I have spoken of this before in other blog-ish places. In the time between the olde year and the new year I do not make resolutions, promises or drunken proclamations. (mostly because I don't drink, I'm sure if I did I would make manymany drunken proclamations) Instead I engage in a practice that I call Walking the Fences. People of agricultural backgrounds will recognize right away what I mean. Fences need to be maintained. Holes get into them, animals knock them over, thieves cut the wires.
For my purposes my esoteric fences are not necessarily to keep anything out or in. But rather, to define what it is I am. What my boundaries are. What I need to care for. My fence, much like a barbed wire one is well defended. And yet easy to see through, it allows me to show concern for others outside of it while keeping the sensitive me safe. Also there are places where I have built stiles in strategic places where people can step over and so can I.
So for the last few days I have been doing this, walking, checking, seeing if all is safely gathered in. Also if there are places I need to fix and in some cases expand.
This year was an interesting year. It was despite the external turmoil in the world and indeed in my community a pretty mellow year for me personally. I was busy in the extreme, seeing grown children off to college and navigating that, dialing down spending to make adjustments for changes, etc. However everything seemed to flow pretty smoothly, in its own crazy way. I credit this with my changed attitude of letting things, personalities and people carve out their own path much like a natural mountain creek. It may not have been how I would have done things. Okay...it most certainly wasn't how I would have done it. But things fell into place. I felt more peace this year in a time of incredible change in our economy, world and political system than I have in a long time.
Or maybe I just feel more peaceful in crisis situations. That is highly probable too. Crisis' tend to make people either become incredibly still and efficient or make them crazy. I do tend to be the efficient type. I tend to crumble when things turn peaceful. So who knows, if things turn about soon and start going smoothly I may just have a crazy crumbly year.
I did pull out a fence stile in one place. The relationship there although I care for the person in question was just too much. I think it a good thing to remember from time to time, we do have choices in who we let close to us. That includes those who have traditionally been close. It doesn't do us or them or anyone in the general vicinity any good to continue a relationship that brings nothing but bad feelings. I had struggled with how I "should" behave, forgive, etc. with this person for years. The fact of the matter was I was the one struggling. The other was quite happy causing discord. We need to know that we can be compassionate from afar. And sometimes, no most times this is the greatest gift we can give to difficult people. How will they ever change if they don't know they are being disruptive? Of course they always have the choice not to change. But we can love them, care for them, pray for them, sit in meditation for them without allowing them access to more of us.
So that is what I did this year, it probably contributed to some of the ease I felt.
Don't get me wrong, bringing in stiles is not easy. It's hard work, but for me at least, it was past time.
I read a lot this year, as I usually do. And yet, when I sat down to think of what my favorite read was I couldn't pull a name up. Most of the non-fiction I read saddened me and scared me for human-kind. As a result I took refuge in comforting old favorite writers for my fiction reading. I read a lot of new and revisited Charles de Lint who never ceases to please me in his story-telling.
Musically this year I fell in love with Sxip Shirey who incidentally was introduced by last year's musical love Amanda Palmer who incidentally just married one of my all time favorite writers Neil Gaiman-A very happy ending and I am hopeful that a girl who writes music about pubic hair and plays the ukulele and a man who writes stories about magick and cats and Olde Gods will live happily ever after.
Anyway Sxip with his homemade instruments and small venue concerts dazzled me. How a man with crazy hair and a bell strapped to a megaphone can make such intoxicating music is boggling. Sxip also incidentally introduced Himself to his new favorite band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who while I don't love everything they do, I love Rhiannon Giddon's incredible voice. She makes arias out of traditional mountain music. They describe their music this way: “Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.”-Justin Robinson
I just did a quick review on my ipod and I found the most played songs of late were Amanda Palmer, Sxip Shirey, Old Crow Medicine Show, Zoe Keating and Johnny Thunders. That pretty much covers it. I'm all over the place from early punk to Blue Grass. Although, I do find myself turning to blue grass more often than not, it's soothing.
As far as the Movies that came out this year, I was highly disappointed in everything. I was only compelled to see two movies in the theatre this year, Alice in Wonderland, which all in all was at least entertaining and Harry Potter, which is fun because you get to see the nerd-kids who dress up. I actually spent more time at the local playhouses this year where I was not disappointed. Granted it was during Halloween-time which is my most favorite time of the year. But I find myself wanting to be more a part of the experience and when you go to small venues you get just that.
