Welcome to my World

Welcome to the domain different--to paraphrase from New Mexico's capital city of Santa Fe which bills itself "The City Different." Perhaps this space is not completely unique but my world shapes what I write as well as many other facets of my life. The four Ds figure prominently but there are many other things as well. Here you will learn what makes me tick, what thrills and inspires me, experiences that impact my life and many other antidotes, vignettes and journal notes that set the paradigm for Dierdre O'Dare and her alter ego Gwynn Morgan and the fiction and poetry they write. I sell nothing here--just share with friends and others who may wander in. There will be pictures, poems, observations, rants on occasion and sometimes even jokes. Welcome to our world!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Imbolc, Prognostications and Prayers

Imbloc is an ancient festival or holiday. The Celts loved to divide things so they took the four quarters of the year that represent the seasons, critical to those who lived by agriculture and still some hunting and gathering and marked the halfway point between those stations of Father Sun at the solstices and equinoxes. Imbolc is one of those, halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Over time Imbolc came to mark the beginning of preparations for spring--tilling, planting, births for livestock, new growth beginning to emerge and so on. An old Celtic tale about the snake emerging from beneath the snow may be the start of what we now know as Ground Hog Day. Imbolc is also a day to commemorate the Goddess/Saint Brigid or Brighid, often called Bride (pronounced Bree or Breed in Gaelic tongues). She was variously the deity presiding over the hearth and home, health and healing, the forge and creative endeavor. Although St Brigid's Day under the Catholic calendar is May 1, most pagans celebrate the night of Feb 1-2 as Her day.

It is celebrated by lighting candles, some spring cleaning, making Brighid's crosses, getting out seeds to plant or starting to break ground for a garden and leaving a piece of fabric out overnight spread on a bush to represent Brighid's Mantle which she blesses in passing. The fabric can then be torn or cut into small squares to carry for protection. This picture is a Brigid's Cross, often made from straw or reeds but I will be attempting one of copper wire since copper can represent fire and was teh main metal of ancient smiths since it melted and worked more easily than many metals and combined with tin etc. for bronze and brass.

There are many other customs as well but those are some main ones. It's a bit of an analog to New Years with an "out with the old and in with the new" mindset.That kind of goes along with my sense of some change coming into my life in the fairly near future. I downloaded a bit of an astrological look ahead for my year in 2013 which read as follows:


2013: Taurus Overview
Taurus

2013 brings the kind of emotional stability and depth you've been craving for years. Now that Saturn has finally moved out of your work and health sector for good, you will feel a great weight lift off your shoulders with the burden of daily demands and never-ending deadlines. Now you can rightly direct your attention to the realm of relationships. Saturn has moved into your opposite constellation (Scorpio) until 2015 and promises to reveal your missing other half both within and without. Your commitments to others will deepen and you will come to realize how much you truly value your loved ones. Never again will you take any of your significant others for granted. Relationships are your end-all-be-all in 2013. Saturn will show you which ones are worth hanging onto and which ones you have outgrown. No longer will you tolerate relationships that only prove to be a dead-end.

The South Node of the Moon brings a series of eclipses in your sign this year, Taurus. That spells great change and letting go of any outworn attachments and stagnation across the board. Change comes hard if ever in the life of a steadfast and loyal bull, but alas this is your year to let go, let go, let go. Your life and your relationships in particular will undergo great transformation from the ground level, up. Be prepared to tear it all down and start from ash. You are about to learn powerful lessons in how resourceful and resilient you can be when you finally relinquish your need to possess and control.

Money is always essential in the life of security-loving Taurus, but in 2013 it will take on even greater significance. You are learning how important it is to cultivate resourcefulness rather than just working yourself to the bone. Trading dollars for hours is no longer a viable working formula for you. You've got to start tapping into your business brain so that your money makes money for you, and you can spend more time doing what you do best: creating beauty for yourself and others. You've more than paid your dues over the past few years, and you're more than ready to free up your time. You've come to learn the hard way that this is in fact your most valuable resource. You can recover most things, but time that is lost is lost forever.

That made me say hmmm along with the number omens and such. So far it is not appearing but something tells me it will. I'm trying to get and be ready! I'm starting to suspect it may be more of an internal change of attitude and spiritual matters than a physical one like a move, a new major project or a new relationship but I am not ruling that out, either. Time no doubt will tell!

