Sunday, November 1, 2009

November, Welcome!

Hey, everyone. Welcome to November in Louisiana. The air is cooler today and the mosquito population is dwindling slightly, but sure to surge after all the rain we had last week. Having had a dry summer, we had no fire ant mounds in the yard. After the rain about 20 mounds appeared overnight...fleas, too. Oh, how nature wants to take our money to kill vermin!

O, the moon-lady tonight is a pure, white bride, dropping her veil which flows like mist over all it touches---until it sighs softly down upon the bejeweled dewy grass. ~Marion, moonstruck yet again......

I've been reading the Tao and some Zen writings and Anne Michaels' poetry. I'll share a few quotes today then I'm back to my couch and reading. It's been a wild week here. All of our cats got sick with diarrhea (TMI, I know) and I was seriously thinking of giving them all away. Then we found out two had tapeworms (TMI, I know) so I had to give them ALL a pill---ONE little pill. Any of you ever tried to give a cat a pill? Well, it's just like every joke you ever read about it. After losing one of those $10 pills, I crumbled them up fine and put them in some tuna for each cat. Two of them gobbled it down and two of them looked up at me like, "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fall for this dirty trick?" So I put away their dry food and told them (I'm sure they understood, right?) in no uncertain terms that they'll eat that friggin' drugged tuna fish or DIE of starvation!!!! It's just like having hard-headed kids again, except they purr while you're fussing at them to guilt you. I seriously considered joining a monastery for a few days there.


Verse 11 of
Tao Te Ching

Thirty spokes are joined together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole that allows the wheel to function.
We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful.
We fashion wood for a house,
but it is the emptiness inside that makes it livable.
We work with the substantial,
but the emptiness is what we use.

***************************************
Verse 11 from
"The Tao of Inner Peace"

"Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.



I know Mardi Gras is a long time away, but I found this pattern online and used some of my heavy scrapbook paper to make some easy masks and then I found this synchronistic quote:


"You wear a mask and your face grows to fit it." ~George Orwell, 'Shooting An Elephant'


And this funny photo is my husband trying to teach Catfish to walk on a leash. (This cat really acts like a dog. It's uncanny. He does everything but bark!) It was a cool, quiet day and we heard one of our neighbors exclaim to her mother, "Oh my God, I think he's walking a CAT on a leash!!!" Ha! We're still laughing about it. The experiment didn't work too well. The cat ended up walking him around the yard. LOL!

And a stanza from a poem by Anne Michaels from her amazing poem, "What the Light Teaches":

"Language is how ghosts enter the world.
They twist into awkward positions
to squeeze through the black spaces.
The dead read backwards,
as in a mirror. They gather

in the white field and look up,
waiting for someone
to write their names.

Language remembers.
Out of obscurity, a word takes its place
in history. Even a word so simple
it's translatable: number. Oven.

Because all change is permanent,
we need words to raise ourselves
to new meaning: tea and dacha and river."

~From "Poems" by Anne Michaels, pages 121, 122

If you've never read this amazingly talented Canadian poet, then I highly recommend her books. This one, entitled simply "Poems" includes poetry from three of her books: "The Weight of Oranges", "Miner's Pond" and "Skin Divers". Each poem is like a gift.

Blessings, Peace, Love & Happiness,

~Marion~




17 comments:

Karen said...

Your posts are like a gift. I don't know if you know that. Each post feels like a talk with a good, wise, and funny friend. Love the catscapades and the wisdom, too. Thanks for the intro to another poet. There's always so much at your place!

Shaista said...

Dear Marion,
Your autumn works on the post below are sublime. It is November 1st, and autumn is most definitely settling into Winter here in England. Great gusts of wind are blowing great gusts of leaves about.
You are reading the Tao? It is sometimes difficult to hold on to true emptiness in a can-do society that wants us to DO and BE all the time :)
I love all your writings in the side bar. I recently heard those words by Kwan Yin about the cracks letting the light in... glad I read them again here. Earth laughs in flowers when writings like yours appear.

RNSANE said...

I cannot imagine trying to get cats to take pills! But I certainly had a tough time with my three sons whenever it became a necessity! Guess that is one of the reasons I didn't choose pediatrics as my nursing specialty.

Your kitty on the leash is a cutie! Does she heel?

Thank you for sharing the poems. I like meeting new poets!

Serena said...

Oh, your poor kitties! I hope they feel better soon. I have to give my dog medication every day, so I roll it up in a piece of lunch meat and she thinks it's a treat. Clearly, cats are smarter. LOL. LOVE the pictures! And the Catfish Walking on Leash story is hysterical. Take care and have a great week.

TheChicGeek said...

