March 23, 2020
New Moon in Aries
Today’s image - Crows still fly across the bare gray Appalachian
canopy at the foot of Howard’s Knob. Maples still push the fuchsia fringe
off apical woody tips. My oldest son
still shares bits of comic relief with a shared video. In it a southern man
with a rural mountain twang to his speech warns his neighbors of a girl who has
walked up to him (the camera points down a gravel road cutting across a field
with a fence row of trees and a barn and other buildings in the background). He
says, “Things are getting real now. She offered me a donut and a blow job
for a roll of toilet paper,”
Still the robins poke about for careless earthworms. (maybe they
are not careless, just resigned) and my Westie still lives to bounce around the
woods refusing my pleas to come. He’s a good mirror who follows his
bliss. To shelter in place in this
mountain town helps to keep my perspective wide, allows me to be contemplative
more than reactionary. I have the luxury
of intention as I plan my day. If I know what is good for me, in this
geography of emergent Spring, undisturbed by the current human crisis, I will
remind myself to keep an even keel as find ways to be helpful. It is mostly energetic service I offer for
now, until other doors present themselves.
A new moon idea (inspired by Chani Nicholas) - Here we have
arrived, at a time that calls us all to rally our courage and to meet the
moment with honesty. How can we be of service to the WHOLE? Yes, the whole tamale: Earth, Wind, Fire and
Water; to the two leggeds, the four leggeds, the creepy crawling ones, the
standing photo-synthesizers, the swimmers and floaters and flyers, the teeny,
tiny invisible beings. We all are sacred and all a piece of the cloth; we
evolve together, or we disappear. Chani
reminded me that once this moment passes, as it will for sure, I must ask
myself, how did it change me? I want to
say, “For the better.”
Today’s observation - Fear resonates in the voices of the
newscasters and journalists. It is our biggest enemy, when we let it
undermine family ties, community cohesion, national benevolence and global
peace. Peace is strength, it cycles a steady wheel of life and death that
grinds down somethings and creates others. Science calls this the First Law of
Thermodynamics, nothing is lost. All about us, the natural world shines
with examples of resilience and recovery even in the face of what we see as
cataclysm and catastrophe. I think these
events serve a purpose, they can be the strong medicine required now if we look
at the whole picture.And I see disenfranchised people- homeless, caged
immigrants, prisoners, refugees, orphans - showing us how to fight desperation
with courage. They are the most vulnerable who recognize that their work is to
do their best with misfortune and empty bellies, holding onto dignity because
dignity requires a compass and without it they are lost. They show me that the
greatest measure of wealth in times like this is not financial but
social. A strong fabric is required, much like mycelium mats in the
forest, feeding creating vital networks of strength. True, this is a stress test for our civil
designs. How are we doing? Maybe I will start frying doughnuts. They seem to be a sound currency today.
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