And hearkening back to Imbolc, some special prayers may be in order--for guidance into the next phase, thankfulness for blessings received and coming, and a 'good will toward all' outreach and search for peace and safety. I found three versions of an ancient druid prayer that spoke to me. They are subtly different but all similar.  The word gwynvyd translates as 'heaven' but I think of it more in the sense of the Celtic Tir-nan-Og
or the Fiddler's Green of the soldier, the Rainbow Bridge where our furred friends await us etc.
                    1
God (or Godde) impart Thy strength
and in strength the power to suffer;
and to suffer for the truth;
and in the truth, all light;
and in light, gwynvyd*
and in gwynvyd, love;
and in love, Godde;
and in Godde, all greatness.

                   2
Grant, Godde, Thy protection;                                                                
and in protection, reason;                                                        
and in reason, light;                                                                  
and in light, truth;                                                                      
and in truth, justice;
and in justice, love
and in love, the love of Godde;
and in the love of Godde, gwynvyd.

                 3
Grant, O Godde, thy protection;
and in protection, strength;
and in strength, understanding;
and in understanding, knowledge;
and in knowledge the knowledge of justice;
and in the knowledge of justice, the love of it;
and in that love, the love of all existences;
and in the love of all existences, the love of Godde.

I believe the third version speaks the most to me and I will probably use it in any Imbolc rite I may perform next Saturday evening. Each twenty days, I do two twenty four hour shifts as a flame keeper for Brighid and will end one at 6:00 pm on February 1, just in time to continue into an Imbolc commemorations. In that last prayer I find echoes of the Truth, Art and Kinship trinity that centers my particular brand of Druidism. They all reflect the  very Celtic flow of images into one another that makes a prayer or chant move and live.I may feel a verse starting to build here. Maybe next time....

BTW my friend Joe is still hospitalized and now fighting some heart and kidney issues probably triggered by the infection which is better but not cured yet. I continue to pray for his recovery and try to send a short cheery note each day as there is little more I can do for now. Life is a precious but precarious and ephemeral gift! We only 'borrow' it for a time before going back to the spirit realm to perhaps recycle again in a new form. Still Love is forever and always and eternal and I think the very core nature/energy of all things!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Coming Home is always good

I made my trip and got home yesterday evening. Four very enthusiastic dogs greeted me and that is such a lift. I recall from long years ago a Mother Goose rhyme about a lady who was attacked on the road and her skirts cut short. People laughed and mocked her but she kept saying, "I've a little dog at home and he'll know me." That is one thing your little dog is good for, or larger one--they will love you ragged, dirty, dressed up or whatever and that means so much! Rojito and Ginger have stuck close to me and Gin and I had a good walk this morning before I tackled unloading my rocks!

I am still waiting for the change to come. It will; I feel sure of that but the way events unwound did not bring it about at this time. But most of my angst was needless. I should learn by now! With my one friend, I found him where he was not expecting me and slipped up behind while he was talking to someone else and then said, "Hola amgio, como esta?" That translates loosely hello friend, how are you? He spun around and his face lit with a wide grin as he reached out to hug me. I could tell there was nothing faked or forced in that greeting. Then he had a very reasonable explanation for what had hit me wrong--and that was that. We're good. We talked awhile and went our separate ways with a parting hug. I spent the night with a girlfriend and her newish 'boyfriend' (for want of a better term) throwing my sleeping bag on a mattress she had in the living room awaiting a bed to be built by her partner. Then I went on to Arizona the next morning.

I went by my old home and loaded up all my gem and mineral and rock collection, visited with a couple of former neighbors and then went back to Benson which is right on the I-10 freeway where I had a room reserved. Yesterday I made a leisurely way home, mostly watching trains since the track parallels the highway from Benson to east of Deming with just a few zigs and zags. Then the only worry was for Joe since I had not been able to reach him and only talked briefly with his son who had arrived and did answer one call I made--curtly I have to say.  I'd sent text messages and since my notebook computer was not working well, had to wait on emailing.

I did learn that Joe's son and daughter in law had got to Phoenix and were there for him; they were not very pleasant to me, a stranger and he was in isolation because of the infection. It's not quite one of those horrible flesh eating ones but bad. But then late last night I got an email--his phone had been either stolen or maybe the kids took it and was out of service but he still had his tablet and was feeling some better. He hoped to get out of the ICU today and I hope to hear of that soon. Gods willing, there will be other chances to get together and have some fun in the future.


