Thursday ... and on the Eighth Day

Shared from the Facebook page of my sister from another mother, Lilian Mustelier - whose constancy and care in my life, and Roger's, has been a lagniappe from Universe in ways I cannot express.

Shots fired in the night, and at least one life lost. News from my region this morning ... and once more, random acts of violence (seem to) trump random acts of kindness. So the call goes forth, from a muted voice in an empty room, echoing across the barren landscapes and rocky peaks ... howl at the dark horse ... howl until strength lags then renews ... howl through the blistering heat and driving rain ... howl, and howl again. For the lives lost, for the hearts shattered, for the hope that must not wither.

Come away a while with me

Leave this mess behind

We shall see what we can be

Adventures we shall find

Unicorns and fairy folk

Will be our guides I'm sure

Be sure to wear your woolen cloak

The path leads through the moor

Bring a snack along as well

Tucked in your ample vest

Perhaps a trinket too we'll sell

Or give as grateful guest

We shall need both tent and kettle

For frequent stops and rests

Camps may harbor stinging nettle

And other loathsome pests

What's that you say

You think you'll pass

Too high a price to pay

Then refill my empty glass

And I'll be on my way

~Ellen Apple, 07 July 2014

It has been a week today that my brother-in-law Allen Apple passed away. Roger wrote, for all of the love and concern that has been sent his way, the following:

(as he wrote it – no edits or corrections)

Thank You too All that wished me and My Family Well

It has been a week of Allens Passing ‘ His history on our earth is over. But now I sit alone in a movie theater with Memories Flooding on a constant Loop with tears, Smiles and what ifs

To All Thank You Love you

Allen called me Arlo (here he drew three teardrops)

~ Ellen Apple 7/7/2016

Sacred Desecration

There are no unsacred places. There are only sacred places and desecrated places.

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

There is an article in Appalachian Magazine that has struck a chord with me, and it resonated back to one of my favorite quotes by Wendell Berry. Which in turn led me to this wonderful meme featuring more of his wisdom. 

We are made of starstuff, Carl Sagan said, and well that may be, but the flesh and blood and bone that the starstuff created was birthed here on this beautiful lopsided blue marble. We are basically stuck here, you could say. The Earth is a closed environment. 

Earth ... Mother Nature ... Gaia

In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, was the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia was the great mother of all; the primal Greek Mother Goddess; creator and giver of birth to the Earth and all the Universe.

I have not always been the most environmentally aware person - but as I have aged, I have become more sensitive to what is happening to our planet as a whole. Not just the resources, but the people. 

Technology would appear to be the natural progression of the evolution of our species, but I am not sure it is all about the good. We have harmed our planet, with everything from drilling for oil, to fracking, to overfishing, to aiding and abetting in the extinction of an astounding number of creatures. 

We are a greedy lot, us humans. Greedy and clannish and merciless in our treatment of other living things. We poison the air and the soil and the water with our improvements. We turn on one another in an endless game of this is mine and that is yours and I want it all. We see not the beautiful mosaic that we are, but seem to want everyone to look and think and worship and live just like we do, no matter the cost or consequence.

We blithely cause pain and suffering to anyone and anything that strikes our fancy, but scream loud and cry hard if we are treated in kind. We satisfy our wants and the cost is the needs of others. Perspective is gone – we an insatiable beast devouring all and screaming for more. We insulate and isolate ourselves and become both hypersensitive and outrageously callous at the same time. 

Every once in a great while, we feel a prick of conscious. We perform some empty gesture to a handpicked audience of our peers to assuage our guilt. We push any true sense of self-awareness further and further away each time. 

But I am a schemer, a weaver of dreams, and I specialize in believing in what others may call impossible things. 

I do not believe we are doomed. Not as a culture, not as a society, not as a species, not this beautiful planet or the miracle that we are. There are scars, injuries to be healed. There are course corrections to be made, and they may not be easy. Uncomfortable and painful more than likely. Physically demanding, emotionally draining, psychically challenging. 

We can be better stewards of our resources. We can be more caring of the animals we share the water, land, and air with. We can be more tender and loving to each other, judging less and listening more. We can have enough, not excess, but enough, and in so doing ensure that another has enough as well. 

Maybe we need to look at our priorities. Ask ourselves some tough questions. Think before we speak, plan before we act. Be willing to help one another, and be willing to ask for help when we have need. 

I have a vision of Earth, healed ... 

Be kind, it costs nothing and means everything.

