Blessed Bitty Things
Levity, Simplicity, Duality and Late Spring Flavors
In complicated times, taking a beat to feel the blessedness of simple things like the rainbows coming from gardens and farm-stands, tiny stolen moments to savor, reflect and truly be thankful — like really THANKFUL– these are life’s true luxuries. So here are a few from the mid to late Spring.
Eight (or more) Ingredient Salads- one of my love languages. For people I love, and for love of the greens and veggies and seeds, nuts, peas, blooms, herbs. I make salads with a tenderness and care that I have heard makes them yummy. This one featured those amazing radicchios that look like roses (HOORAY FOR THEM!), radish, bruised cucumber, chicories and red/green leaf lettuces, avocado (requisite!), homemade dressing and dusting of dukkah.
When my stepfather made us pray before touching our food (breakfast, lunch and dinner), I thought it was dogmatic and ridiculous. I was a feral child, not used to even sitting at the table, much less eating with others. I don’t honestly recall how we did it before that 10-11 year old entered the new life of rules and regulations (at mom’s marriage No3). As much as I guffawed about them then, the blessing is one that I really do embrace now. And not just at meal time, or with any secular sensibility, I think prayer and gratitude are gifts we owe to everything/being around us, and to ourselves. So steal those moments from your phone, eternal to-do lists, and obligations. Take a sec and say “Sincere thank you to every earthworm and pollinator that made this salad possible. You are amazing and I admire your work! Look at this painterly beauty!”
Speaking of painterly…. I took a walk in the meadow near my house, a year hence from a walk with my dear Chrissy Angliker, where we paused to admire a wild iris and wrote wishes and talked about poetry. When I realized the distant sky was tempered with storm, and her birthday was soon to be, I allowed the irises to invoke a poem, shared sister to sister. I hadn’t written one in a while, but the moment was too full of possibility to not. Look at this majesty below— maybe a pause and recollection of unopened blossoms and petrichor will conjure a poem for you!
Also this Spring I visited my Mom and Papa. Grappling with the beauty and vitality of Spring, myself in Midlife, witnessing two people I will forever see as infallible shifting into the last stages of their earthly experience is… let’s call it deeply humbling. I took a few pics with them, trying to capture the preciousness of now in images that will surely bring me to my knees in the future. Loving on my Momma below, with a poignant image comparing the amulets we carry on us with Lee (Papa Bear). I gave him an obsidian when he was in hospital, just diagnosed with stage four cancer, which he beat. He carries it still, alongside a quartz he had been holding since before then. I carry an obsidian just like his, though you can see the wear, his gone matte, from the many prayerful touches.
Just as the I was struggling to see the light side of this time with my darling Momma, Episode 6 of The Telepathy Tapes / Talk Tracks appeared. Don’t think I didn’t shed tears throughout the series. I very much did. But this one touched my heart in a knowing way that made for downpours. And on the bright side, while I send prayers up to the pollinators who make every fruit and seed possible, I also now send love notes to my Mom, reminding her that she is amazing.
Speaking of prayers up— let’s take a moment to celebrate rain on poppies:
Other pastimes include, looking for light while witnessing the truth of the cosmic order, which necessarily requires we look into and respect darkness while seeking and hopefully channeling the light. This Spring, I read this sometimes-heartbreaking, sometimes-vindicating, ever-thoughtful and truly incredible story that weaves contemporary indigenous topics, from connection with the past/roots to pride of place in the present, into a modern family’s story. I started “Sharks in the Time of Saviors” by Kawai Strong Washburn at Pocoapoco and found it in my local library so that I could finish it in Taos.
The high desert is know for the special kind of light we have here. I love how it sneaks in and creates slender and temporal magic in my house. This was one that stopped me doing something probably dumb and worry related. Bless.
And then some….
Bless our human-ness.
May we feel the empathy and love and compassion afforded us by the Spirit world, the Natural world, and in our most dearly held relationships. My wish is that we then return these, even to those we don’t personally know. If we follow what the Spellers say, Love really is the law.
Here’s to the coming LONGEST, LIGHTEST DAY OF THE YEAR annnnnnnd JUPITER IN CANCER* (ie 12 months of tender loving kindness to others).
xxA
* For more: Mijanou /Mystic Mamma’s take on this celestial movement
Beauty-filled just like you darling.