Here are a couple of pictures I took at Stein's Pass which is right on the Arizona-New Mexico border! I saw this stack train pass at Dragoon, a small town between Benson and Willcox in Arizona and followed it all across the route until it finally disappeared on me east of Akela, which is between Deming and Las Cruces! There the main line track heads south to El Paso. Anyway I  knew with the right light that this pass area would yield some great photos and I was not disappointed; even with my fairly low end digital camera, I got two calendar worthy shots!!

So I guess as the saying goes all is well that ends well? I woke this morning for a bit at 2:22 so had to check that number and it also speaks of change: "Have faith. Everything's going to be all right. Don't worry about anything as this situation is resolving itself beautifully for everyone involved." Well, that is reassuring! I'd like to know what and how but took that as an omen that Joe will recover in time. Whatever else I have no clue!

Some very interesting books arrived Saturday after I had left to add to three I got last week from a very dear friend who ordered them for me. She knows I am fascinated by nature and animals and these three are focused on that by a now deceased man who sounds amazing! So life is mostly good and I'm ready to tackle some new challenges and projects as well as work along on some older ones.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Dogs, Dreams and Angel Numbers



This is not my photo but illustrates my feelings and state to some degree--a bright knot and swirl of confusing yet fascinating 'stuff'. The photo of course is of the aurora which is an electro-magnetic phenomenon . So I believe is life so maybe it is apropos!

This weekend I had planned to go to Arizona and spend part of the time in Tucson with a friend. I got to know Joe on line and met him one day last November. He is into the 'fast draw' and cowboy shooting and loves all things western so we had a bit in common. There is an event tomorrow in Old Tucson in which he had planned to compete.

Sadly this was not to be. He's had some health problems especially with his legs and was just diagnosed with a major staph infection and is now hospitalized and on IV antibiotics--to stop treatment could mean he loses a leg! I like him as a friend--not a big romance but friends are often better. But this gave me flashbacks as my late husband had a similar problem in 1995 and that was the beginning of his health slide down until his heart attack in 2003. I cannot abandon a nice person who is basically alone but it is hard to think of going thru this all again. So I walk a tightrope of involved/uninvolved as best I can!

I would have left today but now will head west tomorrow with some different goals to accomplish. Then an issue with another friend has me questioning my needs/wants, things I thought to be true and so on. This person is one I feel hugely bonded to and care for very deeply so when something came out of left field at me I was rudely jolted. I may misread or perhaps he did--I need to find out. But it's very troubling. So I have asked my guardian angels and personal deities for guidance. Of course what one gets is mixed and ambiguous or very subtle! You have to tune in and try to interpret. Not easy!

Here is my dream
 I was with a guy--who I cannot really identify although some resemblance of my dad--in a red pickup and he was driving. He decided to stop and put the five dogs out and then drove off. I was saying, "No, no. This is so wrong!. You can't do this." But he wouldn't listen, just kind of laughed. It was on a highway though not real busy--like the old road between Cottonwood and Clarkdale that I rode along so many times long ago. Then the scene shifted and I had the truck and went back to find the dogs. I know I got three of them--a red one kind of like Alanna mixed with Ginger, a black one a bit like Rico and a white one that had small spots of gray, black and brown and in the dream was 'part coyote' but did not look like it to me as I picture it .now The other two were less clear. Anyway at that point a sound jerked me awake--a single jangle like an old time alarm clock and I have no idea what it was. It was in my room and Ginger heard it too and woke up. Nothing that I can find or figure makes that kind of sound. It was 5:14 a.m. by my bedside clock. To me the colors of the dogs were significant and the number five even more so. The sound? Well, I  just finished reading Afterlife Encounters by Dianne Arcangel and I had the distinct feeling someone no longer in this plane was trying to reach me and tell me something. The five is also significant and the time--which adds to two fives or ten. I went back to sleep and awoke to get up at 6:44 (6+4+4=14=5) so five again!!

