We Might Dodge a Bullet - A House, A Hubble and A Hoot

The snowstorm that has my city under Weather Watch seems to be tracking north of us now, and has almost passed. The next storm is west of us, back at Rapid City, South Dakota and if we're lucky, that one will scoot just south of us. I'm totally crossing my fingers that we might escape this storm track with just fingers of threat instead of shovels of wet, heavy snow. The weather person, however, is saying that we'll get an overnight snow of about four inches. If so, I'll have to shovel tomorrow *sigh*.

This pic of my father-by-marriage's house for sale was just after the first
little snow of last fall. The drifts and piles are as tall as that bush on the left
now. It's a cute little house that has a great main level. I'd be redoing the
upstairs and downstairs, but the main level is immediately usable. 

I had a house showing request for tonight from 8:45 pm until 9:45 pm. I turned it down. Really, I mean, REALLY? A showing ending at almost 10:00 pm? I realize that many of you are night owls and that this time frame wouldn't be unreasonable for you at all, and I also realize that work schedules could mandate that type of schedule, but we have to go over to the house after the Realtor has ended the showing and make sure that the doors are properly closed or opened and that everything is intact. I don't want to be going over there at 10:00 pm. So hopefully they will reschedule for a different day/time that will be more suited to my schedule.

This is one of the spotlighted photos celebrating Hubble Telescope's 24th
anniversary. Yes - our lives have been enriched and expanded by Hubble
for the past 24 years. This is a part of the Monkey Head Nebula in infrared.
So beautiful! 

We're so fortunate that we live in these times when the universe is brought into our homes in such fabulous pictures. Check out the latest Hubble picture, one of several released celebrating Hubble's 24th anniversary. While not as spectacular as the Eagle Nebula, this new picture of a part of the Monkey Head Nebula in infrared is stunning. I love the way the various Hubble photographs over the years have allowed my imagination to fly farther than ever before.

This lovely oil painting by Christopher Smith is entitled Morning Watch -
Barred Owl. It has a lovely and evocative feeling of a foggy morning that I felt
reflected our winter cold. Prints are available if you are interested, just follow the link. 

I had a lovely wake-up this morning - an owl hooting from a tree outside of my window for about 15 minutes earlier this morning (probably around 4:00 am or so). It was such a joy to listen to the hoots ringing out, and knowing that I have such a fabulous raptor living in my general area makes me very happy.

Here is a lovely photograph of a barred owl in a tree by Stephen L Tabone. 

Have a great Tuesday.

Good Solstice to Everyone

Do I celebrate Solstice?  I certainly do, although I don't do specific rituals; I don't set up an altar, I don't pour libations (especially not with our snow of yesterday and overnight), I don't drum or sing.  But I do focus on the day - I do think of my friends and family and I do honor this day.  I honor it because in the Song, this is a day of import and the return of the sun to our skies is a sign that the year is coming to an and and a new year is beginning.  Today, in my part of this world, the sun's circuit across our skies will be the shortest of the entire year and the new year will begin. 

The sun, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere on it's
track through the sky on this Solstice Day.  Celebrate its'
return by re-lighting the fire of your soul. 

In the past, Solstice used to be a day where the fires were doused the night before and all fires were started anew when the sun rose again the next day - something that could not be taken for granted.  Sometimes Solstice sacrifices were made to help the sun rise, sometimes the night was spent in prayer or with loved ones.  It used to have many ceremonies surrounding it, and was (and still is) honored in many cultures and in many hearts.  I honor this world and the Spirit which created it.  I honor this larger universe and the Song and Dance which permeate it.  I live for the day when I can join that dance and perhaps have one small spot in the chorus reserved for me.  I honor the Power, the Rhythm, the Melody and am enfolded in the Love. 

Herne the Hunter.  I don't know the artist, but I love the image.

Traditionally, Herne loses his life either at Halloween or the
Winter Solstice, and is born again as the Green Man in the Spring

around the Equinox. 

