Loose Leaf Notes

1. On Sunday I went to the Sun Hall to dance to the sweet Grateful Dead tunes of The Kind in a benefit concert to stop mountaintop removal. With friends all around, including a surprise dancing appearance of Ruth, a community elder and one of its best loved matriarch, we raised a lot of energy. At the end of two hours, smiling and sweating, I turned to my friend Jayn and said, “Now this is my kind of Sunday church service.”
2. I grow pumpkins because they make me popular with the kids who I give them away to.
3. Speaking of pumpkins my friend Rio is a pumpkin carving artist whose art has been documented by The Roanoke Times HERE.
4. My favorite variation of the sign of the cross I grew up using (In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), is one from a poem by Emily Dickinson that goes like this: In the name of the bee – and of the butterfly – and of the breeze.
5. I had a dream that my husband Joe (who is really away on a month long silent meditation retreat) was in church. I had a dress on and was arriving to join him late but I had trouble parking. A man who was already parked helped me because I had squeezed in too close to the priest’s car, blocking him in. After helping me, the man drove away and I wondered why he hadn’t just offered me his space. Then I ran into an old friend on vacation who pleaded with me to come to his family home for a picture and to meet his family. I did and by the time I left there it was too late for going to church.
6. My poetry used to be all about Joe, now my most written about topics are tea, autumn, and the moon.
7. Like this most recent one: The moon is a chalice … Perceived empty or full … Sun’s gold silver-polished … Black Madonna’s holy grail.
8. I’m only a few degrees more sociable than Emily Dickinson.
9. Unfortunately, since having my blog moved to a new server, my category archive, which is like my own personal writer’s filing cabinet, is not displaying, My web hoster will be working on getting it back and will also be adding some google ads to my site so I can afford to pay for his service.
10. Watching Latin Music USA on PBS, I got reintroduced to THIS 1966 song. I didn’t know the group “? and the Mysterians” was Latino and the first band considered punk rock, but I knew I loved the song. They played at the Surf in the small little Massachusetts beach town I grew up in. I was working in the coat check at the time and was disappointed to hear them but not be able to dance.
11. Although I never liked the rote rituals of Mass and the feeling of being herded, as a young girl, I was always inspired by the sermons, and after church I wondered why everyone didn’t go on to live like the priest preached.
12. Not your average fish story HERE.
13. In the spirit of Halloween, HERE’S a monster mash starring the usual suspects. Can you guess who?
Go forth and multiply 13 Thursday HERE.