I am like whoa--I need to figure this out but it is really vague. I got my Angel Numbers book by Doreen Virtue (really like this book!) and looked up: 5: "This number relates to change, transformation, transmutation and alchemy. Something in your life is changing or about to change for the better." 514: "The angels are with you, helping you stay centered and peaceful during this time of change .(italics added). Rest assured that your life is transforming in a beautiful way." Okay, I say. Is this what 'they' are trying to tell me? And who is/was they? Needless to say I am just a bit shaken at this point or puzzled. It will sort out I expect but it's like the movie stopped before the end! Normally 5 is not a number I regard much one way or another but here it is. (i.e.) I have lived five places in the last five years and known the second friend I mention for the same time.. We met initially almost five years ago to the day.  A few other things in fives but they are less significant at least for now. 

I've pondered on it all day and am still not much wiser. the number readings seem positive and the idea of a change in life is both invigorating and a bit frightening. Familiar is comfortable and sometimes maybe dull but feels safe. Change is different. I always said there is no progress without change but all change is not progress! The angels seem to say this will be progress or better but I am still unsure. As for the dogs--that was very odd and I think telling me that I should not and will not dump off and leave anything that I care for, that whether it is easy or not, you hold to those obligations and honor them with all your soul.

I do sense some kind of crossroad coming up soon--I do not know what it may be or how it will present to me but I will have to make a decision and whichever it is will bring some change into my life. I am a little scared but also curious, even eager. I do trust my guardian angels--there are two or one that is dual-natured and I was told to call him/her Dara, which I do. I also trust my "Lady of the Wildlands"--call her Brighid, Rhiannon, Epona or Artemis/Diana--to help or guide me but leave my will free to make my own choices. So I go to face tomorrow and whatever it holds. Maybe more omens or messages will come--if I can only read them right! Say a prayer for and with me, please!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

A Time to Rejoice, a Time to Mourn

In the last few days I know of at least three friends who had to say goodbye to beloved furred family members. This is always a hard and grievous task and I share their pain and anguish at this time. Yes, it is a time to mourn, but also a time to rejoice for although we will miss the dear companionship and unconditional love that our animal friends give to us so unstintingly, we need also to rejoice that these  have moved beyond the suffering and struggle of their final days with us and romp in health at the Rainbow Bridge to await us.

They live there always and also in the hearts that held them ever dear. So long as you end their earthly lives when  you know beyond doubt that it is time and they are hurting too much to go on, your courage is to be honored. They do understand. Enough of them have come back to me in one way or another to show that they still exist, still love, and appreciate my gift to them of release. Only if it is done for your convenience and not theirs can it be selfish or wrong. I say a special prayer right now for those newly resident in the pleasant pastures of Fiddlers Green, in Tir-nan-Og and the hills around the Rainbow Bridge and also for the tender hearted folks who have set them free. Go in peace, all! Weep but also rejoice for Love never dies and the spirit that loves lives eternally.

Now since it is sometimes nice to share a bit of one's inner soul with friends, in this case a story I originally wrote many years ago. It is not altogether a happy one and maybe more of a vignette than a true story but I knew various versions of this family, these young folks and celebrate their courage and their struggle in the best way I know how. In that spirit I humbly offer you :

A Child’s Garden  
Juanito was thin, an almost fragile-looking child, face and body sharpened by bones close to the surface. He would have resented being called a child, for he was almost twelve years old and thought himself nearly grown. He’d smoked stolen cigarettes, emptied the final drops of a good many discarded bottles and held his own in more than one neighborhood rumble for all his delicate appearance.

But he was a child, and looked it, especially this evening. A ragged shirt hung loosely on his bony frame and a pair of oversized Levis was gathered clumsily at his waist. Dirty toes peaked through holes in his ragged canvas shoes as he knelt in the back yard of one of the little stucco houses exactly like the others that bordered the steep and ill-paved street in Copper Glance, Arizona.

He was very absorbed in whatever he was doing. Conchita, full of big-sisterly disgust at his grubby appearance, stepped off the rickety back porch for a closer view.  A crumpled tablespoon for a trowel, he carefully dug shallow furrows in the burnt earth, rows made crooked by rocks too big to move.  He tried to soften the packed ground with water poured from an old wine bottle.  Finally satisfied with his handiwork, he took a handful of wrinkled peas and corn grains out of his pocket and tucked them tenderly into the straggling rows. He poured the rest of the water along them before he stood, moving slowly, a bit stiffly from the long crouch.

