Thank you, sun, for feeding the flowers. (It will be 92 degrees later).
Thank you, shade, for making walks in the heat of the day possible.
Thank you, creative impulse, for overcoming a mini-snit about Paris Collage Collective not scooping up my images in their weekly roundups. Repeatedly. It’s annoying. But I’ve discovered recently that the process has value with or without inclusion.
(It’s a new tagging problem with Instagram I’m told and don’t hesitate to send my pictures by email. Done that a few times. No more.)
Thank you, basic self, for holding me back in certain PREDICTABLE ways.
Which is also to say, thank you difficult Natal Chart. (All those red lines represent places where energy gets stuck, where it works at cross-purposes, where there’s conflict. Those challenges are then amplified by the square configuration trying to lock things in place).
Every year the dampening effect of the Sun traveling through my twelfth house and kicking off one corner of my Grand Cross makes itself felt. The implacable sense of defeat, stasis, invisibility, etc. Old stuff. I don’t pay attention to astrology anymore really, until August rolls around and this lackluster mood sets in.
I know to wait it out.
I know to apply gratitude like it’s an aloe/lavender balm.
I know to reach out to friends.
Thank you to recent readers of my novel who are helping me wade through the intensely demoralizing business of looking for an agent.
Thank you brave and talented writers everywhere. Two debut novels are knocking my socks off. (More on that another time?)
Thank you rogue ferns. No human put you there, but how gorgeous an addition you make to the cellar doorway!
Thank you food. Can this be said enough?
(This was so, so good! Especially because I added ginger and garlic).
Thank you all of you for coming here and especially if taking time to add your thoughts and impressions and opinions and comments. Means the world to me.
Dee, thank you for posting here, where I found you (I don’t remember when) by way of Jude or Grace. Thank you for your straight-forwardness, and your fearlessness.
For me, the clouds dampen the effect of the sun in January, the celebrated beginning of the new year!
My natal bomb just might be tequila. Oh. You said balm…
Thanks Laura for your feedback and also for making me laugh!
I don’t know what to say except that you never seem “stuck” to me. You have amazing resilience, wisdom and fortitude – and I think you accomplish absolutely stunning work wherever you turn your attention.
Thanks Maggie. Testament perhaps to how the inner and outer don’t always line up.
I’ve been reading my horoscope again, online – free, and not too deep – and I love the sort general advice it gives. I wish I understood more, but I have too many irons in the fire as it is… ? Should I read more? Any suggestions of reading for a mid-level understanding?
love the thought of applying Gratitude…love it
A little dab here. A little dab there.
I’m grateful for your flower photo, way with words, honesty, and humor (even in the dark). I’m also glad to know that there are inner cycles that come and go. Wishing you light (without any extra heat!).
Thanks Hazel. I’ve been thinking about what Jude said a day or so ago about learning how not to worry. Just not doing it. I’m trying on this idea.
Love you volunteer ferns. Massive (indoor) ferns staged by the realtor clinched this house for me. They are actually impossible in Georgia. I should know better than read your blog at night. I go to sleep Hungry. You just reminded me how world rocking mid August has always been for me.
Yes ferns are so great that even fake ones bolster a decor.
This was a delightful and pretty post, even for someone who doesn’t do anything much with astrology and doesn’t eat chicken. 🙂 Your flowers and ferns are beautiful. I find that gratitude and stepping out of self by doing for others helps me get out of a funk. I liked reading your gratitudes.
You model doing for others beautifully.
or slather
Like butter on toast!
Accepting that we have done, in all endeavors,our very best, should be enough but then that inner voice, that need to be validated is felt when honestly, speaking only for myself here, at my age, my own sense of worth, should be more than enough…learning to not second guess, to try not to worry when the unforeseen comes, to know that we cannot affect every outcome, we can only dig deep and stand and face and continue to create from that deep well of ourselves, in whatever form our creativity takes us.
And yes how birth date is destiny but then, is it? .and I laugh as I write this because honestly, I am the poster child for Virgo!
From this mish- mash of words what I am trying to convey is that acceptance flows into gratitude and gratitude leads to connection and so it is in this community of women, in this place called Pattern and Outrage, this place of good conversation, thought provoking ideas, information and opinions, gratitude colors the day.. Gratitude for the exchanges, gratitude in being able to share in the life of a talented, multi-faceted woman from Massachusetts, how all of this is simply a gift and I thank you Dee.
One more thing: Your photo of cypress knees took me back to Sept. 2007 when Rich surprised me with a trip to New Orleans for my 60th birthday. We stopped in Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun and Creole country at the visitor center. I walked out on the boardwalk that overlooked a swamp and off to one side spotted a cypress stump, did not know it was called a knee. It held my attention because it looked like a monk praying and so I called it Swamp Buddha. I have to say that it was quite the experience to gaze at Swamp Buddha while the air was filled with Cajun zydeco music from the visitor center. loud speakers. The boardwalk was nice and long so I danced my way back because when in Louisiana, my dear, you must simply “Laissez le bons temps roulter”, :Let the good times roll!
This is the kind of comment it would do me well to print and hang near where I sit and write. You are a dear Marti. I thought the cypress knees looked like monks in prayer too. Astonishingly so honestly. None Buddha like the one you emailed me though. That was amazing.
back in May our coneflowers looked like yours … now they are crouched before the relentless Texas sun … thank goodness Don is so diligent about hand watering the garden or they would surely be goners
so yes, gratitude … for air conditioning and for getting through 2+ months of summer … with 2+ more to go … halftime?
I do love reading your posts … and the scent of lavender … more gratitude
I cannot believe how grateful I am for AC these days. Texas sounds truly challenging.
I’ve long said we can’t complain about the Texas heat as we chose to live here … but it’s scary to see the heat spreading into areas that are not equipped to handle it (much as Texas is a total fail when it comes to dealing with ice storms)
The Northeast sort of used to be kind of immune to the effects of the climate crisis. But not anymore. The fires are so scary. It’s like the earth is exploding.