Falling

Today the first whisper of fall reached the ears of southern Louisiana.

Oh, the FIRST day of September arrived with a whistle of cooler wind to replace the blasts than summer's furnace routinely delivered, but that flirtation with fall lasted only a few days and by week's end the mugginess had returned - not to be blown away until today - the LAST day of September (sigh).

This time of year, when the cycle of seasonal change is so welcome as a respite from the heat, also ushers in a new season of the soul.

I take longer walks. I ponder more. The frenzied pace of summer activities slows to the steady routines of of the season :

- school children's voices in the morning, waiting at the corner for the bus with squeaky brakes;

- the scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch of old men raking leaves on their too-manicured lawns;

- birds joining into flocks to either fly or forage more efficiently and in perfect synchrony;

- smells - especially those of food cooking and various kinds of wood, burning - become more intense as the air chills and brings air molecules closer together;

- sounds seem louder and closer as a result of the same phenomenon of physics, as my science teacher sister Jacqueline would remind me. I can more easily hear the church bells.

As a child, I loved all seasons wholeheartedly, finding in each one, many glorious reasons to enjoy life and exploiting every benefit each season offered.

Fall brought leaf catching and camping out and fairs and festivals and cozy sweaters and snuggling and warm pies and hearty gumbos and cups of rich, sweet, cafe au lait on the porch with grandma Lillian across the street - steam rising in curlicues from the frothy mix of cream and coffee.

As an adult, I find myself gravitating towards loving most that season that mirrors my age: fall. I still love catching leaves and camping out and fairs and festivals, and all those other reasons, too, plus a few more:

- I love seeing longtime friends and am touched by how age has softened not only their features, but their dispositions as well. It's always striking to me to see how my former girlfriends' and/or distaff classmates' faces have not changed hardly at all since I knew them as little girls, or young women, but perhaps my longfelt affection for them places corrective "lenses" on my eyes, as i am regularly startled by the sight of my own features in a mirror.

I am also heartened by the sincere camaraderie expressed by the guys, despite all of the rivalries and other rough treatment we foisted upon one another way back when. Forgiveness, or a bad memory, is a wonderful thing, as calendar leaves fall away.

In calendar terms, by the way, if we are "born" on the first day of Spring (Mar 20) and "die" on the final day of winter (Mar 19), then I am fully "fall" right now :

I'm Oct 6 if I live to be 100, Oct 28th if 90, Nov 25th if 80 (my father's age now), but Dec 29, a week into winter - if I only live to 68 (my father's father's age when he died).

So, time's awastin' ! Time to fully enjoy fall today !

Clarion Call

Their color (bright red) and shape (trumpet) seem to sound a loud and clear call that fall is here. The appearance in the community garden of the Fairy Trumpet was both a surprise and a joy. They sprung up in a dry, thin-soil patch of the garden near the street, and no one recalls planting them !

The hummingbirds and butterflies flirt endlessly, hovering nearby, and then suddenly, boldly, crossing that line from flirting to flaunting their attraction by searching the throats of the Fairies for nectar.

It's a sweet, colorful exchange to watch.

Gardens are legendary for their ability to take you away from worldly concerns and transport you to their own worlds of varied textures, colors, aromas, shapes, sounds, and the interplay of all of the life forms that accept their invitation to stay and enjoy.

Ours is no different - with one exception : we intentionally created a space for meditation. It's shady, hidden from the main view, and comfortable to plop down upon, right on the ground.

After just a few minutes of being fully there you are far away; that's the magic.

Time, like the hummingbirds and butterflies, wings away before you know it, but leaves the indelible stamp of calm, and the feeling of having been spent well.

Find your own garden to enjoy. Then prepare to be romanced there by all the life around you.

If you are adorned with a certain color, perhaps a butterfly will flirt with you.

Ties That Bind

Celebrating a birthday with family & neighbor/friend

AS I continue to work in the relief efforts following hurricanes Katrina and Rita (or KatRita, as one wag coined), more and more lessons are being taught to those who would learn.

Here's the most basic lesson, repeated and enlarged upon - as repetition is at the heart of most learning :

Neighbors for immediate help , Family and Friends for longterm relief.

Three days ago I mentioned how getting to know your neighbors better (and thereby forming stronger bonds with them) was the best single insurance policy for having help when you need it in an emergency.

I have personally seen this rule played out over and over again in the stories of those who lived through the two hurricanes that just ravaged Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama.

Today I add the natural corollary to that lesson: Forming strong Family and Friendship bonds is your best chance of getting longterm help quickly.

