Papa Sycamore

I posted about my love for sycamore trees January 28.

“I think now that the sycamore is my glimpse of God, of mystery. It is pale and
unearthly at times, its almost white branches hard to see against winter's snow.
As for Zaccheus, the tree provides me a view of the divine.”

I recently discovered a “new to me” sycamore on campus, near where I park. But Papa Sycamore is OLD. I wonder how old?

There are so many mysteries in this old being. I have only begun to see them.

Some branches resemble the fingers of King Kong's cupped hand (we just watched the new DVD with Peter) that held Ann Derrow gently, lovingly.

The bottom sides of the branches look as though they have been dripping for decades, and some have formed beautiful profiles of fairy beings looking out.

This tremendous hole looks like a mouth about to blow out something profound, and it has probably been home to many creatures.

Balance

March and April are the busiest months of the year for me. I advise 1,000 English majors (mostly by myself) and during these months they enroll for courses next year. A general panic sets in, no matter how much I prepare them, and my load piles high: 100-300 emails a week, appointments and walk-ins with at least 40 students weekly asking what they should take next year.

This would be about the time someone like me (responsible, devoted, organized) would work harder and longer, and as a result, start burning out. For the last four years, that’s just what has happened. By the end of April, I’m frustrated and crying, wondering why I stay in this job (that I usually LOVE).

This year I’m trying to work smarter and strike a balance in my day. When I begin to feel the stress mounting, my whole being try to check out and that I just want to scream, I know it’s time to stop, quiet myself, and find a way to fill up.

Yesterday, for the first time ever in this job, when I got to that point in my day, I walked across the street to Starbucks, ordered a macchiato, and read the New York Times. It felt meditative. I savored the coffee, chocolate and caramel in the drink. I focused on the labor protests in France. I was out of my mind (the part that was wrapped up in work) for 45 minutes, and it refreshed me.

Sometimes just closing my eyes for 5 minutes, going "inside", emptying all the stuff out of my head, is enough to relax and recharge.

I’m reposting Lar Braun’s sculpture “acrobat” because it illustrates balance. This time it’s been photoshopped with the “fresco” filter.

I wonder what other people do when they're out of balance?

Winter aconite

I took this photo today in MSU's horticulture gardens, but these little alpine flowers came up through the snow in February. In the 1990s I wrote a haiku about winter aconite.

Faith

Faith is aconite

rising in February

warm in the snow bed.

Adirondack "happy" chair

I call this "happy chair."

Don built it (that means he bought the boards, cut each piece using two different saws, routed the back piece, and assembled it), painted it white, and I designed and drew the sunflower. 4th graders in his classroom sanded the pieces before Don assembled the chair, and then painted the sunflower after I drew it, then I detailed it. It was a true team effort.

I'm reminded of when I was a girl in the "Happy Workers Club" along with my brother John, and neighbors Jimmie and Janet. I don't remember what projects we did together, except serving our parents lunch once in the clubroom in Jimmie's basement. Maybe we raked leaves for elderly neighbors. Back then I didn't know how important it is to love what you do and do what you love. But we had the right idea in that club. What is "work"? If you are filled with love, light, truth and beauty whatever you're doing, does it ever feel like work?

The chair will be sold in a silent auction at Family Fun Nite tomorrow at Don's school as a fund raiser, along with lots of other goodies. Don will also be MC, since our local newscaster had to cancel.

Any predictions of how much it will go for? I'll update this post after it sells.

Click here for a history of the Adirondack chair.

UPDATE: Happy Chair sold for $210! The mom who bought it has a sunflower collection. Yay!

Mandalas

One of Carl Jung's mandalas

I’ve been drawn back to Carl Jung lately, and his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Maybe you can tell from my blog title that I connect with Jung (synchronicities ~ Synchronizing). I am fascinated by his exploration of the inner world and the idea of synchonicity, that there are no coincidences, and that a Greater Power is at work in our lives. I also love his focus on individuation and our "personal mythology," the ways we each develop our own story and the symbols we find that have significance in our lives, and the ways we connect with universal archetypes.

