Author: LFSAlden

and he has roared and stretched luxuriantly
and shown his sharp teeth and stretched down for another nap,

Stretching Time out in such a way,
that several days share one sleep.

It’s very different from the frenzied packing-everything-in days.

I am grateful for yesterday – the day when we said farewell to my retiring doctor,
The day I spent knitting,
The day I spent teaching and grading papers,
The day I spent with loved ones.

Thank you, gentle day in October, for your gentle way with Time.

They dance before me — or hide behind veils —
Who is this circle?
What do they know of themselves?
What do they not know?

Who is in this Family and who is not? Who lives
within these walls, if body is nowhere near as important as spirit?

Who are they to me?
Perhaps that’s the question.

And whom do they need me to be to them?

Today the stillness,
Today the emptying,
Flow out,
flow out,
flow out…

I empty myself
— not for some other purpose,
because it is good to do so.

Let go,
let go,
let go.

Breathe
all
the
way
out.

Slipping closer, closer,
shedding her skin

But still fresh and silver.

Sometimes it’s all made of mistakes,
from errors in judgment
to hate-filled genocide.

From the life I’m walking
To the history of shame.

To the countless individuals.

So much comes down to keeping your eye on the ball.
Mamaidh throws it this way two times in a row and then we assume it’s going this way,
but then she calls, “Look!”
and it’s still in her hand,
and we run all the way back to her,
and then she throws it that way!

Also, woofing at the ball does not make it go.

Friends, I’m thrilled to announce a new book – a collaboration with my dear friends Marie Everett and Lauren Strauss – and the new Moonlight Meander series.

Moonlight Meander presents not only poetry but rituals and spiritual practices for daily living and some amazing archetypal storytelling. Live your mythic life with us.

Moonlight Meander: Hunter’s Moon is designed specifically to match the dates and energies of October 16, 2020 to November 15, 2020, a lunation which includes the full blue moon on Samhain. The fact is that this day-book can be used during any cycle from dark of moon to dark of moon for wellness, spiritual exploration, and celebrating our connection with the forces of nature.

I decided to be grateful and to just be and to sit in the autumn beauty with my coffee and my dogs.

There’s a lot to be grateful for,
There’s a lot to realize.
There are things I’m a bit silly about – or stubborn.
If the new adventure feels like ramming my head against a brick wall, then perhaps it is not the right adventure to be on.

Patience taught me
(no, I’m being quite literal, the Reverend Doctor Patience Stoddard)
that it’s all right to say “Let’s try an experiement for six months and then re-assess”
and it is freakin’ all right to say, “This experiment taught us not to do that. Change of plan.”

The question is how much striving is the dream worth?
And can’t I look around at the previous fifty six years of striving, laziness, survival, dreaming,
and be ok and grateful?

We found one very darling lupine plant, small, striving,
rimed with frost.

It’s not your time, sweet thing,
now is time to rest.

But it didn’t listen to me.
It kept pushing its roots down, down, down.

I apologize.
You know best when to advocate for yourself.
I will just shut up and stand near and witness.

I am sent the message: Recovery Mode
Wouldn’t that be nice?

I woke early,
a little bit early, four:something is beginning to be the New Normal,
and lay in bed thinking about all the things.
Then my head lit upon one of the things which is a tasty and tempting to-do
and I crawled out of bed.

Beautiful Sgiobalta has slept at my feet.
What a privilege and a wonder to be the cozy place she would like to sleep.

And then, there he was.
Orion.
He’s back.
Hello, lover.