Be Blessed, Brothers and Sisters, and Bless others in the Blessing.

~ Ellen Apple 7/6/2016

Cool Changing

Time for a cool change. 

Cool Change by Little River Band is a song whose lyrics echo in the recesses of my mind frequently. There is another song lyric, "Life gets tedious" that sort of goes hand in hand, for me. Because life does get tedious, and there is a yearning that will well up from within for that cool change, that respite and restoration that is required to continue the task, to finish the skirmish, to take that next step forward. 

We do not always have the wherewithal in life to go to that physical place, that space for refuge and restoral that we long for. Life is life, after all, and it is so often tedious. The daily grind, the day to day, the rat race, day in and day out our lives do seem to be prearranged. 

Weariness of the body and lethargy of the spirit settle in it seems, to take up permanent residence. People ask, "Hello. How are you today?" "Fine." Always the same  answer, whether it be true or not. For do we really want to tell our pain, our worry, our fear? Who would listen ... who would care ... what difference would it make? 

Or, even worse, we may then have to listen to their truth. To the demons that plague another's life, the conundrums that keep them sleepless at 2:37 AM when the clock will beep in three hours and they will have no option but to do it all again, another day another dollar. And the hamster wheel keeps turning.

Well, there has to be another way. A better way. A way to connect, to be a helper. A way to heal your wounds while being the balm that other people are burning for. A cool changing. And I believe there is.

Listen, don't just hear. There is a start.

Answer, don't just talk back. 

Learn names, and care.

Be kind, by offering a smile at the least. 

Don't take everything so darned personally.

Measure your life by your standards, but allow others the same courtesy.

A differing opinion or viewpoint is just that. Different. It is not wrong, or stupid, or ignorant - not uneducated, ill-informed, evil. It is different. Remember, your life experiences are uniquely yours, and so are those of others uniquely theirs. 

Be kind, it costs nothing and can mean everything. 

Original Artwork by Aimee Street

We are all so magnificently different, made of stardust, growing a world together that is ever-changing, always evolving. Rooted to the Earth, and reaching outward, where all of Eternity awaits. Be Blessed, my Sisters and Brothers, and Bless others in the blessing.

I have a vision of Earth, healed ...

~ Ellen Apple 7/5/2016

Howl at the Dark Horse

The dark horse will gallop

The cold wind will howl

Thunder roll and lightning flash

Red clouds boil across the sky

Heat and chill will meet then clash

Chattering calls of mad magpie

Keening cry in dead of night

Laments of empty day brought

Feed the endless appetite

Always seeking never caught

From the dragons goblet drink

Chase the magic from the day

Teeters oh so close the brink

Far from meadows of the fae

Ride that dark horse long and hard

Past that river of blue ice

Howling you greet yon graveyard

Once this journey will suffice

The dark horse will gallop

The cold wind will howl

~ Ellen Apple 7/4/2016

writing prompt Howl at the Dark Horse 

the muted voice in the empty room

in the between time

in the between time when our

talk is awkward and eyes dart

and we appear to cower 

at the concept much less art

of crafting relation from

acquaint a ship floats apart

sails grab the wind ignore scum

and glides following no chart

ripples on surface become

a point on which focus part

hope more fear then waves crash

beauty and bare honesty 

fill in the between time now

~ ellen apple 7/3/2016

Six for Saturday

First

My brother-in-law, Oscar Allen Apple, Sr., passed away on Thursday, June 30. He was born August 5, 1956, at Dixie Hospital in Newport News, Va. I have several photos of him, the one I personally like the best is of him and Roger when they were 4 and 6.

My second favorite is of Allen, Roger, and their father. Roger was in the Army, so it was probably taken in about 1977. Roger calls it The Three Amigos. 

Second

Today is the first anniversary of my second time as an employee of Wal-Mart. They sent me a card. The first time I worked there - at the same store - from May 2002 until July 2006. 

Third

You read frequently on this blog the words 

I have a vision of Earth, healed ...

This is because I do have a vision, and it is not of a dystopian , post apocalyptic future where there is no kindness, no hope, no recourse.

My vision, my hope, is that the differences we allow to separate us as people would become instead cause for celebration and broader horizons. There are so many ways we can be the difference in another persons day, and that other people can be the difference in our day. Why not make it a positive? Remember, be kind. It costs nothing and can mean everything.