Mandalas were something Dr. Jung discovered in 1916 when he painted his first one. "Mandala" means "circle" in Sanskrit.

Jung wrote a lot about these "maps of the soul": "The goal of contemplating the processes depicted in the mandalas that the yogi shall become inwardly aware of the deity. Through contemplation, he recognizes himself as God again, and thus returns from the illusion of individual existence into the universal totality of the divine state." (from Concerning Mandala Symbolism. C. G. Jung.trans. from "Uber Mandalasymbolik,"Gestaltungen des Unbewussten (Zurich, 1950)

Another Jung mandala

Within a couple of years, he began to explore his psychological condition based on circular drawings he did in his notebook. He could see his self, his whole being, at work, coming to the surface in the mandala he drew and painted.

Exploring Web sites, I found this one for instructions for making mandala images with Adobe Photoshop. If you’re interested in playing with this, give it 30-60 minutes your first time, unless you’re proficient at Photoshop. It's a blast!

The one I did first to practice, from the Web site, using the painting "Yellow Sweater" done in 1919 by artist Amedeo Modigliani

The one I made froma photo of my Paul Klee painting

For me, who loves working with color, this is very therapeutic! And of course it will be different every time, even if you use the same photograph or painting to start with. I look forward to using this as a meditative practice now that I know the steps and can do it easily.

I don't seem to have a circle tool on my Photoshop, but I would have made this a circular mandala if I could. I guess that's like saying a "circular circle." Oh well.

Thank you, Ginnie, for all your help posting the photos! Blogger is just not cooperating these days, which is why I haven't posted since last Friday.

GO GREEN!

In honor of green goodness, St. Patrick's Day aside, I wish my Spartans well tonight against George Mason! I'm not doing a bracket this year, because I'm always wrong right away.

The George Mason Patriot's are making their fourth trip to the Big Dance in school history: good for them. This is MSU's ninth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Don and I will be eating Culver's chicken at the 7:10 tip-off! Whoo-hoo!

Update: Bummer upset! George Mason Patriots beat MSU Spartans 75-65!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A verse from an old Irish ballad:

'Twas in the fourth century in this delightful country,

After St. Patrick's entry upon our fertile shore,

He raised this grand foundation, the wonder of our nation

That's held in veneration, and will till time's no more.

In fact it's only stated that he had consecrated,

St. Erin, then related to Tara's noble train.

And history does mention, he got St. Patrick's sanction,

To rule this holy mansion, that's on the hill of Slane.

Ruins at Hill of Slane


St. Patrick statue at Hill of Slane ruins

Celtic cross at Monasterboice cemetary

"There is a legend of how St. Patrick when preaching to some soon-to-be converted heathens was shown a sacred standing stone that was marked with a circle that was symbolic of the moon goddess. Patrick made the mark of a Latin cross through the circle and blessed the stone making the first Celtic Cross. This legend implies that the Saint was willing to make ideas and practices that were formerly Druid into Christian ideas and practices. This is consistent with the belief that he converted and ordained many Druids to lives as Christian priests." - Stephen Walker at http://www.celtarts.com/celtic.htm

The Ides have it

I took three years of Latin in high school, and my Latin teacher was a hoot: Mrs. DePue. She was tall, “old” (at least 50), full of glory and bluster, and now that I think about it, I think she looked like a vestal virgin in the Roman Forum! (I guess she wasn't THAT old.) She was quite statuesque and had a high blonde updo.

Latin class is where I first learned about the Ides of March. I always thought that because of the Shakespeare play in which Spurinna told Julius Caesar to “beware the Ides of March” that they meant something sinister in and of themselves.

Of course, Caesar ignored the warning, went to the Senate on March 15, and was assassinated by his colleagues. But the Ides only mean the middle, or the divIDE, of the month. We don’t use the term any more because months vary too much and have different middles now according to our calendar.