This next point may be controversial, but I have seen it over and over in these past few weeks :

Even among the very poorest of the poor (and to a greater degree among the other evacuees) - those who have lived their lives in a way that created and maintained strong family and friendship bonds did NOT have to rely on government help for very long, if at all !

As a relief worker who deals with evacuees every single day, I have noticed this common thread running through our relief efforts to help folks from every race and socioeconomic level.

The most help being given to house and feed evacuees is NOT being delivered by government - but by family and friends of those affected.

This is a powerful lesson.

Let's contact our family members and friends and tell them and also find a way to show them that we love them and appreciate their love and friendship.

Then let's do it again soon. And constantly.

THEY are our connection to the positive life force here on earth, period.

Power of Now

The photograph is of a special place near where I lived in the Columbia River Gorge of the Pacific Northwest. I enjoyed more than a few Shining Moments there.




This poem, brought to my attention through The Writer's Almanac, seemed especially appropriate today. Create, then enjoy, as many Shining Moments in the Now as you can. In fact, today marks the very first Shining Moment in my life : I was born on my father's birthday !

This Shining Moment in the Now

When I work outdoors all day, every day, as I do now, in the fall,
getting ready for winter, tearing up the garden, digging potatoes,
gathering the squash, cutting firewood, making kindling, repairing
bridges over the brook, clearing trails in the woods, doing the last of
the fall mowing, pruning apple trees, taking down the screens,
putting up the storm windows, banking the house—all these things,
as preparation for the coming cold...

when I am every day all day all body and no mind, when I am
physically, wholly and completely, in this world with the birds,
the deer, the sky, the wind, the trees...

when day after day I think of nothing but what the next chore is,
when I go from clearing woods roads, to sharpening a chain saw,
to changing the oil in a mower, to stacking wood, when I am
all body and no mind...

when I am only here and now and nowhere else—then, and only
then, do I see the crippling power of mind, the curse of thought,
and I pause and wonder why I so seldom find
this shining moment in the now.

Poem: "This Shining Moment in the Now" by David Budbill, from While We've Still Got Feet © Copper Canyon Press. Reprinted with permission.

Garden Beauties

Even in the midst of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the community garden - in which I spend blood, sweat, and tears - continued to flourish.

In preparation for the high winds, I'd staked down (with coat hangers cut to fit) the princes of the place: the pumpkins, and their vines responded by continuing to grow about six inches a day, even during the storm.

We have pumpkin flowers now, as you can see, the males peacocking out and spreading their five petals in that familiar, lush orange tint, and the females forming a more vase-like shape with the slight bulge of the baby pumpkin just below the base of the flower - see?



Bees will handle the rest, and voila !

With continued hot weather (which pumpkins love), we'll have a string of the orange squashes by All Hallows Eve. Already, neighborhood children are all atwitter with the rumor of actual pumpkins growing in their neighborhood !

My grandfather "Acie" would be proud.

Relief / Releaf

The highest-quality relief work down here - for both Katrina and Rita - is being done by private citizens. This must be a universal rule of disaster response.

No matter FEMA; no matter the Coast Guard; no matter the National Guard or the US Armed Forces; no matter the State of Louisiana; no matter The Red Cross; no matter the Salvation Army; no matter the Sheriff, or Mayor, or Parish President, or United Way, or newspapers or TV stations or radio stations or churches - although each of these institutions provide valuable, life-saving help at times.

From my perspective as someone who has lived through plenty of these disasters, and who has worked on the front lines of disasters as a volunteer relief worker, a television reporter/anchor, a print journalist, a school teacher, and a member of local government,

I want to first praise - before any of the aforementioned sources of help - the remarkable resilience, patience, resourcefulness, tirelessness, and all-around loving concern that everyday people bring to a disaster.

Lesson? Get to know your neighbors better than you know them now.

They are your best insurance policy, period.

Hurricane Alley / Ally

Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico
Credit: GOES 12 Satellite, NASA, NOAA

We who live on the Gulf Coast of the United States love life beyond all reason.

As we Cajuns like to say : "Come see, and enjoy being unreasonable with us." Or as my maternal grandmother Lillian softly suggested : "To love life, love many things."

Hurricanes are just another "thing" to love, so we do, in a matter-of-fact way without guile, pretension, or worry. We can see hurricanes as not only our bete noirs, but also our allies, by providing much-needed rain and many opportunities to improve our quality of life.

In upcoming entries, I will share feelings, thoughts, and stories that reflect a philosophy of life that espouses neither a predominantly right-eyed (conservative) nor left-eyed (liberal) way, but rather a 3rd Eye's perspective.

Stay tuned and buckle up. It's going to be a thrilling ride.