Karinaland River

  Calling by Name   In 2008, I envisioned, designed and then build in close collaboration with a professional carpenter a tiny casita (10’ x 12’) with deck in our backyard. “A room of my own” under the beloved oaks. With skylights and windows on all sides so it would feel like a tree house. To my surprise, the project took on a life of its own. A new world opened up, a new life on the hill started to emerge. At that time, the canopies of the old coastal live oaks with their sculpted massive branches were still very dense, bringing much shade and cool. The four live oaks were forming an impressive far-reaching grove, including a huge cork oak and a tall incense cedar. Then the following spring, I design another cottage (10’ x 10’) as my bedroom. The adventure keeps unfolding, an irrepressible vision propels me. Did I ever really plan on all of this that is now manifesting? It feel as if destiny is guiding me.   Now, at this point, the hill going further up has to be stabilized – I am th

  Quince Time   Three Queens   One of the most beautiful fruits of all, is the Quince. She is the Queen of Imperfection & Beauty all wrapped in the same package. This time of year, I contemplate Quince. Beauty requires a small amount of imperfection. Combined with the radiance of inner essence, it starts exuding the air of vulnerability, invisible. In this field of beauty and imperfection, the ingredient of vulnerability entices us into a clear state of mind. Freedom from preconceived ideas of perfect, sterile, steely beauty, we start to grasp the secret of what makes life, things and people beautiful. I practice these reflections daily as an important exercise to counter our contemporary insensitivity to true beauty, which touches us deeply. Moves and nourishes us, kicks us out of lazy preconceptions. So quickly we say “beautiful,” but do we really feel it, taste it? Does it really take our breath? For example, pears and bitter melons have the same power of deepening my breath wit

  Multitudes The ancient plum tree under the live oaks is more than abundant this year, heavy with fruit hanging low. It is receiving quite a bit more sun now that Mama Oak has departed last August. And the squirrels have been kept to a very low number by the hawks scouting their territory daily. The other day, one of those fierce birds is landing on a low oak branch right in front of me as I come down the stairs. Both of us hold still. So close. Our sacred meeting lasts a while, we eye each other and rest in our co-existence, curious, calm, open. Different worlds are always close to each other, but here we are bound in a field of shared awareness – undefended. This is a possibility. Breathtaking. Feathered and smiling we fly on to our tasks of the day. This morning – delicate rivulets of feeling running together into the river of life, into the lake of my being – many different voices meet, interweave, residing in harmony, co-mingling in balance. Multitudes: joy, outrage, enthusiasm,

  Cosmic Momentum and Joy Sometimes we become aware of the cosmic forces that are always in play. And when the right person – let’s say a woman, let’s say mixed and black – is ready to take the call, she is protected by coming from her center and being genuine. Watching her being naturally connected to joy and to her own destiny, intelligent and warm, we can then see cosmic forces putting the right person in the right place at the right time.  Our fears are suddenly proven wrong. The rightfulness of it all reveals a phenomenon, a miracle. Suddenly hope is resurrected, energy released. After all, weeks and months of doom and despair were needed to build pressure. The release comes with a huge momentum turning the tide. We are in the middle of this miracle. And we can feel it physically in our body, in our mood. A new force, ready to envisage the future, is in full swing. The backward-straining forces of destruction, often appealing to the lowest instincts of human nature, are suddenly e

  Geborgenheit – Wordless Sitting on death row is the opposite of feeling  Geborgenheit , feeling safe.  Geborgenheit  is a beautiful German word, old-fashioned, with so many subtleties that it takes several words to convey its meaning. It can be translated as “in the arms of the Great Mother” or “deep feeling of security” – in a mother’s safe embrace. We all yearn for it, one way or the other. We all need it, feeling protected, comfort.  Geborgenheit  is a sensation in my soul that is wordless. It is a feeling of wholeness. I did not know it as a child. A few years ago, I started to taste it finally. I had to practice evoking Geborgenheit till it gradually began lodging itself viscerally into my being, deeply. Some of us, perhaps many, each for different reasons, might not know basic security and trust, and my heart goes out to all of us. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/opinion/deathy-penalty-texas.html   https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/justice-for-robert-roberson/   Here i