On NPR this morning, there was a great piece honoring the 2050th anniversary of Julius Caesar’s death. It was about CHEMISTRY. Apparently we all inhale in every breath one of the hundreds of trillions of molecules that Julius Caesar exhaled in his last breath! Talk about being united with all things! The chemist who was interviewed was completely serious and believes this wholeheartedly. Of course that means we inhale molecules that EVERY human who has ever lived exhaled in every breath!

It really makes you stop and think about "a world in a grain of sand" as William Blake wrote.

"Ancient of Days" by William Blake

Earth Art

Have you ever checked out Earth Art?

We can view Earth through the photographic images from satellites. The swirls, colors, shapes. The images are taken by the Landsat-7 satellite and the Terra Satellite's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER).

"Meandering wadis combine to form dense, branching networks across the stark, arid landscape of southeastern Jordan. The Arabic word 'wadi' means a gully or streambed that typically remains dry except after drenching, seasonal rains."

Jordan: Image taken 5/17/2001 by ASTER

"The Dasht-e Kevir, or valley of desert, is the largest desert in Iran. It is a primarily uninhabited wasteland, composed of mud and salt marshes covered with crusts of salt that protect the meager moisture from completely evaporating."

Dasht-e Kevir: Image taken 10/24/2000

"Vivid colors belie the arid landscape of northern Chile where the Atacama Desert, one of the world's driest, meets the foothills of the Andes. Here salt pans and gorges choked with mineral-streaked sediments give way to white-capped volcanoes."

The Andes: Image taken 10/28/2001 by ASTER

March madness

As much as I love men's college basketball (well, the MSU team that is), that's not what this is about. (Go Spartans, Friday against George Mason.)

It's the weather!

I know, I know, I live in Michigan. Why do we Michiganders keep talking about the crazy weather as if it's something new? It's kind of like a relative, a character in our story. Unpredictable, tempestuous at times, and we don't appreciate it enough when it's "cooperating."

Yesterday was glorious with sunshine in the mid-60s. Last night thunderstorms rattled the windows. Today it's in the high 60s, wind is racing clouds across the sky, we have a tornado watch, and tomorrow it's supposed to snow.

I love the four seasons, and you couldn't pay me to live in Florida (sorry, Mungers), as beautiful as it can be. These photos are the farm this morning before leaving for work, with remnants of last night’s storm.

I think this photo looks surreal. Is that really a reflection of the corn crib? Too bad my lens isn't big enough to get the roof and trees at the top, but maybe that helps with the surreal feel.



The barn.

Astrology: Fun, Evil or Science?

"Acrobat" sculpture by Lar Braun

I’ve been digging up information about my grandfather, Sidney K. Bennett, aka “Wynn” – a prominent American astrologer in the first half of the 20th century.

I remember my parents being rather embarrassed by my mother’s father’s occupation. It was frowned upon in church, it was considered telling the future, which the Bible has rules against.

For years I’ve read my horoscope for fun, usually at http://www.cainer.com/. I like this British guy, Jonathan Cainer, because of his sense of humor.

Click here for a transcription of talks Osho gave about astrology that are quite long, if you’re interested. He gives some history. Do you have an open mind?

What do you think of astrology? Do you:

1. Think it’s fun to read your horoscope, but you don’t change your daily habits based on it;
2. Never read horoscopes because you think they’re silly;
3. Never read horoscopes because you think they’re ungodly;
4. Never read horoscopes because you don’t know why;
5. Read your horoscope pretty regularly and find truths that must be more than mere coincidence; or
6. Study astrology and charts and really get into it.

I choose #5.

William Stafford

My friend Inge reminded me this week what a great poet William Stafford is. He gives people like me hope because his poems were first published when he was in his late 40s. He was born in Kansas but moved to Oregon, where he wrote this poem. I lived in Oregon and California, and I can attest to the mountains being there one day, and not the next. In fact the day I left Oregon, there had been an ice storm, and every twig was encased in ice, AND there was fog. It was like a fairyland. But then, of course, the poetic perspective makes it even more beautiful, as Stafford shows. As Donald Hall wrote, Stafford's "ordinariness doth tease us out of thought; while we are thoughtless, the second language of poetry speaks to us."

