It's Hodge Podge Day again!

 

Yes we've all been seeing eclipse photos. But this is too pretty to pass up sharing!

Locomotive engine being swung across a canyon with the Rio Grande River below. New Mexico. c.1915. The question in my mind is, which side is Mexico, and which side is New Mexico, not that it matters that much.

This is always worth considering, especially since I might make a green great dragon, which can't exist! Only if he's the grandson of the wonderful great green dragon grandmother.

Speaking of dragons...just look at these hummingbirds!

Sad little house on the last of some dirt that was more valuable elsewhere.

An Eider Duck, from the internet

"Raven," painting by Jackie Morris for the book "Lost Words."

Today's quote:

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart. -Washington Irving, writer (1783-1859)

Sharing with Eileen's Saturday Critters

It's cats of Halloween Time and a recent ritual

 The Earth is preparing for hibernation and so must we. The days of Samhain are the final stages of autumn, and we are moving into the darkest and coldest phase of the year. Lifeforce and sap is returning to the root and into our physical form. Around us we see the barren landscape. All the leaves have fallen, and the weather is cold.

The festival of Samhain falls on the wheel of the year halfway between Mabon and Yule, the Winter Solstice. The calendared date for the festival falls at the end of October and beginning of November. Many associate Samhain with calendared Halloween but the two are in fact different festivals. At this festival there is a recognition of – and the visible connectivity with – death, but it is framed within the trust and faith that through giving death to the old we transform and regenerate and give birth to something new. Samhain is a time for exploration of the MYSTIC and WITCH, internal self-discovery, facing our shadow and challenging body sensations and emotions, which we may have resisted or even feared looking directly at, whilst honouring and trusting our gut instinct.

It is in the dark that we connect to the cauldron of alchemy and metamorphosis. There is a need to descend deep into the underworld, our unconscious mind, and the belly of the earth to retrieve exiled parts and to integrate shadow aspects of self. During Samhain, the veils between the physical and spiritual are very thin. We can access the wisdom of our ancestors and genetic memory. In allowing the renewal of our cells and the releasing of stagnated emotions and energy, the liberation of our ancestral lines can take place. Surrendering into the cyclical nature of life-death-life, trusting and following it whilst allowing the darkness, supports the potency of shamanic journeying, meditation, lucid dreaming, astral travelling, and intuitive knowing.

We explore the landscape of our unconscious and cut the cords with the patriarchal narrative that darkness is evil or terrifying – liberating it and our powerful feelings, where we can discover such wisdom. The rational and logical are not part of this festival. This is the heroine’s journey of descent and at the end of it, at Spring Equinox, following the ascent, balance is restored.

At Samhain we receive Awen and discern. We listen and scry, engage in divination work, and connect to the inspired dreams and visions to be birthed during the light half of the following year. At this festival we release and compost, receive and incubate. It is also a great time of year to assess, review and fill the gaps – to learn, find teachers who inspire you. You are PREPARING.”

- Kay Louise Aldred, ‘Mentorship with Goddess: Growing Sacred Womanhood’ - Girl God Books

Painting by Jackie Morris

Inanna's Daughters (at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley) met outside on a nice warm Sunday afternoon yesterday.

We came together in circle to honor our ancestors and others who've died recently, to hold in our keening sorrows all those suffering and dying on our earth today, and to recognize that death is not final, but a transition as autumn is to our earth's seasons.

And then there have been all these posts of Halloween Cats!

Ropes Mansion, Salem MA built 1720

Today's quote:

The day I acquired the habit of consciously pronouncing the words “thank you”, I felt I had gained possession of a magic wand capable of transforming everything.

OMRAAM MIKHAËL AÏVANHOV

Andrew Wyeth

Jackie Morris, Artist beyond art

 From a Treehugger article:

The Lost Words' Restores Nature to Children's Vocabulary

This enchanting book uses poetic 'spells' and gorgeous illustrations to reconnect children to the great outdoors.

"It's a spell book? Like a magic spell book?"

 Indeed, that is exactly what its creators, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, set out to do when they made this unusual and, yes, enchanting book back in 2018. They were responding to a decision by the Oxford Junior Dictionary to remove around 40 common words relating to nature from its 2007 edition. These "lost words" included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. They were replaced by words like attachment, blog, broadband, bullet point, cut-and-paste, and voicemail. 

One can only imagine how much longer that list would be now. Macfarlane and Morris saw this as a tragic loss for children, evidence of a growing disconnect with a natural world that has long sustained and nourished humans, and a significant displacement by the indoor realm. Children have an instinctive desire to name and know animals. The problem is that their focus has shifted toward "synthetic" creatures, or made-up ones that feature in cartoons and online videos.

Macfarlane wrote for the Guardian about a 2009 study from Cambridge University that found children were better at identifying Pokémon characters than common British plant and wildlife species. They had around 80% accuracy for Pokémon, but less than 50% for real-life species. The paper concluded that children have tremendous capacity for learning about creatures, both natural and manmade, but are presently "more inspired by synthetic subjects" than by "living creatures." This contributes to a sense of isolation from nature and, hopefully, urgency on the part of adults to repair that.

The paper concluded that we need "to re-establish children's links with nature if we are to win over the hearts and minds of the next generation", for "we love what we know … What is the extinction of the condor to a child who has never seen a wren?"

"The Lost Words" aims to do that with a delightfully magical slant. The book features 20 words, each with three dedicated page spreads. First comes a word search, where a child can decode the letters and the name of the species, painted in gold, from a scattering of alphabet letters. Next there's an acrostic poem based on each word, accompanied by a full-page painting that resembles a religious icon made with abundant gold leaf. These are called "spells" rather than poems because they are "designed to be spoken (or sung!) out loud in order to summon back these words and creatures into our hearts." Finally, there is a full double-page watercolor illustration of the plant or animal in its native habitat, often with other species hidden around the edges.

As Macfarlane explained, "We've got more than 50% of species in decline. And names, good names, well used can help us see and they help us care. We find it hard to love what we cannot give a name to. And what we do not love we will not save."

The book was published in 2017 and I am sorry it's taken me all these years to discover it. But its message remains relevant and its presentation is as spellbinding as ever. If there are young children in your life, then this is a book well worth checking out of the library or adding to your collection.

By

Katherine Martinko

 Published December 19, 2022 08:00AM EST

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I discovered fellow blogger Jackie Morris about the time she was working on Lost Words...or a bit before. Her blog had featured her wonderful cats that walked to the shore with her, and she took great photos of them. And she painted wonderful amazing watercolor animals. I've really missed her blog.

A Christmas Card to benefit musicians.

And here's her web site...many more beautiful words and paintings. Jackie Morris Artist
Today's quote:

One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often. 

-Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (1900-1980)