Greetings from Ghost Sister

Happy Halloween!

It's all smooth sailing from here

Grow old with me!  The best is yet to be.  ~Robert Browning

Our Tosh turns twenty-one! I remember thinking, when he was born, about how cool it would be to be such a young mom - when he turns eighteen I will only be thirty-six! The years since then have been swift and cloudless, the way I think of my own childhood. It always seemed if I couldn't recall any difficulty or stress or hairy moments, then it must have been a damn good time. 

I wonder what Tosh thinks when looking back at his childhood. Was it as good as I remember it for him? Does he remember laughing? Does he remember making tiny bike ramps and struggling to drop in? Does he remember hikes and snuggling on the couch?

In many ways I grew up with Tosh. Being his mom gave me the opportunity to be a grown up shall we say, at an accelerated pace. In that way my mind plays tricks sometimes, when I can't separate moments of my youth from his. But that is okay, because it reminds me that he has been part of me the longest, and I have always been grateful to know and love this sweet, loving, happy boy who is still the same, only now a man. Happy Birthday Tosh!

The Sound of Flight, and Determination

As I expected the advent of fall relegates my summer running to the top shelf in a dusty hallway closet, if I had one. It has been beautiful out the last few days so my efforts to replace running with hiking have become more possible. I took a few hours of comp time to go to the woods and found these tiny mushrooms. They were on the top and sides of a big log that had fallen across the trail, persevering along their tiny way. The caps may have been about as big as a fingernail. What did they have to overcome to come to be?
I think about their smallness, the wet conditions, a fallen log. As if being small alone makes it more difficult to exist. But then, if the conditions were right, then the coming-to-be of some tiny mushrooms must have been effortless.
I think there is a lesson for me here but I am not sure what it is - could it be that if I lay the groundwork in my life correctly, the goal can be reached without struggle? Do the challenges make the goal more worthwhile? Or, don't forget to carry an umbrella?
I just don't know what the lesson is but I was filled with delight at having noticed. This hike gave me another sparkling moment, when I heard a bird above me. I heard it flying, with each flap of its wings a separate whoosh. I don't know about you, but I've never heard that before.

I feel like this today. I would like to celebrate but wish my arms were longer. I have a wide smile but it looks a bit plastic in the blur and whirl of this busy life. My eyes are glazed with the confusion of impending change. My inherent nature will always look for the sun, which remains where it has always been - constant, gentle, certain.

This work is just amazing.

Dalton Ghetti

Find more here: http://www.area4.at/blog/kleinste-schnitzereien/

Yes, I'm sure today is the day.

Happy Birthday to Anyone who may have been born Today!

Today is the Day, or The Time is Now

       i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any--lifted from the no

of all nothing--human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

- e.e. cummings

What do you remember about being six?

Child To Turn Seven! More News to Come!

The Nimble-Fairy's Tale

She traveled to the pool of wishes

She held hers in her hand

And let go. Hers was the brightest wish

To one day work in "the White House"?

She was full of indecision.

Called her people, but did not get the answers she was looking for.

Not even one.

She looked within.

"I know the truth lies inside me."

She enacted a ritual dance before a Georgia O'Keefe just in case.

Ah.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Marianne Williamson

Happy Birthday P!

Oh we do love our birthdays, don't we?