“Santa Madre, Juanito,” Conchita said, her cross tone echoing that of their mother, “What loco thing are you doing now?”

He jumped at the sound of her voice, spun around to face her.  For an instant, she saw the gentle pride in his eyes before it faded.

“I made a garden.” He folded thin arms defensively across his chest, stood with his feet apart, braced as if awaiting a blow. “Mr. Barkley gave me the seeds. We didn’t use them all in school. He’s going to give me some more tomorrow, different ones.”  He must have seen the skepticism in her face. “Really, sis, I didn’t swipe them. He gave them to me and I’m going to make them grow.”

Although her short laugh expressed her cynicism, she didn’t say all the sarcastic things she could have said. It might be silly, but making a garden was better than hanging around the pool hall and tavern down the street or roaming with the gangs. It was never easy, but she tried to remember and be like the gentle side of the mother whose death had left her surrogate mother to her younger brothers and sisters, all six of them.

“Okay,” she said. “Now fill the wood box before Papa gets home.” The  pungent scent of burning beans recalled her to the kitchen just as a familiar old pickup came rattling down the alley.

Strangely, the little garden grew. The fierce sun of the high desert beat down every day and drank up the water he poured over his plants every evening, but the garden grew. The corn sprouted, pea vines spread, radishes and carrots burst out of their adobe beds in fluffs of green. He whittled stakes for them from boards salvaged from the woodpile and proudly lifted the vines out of the dirt. The dog made a bed in the middle one hot day. When he surveyed the damage that evening, he almost cried but instead swore poisonously in both English and Spanish as he vowed to build a fence. He salvaged most of the plants and built a rough fence out of more firewood scraps and some rusty chicken wire. Conchita did not dare ask where the wire came from.

Finally just after school was out, his proud moment came. He brought in a handful of little pea pods and she cooked them for dinner. There were only a few peas for each of them and they were bitter. Papa ate his in one bite, drowned in hot sauce. Conchita nibbled a few and then offered Juanito the rest because he was always hungry. She caught six year old Pancho with his mouth open to complain and silenced him with a look. She pretended not to notice when Pancho slipped his peas to the dog.

June grew hot, heavily, painfully hot. Tempers grew short and people got careless.  By day Copper Glance lay eerily quiet under the heat but by night it buzzed with a hectic empty gaiety. Everyone tried to ignore the overhanging sense of dread, the pall that settled over town like a heavy woolen blanket. The shrill scream of the accident siren at the mine and the wailing ambulances accented both the noise and the quiet.

Although the Company began to ration water, Juanito always managed to scrounge a bottle or two for his garden. The carrots and lettuce were growing and tiny ears had appeared on the corn.

Papa worked graveyard shift now, midnight to eight, and tried to sleep mornings before it got too hot. Conchita struggled to keep the kids quiet, but it was futile, almost impossible. Rosa, the baby, was cutting teeth, whiny and cross. The twins fought constantly and Juanito disappeared as soon as he had breakfast. Papa never complained, but his face grew sharp and sagging with weariness. Conchita packed him a good lunch every night, not knowing what else to do. Each night when she got ready for bed, she prayed the summer rains would soon come to ease the drought and everyone’s suffering.

It seemed the boys could think of nothing but baseball. Ten year old Manny and Juanito both played in Little League. Manny was shortstop for his team and while Juanito was a pitcher. Pancho was a catcher in his T-ball team. That meant a game for one or more of them almost every night. Conchita always went, usually with Rosa on her hip. At least it was somewhere to go and gave her a chance to see some of the crowd she’d known in high school before Mama died and she dropped out. It always seemed harder when she got back home, though. Her old friends were giggling about boys and the weekend dances at Catholic Youth Fellowship while she at fifteen was saddled with a woman’s responsibilities.

The late June night was still, hot, without even the usual breeze drifting down the canyon to cool the leaden air. Even the weight of a single sheet was too stickily oppressive to bear. Conchita lay on her cot, one of Papa’s old undershirts as a nightgown, staring out the window at the black sky, dotted with a few stars. The younger children slept restlessly, muttering and tossing in their beds.

When the siren came, it cut through the children’s restless slumber with merciless clarity, somehow personal and demanding. She lay taut, scarcely breathing. Juanito padded noiselessly to her bedside. Together they counted the bursts of sound.

