The Inner Soar

Summer scenes and my daughter's fairy art remind me it's time to soar whether it's a bird about to fly, a bud about to bloom, a kite about to catch a gust of wind or a life that wants to unfurl. All this, much like a baby's first steps, requires an innate hope in possibilities that can get lost along the way, inspiring my take on the "important steps" prompt by Poets and Storytellers United and the first line of an Emily Dickinson poem.

If hope is a feather, despair is the gale that

flings the thing into sorrow's well where its

quill is a sword that pierces the soul and joy

is a forgotten, ensnared and tuneless chord 

Yet often when thrust into darkness, the mind

in defeat seeks a leap, plucking out the sting to

reclaim the inner flight, it finds the first step in

rising back up is to let in a single gust of light 

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

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Seashells, Stars, Froth & Bubbles

"Life is mostly froth and bubble … two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble and courage in your own." – Princess Diana

   

Various events were happening simultaneously so not all beach goers paid rapt attention to the touch of Hawaiian (or was it Polynesian) culture that recently graced our Crescent Beach shores in southwest British Columbia.

A blow into a seashell and the dancers started to sway.

Young women twirled effortlessly to the music, their bare feet sinking into the sand.

There was symbolism in every move. You can learn more about the hula dance HERE.

The up and coming littlest performer looked on. Soon it would be her turn.

It takes a bit of courage to dance like no one is watching and perhaps even more so when attention is desired and/or anticipated.

The beach, like life, is a stage of "frothy bubbles" where one never knows what to expect. Sometimes gifts of kindness catch us by surprise in these cruel historic times and sometimes, when we turn our gaze from things distant, treasures await nearby.

 

In one of my daughter's B.C. Fairies drawings that I recently refreshed for fun, Muriel didn't find the shell she might have wished for but she did discover what appeared to be a very good omen in the form of a beached star, inspiring my few words below:

I sought a seashell once of many hues

to hear sounds of angels in the hollow

but roar of rancor echoed out that lair,

as sweetly and discreetly, by my hand

for easy grasp, a star from heaven fell. 

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

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Farewell To Fairytales

Due to a string of worrying world events and also the "in memoriam" prompt from Poets and Storytellers United, gone, hopefully not for long, is my belief in enchanted endings. Although I sometimes say farewell to illusions, I cannot say goodbye to the fairies my daughter drew (above) when she was small. And I confess it was not easy leaving Bella (below), the sweet dog I met on my recent walk. Doesn't she look like a shaggy sidekick character in a fairytale? And isn't existence, from certain angles, as implausible as a fairytale full of unique characters that play a role in your life's story. Unlike most fairytales, real situations don't always end well and our battles go on and on. But maybe it seems that way because we haven't yet arrived at "the true" ending. 

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

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The Wet & Sunny West Coast

The rainfall of the last few days was needed, each drop a soothing balm. Of course, balance is bliss so we want the right amount of wet drops … not too much or too little. Below, the rain rolled down the fairy's hand where a spider had spun its thread.

Rain and the Poets and Storytellers United prompt "write something that includes a complete title of a favorite book" brought to mind With My Umbrella I Can: The Magical Journey of Penelope Puddle. In the story, a little girl's umbrella is a creative prop more than a canopy to ward off the weather. The overall concept was in part inspired by the West Coast that is becoming less wet. Although not embedded with the book's title, the poem below is in the book and alternatively named Rain Call and Come Out And Play.

The weather can be intense so it is nice that umbrellas can be used for rain, sunshine and all that comes in between, especially in the face of dryer, hotter summers.

The photo of me that I've posted before was taken some five years ago. I've changed since then, even though the time that's gone by feels closer to five seconds.

The recent sky over Kwomais Point Park is an infinite playground for clouds and a good place to roam and imagine. Kwomais means "a place of vision". The Semiahmoo Salish tribe, it is said, used the land for spiritual renewal. The area on a bluff also made the perfect lookout spot for approaching enemies and friends. In the early 1900's, a former Methodist minister obtained 136 acres which he divided into lots. A portion, designated as a park, became a summer camp the United Church oversaw until the City of Surrey purchased the land for public use in 2007. It could have been sold to developers.

Instead, the gates came down so everyone could be uplifted by the paths and views.

Sometimes I stop gazing at screens, put away the camera, go outdoors and let nature wash over me ... casting my hopes and stagnant dreams into the freshly showered air.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Looking In Mirrors & Spying Through Keyholes

Do you ever look in a mirror and wonder if you or anything at all is as you envision it? 

In my curly hair days it was mostly about the veneer and angst about what I wished I could see since there was a lot wrong it seemed with me.

Smokescreens permeate the human condition. This murky charade of visual effects blurs a truer understanding of the cosmic glue underpinning our existence beyond the senses.

Science tries to explain it; poetry seeks to penetrate it. 

With that in mind and for a possible new creative project, I wrote Unbreakable Flow. 

Tucked in the glittery dark, amid the realities we perceive and our fantasies, an invincible power persists. The binding ingredient energizing everything is not only in mirrors or discoveries through the eye of a camera. We can spy on this unifying factor through windows, keyholes in doors as well as in ourselves ... occasionally unlocking calm even when adrift in chaos and storms. Although we will go our separate ways with the dust and stars, come sit with me and unravel its mysteries in a peaceful moment of reflection .......

 

Explore more at SKYWATCH & Poets and Storytellers United.

Still the kid I used to be

Visit Postcards From Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. to view more West Coast scenes.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.