GRACE

Photo by S. Auberle

This is my 500th post, since I began this blog in February of 2006. That, and the fact that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, seems an auspicious time to post this beautiful blessing written by Rafael Jesus Gonzalez.

Thanks and Blessings be to the Sun & the Earth

for this bread & this wine,

this fruit, this meat, this salt,

this food;

Thanks be & Blessing to them

who prepare it, who serve it;

Thanks & Blessings to them

who share it

(& also the absent & the dead).

Thanks & Blessing to them who bring it

(may they not want),

to them who plant & tend it,

harvest & gather it

(may they not want);

Thanks & Blessing to them who work

& blessing to them who cannot;

may they not want--for their hunger

sours the wine & robs

the taste from the salt.

Thanks be for the sustenance & strength

for our dance & work of justice, of peace.

- Rafael Jesus Gonzalez

Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving to all...

HUNTING SEASON

Photo by S. Auberle

first snow fell this morning

Christmas in the air

neighbor putting up decorations

Prancer, Donner & Blitzen

an early start

to their 'round-the-world journey

antlers poised upwards

eyes like black stars

there will be ribbons

and bells, silver perhaps

a round, jolly Santa

to drive

three antlered bucks

swinging in the wind

their delicate legs

stiffening in the cold

- mimi

DARK ANGEL

Photo by S. Auberle

I will always love

the sound of wings

never knowing

if it's bird or angel

like a single raven

at high-desert dawn

black velvet in motion

or a dove in the pines

breast feathers fluttering

down in small, winged prayers

the turquoise flash

of a lazuli bunting

like an unearthed

Anasazi necklace

but tell me

do you also wait

with terrible joy

never knowing

if that winged sound

is a dark angel

coming for you?

- mimi

inside her bones

photo by S. Auberle

from above and across

those high and windy plains

then through waves of grains

and flashing amber

proceed-with-caution light

past rivers' run and sandhills' flight

to flowered path

on great lake's shore

more home of heart

than known before

more right the place

inside her bones

more right the stones and sky

more pleased her eye

with softer light

and rested

after wave-lapped night

she's rested

after wave-lapped night

- ralph murre

RETURN

Truchas, New Mexico graffiti - photo by S. Auberle

"I love the dark hours of my being.

My mind deepens with them.

There I can find, as in old letters,

the days of my life, already lived

and held like a legend, and understood."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Back in my own house with the blue door in my beloved north. But hours and days in the mystical Southwest gave me many beautiful days to hold like a legend and understand...

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

C E L E B R A TE!!