Even in SoCal, on this Autumnal Equinox, leaves do fall.
Fall, Leaves, Fall
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
Emily Brontë
“If you find me not within you, you will never find me.
For I have been with you, from the beginning of me.”
Rumi
I woke up to this sexysexy tropical sky. Even if none of these heavenly clouds brought any rain, only extremely high humidity, aren’t they breathtaking?
I look up to the sky for peace and serenity.
#WordlessWednesday
“If you become a bird and fly away from me, I will be a tree that you come home to.”
Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown wrote at least a hundred books, including The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon.
Our oppressive heat seems to have abated a bit and there’s the slightest chance we might see rain from Tropical Storm Marie, but I’m not overly optimistic. It would be awesome, though.
Not too long ago, we were at the beach and while the ‘rents were surfing (of course), the Ferals and I searched for treasures in the sand. (The kids also surf, but this time the waves were too big for them.)
Suddenly, Feral Boy shouted, “Grampsie (my new moniker), look at what I found for you!” and he poured this heart into my outstretched hand.
It’s a tiny, shiny, perfectly formed heart.
“OMG, are you kidding me, did you really just find this NOW?”
“Yup, right here! Is it a keeper?”
“It’s a HEART! Of course it’s a for sure keeper, but don’t you want it for yourself?”
“No, Grampsie, it’s for you.”
“Let me see!” yelled Feral Girl, “I want to see what it is!”
“Wow, that’s really cool, T!”
How crazy was it for him to find this little heart by happenstance? Or was it happenstance?
I told them it must be very special and meaningful and I’d keep it safe, but if they ever wanted it back, I’d be happy to return it.
So far, it looks like I’m the keeper of the heart treasure, and that makes MY heart full. I promise to hold on to their hearts forever, no matter how Feral/Angelic they might become.
I think it’s an Apache Tear, a type of volcanic obsidian made from the fire energy deep within the Earth.
How it made its way to the beach, buried in the sand, is a lovely mystery, or were we meant to find it?
Apache Tears are named after a Native American legend about the grief of Apache women mourning warriors who died during a 1870s conflict with the U.S. Cavalry.
It’s an excellent protection stone to help ground our energy into the Earth before, during, and after energy work. Black stones absorb negative energy.
The heart shape adds an element of compassion, self-forgiveness, and emotional warmth to the grounding energy of the stone.
It helps us peek into the core of an issue to assist with deep healing and to lend support during times of sorrow, as well as relieving stress by offering opportunities for positive change.
What an exceptionally magical find from Mother Earth!
It’s just really really difficult to capture the smooth shiny pure blackness, but as long as I’m the keeper of the heart, it’ll live on my bedside table, protecting my dreams, definitely enchanted.
P.S. I’m grandma and the kids started calling me “Grampsie” when Feral Boy started reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I think it’s funnycute and I always answer to the many creative nicknames they’ve chosen for me.
I was lucky enough to capture the swift travels of the full moon’a partial eclipse.
I used to think it was the moon that flew across the sky but I learned the rapid journey of the moon is an optical illusion caused by the Earth spinning on its axis, rather than the moon zooming through space. As Earth rotates, it makes the moon look like its traveling westward at a rate of about 15 degrees per hour but that’s really not the case. Like so many other things in life, it’s not what it seems.
That was enough education for one day — it makes my brain hurt — although I’m sure most people already learned that even if I didn’t. I can only assume it was yet another topic on yet another day I didn’t pay attention in school.
I love every phase of the moon and its significance. A partial lunar eclipse symbolizes a powerful period of emotional illumination and a transitional turning point where the subconscious shadow meets conscious awareness. As above, so below.
The moon and
her shadow side
Reveals exactly what we hide
Here’s the first pic with a bit of spooky cloud cover…
The eclipse’s progression…
Almost fully eclipsed, right around 9pm…
It’s still oppressively hot and humid here, but that’s supposed to change in the next couple of days, fingers crossed!
Were you able to experience this amazing partial lunar eclipse?
There is nothing that seems more alive than a summery blooming California Poppy, the state flower of California. It’s the best orange EVER!
California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) are tough, low-maintenance wildflowers that thrive on neglect. They need at least six hours of direct sun daily, poor-to-average sandy soil that drains very well, and only occasional, sparing water once established. Avoid using any fertilizer, as rich soil or nutrients reduce flower production. It’s the perfect summer flower for a drought landscape!
Last night as I was closing the windows, I looked out and up, and witnessed the rising of the moon.
I hadn’t used my real camera in a while, but I knew my phone would never be able to capture the details, so I snapped a few pics with my Canon and this was the best of the bunch…She’s a beauty!
Yes, it was really that reddish-orange-gold color, probably from whatever wildfires are raging in the area, and those are the power lines near the lagoon.
Thank you, Mother Moon! Happily, I found a Leon Russell song to accompany a full moon…When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold:
I couldn’t locate a live performance, but it’s still Leon being Leon, Master of Space and TIme.
So…I got sick again, this time a really nasty upper respiratory virus with a high fever and a headache that made me want to chop off my head, that’s how bad it hurt. I wasn’t able to read or watch TV or do anything but lay in bed with an icepack on my forehead.
I hadn’t been sick in so long that I had forgotten how miserable it feels. As if shingles wasn’t bad enough, this was the icing on the cake of misery.
Now that I seem to be on the mend after some much-needed antibiotic help since I got a secondary bacterial lung infection, I’m looking at some drafts I started before I wasn’t able to function.
Right after I was almost completely healed from shingles, I took a walk and encountered a beautiful sight — dozens of dragonflies swirling around the front yard of a neighbor’s house.I took a photo but it didn’t capture the incredible vision of loveliness.
I think what I witnessed was a feeding swarm.
I’ve never seen more than one or two dragonflies at a time so I did some research. A group of dragonflies is most commonly called a swarm. Other, less common terms sometimes used include a flight, a cluster, or a dazzle.
Dazzle is funny because it makes me think of jazz hands. “Jazz hands!” IYKYK
Dragonfly swarms generally fall into two categories:
I’m not sure how that applies to my own personal cluster of feeling like shit, but I’ll ponder on it while I lay here suffering in my woe-is-me state of wretchedness.
Here’s a cool poem about dragonflies by Tennyson, who wrote it in 1833:
The Dragon-Fly
Today I saw the dragon-fly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;|
Thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew.
I’m not referring to myself, haha, not this time, anyway… but I’m so proud that I propagated this rose and cared for it so lovingly until it produced a first bloom!
I feel like I just gave birth to a beautiful rose baby.
