December 22, 2021
In true appreciation of your continued reading, encouragement and critical interaction my gift to you for the holidays is:
No politics today.
No social justice issues today.
Nothing complicated or sad today.
A poem about how to be hopeful with the help of nature.
Here’s a collection of images from a hike up Wahkeena Falls last week, into the mist with a sprinkling of snow. There was beauty and the reminder that there are always more chances. If you had told me in the hospital at the beginning of the year that I would hike some miles up the steep hills of the Gorge by the end of it, I would have declared you insane.
Mist
It amazes me when mist
chloroforms the fields
and wipes out whatever world exists
and walkers wade through coma
shouting
and close to but curtained from each other
sometimes there’s a second river
lying asleep along the river
where the sun rises
sunk in thought
and my soul gets caught in it
hung by the heels
in water
it amazes me when mist
weeps as it lifts
and a crow
calls down to me in its treetop voice
that there are webs and drips
and actualities up there
and in my fog-self shocked and grey
it startles me to see the sky
by Alice Oswald (elected as the first female professor of poetry at the University of Oxford in 2019)
Here is to crows, blue skies and actualities. I will see you in the – happy – new year.
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And in case you still need more support to get through these next weeks, I urge you to try the following relaxation exercises. If Bruno Pontiroli’s models can do it, so can you! Possibilities abound!
Since all the animals reminded me of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival, here is his Christmas Oratorio, equally enchanting. Merry Christmas.
Sara Lee Silberman
A wonderful “gift” and also about as good – and welcome – evidence for the claim that “You can’t keep a good woman down” as I have seen in many a day! ONWARD! And happy holidays to all!
Martha Ullman West
A beautiful, charming post, with glorious photos and words that aren’t half bad either. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and also to those who don’t–it is after all the season of giving. And keep them coming please, Friderike.
Carlotta Collette
I haven’t commented on your emails, but I do cherish them and often share them with others. Your images, music and musings are so often just what I needed. Thank you so much! And have a great New Year!
Judy Bell
Thank you, Friderike- for your daily gifts! May your new year be filled with peace and possibility.
Anita Helle
Woohoo on that hike! Amazing, yes. Your mind at work in writing/images/sounds have been such nourishment to the spirit through the year. Although for me there is nothing too dark to contemplate (have at it, I always say), I was thinking this morning of Dylan Thomas’s line, the “force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” My amyrillis was talking to me, much in the spirit of this blog.
Susan Wladaver Morgan
Thank you for your faithful gifts through this difficult year. Wishing you good health, beauty, and peace in the new year.
Eric Brody
Many thanks to you, Friderike, for continuing onward during a year that while merely difficult for many of us, must have been absolutely frightful for you. I look forward to your posts, enjoy them and also learn from them. Your literary and musical references enlighten me on a regular basis. I wish you only the best in the coming year. Wahclella Falls has been my solace for many years, many times when I need a break, have limited time or energy. When I arrive there, I take a deep breath, and relax just knowing I shall be rewarded by nature in its most sublime.
Steve T.
So refreshing, Friderike. I’ve been feeling depressed these days, with everything thrashing around. But your photos and your uplifting spirit are balm for my soul. And yes, mist makes things different, renewed. Thanks, and see you next year.
Steve T.
And yes, I tried one of those exercises. I’ll be OK in a week or two.