July 2011
1 post
Down to the River
“Oh, Sisters, let’s go down; let’s go down; don’t you wanna go down. Oh, Sisters, let’s go down – down to the river to pray.”* Or celebrate. Or revel in the life of one of our own.
My community dropped its shields this week. We felt wounded, not from without, from within. The shields were dismantled between us. We let ourselves be fragile, and in that space, to be clear that we loved our...
March 2011
1 post
Fire Circle
“We have so little to offer Nature, “ she said as her long, graying pony tail fell across her shoulder. She leaned forward and threw corn and pinion scraps onto the fire. The seeds sizzled and the pinion aroma dispersed, smoke flowing toward us. Her voice modulated only slightly and the rhythm of her speech was consistent, this native of the NorthWest.
She faced the four directions and asked...
November 2010
1 post
Golden
Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost (1874-1963)
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
For nothing gold can stay.”
‘Celebrating the forest world in yet another expression of dazzling beauty and the color...
September 2010
2 posts
Silver Parachute
In the current bestseller, “The Hunger Games” *, contestants in the arena who are fighting for their lives, occasionally receive a gift – something they need. It descends from the sky, totally unexpected and just in the nick of time, floating gently toward them under a silver parachute.
In the Warrior Forest, silver parachutes can be spotted often. They are simply, moments of...
Path of Happiness
A fat squirrel perches on one of the lower, substantial limbs, clutching an acorn. Her furry body becomes almost concave as she wraps herself around it, her front feet attached to the shell. It’s as if the encased nut has become part of her – the whole center of her, and it would take a mighty force to take it from her.
A short while passes and, still holding dear the acorn, she scampers in...
August 2010
1 post
Summer Berry Picking
Several miles from the Warrior Forest, and centered in a rolling valley is a berry farm. The paved road becomes dirt and winds into the center of it, where stands an old wooden shed with some beautiful hardwoods growing close and giving shade. It is one of those structures that makes one nostalgic because it is a simple, unpainted rectangle with a corrugated metal roof, rusty here and there,...
July 2010
2 posts
Private Showing
There is a Canna Lily blooming over my trashcan.
No one sees the bloom but me.
The plant grows tall and when I walk outside,
Her vivid face I see.
My neighbor’s over-watering
Delivers moistened earth.
The thick stem rises from her root
A tall and leafy birth.
The red-orange face asserts and states
Her presence very clear.
Flaunting the...
Bee in the Forest
Little Paolo, the Power Up Bee, zooms through the Warrior Forest. He has flown far from his flight crew of fellow drones. They are all busy extracting nectar from the wild flowers that grow so well in the meadow close by, and they accept Paolo’s radical behavior. They are committed to their work, and Paolo is committed to the thrill of flight.
When the drone cloud lifted from the nest this...
June 2010
3 posts
The Forest Blessing
There are many reasons to visit the Warrior Forest. Beings come here to revitalize, to strengthen, to gather the rich nourishment from the earth here, to enjoy the quiet, to learn to merge with the natural world, and some to receive the Blessing. What is the Blessing, you ask? It is a moment when all the trees of the forest stand in the stillness and the strength of the Warrior and hold one...
The Awakening Land
Elizabeth Montgomery starred in a television series many years ago, called “The Awakening Land”, a story about pioneers who settled in Ohio. The first of the three part series was entitled, “The Trees”. She and her family left community, journeyed to the Ohio Valley in a Connestoga wagon, and settled on a parcel of land. It was all virgin forest, and though beautiful, was not open enough for...
The Meadow True
Just outside the forest lies a meadow in full flower. The wildflowers are abundant with early summer colors, rooted in the cool earth. Morning mist saturates the delicate blooms and hearty leaves, and when the full sun clears the treetops the meadow glistens. It is magical.
Between this meadow and our forest grow seedling trees with thin “skins” of curling bark that peel away and ride the...
May 2010
6 posts
Exerpt from “Hillside Garden” - select...
New Summer Green
You open your eyes to the light sifting through the pale green, and when the wind ruffles the tree canopy, the light spackles everything around like a disco dance floor. Layer after layer of leafy green moves between you and the brightness beyond, filtering the wooded world around you with sinewy softness.
Early summer is vivid with new shiny leaves, and with each breath, you take in the new...
