Butterfly musings lead the way out of dark forests where I’d gone astray. fainting with weariness my hope was deferred, unable to stand all vision was blurred…
They carried my burdens spoke of my worth, brought me back to the sacredness of earth, where a change of scenery, lifted my gaze, and they rekindled the remembrance of grace-filled days…
On days like this in scattered blues, I’m grateful for a flowery muse, to delicately whisper in tones to me, from purple florets of a glory tree
to blossom joyfully in healing shade, and let despair gradually fade.
his colors spoke of quietude, prompting a cheerful attitude…
This plant was gifted to us by one of our Airbnb guests. He turned 95 while he was staying with us. He was a real gentleman and we often regale stories of his visit to friends. This plant had not flowered for the past 3 years, then suddenly it burst into life. I began to wonder about our visitor Ed and I looked up his wife. We had promised him that when he turned 100 he could stay with us for free, but sadly he left the Earth in December of last year, just short of his 100th birthday. It was as if he was sending a message to me via this glory tree to let me know that he is still around. His wife told me that he wanted his ashes scattered in the sea, near to where we live, Sedgefield being “his happy place”. It was an honor knowing him.
“In our fragile and crowded world, we can survive only together. We can be truly free, ultimately, only together. We can be human only together.” ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu
I watched the truth and reconciliation commission on TV in Zimbabwe. Desmond Tutu urged us to do the same in South Africa. If we understand the stories, the truth behind the lies, it will change our worldview forever. He cried when he heard of the terrible suffering, as we should. Thank you Arch for being our teacher, for loving every one of us fiercely, and for the laughter and jokes. My memory of you is moving to Bishop’s Court and opening your swimming pool to all the kids from the township. The other memory is of you teaching the Dali lama to dance. I hope we can follow your example and be as kind and forgiving as you were. You will not be forgotten, your legacy is our inheritance.. Hamba Kahle Arch, friend to so many.
I’ll sing the songs you taught me in glades of diaphanous Light. I’ll be the kindness you gave me, on dark and lonely nights.
Your footprints in the forests, still wash up on distant shores, the starlight that enabled me to join with earth’s encore…
You dance on weary mornings with light-beams across my room, with visions that re-awaken me from this wholly tiresome gloom!
Keep shining in my daytime keep holding me when we cry, be the presence I always seek, be the softness of pale blue Skies…
You are the colors at sunset the rainbow’s gentle promise, you are the transfiguration, my quiet vows of solace…
There is no forgetting, no time for remorse, when death and sorrow visit us and clutter up our thoughts…
I’ll sing songs of redemption, and paint on a smile, honor your beautiful memory born from what was wild…
The truth is we’ve been here before, when darkness covered the waters, we’ll return again someday armed with what God taught us…
Forgiveness will be easy and love will forever find the beauty that awakened us, carefully refined…
My son Stevie changed worlds 4 years ago today. He is always with me, still one of my greatest teachers. We have spent many lifetimes together and we will be together again, I have been assured of that…
“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” ― Joan of Arc
Painting by Jean Bastien-Lepage
She was silenced by nobles by an unbelieving crowd, accused of heresy her visions disallowed!
But beneath the whisper in a consecrated place, she listened to the voices and she held fast to grace
For courage was before her and great was her strength she upheld reason even into death…
Her unexpected victories turned the tide of the war Her sacrifice and courage can never be ignored
And they burned her beauty but they never erased her voice, for hers was the victory for which we now rejoice….
Recently I have been studying some of the great people in History who where either jailed or put to death for their beliefs.
Saint Joan of arc (The Maid of Orleans) has always been one of my heroines, she heard voices and heeded the call to fight for what she believed in. She was burnt at the stake as a witch and a heretic for the living that belief… She was canonized after death. It seems that throughout history great people died and were chastised for their belief. Galileo it’s an example, when he said the earth revolves around the sun. He was sentenced to life imprisonment as a heretic. Isn’t it a strange thing that there are those who have had to fight for truth?
“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” ― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
The skies yearned to hold you the moon knew your face, you filled this world with magic and the warmth of your embrace…
and when your bones grew weary your learnt how to fly you flew above the darkness you soared into celestial skies…
And the Angels received you with a glorious refrain, a wonderous celebration a journey into love’s domain…
and your tears ceased a falling the higher you flew, you saw a world of radiance from an irresistible view, you became part of the oceans part of the cosmic seas, one with the movement into the dance you were set free…
I can still hear your laughter above the gusty winds, you sparkle in my mind’s eye your light cannot be dimmed…
I will love you forever, until the end of time and then I’ll love you again when we remember that we’re truly divine!
I’ll never be able to listen to Mike Jagger and not think of you darling friend. I’ll always put mayonnaise on my cheese sarmies. You were the only one I know in the whole wide world who could make awesome cappuccinos with Frisco coffee and a *bully beef quiche fit for a queen. Your life touched mine in the soft places that no one else sees, you were a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a warm heart, a light in this dark world. You have been released from your suffering and have gone home to God. I will never forget you beloved Joan and I will love you forever, until we meet again. Rest well my darling.
“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” ― Kahlil Gibran
Fading with the sunset she soared into the skies, not even a murmur her breath rhapsodized…
and she left a sparkle a trace here on earth, a graceful recollection, an elixir of mirth…
she rose again at dawn in the most elegant of light beckoned by the angles her spirit took flight…
As she danced in the radiance of emerging tones, the delight of many fluently known…
from restless tides of suffering, she was gently released, as she supped at the table of a resplendent feast…
AllysoAlly 