Today's Solstice is remarkable, and if you are fortunate, you may see some of the other celestial happenings that will occur today.  We, of course, will have either the longest or shortest day of sun in our respective hemispheres.  We also have a full moon today, AND a full lunar eclipse today.  The heavens are full of portents for us, while our world tries its' best to self-destruct.  But, as you reflect on the Powers of the Universe. and them reflect on the small-mindedness of the earthly powers who can find no comfort in their weapons and repression, remember that evil still walks these lands and do your best to combat it where ever you find it.  This is your job as a Human Being.  This is your obligation as a note in the Song.  Walk your path truly with an open heart and a song for others.  Spead love around you - it is infectious.  You won't change true evil, but you can make your area of the world just a little better.  You can be one small flame to help lighten the hearts of others.  And, after all, isn't that the Purpose of us all?  So that's my celebration of this Solstice day, and I hope it is shared by many of you and that the world will be a better place because of it.  Mitakuye Oyasin (Lakota for "we are all related", the traditional ending for our prayers).

Moving Ever Closer and Holiday Cards

I am still getting a few friends who are exchanging addresses with me for holiday cards and I'm delighted with the requests.  I have been getting great cards from friends, both old and new, and I cherish each one at this time of the year.  They are small pieces of bright sunshine for the next year - reminders that I don't walk this earth alone but that others who share my interests are there walking next to me in spirit.  That's just huge for me. 

I wish I had good handwriting, but my handwriting really sucks.  Maybe

if I had good handwriting I would enjoy the physical act of writing more?

I keep being tempted by the open page.  Since so many of my friends are authors, I keep being tempted to put pen to page and write a short story or two.  But I know I am no author, even though I can see a plot and even though I sometimes can turn a pretty phrase.  I actually compose better while behind the wheel of my car.  I have a digital recorder at the shop that I bought a couple of years ago to help me with a specific task.  If I remember when I drop by the shop to label the mail I am shipping today, maybe I'll grab that and take it along with me.  I can try things on my own and never let them see the light of day unless I am happy with them.  So, I'll be patient on this because I have enough things that I play with.  I don't need to add another thing to my already overflowing plate. 

Solstice, no matter where it is welcomed, is
always a day of celebration.  When the sun

returns, it is magical. 

And today is my "studio day" so I have errands all over town.  The roads have improved, so I don't think I'll have any great difficulty in getting to and from the places that I need to go, but we'll get another 2"-4" of snow later today.  I need to be focused and get my errands completed so that I can everything completed properly since Solstice is next Tuesday.  My DH says that celebrating Christmas gives him a few extra days that he will happily take, so we celebrate both holidays, but my heart is with the rhythms of the universe, not arbitrary dates. 

Progress---But Still More to Come

I worked on my beadwork quite hard yesterday and finished the foreground, beginning work on the stars.  The entire starfield needs to be beaded, but this is random and non-patterned.  It still is a large expanse of fabric, though, that needs to be covered.  I like the way that it is looking, though, it has a subtle sparkle that will augment the glue-on Swarovski crystals that will also be placed eventually.  I want to take one more close look at the cosmography of Middle Earth before I glue on the crystals - I actually want to have the "Sickle" and perhaps the "Warrior" constellations pictured in my sky. 

I also wired up my etched copper yesterday.  After the disk had been cruel to my wire twice before by breaking my wire when I tried to tighten the spans, I had grabbed my round needle file and filed each of the holes from both sides.  This time I had success and didn't break my wires.  So, it was a successful studio day and I'm ready to dive back into shop work later this morning.  I have enough remaining to do that I will still be carrying my project back and forth from work and trying to get one hour or a bit more of beading finished every morning.  Have a creative day!

Stars and Song

Thank you to Hubble. Not the person (although he deserves thanks in the field of Astronomy and physics) but the telescope. Every day I wake up to an astronomy picture of the day (see the link to the right in my blog) and over the years, the 1000's of pictures that I have in books, calendars and have seen on-line have helped to make my days more pleasant. Not because they are so wonderful to look at, but because somewhere, somehow, there was something beyond all of my conception that allowed this to exist in all of its' multidimensional glory. Wow. I consider the stars to be the visual of a Song - the Song of creation.