Beautiful post Marion. I love the Tao quote about emptiness...so true. When we become empty we gain so much.
Poor kitties :( I hope they are doing better now and will continue on a path of healing.

Love, Peace and Happiness to You, Marion!
xxO

Margaret Pangert said...

Hi Marion! We finally had to give our cat an injection of liquid midicine and then clamp down his jaws! It's a little like hell to doctor a cat! We tried a leash one time, but the cat jumped off the deck and of course we had to let go!
Looking at your side bar: I saw Simon and Garfunkel singing together at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame last Thursday! They did all their old numbers; then Paul Simon did some new, original songs he had written.
Love the masks! That tempts me!
Verse 11 makes us look at negative space which in turn helps us draw on the right side of the brain and be more creative. This was a complex, fun post! Thanks! xxox

Marion said...

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. The cats are doing better (thank God!)

Margaret, I'm envious about your seeing Simon and Garfunkel. I bet it was amazing. None of the good groups come down here in BF, Egypt. The closest is usually New Orleans or Houston, both four hour drives. I miss going to concerts. The last one we saw was Fleetwood Mac in Shreveport about 5 years ago. It was a dream come true for me because I'd never seen them and I'm a Stevie Nicks fan from waaaay back!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Blessings!

Wine and Words said...

All change is permanent! That's exactly what is eating at me this moment. You psychic woman! So nice to come here Marion, and just be batted about between song, photo, hearts post, and poetry.

Kelly said...

Glad to see you've reported back and the kitties are all doing better. Between the worms and the gastro issues, you've had your hands ful LOL!! Had to do the pill routing with all my inside girles not long ago after seeing evidence while scooping.

As for those wretched fire ants.... we've had them all summer. One crawled all the way up and back down into my rubber boot (which of course I was wearing without socks) while I was taking picture at the pond the other day. The sucker bit me several times before I yanked that boot off and squished him!!

Love the picture of catfish on the leash. What a hoot!!

Woman in a Window said...

"It's just like having hard-headed kids again, except they purr while you're fussing at them to guilt you." HA! I wish my kids would purr. Can I leash them and walk them around the yard?

That poem has my mind bending! I'm not sure I get it directly but I get it enough that I'm hitting my head. My brain has never worked this way.

xo
erin

Anonymous said...

I am not liking this time of year. I am thinking, I am not a Winter peerson. I want to hibernate, be a Hedgehog and go to sleep; only waking in the Spring. Or instead curl up with a cup of coffee, a warm fire, chocolate and your words.
I laughed, really laughed at your 'troubles' with your cats and the pills. I have the same with my Dog every three months when I give her worm pills.I use to hide them in cheese (which she loves) but she has figured such out now *sigh* So.......


You have a good heart Marion and share so much, always a pleasure to nestle here.

Char said...

I love coming here. Thanks!

Renee said...

Marion the stanza about the empty places, like the house the jug, so fantastic. I love that because it is so true.

Dear Marion what is wrong with your back. Please get it checked. Before I was diagnosed my back was killing me, like so painful I was in tears all the time. In the end the cancer had spread to my bones in my back.

I know that is not what is going on here, but I just want you to make sure that you get checked too.

It is hard to be enthusiastic to go with anyone anywhere for anything when you don't feel well.

So, tomorrow when you go with your family I hope that all of you will be right as rain.

I love you dear friend and I always will.

Love Renee xoxo

Renee said...

Marion also use a heating pad on your back, it might help.

Love Renee xoxo

Phoenix said...

Oooh, I loved that last poem! And the verses are fantastic - it made me think of all the times I've made or tried to do something and that little still voice that whispered to me, "Leave room for God."

Beautiful, as always! I'm ready for November!

Judith Ellis said...

Marion - What a beautiful journey, funny too. The poems are beautiful too. Thank for sharing a bit of you.

Marion said...

Thanks for your comments everyone. And my kitties thank you, too. Yesterday they were very bad cats and broke a lamp. This cooler weather has them all frisky, but feeling good.

Renee, thanks for the good advice. I had back surgery over a year ago (from a work injury---I lifted heavy boxes for 8 years and finally my back went out and they found a chipped disk pressing on my sciatic nerve) and the surgeon damaged my sciatic nerve removing the chip and so far nothing helps the pain or the numb foot/leg which makes me limp and therefore is damaging my knees. And the Workman's Comp lawyers have refused me further care saying there's nothing wrong with me and the doctor won't accept that he crippled me in spite of the fact that I have no reflex in my right foot or leg. I can't sue a doctor in a WC case although for over a year I've been trying to get a 2nd opinion which I have to have a hearing for which keeps getting postponed (another filthy lawyer trick). I'm not a human being to any of them, I'm a pawn in 2 lawyer's game. I know they wish I had died in surgery so I wouldn't cost them any more money.