Forest of One
“We have a word for leaf, twig, branch, trunk, roots. The words make it easier for us to categorize and comprehend reality. But we must not think that just because we have words for all the parts of a tree, a tree really has all those parts. The leaf does not know, for instance, when it stops being a leaf and becomes a twig. And the trunk is not aware that it has stopped being a trunk and has...
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Unforgettable Orchid
It is the scorching pink tattoo that he remembers as he gazes at the orchid. The dimples contract deeply in his cheeks as his face softens into a grin, and a light shudder courses through his body as he remembers her. He wants to reach out and touch this erotic bloom and knows he cannot, anymore than he can reach out now and touch her. Both of them exhale the sensuous, and both of them are...
Forest Current
Fallen trunk, broken limb
Water spill over
Water flow through
Branches down, Nature’s trim
Water spill over
Water flow through
Giant boulder, shifted slight
Water spill over
Water flow through
Rocky pools of clear delight
Water spill over
Water flow through
Forest debris and leaf-twig...
April 2010
5 posts
The Brilliant Dogwood
Yesterday I drove through a large section of the Southern Highlands and stopped to take photos here and there of the magnificent dogwood trees that ornament the meadows, their curvy, decorated limbs lifting in brilliance. They peak out from the forests too, becoming brilliant backdrops for the spring green of other leafy species.
Wherever they are the dogwood trees are brilliant! They make...
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Flashmob in the Forest
It is Earth Day and humans are outside, celebrating. Subtly and with no prediciton a yogi begins – back there and off to the right: Inhale Up, extending up and drawing the force of Earth up, as her lithe body lengthens and lifts. Exhale Over, as a rock-hard, muscular body in the back joins, showing tightness in this moment due mostly to muscle mass as he begins, surrendering to the wisdom. ...
Warrior Heart
It is quiet in the forest this evening. Today, a farmer friend of ours, leading his mule and sled, weaved his way into the middle of our earth community. The mule was glad to stop and the farmer found a wide place, and dug a deep hole in our rich earth. It was deep enough for a seedling tree that was not well. The farmer knew that we, the inhabitants of the warrior forest, would conspire...
MiniForest of Blooms
There is a vibrational change in the forest as more winged creatures fly above, and at the edge there is the sound of bees beginning their scouting sorties. And not far away, just outside the forest, where the light is full, is a tulip garden. The earth is rich there at the edge with all the forest debris sifting into the ground and creating another deciduous layer.
Tulips are native to...
March 2010
5 posts
Forest Fierce
Aries, the “Warrior” is here, and deep in the forest we are studying poetry. “Poetry?” you ask, as you conjure, with effort, the image of a warrior reading poetry. Yes, we are studying a selection by David Whyte, entitled, “Self Portrait”, and particularly, the fifth stanza: “I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living, falling toward the center of your longing.”
...
Darkness in the Forest
In his poem, “Sweet Darkness”*, David Whyte offers:
“The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.”
And so it is in the Warrior Forest. The limb extensions in Virabydrasana are sensing and bring awareness, for a warrior always knows what lies before and behind, above and below, and to either side. And when the night falls the warrior is more aware. Because the warrior...
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Icy Forest
Across the mountain lies an ice forest, hardwoods that stand frozen in this soon-to-end winter season. The snow has been cleared from the road that brought me here and is piled on either side. There is a quiet in this forest like no other and I venture in.
The only footprints are my own, tracking behind me, as I walk past the perimeter trees and deeper into the woods. There are evergreens...
Pigeon in the Forest
There is a pigeon in the forest – in the “warrior forest” that is. He must have journeyed from the city, from the piazza. He is eager to express himself and to be appreciated. He is a bit of a schizophrenic and is known by, at least, three names: Pigeon Pose, Runner’s Stretch, and the exotic, “Eka Pada Rajakapotasana”. I’ll just call him “Pigeon”.
He is unassuming, entering the forest and...
February 2010
4 posts
Late to Class
She was frequently late to class, although her jog down the hallway to the studio probably warmed her up. She would race in, leave her keys and jacket by the wall and walk through the class and create a space right beside me – to my left, rolling out her mat and merging right into the flow of class. She never apologized and I love that about her. She was and is a surgical nurse at a busy...
Sleeping Giants
One year I taught a Rhythmic Yoga class. I chose music, often creating it, to pace us and support us, as we practiced. The class began with sixteen sun salutations – B series with no stops. This music was original and paced the continuous vinyasa beautifully. You can bet that by the end of that eleven minutes we were warm – every muscle, every cell was primed.
My class was small and...
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