All faults may be forgiven of him who has perfect candor. -Walt Whitman

Are you paying attention? I love you all.

I love the Girl Scouts

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.

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

Second Street Birds, Digital Collage