Monday, August 30, 2021

The Solstice Comes


The crickets have come. They sing to us, whispering of autumn, telling us to take in summer's last glory.

Harvest is winding down, the ripened bounty hangs heavy and becomes a feast for the bees.

The hummingbirds have flown, beginning their journey to chase the sun and the blossoms that worship him.

All too soon the nights will speak with winter's voice, crisp in the first chill of evening, gone rough around the edges from too much smoke at the camp fire's warm haven.

And we shall prepare for the resting time, tucked away inside with our books and our tea, dreaming and planning our next adventures, waiting for the crack that signals the thaw.

Solstice time is coming. Prepare.



Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020---The Year of Perfect Vision

 



2020--- The Year of Perfect Vision, a Year in Review

I began the year disappointed that my class was cancelled, wondering where I would go to work. January was the last time I had my hands in clay on the wheel, throwing, trimming and glazing bowls for the Central PA Foodbank’s Annual Soup & a Bowl event. February Covid came and cancelled everything. We hunkered down at home and worked out how to live peacefully together with no breaks away.

When spring came with no hope of a studio in sight yet, we accepted Mother Nature’s invitation to step outside. We installed a brick patio, built a pergola over it, and I refurbished my grandparents’ old wicker set. As spring moved into summer I rediscovered my love of gardening and expanded and improved our beds, creating a park-like surrounding for our patio space. If we couldn’t travel, well, at least we’d have an oasis at home.

Summer also brought about talks of a ceramics co-op, with the hope of leasing space to share. Everybody was feeling the need to get into clay and MAKE. But, as summer faded into autumn, life began to happen and the co-op talks stalled. In September I turned 50, and began to evaluate where my life was headed. I had no place to work, and no space at home to transform. Something had to give somewhere, and Covid certainly wasn’t volunteering.

Then in early November it hit me. That perfect vision clarified and I could see so clearly where my path forward was. A local shop was up for sale, with ample space for everything we had been dreaming of in a studio. After a few phone calls and Zoom meetings, the vision was crystal clear. I filed paperwork to make Wheel of Light Studio LLC a reality and the planning has continued. The rough draft of the business plan is almost complete. My mentor and guide will help me to fine tune it. The property is still available. By the end of January I plan to apply for financing. When approved, I will buy the property. If it sells, I will find another. I plan to have keys in hand by March with the hopes of a Grand Opening in the summertime.

I have struggled with anxieties, with the belief that I wasn’t good enough, with imposter syndrome, and when 11/11 came around I could see very clearly that I am ready NOW. Look out world! Here I come!!


