Almost Forty One Years

Richard and I are ready for spring, we have been locked up too long together in this house!  Oh dear, you'd think that after almost forty one years of marriage and almost six years of retirement we'd have this all worked out.  Well, we do have it worked out.  We have found that if we both have things that keep us busy, maybe it is the routine, we are much more able to spend our time together in better humor.

We have spent the mornings this winter, sleeping late, having coffee and chatting about this and that for another couple of hours and then we start making a move to do something.  In the wintertime it could be moving snow, writing a blog or reading a book.   Oh, there are days when we have important things to do, but mostly it is a leisurely time for us.  This winter has been long, we are both anxious to do something to give us more of a routine.  It's starting to effect our conversations in the morning, we suddenly don't understand what the other is saying.  It's as if we speak foreign language to one another or maybe it has always been this way, now it's just getting on our nerves........   I say this with all the humor I can find.  We have been married for almost forty one years, we are bound to still discover differences.  Maybe not so much a discovery but after a long winter I need to practice more tolerance!

Richard is the kind of guy that loves to be busy, he is not happy about inactivity.  He has been busy, if you like to move snow.  He has this wonderful old Model A 1931 Ford pick-up truck.  He is devouring catalogs of parts and making wish lists and constantly talking about this or that part.  All of which I hear, but don't understand most of the time.   I have heard the same conversation about the same parts wish list for the entire winter...............

I am looking forward to the mornings starting by 7am, coffee and breakfast done by 8am and we are both moving into a productive day.   He takes care of a farm and house on the other side of Cedarville, in the summer he mows 30 acres a week of "yard" for the non resident owner.  When he walks out the door, then my day can start too.   I don't have to explain why I'm on the computer, I don't have to explain that I'm running to get some supply or another to finish an art piece.  Life as we know it again becomes easier.

Don't get me wrong, I love my wonderful husband.  He is one of the "good guys".  He would do anything for me and does.  I have mentioned before that I give him short lists, a thing or two that just has to be done before flute circle or whatever, he does it willingly and without question.   I wish I could be like him!  Why do I question everything?    He also is so wonderful about fixing coffee and my breakfast every morning!
He unloads the dishwasher, he has fed my horses all winter.   He cleans the walk from the house to the studio when it is snow covered, he cleans off my car, just in case I have somewhere to go.  He takes out the trash and catches the studio cats when they won't come back to the studio in the evening.  I could go on and on.

I love that he can talk to everyone, that he supports my artistic life, he never questions my need for a new flute or that my dear friend and I are going on a road trip.  He supports my need to be who I am.  He loves his children, they always call on him when they need a hand with something, knowing he can fix anything!  Richard is always available when anyone needs a helping hand, his heart is always in the right place.  I love him for all these things and more.

Whew, there is nothing like putting it in writing to see that I am the one that needs a little attitude adjustment!

Respect.............

I told myself not to sit down at the computer, knowing how much time gets lost reading my emails, checking out my friends on Facebook and reading my friends blogs............   I told myself I had other things to do, important things.  I've been gone most of the day.  When I go out, away from my little world, I try to run all my errands at the same time.  Today's list was long:  Updated my license tags on the car, take stuff to recycle, stop at the print shop to proof new work, go to art class.   After art class, stop at the printers again, proof finished changes.  Then the question is, do I wait another an hour or more for the work or make another trip tomorrow to pick up the finished greeting cards.  I chose to go home, I have things to do.   And then I stopped for just a moment at the computer and now I am writing a blog......

I wanted to write about how warm it has gotten, sixty one degrees on my way home, how wonderful it is to see the earth again. I would love to share my new spring sightings, the red-wing blackbirds are back, I also heard the Killdeer and there are green sprouts of sweet grass showing.  No, I cannot be excited about these things.   With the snow is mostly gone, now all I see is the trash along the roadsides.  I get so angry about this.  It is one of my biggest pet peeves.  Why are people so inconsiderate?  Why can't they take their trash home and dispose of it properly?  You've seen it, you know what I'm talking about, plastic bottles, cans, plastic bags, trash from the drive thru food place.  I don't know how people can do this to our beautiful countrysides. 

