And I mean now! Right this minute! Get in your car and go. Spring is so very very fleeting… and now is the magnolias, the daffodils, the apple trees, the Japanese weeping cherries, the fabulous and intriguing display at the Krohn, full of variations on the theme of orange.
Next week will be way too late. A hard rain might also make it too late. Go. Now.
And be in heaven!
The chipmunks were out and bouncing around on Tuesday the 27th - almost exactly the same as last year, which was the 29th. Amazing to me, since it was so warm the last week and a half - thought they’d wake up earlier.
Lots of times they literally bounce across the grass and the garden - such funny little guys. Even when they try to slip around and not be obvious, those little tails straight up in the air give them away every time. They live in the stone walls all around here, with lots of potential get-away spots as needed.
They manage their lives with the bigger squirrels and all the suddenly-landing birds very well - so quick! And it’s fun to watch them stuff peanuts in their cheeks before taking off at hyper speed.
A lot of bang for the entertainment buck, chipmunks.
Happy Spring, Every One!
Says the 14th Dalai Lama: “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
This is the February quote in the Face of Tibet 2007 calendar - and I’ve liked it so much, it’s still up on March 29. I’m writing it down for all of us so I don’t forget - and so the March page can show itself for 2 days before we go to April.
Similar to the medical profession’s Hippocratic oath “First Do No Harm”, is it not? And a good reminder in this hurry scurry world, where we often feel we don’t have enough time to pay attention to the results of our actions.
Getting on the bus at breakneck speed, we might cause harm - or becoming impatient at a big truck on a residential street, as I did just a while ago. Nothing happened - but my awareness a moment later of my impatience pointed out that it could have - and my gain of 2 seconds was not even worth the feelings of impatience at myself - a very small harm to me, to be sure…but nonetheless, it broke my own personal harm-ony.
Tenzing Gyatso’s deceptively simple thoughts always resonate so very deeply with me. Thank You, Tibet.
I have lots of reading I want to do - several years would get me through my current stack of books, I think.
So of course, at the recent Joseph-Beth semi-annual book sale, I bought a mystery! And it turned out to be terrific - next time I’m in that mood, I’ll look for the same author.
Evan’s Gate, a Constable Evans mystery set in Wales by Rhys Bowen. Great characters, a double story - a current mystery and a 25-year-old one. It felt great, so I bought it. When I got it home, I found both mysteries concerned little girls. I knew instinctively the old mystery involved a death and was already done. But I cannot read anything where children come to harm, just can’t. So I flipped open the back pages to make sure the little girl in the present day was well. She was.
So I read and enjoyed the book. Well-written, lots of local color, good characters, and the Welsh are Celts, so there was that touch of mystery and inner knowing. Aaahhhh. A good British cozy mystery.
Piano Lessons - Music, Love and True Adventures - with a musical clef instead of an and sign - by Noah Adams is erudite, civilized, thoughtful and most of all fun. Memoir is probably the correct category.
Noah ranges widely, tying many categories together. He suddenly, one day at 51, decided he had to have a piano! The story chapters are months detailing his adventures with the piano, many different kinds of lessons, his relationship with his wife, his work at National Public Radio, his entire life.
Having decided that 60 was my time to buy a piano and take lessons, I decided this book was a must have. And it was just a treat to read and muse about. Thanks, Noah!
I have always loved St. Patrick’s Day - it’s a celebration of the fun of being Irish! Has very little to do with the saint for whom I’m named.
I love the music, love the feeling of all that green, love seeing everyone smile, be more playful, make silly jokes. People are really lighter that day.
Not crazy about the green beer, but it is more fun than the regular kind - turning the normal inside out for a day. And the real Irish breakfasts offered bright and early.
There likely never were snakes in Ireland - it’s an island after all. Many think driving out the snakes was a metaphor for driving out the native and natural religion and code of laws of the people and forcibly bringing in Christianity. Even then, the church had to adopt many Irish customs to make it all stick, simply attaching them to St. Patrick and thus making it okay.
Last time I was in Ireland, somewhere in County Wicklow I saw a statue of the Virgin Mary, with a snake round about her feet, in a very friendly fashion. None of this stepping on the snake’s head, which is what I would have expected. So the Irish get it, for sure.
And the reason it’s St. Paddy’s Day - the Irish Gaelic word for Patrick is Padraig - hence the Paddy. And the origin of the phrase for police vehicles being called paddy wagons - simple: it was to take the paddys and the micks away!
Ah, tis glorious to be Irish! A funny and wry way to look at the world. And everyone’s Irish on The Big Day.
