"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

For the Love of Cats

My dear and generous friend, the artist Leonor Fini, was well-known for her love of cats. At any given time she had around 17 or 18 of them in her large Paris apartment. When it was time to retreat to the Loire Valley for the summer, the cats were carefully grouped in twos or threes in travel baskets for the journey by limousine. In the country the cats had the run of the house as well as a special enclosed cat garden outdoors.

In preparation for my visits, Leonor would acclimate her wonderful Siamese, Heloise, to the spacious bedroom that was to be mine for the several weeks I would be staying there. Food, water, litter box. Heloise slept with me every night and often curled up beside me during afternoon nap time as shown in the photo above.

I remember with great fondness those days in France. I am a grateful receiver of the many gifts of friendship Leonor gave to me.

Serendipity

"Finding agreeable things not sought."

Car – radio – KDFC – “By Request” – “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre – announcer spells the composer’s name and mentions a TEDTalk by him.

Here it is:

Bon Vivant

In thinking about what to write on the occasion of resurrecting my blog, the term bon vivant popped into my mind. Hmmm. Let me check Google to make sure I know what it means. Yes. Someone who has cultivated, refined, and sociable tastes, especially with respect to good food and wine.

I do love socializing with beloved friends and family. There is nothing quite so enjoyable as eating delicious food and drinking fine wine. What's more, I have a hungy eye that is always on the lookout for something stellar to see and think about, whether it's the changing vineyard scenes throughout the seasons or a beautiful object to bring home to a tablescape or picture wall.

In the photo above, taken in my San Francisco apartment in 1979, I'm sitting on my W. & J. Sloane sofa. It's upholstered in beautiful (but impossible to keep clean) "Haitian cotton." The cushions and pillows are partially filled with goose down. The sofa is long enough (I still have it) to stretch out on for a nap. Removing the back cushions provides plenty of room.

If I am a bon vivant, it means that not only do I enjoy family, friends, food, wine, and beautiful things, I also enjoy the simple essence of life: the breathing in and breathing out. Being in the precious, present moment. Feeling gratitude and an openness to attaining my highest potential. Knowing, all the while, that

Life is good.

In the Stillness

In Beauty May I Walk

Day by day I become more infilled and infused with the light that is within. I walk in light and become one with the light until there is no darkness in me. I bring light into the world, knowing that what is within me is reflected without. 

Adapted from Eileen Caddy

Love Attracts Love

Be still and dwell on the wonders of life. You cannot hide a heart full of love and gratitude, for it is reflected for all to see. When you are in a state of joy and thanksgiving, you attract others to you. Everyone enjoys being with someone who overflows with love, for love attracts love.

Adapted from Opening Doors Within by Eileen Caddy, co-founder of the Findhorn Foundation, Scotland

Too Busy to Notice

The happiest people
are those who are too busy
to notice if they are or not.

William Feather

Three Things

I have just three things to teach:

simplicity, patience, and compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with others, you are in harmony
with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

adapted from Tao Te Ching: An Illustrated Journey
translated by Stephen Mitchell

Humility

All streams flow to the sea
because it is lower than they are.
Humility gives it its power.

From Tao Te Ching: An Illustrated Journey
translated by Stephen Mitchell

Willow Garden

We arrived in Liuyuan, which was our destination for the night. "Liuyuan" means "willow garden."
"There are no willows in the Willow Garden," I said, observing the brown treelessness around.
"It's the dream," Zhongmei said. "Sometimes you name things after what you don't have."

from Ultimate Journey
by Richard Bernstein

Stay Engaged, Keep Moving

Planting My Cabbages

Je veux que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux.
(I want death to find me planting my cabbages.)

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

With Today in My Eyes

"Buddy, the wind is blowing."

The wind is blowing, and nothing will do till we've run to a pasture below the house... [where] we unreel our kites, feel them twitching at the string like sky fish as they swim into the wind. Satisfied, sun-warmed, we sprawl in the grass and peel Satsumas and watch our kites cavort...

"My, how foolish I am!" my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. "You know what I've always thought?" she asks in a tone of discovery, and not smiling at me but a point beyond. "I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I'll wager it never happens. I'll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are...just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."

from A Christmas Memory
by Truman Capote

Mental Path

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Henry David Thoreau

Everything Possible

We have cleared off the table, the leftovers saved,
Washed the dishes and put them away
I have told you a story and tucked you in tight
At the end of your knockabout day
As the moon sets its sails to carry you to sleep
Over the midnight sea
I will sing you a song no one sang to me
May it keep you good company.

CHORUS:
You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done.

There are girls who grow up strong and bold
There are boys quiet and kind
Some race on ahead, some follow behind
Some go in their own way and time
Some women love women, some men love men
Some raise children, some never do
You can dream all the day never reaching the end
Of everything possible for you.

Don't be rattled by names, by taunts, by games
But seek out spirits true
If you give your friends the best part of yourself
They will give the same back to you.

CHORUS

Rita Hayworth Dancing "Stayin' Alive"

Notes on a Triangle

This 16mm film was always a delight for my first graders and me, even when it became old. Sprocket holes got stripped and numerous splices interfered with the action and the out-of-tune piano music. But we loved it anyway. This copy, however, is mint!

Florence Foster Jenkins