I remember once picking up trash on one of our back roads, when we turned around to walk back to our truck, there were new pieces of trash laying along the road.  Didn't your Mother and Father teach you not to litter?  Is this what you do to your own property?  Have you no respect?  What are you teaching your children?  It makes me very upset, it allows me to see something other than the beauty of our world.  It forces me to voice my irratation to anyone who will read this post.

I just don't know what else to say on the matter...........  Sure, I can go and pick it up and I certainly have, but it never makes a difference, people are still being rude and inconsiderate when they throw their trash out the window of their cars.  We don't need another law to try to enforce, we need to teach respect for the earth we live on to our children to make a difference.  Lets start now!

A Sunday Drive

When I was a kid I remembered loading into the car and just taking a drive.  I don't recall that we went any place special.  Being the oldest I always got a window seat, my sister in the middle and my brother the other window seat.  I think it wasn't always the best arrangement because my sister tended to have car sickness....

I remember trips into southern Ohio.  The land is hilly there, those hills look like mountains to me.  I loved looking into the wooded hillsides and wondering how people climbed those hills. I love doing that today, looking into those trees.  Sometimes I see the secrets of a past time.   I also wondered if a horse could climb those hillsides.  They seemed so steep  and sometimes tangled with undergrowth.  I envisioned myself on a horse, making my way over the mountain. 

I look back on this and wonder if I manifested this, years later I did ride my horses over mountains in Ohio.  If you aren't from Ohio, we don't really have mountains, we do have some pretty good hills!  Riding a horse on trails in Ohio's rolling hills was an act of trust and faith.  I spent a year or two being totally afraid of riding these kind of trails.  I learned to trust my horse and he and I shared a common faith that this was were we needed to go and this was the way to get there!  When we trusted ourselves and each other, we could do anything!

Life is much like riding up the mountain trail.  You can worry about how to get to the other side, if the trail will be rocky and slick, you can worry about many things that could happen on the trail.  In the end you have to trust and have faith that all will be well.  Our lives are often rocky and a slippery fall comes now and then.

You get muddy and scratched and you are often tired and sore at the end of the day.  The accomplishment that comes from climbing that "mountain" is so fulfilling.  You learn the lessons along the way to go around those muddy bogs, you know to duck so the branches won't whack you and you trust all will be well.  One of my favorite quotes I read on a church sign, it said, "Faith is like driving in the fog".  I love that!  I think of that when I am having some doubt or concern about something going on in my life.

I think I am meandering again, I really wanted to share that my dear friend and I took a little detour coming home yesterday.  We traveled some back country roads, I showed her a herd of Bison and from their field you could see trees down by the river that had the Great Blue Herons nests, empty now, but soon to be filled with activity.  You can't see these nests when the leaves come out on the trees.  It was a good day to check them out.  We also drove to a canoe launch at the Little Miami River and got out to enjoy the sunshine and hear the water moving down stream. 

My friend hears stories of when we'd haul the horses to Yellow Springs, unload and then ride back home, crossing the river in this exact spot.  The time I broke my rib when I didn't duck low enough in the saddle and got scraped off.  I rode my horse another six miles home before I could get of and moan in pain.  Another time a good friend got tossed off her horse in this river on a cold fall day and had to ride that same six miles, wet to the skin.  It was fun to remember those moments.

Horses taught me long ago to get back on and try again.  That is the way of life.........  spread your wings, wait for the draft and then fly, soar and live this moment.  This buzzard was waiting on that draft, so he could soar, soon he did and we headed home from our little Sunday drive.

Massie Creek Flute Circle

This morning the Massie Creek Flute Circle met in my studio.  We have been meeting since last June.  Actually, I am not positive when we started, but I know our meetings were held on the porch of the studio all summer.

We have been meeting on the first Sunday of every month.  Our average number of people all summer was maybe five.  I loved the ease of this little group that gathered and played and talked and played and laughed.  The mornings always went quickly.

