Karinaland River

  Love of the World It is not about good or bad, convenient or sorrowful, terrifying or relaxing. It is about being alive to secret languages, to the silence amidst the noise. It is about including all. My love of the world is roused by the smallest things, by minute experiences. Witnessing the crow across the street swoop from the neighbor’s live oak down to the asphalt close to the curb – she takes a bath in the rushing stream created by the atmospheric river. This morning, storming and raining, the world densely grey and mysterious, unseen activities escape the human eye. From my living room, I can sense the crow’s movements echoing in my own body. Dunking the head into the stream, wiggling, coming up and shaking, taking a whole-body plunge, beating wings rapidly, coming up, shaking off, doing this a few more times, then swooping up back into tree.   It does not get any better.  Delicious. Secret bathing. I have done so in woods. Here nobody was watching or interr...

  Lachen oder Weinen? Yet another November, this one like none. Harvesting my sparse pomegranates before last night’s rain, I am leaving two on the tree. This brings me comfort and delight. The taking and the leaving, both. Yesterday overnight, these two pomegranates split open, greeting me exuberantly on my morning round. Are they laughing or crying, lamenting or smiling? Hidden new moon energy infuses our shortened days. The gentle rain washes my garden clean, makes it bright, sparkling with promise – fragrances of deep hidden growth, of composting and restoring. Soon we will face darkness and the poignant starkness of winter. Trees bare, energies pulled into the root system. All beings must store food, remember ancestors, be brave. Keep the heart warm. Renew the commitment to living with goodness, nourishment, sharing. Embracing our brothers and sisters who are suffering, listening to their plight. The squirrels are busier than ever, racing up and down the highways on the lichen...