That Song of life pulses through everything - there is a deep rhythm that underlies the universe. Some scientists might consider it to be the vibration of a molecule, or perhaps the undulation of the strings in string theory. I look at it as music - Divine Music - the Song. These vibrant notes, beyond the ability of mere humans to hear, underlie all within the universe. And the Song is, in essence, Love. I think it was Dante who ended his Divine Comedy with the belief that it is the Eternal Spirit - Love - that moves the stars and causes them to dance and sing (paraphrased). So, through Hubble, we have all been privileged to see this divine dance and see the underlying Song. And now that Hubble has been fixed, upgraded, and released once more, we will again have the opportunity to see phenomena that were never dreamed of by our ancestors. Thanks are completely inadequate, but all that I can do. I look forward to many more years of inspiration and introspection brought about by the views from Hubble.

Celebrating the Odd

Today is an odd number lover's delight. The date of 05-07-09, those lovely consecutive odd numbers, is apparently quite unique and something that occurs extremely rarely. I enjoy numbers as long as they are not tied up into mathematics. But as symbols, they are really quite lovely. We have the Arabic scholars of the Middle Ages to thank for the zero - great idea, the concept of nothingness. But who decided that a number two would be this wonderful clockwise curve with a base. And who decided that it could be written in so many different ways and still be legible. After all, there is the straght-bottom, the looped bottom, the humped bottom, etc. But the top, that wonderful flourish, tends to remain the same and marks it as a number 2.

People are much the same. We have the basic flourish that marks us as human. But that bottom - oh that bottom. That's where the problems can arise. And it's when the bottom tries to become as elaborate as the top that problems arise. Perhaps remembering that the bottom, although essential, is the smaller part of the whole might help all of us to remain a bit more humble. It is one of the reasons why I click on my astronomy picture of the day first thing every day. I might be the center of my own, very small universe. But I thank all Powers that my part is as small as it is and that someone/something caused the formation of the wonders that are our full universe. I can't ever forget the concept of Spirit being the love that makes the sun and stars dance. What an amazing thought...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A comment was made about how frequently odd numbers can appear this century. I quote here from the UK newspaper that originally published this story:

Numbers lovers (well, this one number lover) say the rare occurrence is an excuse to celebrate.

'The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905 - 13 months after the Wright Brothers' flight,' said Ron Gordon, the Redwood City, California teacher who keeps on enthusiastically promoting these numerical holidays, like Square Root Day on 3/3/09.
Gordon is offering a prize of $579 to those who celebrate the date with the most zeal or who get the most people involved in an Odd Celebration. Good luck.>>

Hopefully this will help clarify what I was speaking about in the post.

Light Pollution - The Price of Progress?

I love the stars. I have a link to the Astronomy Picture of the Day in the right-hand banner of my blog, and I start every day by clicking on this link and viewing some of the magnificence of the universe. They had a picture two days ago from Mauna Kea that was indescribably beautiful. As you move through the picture from left to right, you are left totally mesmerized by the heavens above. Why aren't we all out looking at our amazing panorama nightly? Light pollution. I live in the city. There are many advantages to living in the city, and I'm not sure I'm brave enough to become a country girl on a full-time basis. But living in the country, closer to nature and further from the city lights, allows you to see this wonderful painting of the sky. I've been in the country and far away from "civilization", but usually even in the far away places, there are some lights somewhere that are affecting the view. Light pollution has cut us off from our origins and turned our focus to a very small area from the vastness above.

People will translate that small, insular look of their surroundings to their immediate environment. We build shelter because we don't want to be exposed to all of the rain, snow, cold and other less than wonderful weather. We also build shelter for protection from other people and security for items that we cherish (items that are starting to get out of control for so many of us). The same thing can happen on the psychic level. We can build shelters for our mind (or our art). We erect walls for comfort, deciding that we will create within those walls. In extreme cases we can even build a full structure. But a creative person will view the walls and roof with suspicion and will, when able, blow up the roof and collapse the walls - creating their art "outside the box". I'm not fond of trite sayings, but it does seem that mankind is more comfortable inside a box than outside, and the challenge of any artist is twofold: 1) Get yourself out of your own personal box of comfort and create something entirely new, and 2) Through this artwork of your creation, chip away at the walls that others are creating to allow them to experience the joy that the panorama of the heavens allows. Turn off your personal light pollution and revel in the larger universe of creation. Valar valuvar.