Tag: Mother Earth

Summer Solstice in the Garden

In the Garden —
Summer Solstice 2012

The longest day fades imperceptibly
drop by drop
Delineated by air conditioner fans,
wild cry of kestrel, hovering midair
Unexpected voice in urban landscape
What is rare, wild, beautiful
Not like crow’s testy commentary

Getting the balance back
personal polarities attended to
nutrition for spirit
daily practices that infuse the soul.

Olmsted-the-elder’s layers of green on green
live here under our canopy
safe and leafy havens for fireflies of early summer
beginning their nightly morse code
winking messages of light into
twilight’s tribal rising

Mother Earth gathers skirts of green
plump swaths and celebrations of newly minted leaves
emerging fully into ponderous and lush maturity

MidSummer sings her solstice reflection
in wading pool
brilliant mirror for sky, elm, candle flame

I crane my neck to catch
the final glimmers of sun-soaked leaves
at the top of ailanthus-tree-of-heaven
scooping a breeze onto the page

Blessing the kingdoms of
air and mineral,
flora and fauna,
visible and invisible,
fire and water.
Polarities in name only
That pole is  just the Axis Mundi
whirling our seeming reality on a stick
spinning so fast our eyes
catch the merest glimpse
of fictional characters
hiding under hollyhock leaves

Summer’s verdant blossoming
sweet and heavy
gardenia’s flower perfumes the dusk
in currents hot and cold
across a makeshift desk in Shangri-la
Trees shed dead branches
ice melts in the tea mug
and I await the mellowed and belated darkness
Light leaching from holly and boxwoods first
then from the yellow-y green quince foliage

Dappled illumination shimmers at the bottom of the pool
Reflecting human ingenuity to light the night
And brightly colored strands bedizen a
solitary
celebratory
garden.
Shangri-la indeed.

Who are we kidding?
Celebrating the cycles of Mother Earth
rarely gets a second thought
much less holds a place in (some) human hearts

And so I close the book,
hope warring with despair
(as usual).
A fragment of the light remains
Night’s full closure not yet fully descended.

20 June 2012
Bobbye Middendorf

Seeing with New Eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.”
–Marcel Proust

What makes you “see with new eyes?”  In late June, I returned home from a week-long retreat just a short couple of hours’ drive from home.The retreat, in a beautiful, sacred space, was filled with radiant and divine people. It was a magical time out of time.

(And did you know that yesterday, July 25, was Day Out of Time Day, courtesy of the 13 moons, Mayan calendar?)

So from this June 2010 time out of time retreat, with people I’d never met, and yet who became like long-lost family to me, I hesitantly returned to my ordinary reality. But I returned with new eyes that saw the blessings in my life for what they were: true gifts of support in every way.

Somehow when I returned to our cozy house and expansive, lush garden, I saw what had been there all along in a totally fresh, and yes, radiant, way. Where we’ve lived, rooted, for more than two decades, shines with a renewed vigor and magic, visible through my newly polished eyes. I said, while on the retreat, that I lived in a Shangri La, although in the middle of urban Chicago. When I came home, that is indeed what I experienced.

In seeing with new eyes, I strive for maintaining consciousness, for appreciating the blessings, for stepping into each day as a gift. It is easy to appreciate. What is harder, at least for me, is to take the mindful action steps necessary to expand my presence within this holy, sacred space of my life.

Several weeks after my return from the retreat, we (husby, teenage son, et moi) ventured to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a preserved segment of Mother Earth tucked in between heavy smokestack industries on both sides. Lake Michigan was still cold, but the day was hot enough that the chill felt refreshing. I spied hawk flying over the beach twice, bent on some mission. The smell of pine tickled my nose as we walked along hot sands to the dune succession trail boardwalk through the preserved wild lands inland from the beach.

Counting my years along the shores of Lake Michigan, I realize it has held my heart for more than three decades, as I bask still in her flowing and liquid magic, a grateful acolyte to these central waters of Mother Earth.

I’d love to hear how you are seeing with new eyes. Take a look into your own life, your own backyard or treasure closet. What do you see when you look with new eyes? Where can you gain renewed energies from looking anew at what is familiar?

My friend and mentor Susan Castle is leading another magnificent, eye-opening retreat, this time within the sacred space of Sedona, Arizona. I’ll be there. I’d love to have you along! Retreat spaces are very limited. To learn about Susan and this opportunity for learning to “see with new eyes,” I invite you to step into her circle. Click here to learn more.

I wish you Abundant Blessings that are available when you are willing to see with new eyes.

Warmest regards to you,
from Bobbye Middendorf,
the Write Synergies Guru

50 Million Cultural Creatives Can Change the World

The following article first appeared in March 2001, published by Chicago’s Conscious Choice magazine. In sharing this perspective about Cultural Creatives, (a name bestowed on us by sociologist/researcher Paul Ray)  I am reminded how very important this cohort of world-changers really is. We’ve lost a decade to the forces of the status quo, to those determined to move the clock backwards.  So now — more than ever — it is our time.

It is so crucial that everyone WAKE UP!  The awakening and mindful action for the good of all and the healing of planet Gaia, Mother Earth, is long overdue. This is a clarion call to of those in the Cultural Creative Cohort.   It is more important than ever, and well past time, to get out of our own way.

[I’ve made some minor edits in the following piece so that it makes sense for 2010.]

How 50 Million Cultural Creatives Can Change the World: A Review and Consideration of The Cultural Creatives by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson

Do you ever feel like you just don’t fit in? Do you feel that people around you have a whole different set of values and beliefs? Do you find things important that aren’t on their radar screens, and vice versa? Are “getting ahead” and “looking out for number one” nowhere on your list, despite the best efforts of the media and consumer culture to persuade you otherwise?

When you speak of your dream — what you hope to accomplish — do you include relationships, concern for the planet and the next generations, social justice, sustainability, and your spiritual development? Do your dreams not look like what “everybody else” wants? Perhaps the mirror that will reflect you and your values back to you just isn’t in place — Yet.

It certainly isn’t available in the established big media companies, most corporate, education, and government institutions, or politics, where there is little or no support for people who dare to express such values. Surprisingly, despite your feelings of isolation, you are far from alone.

In fact, you may be part of a just-now-becoming-visible groundswell of cultural change. You may be a Cultural Creative. With the book, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World, Paul Ray and his wife and co-author Sherry Ruth Anderson are trying to hold up a mirror big enough to reflect this population back on itself.

Continue reading “50 Million Cultural Creatives Can Change the World”

Write Synergies, Sacred Synergies

Intent — pure, heart-based intent, when it’s for the highest good of all — is the royal road, the holy, the divine, the seat of power and energy. Seeing intent in action is to experience the miracles of synchronicities and synergies.

Intent, when it’s put in writing as is my wont, can be the engine that drives momentum and action in the world. Yet with words from the heart, such intent remains connected with the higher source, the sacred. In this way, with the power of intent, the creation and the connection to the audience together embrace the greater character of the sacred. Words on the page can create sacred space if placed with intent. That, at least, is my intention.

Write synergies, powered with intent for the highest good, for the healing of Gaia, Mother Earth, becomes sacred intent for bridging the gulf between our creation-from-the-heart  and the people the creation is here to serve, those for whom it is our contribution. Such writing with intent becomes the bridge of light between creation and community. As such, it build synergies.

When I came into the Dreams Alive circle years ago, I didn’t have any inkling that I would be so transformed so many years later. These sacred synergies and the realization of their deeper implications will likely be a theme for a good long time.