"Mountain Frost" Photo free for any use from visualparadox.com


A Valley Like This


Sometimes you look at an empty valley like this,
and suddenly the air is filled with snow.
That is the way the whole world happened
"there was nothing, and then"

But maybe some time you will look out and even
the mountains are gone, the world become nothing
again. What can a person do to help
bring back the world?

We have to watch it and then look at each other.
Together we hold it close and carefully
save it, like a bubble that can disappear
if we don't watch out.

Please think about this as you go on. Breathe on the world.
Hold out your hands to it. When mornings and evenings
roll along, watch how they open and close, how they
invite you to the long party that your life is.

Pruning the grapes

It's March, and that means it's time for pruning grapevines in Michigan. We have a half dozen grapevines, both white concord and purple concord.

Since we moved to the farm in November 2003 we hadn't pruned ours, which is why they looked like this:

But even with such a tangled mess, last fall I picked a large cooler-ful, plus a bushel basket of grapes and still left some on the vines. However, half the grapes were wilted or dried, which we believe is because of the lack of pruning.

Don and his dad canned grape juice, both white and purple, and Don periodically makes jelly out of the juice. Sometimes we enjoy the luxury of just drinking the juice with breakfast.

Yesterday, Don and I tackled the chaos of our vines. Each vine needs to be left with several branches with ten or so buds. Untangling the dead wood from the live, finding what is worth keeping, and trimming just the right amount is confusing.

Here's the result. We'll see this fall if we get many grapes!

Here's one of the sweet amethysts (grape jelly) Don made:

I remember a sermon I heard as a young person in which the pastor said the husbandman cuts back the vine to almost nothing, and likened it to our own spiritual vitality. It looks as though nothing good can come of such drastic pruning. But it's out of great emptiness that productive growth comes.

Turkish Mantı, part two

Don, Peter and I worked for about two hours rolling the dough, cutting the dough and filling the dough with meat filling. What a lot of work!

The dough was very stiff, which made the rolling out difficult.

But when we finally got the dough thin enough, it turned out perfectly.

The result was delicious!

But we're thinking the imported dried pasta works pretty well and is a close facsimile. I don't know that we'll ever do it from scratch again!

At least we can say we did it once.

Turkish mantı

Turkish mantı (photo courtesy http://www.istanbulguide.net/istguide/vivre/)

I’m getting ready to try making my favorite food in the world – Turkish mantı – from scratch this weekend. Mantı is pronounced mahn-tih, the “i” like the “i” in “it.” The "i" should not have a dot, but I don't have access to a multi-lingual font in blogger. (Or do you know a secret?) Update: Thank you for the idea, Boots. I had thought of cutting and pasting from a Word doc, and then I forgot to do it! Glad it worked!

You make a simple egg and flour dough, roll it out very thin, cut into 1-inch squares, then fill with a mixture of ground meat (I’ll use half beef, half lamb) and finely chopped parsley and onion, squeezing the dough closed around the filling like a hobo bag. You boil these tortellini-type pasta until nice and soft.

The best part of mantı is what you put on top before eating. On top of the hot pasta stuffed with the meat mixture, you pour a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt mixed with lots of crushed garlic, then atop it all, a good spoonful of melted butter that’s been simmering with crushed tomato and red pepper. Yum!

The first time I ate mantı in Kadıköy, Turkey, when we first moved to Istanbul in 1986, I wasn’t too sure about it. The flavors were unlike anything I’d ever tried. But soon it became my favorite dish ever.

Kadıköy, Turkey (photo courtesy http://www.living-turkey.com/living_in_turkey/photos_from_istanbul_Kadikoy.htm)

Kadıköy at night (photo courtesy www-star.stanford.edu/ ~bbaas/trips/)

When I've made it before, I've used frozen ravioli or imported dried mantı. So this will be my first attempt to make it from scratch since first tasting it!

Wish me luck! Maybe tomorrow I'll have my own pics of mantı.