Daily Archives: January 19, 2013

Faith and Spirituality

Roots support wings

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Winter                                                                                   Cold Moon

“My heart wants roots. My mind wants wings. I cannot bear their bickerings.”

— E. Y. Harburg

It has taken me a long time to resolve this dichotomy.  It drug me from Indiana to New York City in the summer of 1968, then pushed me back home in the fall.  I moved to Wisconsin, then Minnesota, all the while traveling as much as I could.  Wandering made me feel free, but it also made me feel homeless.

Now that I’m into my 42nd year in Minnesota and my 43rd up north, I feel I’ve gotten roots in the state.  It  took me three marriages to find Kate, but she’s given me roots in a relationship.  I moved 17 times in the Twin Cities and twice outside it before we moved to Andover where we’ve now lived 18 years, 19 this July.  Although I do not feel rooted in this town, I feel very much rooted to this place, this land, this home.  Even this county.

Here is the resolution that came to me, not long ago.  Without roots the mind cannot take wing.  Anchoredness, embededness, place stable give the mind freedom.  It does not have to occupy itself with the troubles of daily life since they can become part of a routine, a healthy routine, yes, but still a known quantity, a given.  So the roots reach down deep for stability and nourishment, deep enough to support the mind’s marathon to the end of the cosmos and back.

With solid roots the mind can at last break free, run out of its traces into the realms where only the mind can go.  Roots support wings.

This may be, probably is, obvious to you, but it took a while for me to understand.

 

Cinema and Television

Shirley Valentine

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Winter                                                                          Cold Moon

We’ve lost 33 degrees since noon.  Now 3, headed lower.

Just watched Shirley Valentine, a British coming of age movie featuring a 42 year old housewife whose friend wins a trip to Greece and invites her along.  It’s a bold move for her; she’s never left England.

On the island (Mykonos) she begins to enjoy just being Shirley Valentine.  She meets a Greek guy.  Eventually, not because of the guy, she decides to stay.  To live her life; her Shirley Valentine life, not her wife life or her mum life.

This is a funny movie, a sad movie, a hopeful movie.  Just right for a rapid temperature fall.

Weather +Climate

And the North Wind Doth Howl

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Winter                                                                              Cold Moon

As Kate and I got up from our nap, the north winds had begun to howl.  The arctic air has swept down over the tundra, over the occupied southerly reaches of Canada, skimmed Lake Superior and the Boreal Forest, which ends here where we live, and blasted its way into Andover.  That’s why I visited the bees today.  At noon it was 36, now its 10 and the temperature will continue to fall, the windchill as well.

It is now the winter of my content, a warm home, a good wife, loyal dogs and a place to work.  Plenty of books, broadband and plasma TV.  The isolated life has never been more connected.

 

Bees, Travel

Bees and Hikes

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Winter                                                                               Cold Moon

Checked the bees this am.  A midwinter are you still alive check.  Colony 2.  No.  As I’d expected.  It was weak going in to the winter and even though I fed them a lot at the end of fall I doubted their supply.  Colony 1, though, the ornery one is still vital.  I needed to know now because this is the time to order package bees.  I have to decide whether to order one  package or two.  Leaning toward one since the parent colony, colony 1, will be a divide in May, leaving me with three anyway.

Outside for the first time in a while.  I’m going to get my winter hiking legs back over the coming weeks since I’m planning an inn to inn hiking vacation, a belated 65th birthday trip.  Got to be sure I can go the distance.  I know my aerobic conditioning is in good shape, but it’s all short term work, no longer than an hour.  Got to work up to day long hikes.

Not sure yet whether I’m going to England, Scotland, Wales or somewhere here in the US though I’m leaning towards the Isle of Skye.

Then again, I might just go to Gettysburg, then to D.C. to see the Pre-Raphaelite show at the National Gallery and maybe hop the train up to Philly to see the Barnes.  Still thinking.