food displays. Tables, homes and even people were decorated  with foods such as grains, corn, flowers, fruit, gourds, acorns, corn stalks and cornucopias as well as the colors of autumn. 

Harvest celebrations are a time of gratitude and merriment combined with a dash of dread as the fall equinox -- a day of equal light and dark-- heralds the impending darkness and cold of winter.  This year the Autumn Equinox is September 23rd.  

We've creating a new gallery of Harvest season images and you can see them all in the slide show below.   It emphasizes images of New England and the Midwest, with stunning fall foliage as well the more subtle signs of the changing seasons.

Fall - Colors and Changes - Images by Gay Bumgarner
And, to go with the pictures here is a favorite poem for the Harvest season by Mary Oliver called

"In Blackwater Woods"

Look, the trees

are turning

their own bodies

into pillars

of light,

are giving off the rich

fragrance of cinnamon

and fulfillment,

the long tapers

of cattails

are bursting and floating away over

the blue shoulders

of the ponds,

and every pond,

no matter what its

name is, is

nameless now.

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

is salvation,

whose meaning

none of us will ever know.

To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

~ Mary Oliver ~ (American Primative)

Dancing

Dancing into remember

swirling and circling closer
closer
back to here and 
now
re-connected (re-membered) to my body and its parts
Ah.. here are my arms

and, my body moves, again, heart first.

Thanks to Loveleen Kaur Nijjar for connecting the picture (artist unknown) 
and the inspiration for the poem

What a face!!!

Many of us in our middle years have been discussing aging and we are concerned that we don't seem to have a good fix on how to do this "well". To be clear "well" doesn't mean faux or continual youth. Where is the book we are supposed to read? I thought that I would trade off young skin and excess energy for wisdom -- a deal I expected to strike graciously. I am still waiting for wisdom and a better sense of the trade offs. As usual, by and large, there are very few people of any age that seem to be having a really good time but it does seem the odds diminish with time, maybe? Well perhaps in lieu of clarity and insight I was thinking I should get some props, an avatar, and a maybe a new name as I explore my expanded self identity for my elder years. This particular face (in the picture) caught my eye. She is fierce looking, extraordinary, and colorful. There is a wonderful mix of dignified and silly in this face that might be what I am striving for. I took heart from the fact that in my later searches I found the picture of an Indonesian tribal woman wearing a makeshift Hornbill as evidence I might be on the right track. Prove me wrong.

In the biological texts the scientists speculate in wonder about the "horn bill" and "casque" (the hat part) & its purpose. What a silly question really. If you could grow a hornbill why on earth wouldn't you...it looks so cool.

Fun fact.... the bill is yellow because of the secretions from the "preen gland" which they spread onto the bill to give them the bright yellow color. The "preen gland" is near (at) the back end of the bird and common to most birds. Studies suggest that the preen oils are effective against lice. Not only that but the preeny oil harbours symbiotic bacteria whose excretions reduce the activity of feather-degrading bacteria and thus help to preserve the plumage of the bird.

Ok, enough diversion... Anyone else have some good advice for aging with dignity, humor, and imagination? Would it help to buy a red umbrella? Gay was very proud of her "Salon"-- her membership and affiliation with a group of highly intelligent literary women of good humor and various ages who came together to discuss topics of all sorts. These classy women might have a bit to say about the topic of aging if we can get them in the right mood. Cathy, Ann, Win, Libby, Helen, Jo, Ellen, Jane, Betty, et al? There are a group of us here in Vermont that would love to hear more about this topic.

Freedom may start by feeling terrible. Wet wings, whole body aches, spinning head, confusion, disorientation, gripping on to a stick, and then..... after awhile, your wings dry a bit, and you think ... "maybe I will go suck some juice out of a flower and feel better"
You aren't even sure what a flower is really but the whole idea sounds right.