Eat, Pray, Love and Ramble

I finally started reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love and just as everyone told me, it's a great read. It takes me back to my sweet time in Italy (Tuscany) this past Fall and the fantastic Balinese Sojourn and Yoga Adventure retreat I went on with Spirit Journeys and the incomparable David Moreno (Abhi) earlier this year to Bali (2008). Rathi, I miss you! Abhi, I so want to join you and Kevin in NM this summer but alas I don't think that's going happen. I loved last summer's men's retreat at the Bodhi Zen Center. It was a difficult time for me, falling in love at the wrong time with the wrong person and the healing began there with the creative writing, the sweat lodge, the trance dancing and the rest of that incredible and indescribable experience with such a fantastic group of beautiful men. So healing. Yet another lesson in learning to keep my heart open to all things but listen carefully to my gut. I'm looking out my window as I write and the moon is full, or nearly full and draws me. I saw CW today for accupuncture and need to remember to incorporate Nadi Shodana (lunar breathing) into my daily practice. Cool the heat inside. Practice has been good this week. Murti, you are deep in my thoughts and my heart, my teacher, my friend. May good things to come you. I'm glad you read the Andrew Harvey interview in The Sun, and I'm so glad to have discovered him. Now if only I can convince Dale to either go with me or give me his blessing to get signed up for the pilgrimage to India in early 2009. I'm rambling and it's way past my bedtime. I'll curl up with EPL and Pepe and Ralph and let the moon bath the room in her soft glow.

A Swish of Wind

It seems like only yesterday that mama raccoon carried her 4 kits to the front water fountain, presumably to show them where they might find water in the scorching heat, and now only one seems to have survived. I hope the cat food I've been giving him along with a bowl of water is enough to sustain him. He is so little and frail, and seems so alone in this world. Where are you mama? Has something happened to you? Your kit is having a rough time. But such is Nature. I noticed the cottontail that I threw a carrot to this morning is blind in one eye. The painted buntings are still here although for days I didn't see the male with his brilliantly colorful feathers. Soon the bunting family will be gone, until next year. The hummers are swarming and divebombing and always ready for a sweet refill. I counted six squirrels yesterday, lounging on tree limbs and trunks. A young cardinal crashed into the window right next to where I was sitting, so loud a crash that Pepe jumped from my lap to see what was going on. He was alive, just stunned, on the back porch. As usual when this happens, I grab a clean rag and and put the stunned bird in a box up high, safe from predators and especially fire ants, and watch as they recover their strength and take flight once again. He got into the plumbagos and I couldn't get to him, but I could hear the rustle of his movements as he tried to escape my rescue attempt. Suddenly in an instant I felt a swish of wind against my foot just in time to see him take flight to the nearest oak.