Monthly Archives: April 2015

Faith and Spirituality, Great Work, Original Relation, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., The West

Pulse Flow

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Spring                                                                       Beltane Moon

Building on the Colorado River session reported below, I also wanted to comment on a happenstance that seems significant. When things show up in disparate parts of my life, surprising me by their shared connections, I try to pay attention. That happened on Wednesday night. In the post below I mention the pulse flow that allowed, for 8 weeks, river water to fill the Rio Colorado and reconnect that river with its delta in the Gulf of California.

Last year in April I drove to Tucson for an Intensive Journal Workshop. It so happens that was when the pulse flow was underway. It was a news story the entire time I was in Tucson and it intrigued me, though I had forgotten about it until the presentation Wednesday.

It was the psychic pot stirring that happened for me in the Workshop that led to a conversation with Kate. We decided to move out here. Perhaps an analogy could be made between the pulse flow that revitalized the Rio Colorado basin and the tilling of my inner garden in the Intensive Journal.

So I put it together this way: intra-psychic journey in the Southwest, during an important riverine experiment, which landed me here on Shadow Mountain. Now I’m learning more about the Colorado River, source of the pulse flow, and water usage in the arid West, a topic that has interested me for some time.

Not sure yet what to make of this connection, but there is one, and something may, well, flow from it.

Family

Gabe at 7

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Spring                                                                Beltane Moon

Gabe at 7Today has two big events: Earth Day and Gabe’s 7th birthday. He’s our earth boy. We will see him tomorrow night in his first grade musical concert. Can’t imagine what that will be like. He’s a high energy kid who has begun to blossom. A late talker, he now is making up for lost time.

Faith and Spirituality, Feelings, Health, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

Spirit in the Sky

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Spring                                                                 Beltane Moon

On Monday (yesterday) my spirits lifted. The beginning of the work week moves my needle in a positive direction. Kate came up with some distractions. Yesterday we finally liberated all the art with the exception of our really big paintings from their containers and stored them in the guest room. This meant another slice and compress hour or so with the discarded cardboard, then stuffing it into the recycle bin. Mostly though I think I’ve integrated the possible futures and can live with any of them. (well, maybe not live with one really bad one.)

My distraction level is down. I’ve given myself (contraindicated over time) a break from exercising. An occasional vacation is good for the bones and blood vessels. I’m being gentle and compassionate with myself.

I got back my lab test results for other parts of my body. I am more than my prostate! An odd finding was that my total cholesterol at 127 is too low. Those atorvastatin pills go under the knife, cut in half to slim them down to the 10 mg dose. It’s weird considering the need to raise my cholesterol.

My kidney disease is stable and may well remain so for the rest of my life. The numbers were good for the most part with the exception of that damned PSA and the cholesterol.

Under any future I plan to live and live well until I die. That has always been my plan, my intention and I refuse to let anything, anything, interfere with it.

 

Mountains, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate
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Spring                                                        Beltane Moon

We have significant snow on the ground with only 10 days to go until Beltane. Of course, temperatures will rise. Even with the temperatures in the mid-forties like the last couple of days our magical south facing driveway eliminated several inches of snow all by itself. As Jon says, sweet.

We have limited experience of mountain weather, but what we’ve seen so far we like. Snow against the ponderosa pines looks like the background of a book cover for a Zane Grey novel. The snow itself, until this last one, was mostly powder, light and fluffy, easy to remove when necessary. The fluctuation in temperatures from moderate lows (compared to Minnesota) to warm (compared to Minnesota) mean the cruel burdens of winter like long lasting ice, snow cover on roads, very cold temperatures and snow piled in huge mountains reducing the size of parking lots are mostly absent.

 

Colorado, Faith and Spirituality, Garden, Mountains, Original Relation, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., The West

A Western Way

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Spring                                          Beltane Moon

Discovered two places that may shape my long term presence here in the West. The first I found in, of all places, the NYT. The article recounts the new mission of the former owners of Denver’s most treasured book store: Tattered Covers.

They gave up the book trade to create the Rocky Mountain Land Library. Here’s a brief explanation from their website:

“IMAGINE a network of land-study centers stretching from the Headwaters of South Park to the metro-Denver plains. Each site will be united by the common purpose of connecting people to nature and the land, but each site will have something unique to share:

—South Park’s Buffalo Peaks Ranch will offer a 32,000+ natural history library, along with residential living quarters for anyone who would like to experience the quiet and inspiration of a book-lined historic ranch, set on the banks of the South Platte River, and surrounded on all sides by a high mountain landscape, with some peaks rising to over 14,000 feet.”