Today we met on the first Saturday of the month.  The change was due to a conflict with the Sunday meeting.  It turned out to be a great change.  The studio was packed full with fourteen Fluties.  I consider my job in all of this is to clean the studio and have enough chairs for every one to sit.  I don't usually have a plan, things just seem to evolve.  For instance:  My dear friend Linda and I were playing flutes together last week and discovered that the flute we were playing sounded like a particular animal or bird, I don't remember exactly.  The inspiration was to write down things that make noise (birds, animals, wind, rain and so on) on a card and have each person draw a card and then try to make that sound on their flute.  The idea behind this technique is to use embellishments to make your flute music more interesting.  It was so fun listening to leaves fall, butterflies dance, a mourning dove coo, or a dog bark.  Besides the interesting music each played, there was also lots of laughter.

During another meeting we used our flutes to ask our neighbor a question and the neighbor answers  the question on their flute. Some conversations are very abrupt and insistent!   This is not my idea, our flute circle leader in Columbus used this idea at her circle.  We also will play to some music on Cd's designed to be back up music for a flute player.  It is always amazing how the same background music will inspire each flute player to play their own song, no two songs are ever alike.  This music is coming from the players heart.

At the end of each Massie Creek Flute Circle we do a little work on keeping the beat.  I am very challenged in this area, but have seen some progress as we continue to practice this technique.  We gather around the big pow wow drum and a beat is set, we then take turns playing our flutes to the drum beat.  Bells, rattles and shakers are all used to accompany the drum.  We have had as many as eight people around the drum at one time.  It is a wonderful ending to our flute circle, although this can take quite awhile to actually end.  Everyone seems to love the drum.

I love our flute circle, I didn't want to see the morning end, it was just too much fun.

Sunshine

It is amazing the change in things when the sun shines on your life.  Your entire being absorbs that light and reflects it out.  We have been in a long period of winter and gloomy sky.  With the snow on the ground, everything is black, white and gray.  I feel like an old bear in the den, waiting for brighter and warmer days.

Today sunrise was showing clear skies.  The sun is bright and sky is blue once again.  The birds are singing songs of spring.  They too are happy for the sunshine.  It is March, spring is close and have I mentioned?  This is my Birthday Month!   I really think that is also the reason for my JOYFUL outlook on spring!  I have another chance at watching Mother Earth going through her rebirth!   I am a part of that rebirth, taking each day and living it as if it's my first and last.   I am humbled and grateful for this gift, I will celebrate accordingly.   

This is the second day of full sunshine in Greene County!  The snow is beginning to melt, I can see patches of what will soon be grass in my yard.  I also see the limbs that must be picked up before anything like mowing will happen.  This is a normal routine, the trees shed what is broken and damaged, making room for new growth.  I think we all do that, it just isn't so obvious sometimes.

I took my two shaggy little dogs to the groomer today.  They haven't had a hair cut since before Christmas, they like their winter hair in the winter.  The hair around their faces I try to keep trimmed, but after awhile they start looking like weird hairy dogs with little heads.........  something out of proportion and for an artist that is just wrong!  Spring haircuts are a must!

Of course all this sunshine will also bring mud.  Something you cannot avoid when living on a farm.  The driveway is soggy and the horse barn area is not only soggy, it is also sloppy.   I always know spring is really here when the horses start taking mud baths.  My white horse turns into a crusted muddy brown thing with legs.  I suppose it is partly due to the itching hair that they will start shedding very soon.  I once took a picture of them covered in mud, sent it out as a greeting card, the caption was, Spring Has Come!  All of my horse friends understood, they had the same in their stables.

Sunshine also brings people who smile more.  They too have been locked in their caves, waiting, just waiting for the sunshine to draw them outside.  I love spring...........   did I mention..... oh never mind, I think I did.

Another Strange Thing......

Funny, I've been waking up all week thinking the sun is shining and it NEVER is.  It has been cloudy and gloomy outside for days, maybe weeks.  It feels like weeks.  I am determined to make my own sunshine!  I turn on lights, turn on music and find the sunshine inside my space.  It has not failed to work and I am becoming a master!

