Messy and Unkempt

Each day offers a newness 

that wasn’t there yesterday 

for each day is special and precious. 

Today it was the 

beauty and bounty of autumn. 

Messy and unkempt but 

banquets for birds, bugs and bees.

My pull to tidy things up 

flew away with the wind. 

The untidy arrangements 

that autumn brings to be left to 

the natural world and homeowners.

“The bounty of nature is too little for the greedy person.”

~ Seneca the Younger, Stoic philosopher 

Born: 4 BC; Died AD 65 (aged 67 - 68)

Imperfect Reality

Slipping and sliding through 

imagined darkness, shadowed 

tendrils threaten to pull 

crumbled shards onto my life.

Stepping out of that 

imagined darkness 

to an imperfect reality 

lets me breathe easily.

“When you realize there is nothing lacking, 

the whole world belongs to you.”

~ Lao Tzu

Abundance

Magnificent spread

Excellent home chefs

Wide ranging conversations

Four generations

A new friend

Gift exchange

‘Nuff said

“Let us keep Christmas beautiful without a thought of greed.”

~ Ann Garnett Schultz, poet

Just Chatting

Overtures toward the woman 

in line at the grocery store 

are to commiserate about 

the length of the line up, 

or the weather 

or a shallow bit of cliché 

to pass the time and feel at ease 

even though 

the man behind grumbles 

about the lack of staff 

or about the infernal machines 

at the self check out. 

In all of this, a thought 

drifts through my mind: 

‘I’m glad we chatted and 

that we’ll have food to take home 

to feed our families.’

 

It’s my turn at the till. 

I set my tomatoes, milk and eggs 

on the conveyor belt, 

pay for my groceries, 

say my good byes to people 

I’ll never see again and return home. 

“Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing 

and your attitude when you have everything,”

~ George Bernard Shaw

The Chill of Autumn

October, 2008
Hazeldell Orchards, Kelowna

Autumn shows up faithfully each year to the call of the geese gathering flocks; with boisterous winds cold and rough edged.

Bales of straw and hay, rolled and tied, lie quietly in fields of gold, a nest for mice and voles until trucked away.

Leaves, as if by magic, change into their beautiful red, gold, orange hues readying for the final float to the ground.

Fruits, vegetables and grain, 

ripe for harvesting, fill markets 

with abundance for winter 

sustenance and goodness.

Soups and stews bubble and steam

to serve the bounty of harvest 

at the table; warming insides 

to ease the loss of summer.

Sweaters and blankets, their cosy warmth 

for colder days and nights, are 

resurrected from dark cupboards 

~ friendly companions in the chill of autumn.

“I notice that Autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

In the Toe

 

We all knew 

an orange hid in the toe 

of the old brown stockings, 

excited, we dumped out 

  all the nuts

   stocking stuffers

to find the lovely soft skinned orange sometimes more exciting than the Santa Claus presents, peeling away the dimpled skin, getting rid of pesky whitish strings, 

separating the sections ~ 

or popping as many as possible 

into young mouths, 

sweet or sour juice squirting everywhere ~ 

and now I get a whole bowlful!

“Christmas is a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart.” 

~ Freya Stark

I Am From

I am from an old barn and wooden granaries long gone,

dust motes sliding down sunbeams through tired roof and walls,

from an ancient saddle, desiccated and worn

atop a old fence - a feisty mustang riding a far away range

I am from quilts of golden grain, purple flax and yellow mustard, long train whistles, grumbling tractors and dusty dirt roads, 

glittering sunshine and abundant gardens gathered into the kitchen,

from corn husks, canners full of peas or beans,

I am from a plentiful pantry and freezer filled for wintertime meals 

and feasting from all those things that grew our large, noisy family.

“It’s always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. 

To remember where you come from is part of where you’re going.”

~ Anthony Burgess

On the Porch - Summer Stalk

Ignore the heat, Grasshopper.

You must go past the broad leaves ~ climb the stalk to eat from this plenty.

“Now climb, young grasshopper, so your Kung Fu won’t be weak.”

~ Ilona Andrews, novelist

There's Something

There’s something about cooking

that settles me.

Using recipes with only

my cupboards contents.

Adding spice to blandness

to suit my taste.

Bubbling broth, cheese sauce, baking squash ~

aromas in my home.

Chopping, peeling, tasting, sampling ~

playing with food.

There’s something about cooking

that shows me abundance.

“Some people saw cooking as a chore, but not Lila. 

For her it was a way to express her love. 

It made her feel motherly and full of life.”

~ Bette Lee Crosby,  The Summer of New Beginnings

Flattening the Curve

There is a lot of great health information and a whole of hype going around today about this teeny weeny virus that quite literally has received global attention. War zones and their devastation seem not to exist. People left without home and often family streaming country to country to get away from governmental corruption has vanished. Instead our focus has swung to cruise ships and international travel, large gatherings for sports, other entertainment events and political or educational conventions. Even TV talk shows with audiences have put audiences on hold! 

This has not been just today, but has been building as status reports rain on us from various levels of government and the media. I’ve received at least four or five emailed memos from various companies regarding the details of their preventative strategies. Across the board they appear to be in lock step. ‘Flattening the curve’ was the most important phrase I heard this morning. That from a Canadian medical official in Ottawa. Listening and reading other reports, that phrase has often been used to explain why we close so many gatherings, put conditions on returning from international locales, or using good hand and facial hygiene. It all has the potential to strike paralyzing fear in anyone’s heart. 

My thoughts have often turned to Florence Nightingale in this past week. A woman famous for establishing nursing schools, bringing hygiene into hospitals and surgeons and being a strong, no nonsense woman in the late 1800’s. And here we are in 2020, back to hand washing and good hygiene. Our hospitals, nursing homes and clinics have very slowly reduced staffing at all levels so that they all need ramping up, starting with those wonderful people that clean, the nursing staff that care for the sick and all the auxiliary workers. As one friend put it yesterday on a Facebook post, all these staff members are exposed to innumerable infectious diseases on a daily basis. How would Florence Nightingale have managed us all as we scurry about being afraid, over worked and understaffed? Afraid that we’ll not have enough, certain that someone else will give us this virus that will cause our death and scrambling for our turn to be tested and treated.

We are an abundant country. Yes, we have homeless people and abject poverty here in our land. Those folks have had to fend for themselves for years while we enjoy the comforts of a home. So now, the tables have turned. The spectre of not having enough stares us in the face, bombards our ears each morning when we watch or listen to new reports. In grocery stores especially there is a franticness of customers with heads down, carts full that is not typical even on a Saturday! I won’t pretend to know what situations others are in, even as I see one more 24 pack of toilet paper being carried down the street. The strategies that are outlined for us all by our officials are good, common sense strategies to help us to flatten the curve of transmission of Covid19. They are strategies similar to those that Florence Nightingale established 400 years ago and probably would have quite briskly used them today. 

"I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words, 

they ought all to be distilled into actions

 and into actions which bring results."

~ Florence Nightingale

Basics for Flattening the Curve

1. Wash your hands.
2. Don’t touch your face or eyes.
3. Learn social distancing.
4. Use common sense and kindness.
5. Be creative with all that you own.
6. Know that you have and are enough.