As it happens South Park (of television fame) is about an hour from here going west and over the Kenosha Pass in the South Park Heritage Area. It is, oddly, 66.6 miles from here according to Google Maps.

I plan to volunteer here as soon as my medical condition becomes clearer. This will point my life more towards the west, away from Denver. A good thing for me and it will root my life more in the Rockies and the idea of the West.

The second I discovered just today, The Shumei Natural Agriculture Institute in Crestone. Here is a brief explanation:

“Doing nothing, being nothing, becoming nothing is the goal of Fukuoka’s farming method, an approach to agriculture which he has pursued for over forty years with resounding success. With no tillage, no fertilizer, no weeding and no pesticides he consistently produces rice, barley, fruit and vegetable crops that equal or exceed the yield per acre of neighboring farmers who embrace modern scientific agriculture. The basis of his philosophy is that nature grows plants just fine without our interference so that the most practical approach is to get out of the way. In the course of explaining his reasoning and methods, this do-nothing farmer delivers a scorching indictment of chemical agriculture and the human assumption that we can improve on nature. He explains the beneficial role of insects and plants usually characterized as pests, the fallacy of artificially boosting fertility with petrochemical concoctions, the logical error implicit in the use of farm machinery or draft animals, and why pollution is an inevitable result of misguided attempts to improve on nature.” This from an Amazon review of his book: Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy.

This is exciting, a form of gardening that appeals to my soul. Crestone is about three hours from here just off 285. I’ll get down there sometime soon and start reading about Natural Agriculture.

Health, The West

The Kindness of Strangers

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Spring                                                            New (Beltane) Moon

IMAG1246So. There is background noise, the hard-drive chitters quietly, like a squirrel hunting for a nut. Now, where did I put that damned thing? I say I’m calm, not afraid, not anxious but I think that puts my persona out there, where I want me to be. Underneath the persona where we all live our most private of lives a gyroscope of concern works away, wobbling, righting itself, but never able to spin down completely.

How do I know? Example. On my way in to the Rodeo All Stars I went to the post office to drop off some bills. I did that. Then, as I got down the slope to Highway 285 North I checked for the envelope that had my tickets and parking passes. Uh oh. Not there. Wait a minute. Slap forehead. Yes, I had “mailed” my tickets and parking passes in the driveby mailbox.

At first I thought, well, that’s done. I’ve got to go home. Then, no, what would you say? Go back and ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. So I drove back to the post office. Closed. Well, damn. Then a gray haired lady opened the door. She had hear me rattling the door, looking forlorn. “Can I help you?”

Moments later we were out at the mailbox. She turned a key, got out a white plastic bin and sure enough, under the bills was my envelope from the Rodeo All Stars. I thanked her and drove into Denver.

 

The West, Weather +Climate

Snow and Rodeo

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Spring                                                          New (Beltane) Moon

More snow this morning, maybe 2-3 inches. According to Weather5280 we had 24″ by midday yesterday. So, maybe 27″ now with more snow forecast for tonight, 1-3″. It’s not hard to see that we might reach 3 feet before the whole system moves out on Sunday. That’s a lot of snow. Moisture wise it amounts to something like 3 inches of rain. All needed and welcome.

Though. I do need to blow the driveway this morning. And this is heavy, wet snow. The kind that plugs up snowblowers and makes the task harder.

The Rodeo All-Stars event on the National Western Stockshow grounds started last night, but I missed the first round. Too much snow here. However, I don’t want to miss the whole event, which has another semi-final rodeo today at 2:30 pm and the finals at 7:00 pm.cub cadet

So I’ll push my little yellow Cadet out into the snow. It has a special tool for unplugging, an innovation which eliminates the need for wooden spoons or other makeshift devices. The manual and the safety stickers on the snowblower remind the user not to stick their hands into the auger while it’s running. Which common sense, too, would warn against.

 

 

 

Colorado, Mountains, Weather +Climate
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Spring                                                    Mountain Spring Moon

Snow continues, coming down in narrow linear columns like rain and floating down, too, like snow flakes gently drifting. The result is an odd mixture of lightly falling and pelting. We have a motion sensor on the light near our deck and it came on and stayed on during the storm, not sure why.

Now the day dawns, a grey-blue, snow still falling, forecast to continue until tonight at least. The ponderosas look like melted tapers. No paper this morning. Not surprising.

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