“It’s on the five hundred foot level,” he whispered. She didn’t need to answer. They both know Papa was working there. It was almost dawn when the men finally came to tell them what they already knew.

Afterwards, it was all a blur of flowers, tears and black, of hastily packing possessions that didn’t even fill the pickup. The sudden shock of belonging to Aunt Lola’s household was the hardest part.  A big busy woman, Tia Lolita seemed cold, and they hardly knew her. She and her husband Diego lived in another camp, on the other side of the mountains.

Reality did not come fully to Conchita until the final morning.  As if in a daze, she watched Juanito pour a final bottle of water down the parched furrows of the neglected garden. When the jug was empty, he dashed it against a rock. The shards glittered like tears in the harsh sunlight. Then it was he who took her hand and without looking back led her out of the yard to Tia Lolita’s car where the younger children already waited. Later, thinking back on that day, she realized that was the moment Juanito stopped being a child.

(C) Gaye Walton w/a Gwynn Morgan 2013

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Just a little something to thnk about...

Add up these numbers and compare to the totals of those who have died by gun violence in the recent past with various atrocities committed by imbalanced or out of control individuals and think about it a little bit before you sign on to disarming the US citizenry. Any needless deaths are too many but can you really trust a government that wants you to be without weapons or self-defense??? For these people, the answer was no. Are we sure our situation will be different?  I totaled about 55,900,000 here. I'm not saying yea or nay but just something to think about... 

WORLDWIDE HISTORY OF GUN CONFISCATION

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated...

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

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

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

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

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

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Druids and dogs

A week and a bit into my the least favorite month of the year. The last two days have not been bad weather-wise; yesterday was actually  gorgeous! Today there were clouds in the morning and fitful wind and tomorrow is supposed to be fairly decent too. Then all bets are off for a week or so. Even here in what my brother calls "The Promised Land" we do have to have some winter. It isn't that bad but I am just spoiled and never cared for the cold, much less the gray.

Years ago when I was a working ranch hand and had livestock to care for, I was out many cold, damp and windy days on horseback, mucking corrals and putting out feed etc. At night I would get in the house and sit in a corner behind the old fashioned wood burning stove until my jeans nearly smoked and maybe the cold would be chased out of my bones. I think that marked me for life with a sensitivity because I truly felt as if I were frozen through and my bones were radiating the cold out through flesh and skin. No frostbite or hypothermia but just misery!!

On the topic of Druids, my special on-line circle of Druid friends is developing a new web site, mostly the work of one of our leaders whose Druid name is Briar Winter Sky. To take a look at the site and read some very interesting and educational material there go to www.tuatha-de-brighid.org  As I say, the site is still under development and not all the buttons and menu items will work yet but there is a lot to see and consider! Even a few things with my Druid name on them, which is Wind Dancer.

 That name, by the way, comes from a hypnotic regression in which I visited a possible past life as a woman of the Sinagua or Salado tribe sometime around 10-1100 CE. The term Wind Dancer is one used by several Native American tribes for the humming bird species. I've long been fascinated by these amazing little flying jewels, their aerobatic skills and fearlessness, their beauty and boldness. So, in that long ago time, I bore it as my name since I had been born in the late spring when they began to return to the area that is now the Four Corners region. That would probably correspond to my birth date in this life, the late April--early May period. I think it may be warmer now and they arrive a bit earlier.

It may seem odd that a person of mainly Celtic ancestry would be drawn to the arid high desert regions as I am but I feel fairly certain I have spent a number of lives in this environment. There have been some in the British Isles and elsewhere too but for some reason the desert seems to be my spirit's natural home. And at one or more times, I was able to fly! I'm not sure how I know this and no regression has shown me such a life but it's just one of those things you feel in your bones. Maybe it is even a life that has not come yet or one in some parallel but different dimension! The possibilities are so vast and so unknown!

And dogs. Many friends know I am a dog lover and send me 'forwards' all the time. I am not sure I can plug in live links but I will try to append a few of my faves here so that I can share them. One especially about military working dogs was just awesome! These canines, like those that do search and rescue, are true heroes and I would love to be able to give all of them a forever home when they are retired. I can't but I will lobby for good care and deserved peace for them!