Friday, April 3, 2020

Responsibility


My son, realizing the responsibility along with the blessing.
I’m afraid there is a deep misunderstanding of the meaning of the word responsibility in the world today. According to Merriam Webster, the definition of responsibility is 1: the quality or state of being responsible: such as a: moral, legal, or mental accountability, or b: RELIABILITY, TRUSTWORTHINESS. It is the last two synonyms to which my mind goes whenever I think of my responsibilities.
I think of my parents being responsible for me when I was a child. They cared for me, fed me, sheltered me, and taught me right from wrong. They had a moral obligation to try to teach me to be a good person. Good people make good citizens. We lived in a neighborhood where we had a legal and moral responsibility, not just to ourselves, but to our neighbors as well. We must never take actions that can cause harm to others. And we must love our neighbor as ourselves. Those are some of the earliest lessons in life.
When I became a parent, I had the same responsibilities towards my children. And I took them very seriously. I was a very mindful parent, always thinking about not only what my children must be taught, but also what I felt they needed to be taught, and what my life and my choices taught them by example. I was very conscious of the fact that my children may very well pay more attention to what I did rather than what I said, so it behooved me to be sure that my actions followed my speech. There was no question what was right or wrong, and I never lied.
As my children grew older and became more responsible for themselves, I also realized, as my parents before me did, that you can say and do and teach all of the right things, but having been born with God-given Free Will, people will choose which lessons to retain and follow. And so, with a breath of kindness, you must let them go their own way to find their path. I have felt that our relationship with the divine falls along the same lines. We are given all that we need, taught lessons if we are mindful of them, and shown the way; but we must choose the path ourselves. It is a daunting responsibility at times.
As an adult, I am very aware of my choices, and the consequences of them. As a parent, I am also aware of the example I set. Having realized that we are all on this journey together, I have also come to see, appreciate, and accept that we are also both parent and child to each other at times in our live. ALL OF US, TOGETHER. Maya Angelou first planted this seed in my heart, when she claimed me as her daughter. If you like, she will claim you too. Simply read her book, “Letter to my Daughter”. It was then that I looked around and realized how many mothers I have been blessed with; mothers of my body, of my heart and of my soul, wonderful women who have taught and nurtured me through the years. Some of them have been co-journeyers for a long time. Some I have met once, never to see again. But their lesson had such impact I will never forget them.
That realization opened my eyes to my own potential. With every person I come into relationship with, there is the possibility that I may be a mother to them in the same ways that others have been mothers to me. I have lessons to teach, just as I have lessons to learn. And just like with my own flesh and blood children, I have the responsibility to speak them aloud. To remain silent is to be an accomplice, an enabler. It is the ultimate in irresponsibility to say nothing in the face of danger or evil. There but for the Grace of God go I. Let no one walk alone.
This brings me to the revelations of this week and the headlines of the day. We are in the midst of a Pandemic. A new and therefore unknown disease is ravaging the world. A virus borne by those wealthy enough to fly around and travel, but which will decimate the poorest among us the most for lack of care and privilege. A virus that spreads more virulently than at first believed, Covid-19 has become the twenty-first century plague. It has now touched every continent, and almost every country. Only the most remote areas remain free of it. But all it takes is one person, who may not even know they are carrying it or have any symptoms of it, to spread it and infect an entire town.
All of this makes that thought of personal and physical responsibility so important. It has put a spot light of sorts on national governments and their concepts of it as it pertains to their citizens. Whose job is it to decide what to do, to stay healthy, to slow the spread, to try to protect each other to remain safe? Unchecked, the virus infects so many that hospitals have been quickly over run and the people serving to care for the sick have fallen ill themselves. Medical supplies and equipment have been needed in such numbers that reserves and stock piles have been depleted and administrators and government officials have been desperately searching for more. And throughout the entire process, the highest officials in the United States of America have turned a blind eye and claimed to have no responsibility at all.
The President, his administration, his family, and the business people and corporations who curry favor in his court have all been playing a very lethal game. To them, it is all about money. Who has the most, and who can make the most. From the very beginning, instead of warning the citizens of the country and taking precautions to protect us, they have denied the science and downplayed the threat while trying to position themselves to reap the most benefit both in wealth and in position. They have politicized a pandemic for personal gain. And in the course of those actions, have promoted the worst gas-lighting campaign in my lifetime. Older citizens may even feel that it is the worst in their lifetimes. There have been many comparisons drawn between Hitler’s regime and this one.
In this campaign, good and decent people have had their beliefs, and their Christian faith, twisted in such a way that they are now crying that our government’s efforts to protect and serve us is actually an effort to take away our rights and should be fought against at all costs. Let that sink in for a minute. There is a disease that spreads through the air, silent and invisible. Scientists and doctors have begged people to stay home in order to stop the spread; stay home no matter what. There is concrete and scientific proof that they speak the truth. There are over flowing morgues, refrigerator trucks and ice skating rinks full of dead bodies as proof to the science. There are hospitals and ICU’s over run by sick people, losing staff to the illness while they fight. And the science deniers want you to believe that the pastor being told not to have church on Sunday is a denial of your constitutional rights to assemble and to worship in any way you see fit.
I would argue that all of the people having Covid-19 parties in rebellion and planning to pack the churches for Easter are denying me my rights to life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Living in an apocalyptic society where going out for bread and milk literally puts my life at risk of disease over rides everything else. WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO OURSELVES, OUR FAMILIES, AND OUR COMMUNITIES TO PROTECT EACH OTHER FROM HARM. Our government issuing shelter-in-place-orders is what we have hired and paid them to do. Just like we have hired them and paid them to fix the pot holes, build the bridges, and monitor the food and medicine supplies to keep us safe and healthy.
When did people forget that the government is there to work for us? We the People of these United States... We choose who goes to work, we tell them the laws to pass, and we pay the bill. Taxes are not a punishment, they are not something robbed from us; they are a measure of our privilege. Because we choose to live in a land where we say we make the rules, we must foot the bill. So we pay our taxes, which pay the salaries of those we have asked to work for us. And they are, by definition of their job, supposed to work for all of us, because that is how the rules were written. Don’t let the fancy, old-fashioned language confuse you. They take an oath to abide by the contract. And the contract says that we are one country, we are in this together, and they are supposed to do everything possible to protect and care for us. If the government is not responsible for us, why do we have such a huge military? Why do we have a department of transportation to maintain infrastructure? To live without the structures of governance is to live in anarchy. You can’t pick and choose when you want the government to work for you, and when you want to pretend it doesn’t exist simply because you don’t want to play by the rules right now. The, “If I can’t win, I don’t want to play” mentality is what brought you Hitler and Mussolini. I really thought we had put that to rest, but it is back with a vengeance.
It all boils down to one thing, responsibility. Who has it, who doesn’t, and who cares? My father taught me that my word is my bond. If I want to be seen as trustworthy, I must be trustworthy. If I want trustworthy people to take care of the nation, I must help to get them elected. It is really that simple. You cannot say that the ends justify the means. You cannot say that it doesn’t matter how he has cheated and who he as hurt or what laws he has broken as long as he pays lip service to that one issue you have decided is more important than anything else. If you want to insist on responsibility for life, then you must ensure responsibility for all aspects of life, at all times, in all ways, in all places, regardless of how different from you that life is. Jesus taught us to love one another, period. How incredibly loving is it to say that your life means so much to me that I will stay home to protect it? Please, love your neighbor as yourself. Stay home and wash your hands.