MaryAlice Musings and More

The first camping trip of the summer.  Gear is packed.  Weather is due to improve.  Off to a park that I have never been to in South Eastern MN-it is in the driftless land on Minnesota, and the driftless land in South Western Wisconsin is where I had my home as a young woman.  I like the idea and the terrain of these unglaciated areas.  The website for the park talks about Acadian flycather and the Louisiana Waterthrush.   I am going to look them up  tomorrow so I will know if I see one!  So here's to State Parks,   and the beauty of our country.

Yesterday the winds blew, the taps played, and the guns shot off their memorial sounds.  I live close to a very big cemetery.  I walk through it regularly, and drive by when I am doing car errands.  All day yesterday, the bells played their music.  The taps played at 10, noon, and 3.  The guns shot off a salute to fallen soldiers.  Most of the day I was home, working inside as the winds blew.  I watched the "helicopters" from the huge huge maple tree next door spill its seeds.  The patio and walk that Myah had swept clean the day before was filled with new helicopters.  Thousands of helicopters twirling down everywhere.  Seeds twirling in space, while I reflected on memories, those lost, what it means to be a patriot, who had died in a real helicopter, who had driven one, who was the nurse that rushed to help?  All these thoughts, on Memorial Day, as I watched as the my patio was once again covered with helicopters as they silently whirled to the ground.

Today was a gloriously beautiful day.  I was Gramma for a second day in a row.  It's pretty fun when your granddaughter decides that one night with Gramma is NOT enough.  So for the second night in a row we watched a movie about a girl and her horse and had a wonderfully, snuggly time.  Today was the second day of outdoor lawn work.  The flower beds are cleaned up, the patio is ready for relaxing, the plants are all in the ground.  Myah chose her jobs, and she was an amazing helper.  We laughed, took breaks, sang, and about an hour before Mom and Dad came to pick her up, she looked up at me and said, " We are a great team, Gramma!"  Oh how sweet it is.

I have been home for over one week - that is the longest I have been home at one time in almost two months.  Myah (nine year old granddaughter) and I have spent the morning in the dirt.  The front flower bed that was neglected and looking very sad is cleaned up, the perennials are planted.  The tomato and basil plants are in their pots and I am bone tired.  Myah was a great help, and provided the "salt of the earth" reminders about why this is so good to do - the digging in the dirt.  She said after about 30 minutes, gardening makes me feel so relaxed, and we talked about remembering this when we are harried, or crabby, or just out of sorts -- maybe some garden therapy would be a great way to feel better.  All the while we were cutting back dead heads, making the leaf and debris pile larger, trimming and cutting back.  It was perfect.  Now, as I type, Myah is singing in the shower, enjoying her time with Gramma and just plain happy.  "Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift ...

I am in DC for meetings at DHHS on research on mental illness and employment.  Translating research, theory, funding, silos, stovepipes and then just real people is exhausting.  I am always the "state" person vs. the PhD researcher - and feel a need to keep interjecting some kind of perspective that feels real from my day to day perspective.  So after all day of very good discussion, debate and listening - it was off to enjoy one the "beauties" of our US Government - the Smithsonian... I am staying across the street from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, I went to see New Deal for Artists 1934 - seems so appropriate for NOW.   The artwork that was commissioned by WPA is amazing, and the exhibit is great - it is being shown until January 10, 2010.  Here is a quote on the wall above a stunning painting of the building of the golden gate bridge: " The PWAP has been a recognition of the value of culture and arts in American life.  It is a significant example of ...

It is Mother's Day, and this is the 5th Mother's Day that I cannot call my Mom and say Happy Mother's Day.  I now get to imagine her as happy, full, whole, reincarnated as who knows what, on her path of continued oneness with the universe.  Several years ago I was riding in the car going out to see my daughter, son and grandkids and I heard this story about a roller rink closing and memories flooded back.  That night I wrote most of the poem that I titled "Remembering".  Mother's Day seems the best day to share!  Remembering I was driving down the highway,   When I heard about the roller rink closing. It had opened the year that my Mother was born. In that moment   I heard the music,   and hundreds of tiny wheels pushing, gliding, spinning around   the rink. Wobbly knees and uncertain legs,   Mom holding onto my hand then letting go – and I am transfixed, Watching my Mother crossing over her legs to the beat,   head back, smiling as I held onto the s...

The decision to agree to celebrate Vesak as the Buddha’s birthday was formalized at the first Conference of the  World Fellowship of Buddhists  held in  Sri Lanka  in 1950, although festivals at this time in the Buddhist world are a centuries-old tradition. The Resolution that was adopted at the World Conference reads as follows: “ That this Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, while recording its appreciation of the gracious act of His Majesty, the  Maharaja of Nepal  in making the full-moon day of Vesak a  Public Holiday in Nepal , earnestly requests the Heads of Governments of all countries in which large or small number of Buddhists are to be found, to take steps to make the full-moon day in the month of May a Public Holiday in honour of the Buddha, who is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest benefactors of Humanity. ” On Vesak Day, Buddhists all over the world commemorate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions: The birth, enlightenment and the pa...