creativity catch-up

What did I do on the days when I didn't have computer access, and didn't "report in"?

Let's see... On Wednesday, June 30, I square-danced at the memorial celebration for Robin Quint in Boonsville, MO.  And believe me, my versions of a "promenade" and a "dosey-do" are pretty darn creative.
I do not consider myself a dancer, but it was fun and I'd do it again -- preferably with a similar bunch of really patient and jolly people.

The next day, July 1, Tim and I sought out the 350 year old Bur Oak near Missouri's KATY Trail. His long-time friend and teacher Alloday and her friend Bridget followed us, and we were delighted to find Nancy, a local friend of Robin's, waiting for us there, along with her wonderful Australian Shepherd, Ja. (As in Jamaica.)

 Ja says "Ear scratches are good." She was SO sweet... we all wanted to spirit her away with us.







 As I mentioned in an earlier post, I highly recommend that you seek out a copy of Ursula LeGuin's story, "The Direction of the Road."  It has been my favorite short story for a couple of decades, and when I visited this Bur Oak for the first time just a few years ago, this was absolutely the tree I had envisioned as I read the story.  It has somehow survived all these years on its flood plain, the road taking a curve around it; a true Witness Tree.

Robin and her husband John were the ones who first introduced Tim and me to the tree back in '07.


At the end of our time at the tree, we all held hands and sent love to Robin on her journey, and to John for the healing of this hole in his life.

I sang a song I learned in the days when a group of us in Minneapolis were trying to save a quartet of sacred oak trees from being cut down to free up space for a highway which could have been rerouted away from them. (Construction of the highway also endangered Coldwater Spring,  a 10,000 year old freshwater spring which flowed at a pre-construction rate of over 100,000 gallons a day, and was the focal point around which early settlement of this area happened... thanks to the generosity of "The Friendlies," the Mdewatantan Sioux who pointed it out to the first arrivals, who were suffering from bugs and brackish water down by the river.)


  Here's the lyric, and the photo above speaks to me of "the arms of the wild":

Humble yourself in the arms of the wild.
You've got to lay down low and 
humble yourself in the arms of the wild.
You've got to ask her what she knows,
and we will left each other up
higher and higher.
We will lift each other up higher and higher...

I've looked online for attribution, but can't find any.  And, as someone who has sent songs and lyrics out into the world of rituals herself, I'm sure the author is happy when the energy of the song is released into the planet's own energy stream.

We spent a couple of hours at the tree on an unusually perfect, sunny morning with temps only in the upper 70s, little humidity, and a fresh breeze.  What were the chances of THAT in southern MO on July 1?  I consider it a gift from Robin.  Then Tim and I drove to Clarinda, IA to visit his older sister Alice, who lives at
Westridge Quality Care, a wonderful care facility there.

Alice has been adopted into the remarkable family of Sandy and Mike Alexander and their daughters, sons in law and grandchildren.  They are truly some of the most generous and loving people on the planet and I'm proud to be considered an official family member now, too!  We all went to dinner and then enjoyed a little fireworks display put on for the residents and their families by the Clarinda Fire Dept.  It was fun (and frustrating) to experiment with my Olympus camera's settings during the fireworks.

These photos are of two 8.5" x 11" pages I put together today (July 4) to send to Alice for the photo-book we began for her last year. We began it with pictures of her parents when they were young, her own youth, and current family activities. Then we sent more pages of photos from the surprise visit we made last year  with Tim's three grown children.

Let's see... that took me through July 1.  On July 2 it was my driving that was creative, according to Tim. And on July 3, to be honest, I was creative about the many relaxed positions I took while napping and reading and recovering from driving over 1200 miles from Monday through Friday. Hey, I'm on vacation for one more day!