Fourth

Tanka 

still humid air sits 

weighing down wilting flowers

a cool breeze drifts in

teasing tastes of showers gift

miles away yet possible

Fifth

There are second chances, and third, and fourth ... actually an infinite number. Maybe not do-overs, but do-betters. Limited only by your willingness to learn lessons and the number of mornings you will awaken to a new day.

Sixth

I really like watermelon, and cantaloupe. And berries, all kinds of berries. Stone fruits as well, dead ripe peaches being my favorite of those. But my favorite thing in all the world is a cup of coffee with real cream and sugar, and something to dunk into it. Lotus cookies (Biscoff) and Nekot are my current picks - but I would not say no to a scone, or some shortbread. 

*** Bonus ***

Nekot, manufactured by Lance, is a graham cracker peanut butter filled cookie. Nekot is token spelled backward. 

Post 300

On October 12, 2010, I sat in the Russell County Public Library in Lebanon, Virginia, and set up a blog.  White Owl at Midnight. Today's post is the 300th I have published. 

A great deal has happened in my life over the past 5 1/2 years, and most - if not all - of it is chronicled here on my blog. In many ways, it is the story of me. 

My passions, my struggles, my heartaches and trials. My joys, my losses, my victories, my journey to me. 

Through White Owl, I have rediscovered and reignited a passion for writing that has been a part of me since I was a teenager. Prose has never been my strong point. But Poetry. Ah, Poetry. Just this past week I wrote "Elegy". In an introduction to the poem I posted on Facebook, I said: 

It has occurred to me today that I have been seriously working at the craft of writing (creative writing, poetry and prose) for at least 43 years, Wow. And never published, except for my little blog. I thus decree I am the Poet Laureate of the muted voice in the empty room. Check out my Elegy on said blog.

Rachel Westfall Taylor - used with permission

The following are my introduction to my blog, and my first blog post:

From 10/12/2010

I am definitely moving onward and upward with my life, and want to be able to connect better with my ever increasing family, there here and elsewhere.

You will see the esoteric and mundane, the prosaic and eclectic, recipes for things that will make your tummy happy, and recipes that are never meant to be actually consumed!

Come in, have a cup of good tea, maybe a slice of cake, and we will see what happens!

From 10/20/2010

one thing that has really irritated me a great deal lately is the way that people are more materially focused -

i understand that commerce is important, but the intense consumerism and lack of balance in the society really concerns me-

so for balance

 one thing that is so very encouraging to me in recent days is the blooming of awareness and understanding i am seeing in some of the people in my circle, as well as in myself, of the interconnections of reality -

may paths

one reality

too many detours?

nah

a detour is so often a revelation

it is all in how we react to the challenges that define us

Today, I am going to share a few recent Facebook posts as well, things I have written that almost say what I want to say. Because, i am never really done with what I write. I always see tweaks to make, errors to correct, clarifications to made. 

What is on my mind? Need and proximity.If you know someone is in need, and are able, please reach out and try to be the difference. We are at a distinct disadvantage with social media, in some ways, because we are scattered across the globe. Our connections are via the ether. The real impact we can have in life can be implemented in two ways : moral support (listening, praying, paying attention.) and in real life, real time. Even a simple act in your eyes can make all the difference to someone else. Random acts of kindness is one phrase that comes to mind. Be purposeful in your reactions and interactions. If there is need, and you are where the need is, see the need, hear the need, be the solution. It is not always about money, sometimes just being acknowledged is enough. I see and hear so much need every day. I am sure we all do. The question is, what is our response? Moral Support works online and in real life. Action in the moment often requires being in the same place as the person in need. Just a few thoughts rumbling in my mind.

 

And do not be afraid of course corrections. They are a part of life. We all make errors in judgement, we all speak when we should have been quiet, we all do not speak up when we should have. We all make mistakes. Make the missteps a part of the dance.

Sights-Sounds-Smells

Magnolia - Marigold - Mimosa

Wisteria - Weeping Willow - Watermelon

Jasmine - Jack-in-the-Pulpit - Juniper

Honeysuckle - Hydrangea - Honeydew

Fireflies - Fishing Pond - Front Porch

Buttercups - Begonia - Ballgames

Summer!

Be kind ...It costs nothing, and can mean everything.

Smile at the cashier. 

Say Thank You to the clerk.

Let a car out of a side street ahead of you.

Pick up the receipt you just dropped.

Let the wonder of a child engage you.

Act towards others the way you would appreciate them acting towards you. 

You learned manners as a child - use them.

Lots of busy people this weekend, lots of stress and hurry - be patient.

And in closing, 

I have a vision, of Earth ... healed.