This year, for the first time that I can remember, the St. Paddy’s Day Parade was actually on the very day! Usually, it’s the Sunday before, and so coincides with the Celtic Lands festival at the Museum Center.
It was also bigger than ever - and, while one of the prettiest days, it was one of the coldest. We all got there before 11, as instructed, to help decorate the truck and the car that were Brian’s entry into the festivities. Brian Garry for City Council signs on the sides, front and backs of both, plus so much green that even I was satisfied. Green wavy things on the antennas, St. Patrick’s Day strings of words from last year, that we had to piece together this year - and then tape each letter down because of the super brisk wind. Shamrocks and flags and hats, O My.
At 1:40, we began to move, with Patrick and Kyle carrying the big banner out in front, the drivers and vehicles, and then the rest of us passing out candy and business cards. I hand out the business cards saying, “My son, Brian, he’s running for Council.” If there’s a moment, I’ll ask them to vote for him. The kids want the cards as well as the candy.
Usually I’ve ended up way ahead of the the vehicles - this time, the parade marshalls had everything moving superfast, I expect because of the cold - so most of the time I was running to catch up, as was everyone else!
No time for conversation, and whole blocks didn’t get cards. But they saw those cute Irish kids carrying that banner, one of them with red hair, and most everyone got candy. So it was, as always a great day. Great fun for all of us - and it’s easy to see that Brian really loves that part of campaigning.
I baked my last loaf of Irish soda bread for this season yesterday, the day after St. Paddy’s!
I love the preparation - buying the currants, finding organic buttermilk, looking for wonderful fresh butters from around the planet. I use organic sweet cream butter to make the bread, and this year used Danish butter and Kerrygold Irish butter liberally spread on it for eating.
It’s an easy and fun bread to make - nowhere near as complicated as my mostly-vegan Christmas bread. Mix all the dry stuff up, cut in the butter, add the currants and then, very fast, whisk in the buttermilk. Pat it out into a buttered pan, mark it with a cross….perhaps pat-a-cake came from this!
I’ve been making it for a week, sharing halves and wholes with folk I’ve been with - and eating a fair share myself. Took one to the parade on Saturday, so we’d have something to tide us over ’til the parade actually started - but that’s another entry.
Happy Green Time - I’ll bake yours for you next year!
Isn’t it amazing how suddenly Spring appears? A gloomy, chilly day - and then the gloriousness of this day. WOW.
And the yard is full of flowers, with the promise of many more to come. The little yellow aconite sprinkled everywhere are almost done, their blossoms now totally open when the sun is out, their energy for the year almost spent. The snowdrops cluster in little groups, mostly on the edges - by walls, in the woods, close in and tucked away. They still have some time to go.
The crocuses are pushing up and will be out soon - and the many flavors of daffodils, which were well up in the middle of January, and then, thankfully, just stopped, are now showing strong buds. Soon, soon.
The tiny buttercups, growing in much the same territories as the aconite, will be flourishing mid-April. And I saw a yellow sheen of forsythia almost in bloom earlier today.
I love all the seasons, but the glorious Spring is my truest time. Stop, take a deep and happy breath, and just Enjoy!
At a last minute invitation last night, I went to a movie at the Esquire with a friend of mine. The movie had been recommended by another friend, and is called The Lives of Others, set in East Germany before the fall of the Wall. It didn’t feel right as I was paying for my ticket, but I decided to go ahead.
Once the first scene was underway, I knew I could not stay - that I didn’t want those images and attitudes in my brain - and that telling myself it was only a movie wasn’t going to help. So - first time I’ve ever done such a thing - I Just Left!
I haven’t watched the news on TV for years - never watched the Vietnam War that way, am not watching the horror that is Iraq, and am the only person in the country, I think, who never has seen the towers come down over and over. I’ve seen still photos, but not the video.
I think it’s important for all of us to be careful about what we choose to welcome into our minds.
And I also seem to be in a more sensitive time - smelling more and stronger aromas, more aware of and infringed on by noise, more easy to startle. During my mostly-daily drawing of a card from one of my various decks for intuitive support, I’ve drawn Sensitivity, Purification and Easy Does It over and over again the past couple of weeks.
So it wasn’t a thought-out logical decision that moved me out of the theatre last night. It was the accumulation of intuitive cues and awarenesses that got me out of my seat and out the door. I was surprised - and yet really enjoyed being outside, and had a great evening at home.
Right this minute, I am feeling pleased that I honored my own insights and met my own needs. And I’m glad I have you to share the story with.