Ch-ch-ch-changes were put in place in my own life this year. Due to the ideals of some of my writing partners I challenged myself to eat less meat. Mostly I wanted to see if I could make my favorite recipes with meat-less products. I found that a lot of the time I could and while it did not taste the same, it was good in its own way and I lost a lot of my meat-ish cravings. Also an article on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that I wrote allowed me the opportunity to speak with some marine biologists. While the Garbage patch has little to do with overfishing I picked up an ap from the Monterey Bay Aquarium which tells me which fish are bad to eat and made a commitment to stay away from them. It's a little weird to ask your server where they get their fish and honestly they don't know most of the time so fish were off the menu a lot too. I'd say I'm a 3/4 vegetarian at this point and I don't miss it. Oh the other change came due to Heather telling me cheese has addictive chemicals. I tried that theory too and guess what? It seems to be true. I craved cheese for about a week and after that, no more cheese cravings. Where we used to blow through cheese at House Rhuad it now sits for a very long time, which actually saves us money because I like expensive cheeses (usually).
I am looking at 2011 and while I feel some trepidation, I also am seeing some hope. People are tired of being pushed back and placated like small children. Politicians and leaders of churches and communities don't seem to recognize this. I recently read an article in which a poll showed young people (18-27) were leaving their church congregations not because of lack of faith but because they are tired of gimmicks like rock bands in the services and free t-shirts and study cells. What they are leaving over is a lack of serious spiritual discussion. I find this amazingly encouraging, the fact that people and especially the coming up generation want to dive deeper. The same is true in politics. Yes while a great many people are joining crazy Tea Parties, a lot of people are discussing something entirely different. The party system is not meeting the needs of the constituents. This is good, the discussion of change. Politicians had better take notice and stop believing that once they are elected they don't have to listen to the very people who put them in office, there are plenty of examples of this but the most recent ones are of the many public officials from our President to State Governors and city mayors taking sunny vacations while the eastern seaboard is shut down due to snow and ice. People aren't taking this lackadaisical governing well, and yes we all need vacations however, public servants are public SERVANTS.
I see uprising in the future. Which may look bad but to my way of thinking is a good thing. If President Obama isn't going to help with the change he suggested we need to roll up our sleeves and start working towards it ourselves.
Which leads me to the biggest thing I see for the coming year. I know in House Rhuad we have been talking a lot about change and work. Changing how we see service to others. It's going to be our new hobby this year. The thing we do together. It's necessary because if we as individuals don't do it, who will?
Anyway. That wraps up my fence walking. Holed mended. Some stiles pulled up. A heap more put out, because community is going to be the focus of 2011 at House Rhuad.
For my purposes my esoteric fences are not necessarily to keep anything out or in. But rather, to define what it is I am. What my boundaries are. What I need to care for. My fence, much like a barbed wire one is well defended. And yet easy to see through, it allows me to show concern for others outside of it while keeping the sensitive me safe. Also there are places where I have built stiles in strategic places where people can step over and so can I.
So for the last few days I have been doing this, walking, checking, seeing if all is safely gathered in. Also if there are places I need to fix and in some cases expand.
This year was an interesting year. It was despite the external turmoil in the world and indeed in my community a pretty mellow year for me personally. I was busy in the extreme, seeing grown children off to college and navigating that, dialing down spending to make adjustments for changes, etc. However everything seemed to flow pretty smoothly, in its own crazy way. I credit this with my changed attitude of letting things, personalities and people carve out their own path much like a natural mountain creek. It may not have been how I would have done things. Okay...it most certainly wasn't how I would have done it. But things fell into place. I felt more peace this year in a time of incredible change in our economy, world and political system than I have in a long time.
Or maybe I just feel more peaceful in crisis situations. That is highly probable too. Crisis' tend to make people either become incredibly still and efficient or make them crazy. I do tend to be the efficient type. I tend to crumble when things turn peaceful. So who knows, if things turn about soon and start going smoothly I may just have a crazy crumbly year.
I did pull out a fence stile in one place. The relationship there although I care for the person in question was just too much. I think it a good thing to remember from time to time, we do have choices in who we let close to us. That includes those who have traditionally been close. It doesn't do us or them or anyone in the general vicinity any good to continue a relationship that brings nothing but bad feelings. I had struggled with how I "should" behave, forgive, etc. with this person for years. The fact of the matter was I was the one struggling. The other was quite happy causing discord. We need to know that we can be compassionate from afar. And sometimes, no most times this is the greatest gift we can give to difficult people. How will they ever change if they don't know they are being disruptive? Of course they always have the choice not to change. But we can love them, care for them, pray for them, sit in meditation for them without allowing them access to more of us.
So that is what I did this year, it probably contributed to some of the ease I felt.