Well drat, other than trying to copy and paste it--and with about 20 pictures I am not sure I can do it, much to my frustration. I even did a search on the title, "I've Got Your Back," but didn't get anything that way. Well, if you get it forwarded from someone it is well worth a look! There is also a cute one making the rounds, I think it is a Youtube video, about an adorable Jack Russell who has an astounding repertoire of useful tricks! He's a one-dog household staff! If you want to see either, email me at azwriter427@yahoo.com  and I will try to forward them to you! Here is one touching shot anyway. I know the soldiers who work with the dogs bond with them very strongly and I can understand why!

My dear doggies will never be heroes except to me, 'cause I love them, but they are still special. Ginger is doing good and I am looking into some local trainers with the idea to start her in basic obedience before long and perhaps move through the whole series to Canine Good Citizen and then either Agility or Rally-O. It may be more than I can afford but I am willing to explore at the least. She is a very smart dog and really needs some professional help to 'be all that she can be' which I kind of doubt I have the know-how to give her. Little Rojito got his second heart worm shot and a bordatella vaccine (kennel cough) yesterday and felt a bit under the weather last night. He snuggled very close but also wiggled and whimpered in his sleep a bit. I got a hand out from the blankets and soothed him. So I missed a little sleep but that was okay! he is fine today. Ginger's turn will come soon; I want her to have the heart worm meds and also the rattlesnake protection since she will be hiking with me later this year. I expect she will be kind of nervous at the vet's though so I will work with her a little longer on getting past her spookiness.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Happy 2013!

Gee, it's a whole new year by the calendar and already five days of it have zipped by. I don't dare blink anymore. Vroom, vroom. Time has gotten Mazda-powered!!

We got some real (not desert type) snow the 3rd and 4th. About an inch to an inch and a half fell Thursday evening and Friday morning. For the desert, it was cold, too. The high yesterday was 39. Needless to say I only stuck my nose out, bundled to the gills, a few times to give the dogs some air and time to do their business. Of course Ginger was about to bounce off the walls but I kept her under semi-control. I had forgotten how much energy a young dog has, and Border Collies are known to be hyper-charged. Aussies too. Well, Belle and Rico were pretty vroomy when I first got them!  But today the sun was out and most of the white is already gone. For snow, that is about as good as it gets. We got in a three mile walk and she had a good wrestle and roll session with Kaycee. They have just started playing and it is so funny. Beebee is jealous but she won't play that way so she just barks madly or tries to get between them. I need a video cam for sure.

Of course I and many of you celebrated the new year on either Samhain or the midwinter solstice but it is a new year by the calendar, 2013 CE (common era) which I find makes sense as it just matches the current mode of counting without the complexity of AD/BC or anything else. It is all arbitrary but then any counting of time is such. We just use  such methods to give an illusion of order to our disorderly world. We have no idea when "time" began so there is no way to count those years with any accuracy. But it doesn't matter, does it? We are here and now and that is what counts!

Here's a shot of the yard all pretty and white. Within minutes the dogs had it stirred up and far from pristine! But they loved it--except for little Rojo who barely stepped off the cement patio to do his business and came back shaking his feet and looking as disgusted as any wet cat. He is, like his mama, totally not a snow bunny! You can see it wasn't much but sparkly and pretty, just a bit too late for Christmas. Oh well.

So did anyone make resolutions? I gave up on that some years back. Now, in the first week of the calendar year if not before ,I draw up some goals and write or reprint some affirmations and that's what I use to guide my efforts in the new year. I find the affirmations are kind of repetitive the last several years and since I missed some of my 2012 goals, they are back again, a bit restated. You can 'break' a resolution but on a goal, any progress is good even if you do not get all the way there. I feel better about myself that way at least. And having a long term issue with self image and confidence, need all the help I can manage.

One goal is so many words a day and writing at least five days a week on one project or another. Right now have a March 1 deadline and beyond that I'm trying to decide which pieces in my WIP file to get back after again. it isn't always easy to keep them going--any of them, much less all, but most in time do get completed. A few fall by the wayside but they were probably not the good ones where the characters talk to me. BTW, WIP is writer-speak for work in progress.

Anyway I'm looking ahead to a new spring, new projects and work to finish more older ones, fun with the new K9 in the family, trips and more. I hope all of you are too and wish you the very best of dreams come true and peace, progress and prosperity in the year ahead!