#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

. . . As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened,

We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,

To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile

Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,

Ourselves with ourselves. We would try by any means

To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,

To let go the means, to wake. . .

Muriel Rukeyser, excerpt from “Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars)”

What a surprise, a happy one, one of many, I found in the brook today! Before the welcome press and drench of downpour, when it was still dry and charmingly breezy. After passing the garden, where another gigantic snapper had hiked to lay in my daughter’s pile of compost, I found another snapper outside her garden, and then, in the muddy brook, since I had my boots, I went into the brook to look around, and there were the blue flag Iris! I have never seen them growing here in our brook! What a surge of delight I felt, as if they belonged, secretly, to me. Later, I found my daughter in her garden, and showed her the secret delight too.

I bought a wind chime gong for my meditation garden a few days ago. Today, as I started my walk, I stopped first at all the little garden areas I’m growing, and I thought: I will have a new ritual. I will gong my gong before starting my walk each day, and so I did. Calling up presence of mind and breath.

In my poetry group this morning I shared a revision of a poem I started two years ago and have fussed with ever since until yesterday, a new revision. It was so well received. And I got just the help I needed. It’s a poem about my idea of god.

Now I am in bed, early, sad, in some pain, disappointed that I had to, late in the day, cancel my Aim for Astonishing workshop tonight. I have a muscle spasm that became so acute in the late afternoon that I had to lie down and I haven’t gotten up. I am lying still and hoping to recover. I miss my writers!

Looking into my blind spots about race

Today I also went to an online training by the Adaway Group on Whiteness at Work. It was, on many levels, eye opening, and I felt grateful to be learning about how to challenge myself to be more aware the influence of whiteness in organizations. I also felt uniquely reassured about being in a learning experience, and being exactly where I am in my process. So much to think about. And I signed up for their summer program. I was one of the lucky ones who actually got into the webinar live, it was so oversubscribed many couldn’t get in and will get the recording. Remarkable.

I’m so grateful to my readers. Those of you who care to read this blog. Even if and when you don’t agree with me as I bring issues of white privilege that I am exploring into my blog. This blog must attend to my spirit of growth, change, self-observation, nature, family, relationships, what I believe in, how I live and behave and respond in the world. This is why I create this space: for me. It’s why I am here, every day, posting my pictures and thoughts and observations from this day, and I am grateful for how my writing serves me in my daily life. If anything I write serves you and your life, that’s a bonus for me.