Don't get me wrong, bringing in stiles is not easy. It's hard work, but for me at least, it was past time.
I read a lot this year, as I usually do. And yet, when I sat down to think of what my favorite read was I couldn't pull a name up. Most of the non-fiction I read saddened me and scared me for human-kind. As a result I took refuge in comforting old favorite writers for my fiction reading. I read a lot of new and revisited Charles de Lint who never ceases to please me in his story-telling.
Musically this year I fell in love with Sxip Shirey who incidentally was introduced by last year's musical love Amanda Palmer who incidentally just married one of my all time favorite writers Neil Gaiman-A very happy ending and I am hopeful that a girl who writes music about pubic hair and plays the ukulele and a man who writes stories about magick and cats and Olde Gods will live happily ever after.
Anyway Sxip with his homemade instruments and small venue concerts dazzled me. How a man with crazy hair and a bell strapped to a megaphone can make such intoxicating music is boggling. Sxip also incidentally introduced Himself to his new favorite band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who while I don't love everything they do, I love Rhiannon Giddon's incredible voice. She makes arias out of traditional mountain music. They describe their music this way: “Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.”-Justin Robinson
I just did a quick review on my ipod and I found the most played songs of late were Amanda Palmer, Sxip Shirey, Old Crow Medicine Show, Zoe Keating and Johnny Thunders. That pretty much covers it. I'm all over the place from early punk to Blue Grass. Although, I do find myself turning to blue grass more often than not, it's soothing.
As far as the Movies that came out this year, I was highly disappointed in everything. I was only compelled to see two movies in the theatre this year, Alice in Wonderland, which all in all was at least entertaining and Harry Potter, which is fun because you get to see the nerd-kids who dress up. I actually spent more time at the local playhouses this year where I was not disappointed. Granted it was during Halloween-time which is my most favorite time of the year. But I find myself wanting to be more a part of the experience and when you go to small venues you get just that.
Ch-ch-ch-changes were put in place in my own life this year. Due to the ideals of some of my writing partners I challenged myself to eat less meat. Mostly I wanted to see if I could make my favorite recipes with meat-less products. I found that a lot of the time I could and while it did not taste the same, it was good in its own way and I lost a lot of my meat-ish cravings. Also an article on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that I wrote allowed me the opportunity to speak with some marine biologists. While the Garbage patch has little to do with overfishing I picked up an ap from the Monterey Bay Aquarium which tells me which fish are bad to eat and made a commitment to stay away from them. It's a little weird to ask your server where they get their fish and honestly they don't know most of the time so fish were off the menu a lot too. I'd say I'm a 3/4 vegetarian at this point and I don't miss it. Oh the other change came due to Heather telling me cheese has addictive chemicals. I tried that theory too and guess what? It seems to be true. I craved cheese for about a week and after that, no more cheese cravings. Where we used to blow through cheese at House Rhuad it now sits for a very long time, which actually saves us money because I like expensive cheeses (usually).
I am looking at 2011 and while I feel some trepidation, I also am seeing some hope. People are tired of being pushed back and placated like small children. Politicians and leaders of churches and communities don't seem to recognize this. I recently read an article in which a poll showed young people (18-27) were leaving their church congregations not because of lack of faith but because they are tired of gimmicks like rock bands in the services and free t-shirts and study cells. What they are leaving over is a lack of serious spiritual discussion. I find this amazingly encouraging, the fact that people and especially the coming up generation want to dive deeper. The same is true in politics. Yes while a great many people are joining crazy Tea Parties, a lot of people are discussing something entirely different. The party system is not meeting the needs of the constituents. This is good, the discussion of change. Politicians had better take notice and stop believing that once they are elected they don't have to listen to the very people who put them in office, there are plenty of examples of this but the most recent ones are of the many public officials from our President to State Governors and city mayors taking sunny vacations while the eastern seaboard is shut down due to snow and ice. People aren't taking this lackadaisical governing well, and yes we all need vacations however, public servants are public SERVANTS.
I see uprising in the future. Which may look bad but to my way of thinking is a good thing. If President Obama isn't going to help with the change he suggested we need to roll up our sleeves and start working towards it ourselves.
Which leads me to the biggest thing I see for the coming year. I know in House Rhuad we have been talking a lot about change and work. Changing how we see service to others. It's going to be our new hobby this year. The thing we do together. It's necessary because if we as individuals don't do it, who will?
Anyway. That wraps up my fence walking. Holed mended. Some stiles pulled up. A heap more put out, because community is going to be the focus of 2011 at House Rhuad.
No comments:
Post a Comment