EDWARD ABBEY

Breakfast on the San Juan - S. Auberle

The beginning of a new year seems a perfect time for a

no-nonsense dose of Edward Abbey:

"Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am--a reluctant enthusiast--a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there.

So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."

SILENCE

Collage by S. Auberle

so much left unsaid

only crows crack the silence

winter deepening

- mimi

LIGHT

"Emergence" - S. Auberle - 1999

"Language is the light

that comes out of us."

- Ivan Doig

"Ride With Me, Mariah Montana"

A SHORT (TRUE) LOVE STORY

Photo by S. Auberle

They met in church

at a candlelight Christmas Eve service.

He passed her a note:

"will you come home with me?"

She drew a smiley face on it

and passed it back.

They've been together twelve years...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Photo/collage by S. Auberle

"Happy Christmas to all

and to all a Good Night..."

- Clement Moore

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

REMEMBER

Photo by S. Auberle

Go placidly amid

the noise and haste,

and remember

what peace there may be

in silence...

- from the Desiderata

Max Ehrmann - 1927

SOLSTICE

Photo/Collage by S. Auberle

May the light in our hearts

illuminate the darkness.

Peace & Warmest Blessings to all...

- mimi

AIRPLANE POEM

No laptop with me, so no photos till I return.
Photography is music for the eyes...

AIRPLANE POEM

Never have I written
a poem on a plane
but now is the time
today
on this Boeing 767
bound for Maui
Captain Ryan and Rosalinda
and I (plus mate and 250 others)
under that beneficient luminosity
(a phrase I stole from poet Anne Waldman)
of the Los Angeles morning sun...

later, on island time:

must buy that T-shirt I saw
a man wearing, proudly
emblazoned across his chest:
I never finish anythi

- Aloha, mimi

THIRTEEN DAYS

"Infinity" - Encaustic Monotype - S. Auberle 1999

Thirteen days to Winter Solstice

Sunrise today 7:21 a.m.

Sunset 5:14 p.m.

Sun-path still moving south

touching ancient stone circles

where shamans once danced

and ancestors gathered

to implore Light's return...

remembered now only in dreams

the dens of sleeping bears

this slow, deep turning of the Earth...

- mimi

Off the blogwaves to follow the sun. Back on the Solstice.

ONE WOMAN'S TRASH

My women's group--At the Well--who keep me sane, or go (in)sane with me have come up with a great idea for those of you who might be, at this point in time, Christmas Shopping Challenged. If you have a group of people to buy for, why not have a Trash/Treasure party as we did. Everyone simply brings a variety of jewelry, clothing, tchotchkes, books, CD's, etc. that you no longer need, like, or use, and shop! It's an excellent form of recycling, economical and you would be amazed how perfectly your things fit someone else.

Then, of course, you must be fortified for all this strenuous shopping, so everyone brings food, wine, sweets, etc. Does it get any better than this???

The wind is howling, rain coming down in sheets, fog, sleet, but Christmas cheer is definitely in the air. And I got some really cool stuff. (No, I did NOT get the cow slippers.) But remember:

one woman's trash is another woman's treasure!

- mimi

AT A NAVAJO POETRY READING

Photo by S. Auberle

Ice slivers the floor

where an old man sits

oblivious to stares

of wire-rimmed old hippie leftovers

and feral-eyed poet ladies

whose hair curls

down their steaming woolen backs,

listening to Navajo woman

who reminds him of the mother

who carried him,

swaying under her burden

as he sways now

back and forth

endlessly

grieving

that he will never be loved again,

his long deep sighs moaning

like desert winds

that might have warmed

his once-proud body

hunched now

into a shabby coat,

small and shamed and frightened

that someone will send him back

into that frozen

homeless night.

- Sharon Auberle - 1996

VillageEarth

Encaustic Wax Monotype - S. Auberle 1998

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

- Carl Sagan

(upon looking at a photo of earth, a tiny, bluish speck from Voyager I spacecraft on Valentine's Day, 1990)

MORE ON LOVE

Encaustic Wax Monotype - 1997 - S. Auberle

"Love involves

a peculiar,

unfathomable combination

of understanding

and misunderstanding."

- Diane Arbus, photographer

1923-1971