Something strange happened to me this morning.  I actually felt like cleaning!  You might call it Spring Cleaning because I am moving stuff and running the sweeper under things.  Things that maybe haven't been moved for awhile.  Yes, this is very strange, in my world if it is tidy, it is clean enough!

I know some of you were thinking this blog would be another encounter with the tipi spirits.  Sorry to disappoint you.  I am dealing with another type of spirit, the spirit of contentment.  You know that feeling, the one that says "yes, you have done a great job!"  Even if it is only catching those dust bunnies!

When I was younger, when my children were home.  My job, if you will, was to do the work of a Mom at home with her children.  It was never ending and even if I didn't love doing it, I did it because it was necessary.   Now, I am older, everything takes twice as long to do as it did when I was younger.  Is it the enthusiasm or the energy that has left me?   I now save my energy for the important stuff, art, flutes, family and friends.  Not in that order necessarily, it seems to change with the day.

I look at all the things I have collected through our married life.  I wonder why I have the need to have these things, they only need dusting.  As I dust these things I remember the event that happened to cause me to cherish it and have it out to continue to remind me of that moment in time.  I don't want to forget those special times.  We have a room called the Trophy Room, it is really a morning room to most.  It is home to trophies, photos and ribbons of when the kids and I rode horses and won these mementos.  I keep birthday cards, letters from friends and old photo albums.  There are pictures that never made it to photo albums.  I have baskets hanging and sitting everywhere.  I love baskets, they are for gathering, giving and receiving things.  I continue to collect things I love, although the cherished things have changed and been added to the things from the past.  Now I collect drums and flutes and I have started trading my art for other people's beautiful art.  I am getting a wonderful collection of amazing pieces. As I dust these pieces, I see the work and joy put into the piece from the artist I traded with.  I cherish getting to know that artist and having a piece of their sunshine in my life.

What really compounds the problem, my wonderful husband also collects things.  I won't even go into the things he is interested in, it would boggle your mind.  We each have our rooms that we claim for ours.  These rooms are rarely seen by friends and even family.  These rooms are often reorganized, but rarely cleaned on a regular schedule.  Did I use the word schedule?   I usually clean for the next big event that will happen at our house.

Strange then that I feel the need to clean.........   there are no big events about to happen, except maybe SPRING!  This is all very strange.  If spring isn't in the air, it must be pledge.................

More Strange Things

2005 was the first year for our tipi to sit in the horse pasture.  Fall came and the November full moon.  I knew the tipi was going to come down soon.  The full moon afforded a chance to get some great pictures of the tipi lodge and the full moon.  I took our three wheeler out with a little hay for the horses, I was hoping they would like to be in the picture with the tipi and the full moon.  I took an entire roll of film while out there, I wanted to have them developed the next day when I took another roll of film to be processed.  I remember how very cold it was and took pictures very quickly, one after the other, only a move to one side of the tipi to the other.  Sometimes the camera didn't have time to recover and would not flash for the next shot. 

The pictures I am posting are just a few from the roll.  One picture would show something and the next would show nothing.  What appears to be smoke from a campfire is NOT.  There was no campfire.  The little white dot in the sky is the full moon.  The hay lays untouched by the horses, oh, they came to see what I was up to and were slightly interested in the hay.  They quickly changed their minds and snorted big time and raced back to the barn.  My horses are not afraid of camera flashes, they think they are poster horses for some horse magazine because of all the pictures I've taken of them.  I can tell you it was very cold out there that night.  The one that looks like my thumb is in the picture, it is not my thumb.......

When I had the pictures developed and looked at them before walking away from the counter, I called the clerk back and ask her what happened to my pictures!  She looked at them, looked at me and took them to her fellow worker.  They both looked at the pictures and came back to me.  She said, "I don't know what is in your pictures, it is nothing we did, but we know what is on the negative will be developed as shown." 

Many people have seen these pictures, no one has an answer as to what was there that night at the tipi.