Darkness falls
entering sacred space
stepping from holy ground
to holy ground.
Recognize it.Owl calls
moon rises
sun sets
small dog sits
leaves rustle
heart beats
blood flows
breathing in
breathing out…Feeling the world spin
feeling the earth turn.
Watching her weaving at work
in the night.(12/26/12)
This morning I experienced another woodsfirst. Sunrise. We are late risers usually and I believe this was the first time (even after living here for eight years) that I’ve seen a slice of sunrise from this place in the woods. I couldn’t stay long and it wasn’t that impressive, but I saw it, and it was another new moment in an ever-changing, ever-surprising, familiar place.
After I left, I got this great idea—I’d go back and take a picture at sunset too and, and…also when the moon was rising! Wouldn’t that be a cool series…Sunrise, Sunset, Moonrise, I’d call the post, maybe I’d even have one of those cool moments in which the moon is coming up and the sun is going down and there is a delicious sunsetmoonrise in a Neapolitan sky. Well, since the woods always has lessons for me and they parallel that of the rest of life, that was not actually what happened. We were gone all day taking our youngest to a pediatric dentist out-of-town and then doing some other things while in the city. When we got home, I knew sunset was coming soon, but I let the best moment slip by me while distracted by “catching up” and by the time I went back out, there was nothing visible from the woodsplace any longer—I don’t know that there ever would have been tonight though, because the sky was pretty overcast and the sun sets on the opposite side of the priestess rocks (which face sunrise), so what I usually am able to see in the sky is any long fingers of pink that paint their way along the horizon. And, then, my phone was out of photo storage and I had to stand there annoying myself by deleting pictures instead of watching the remaining trace of sunset from the place out in the field instead in which I could actually see it…
the last bit!
And, then it was way too cloudy to even see the full moon at all, let alone get a sunsetmoonrise type of moment! So, I mined my old recordings for another moonrise night and included my words from that night instead. And, I had a full moon over the greenhouse picture from the same time in December as well…
I did see the full moon last night on my way home from my class and it was gorgeous 🙂 I’m still writing and posting and noticing anyway, even though it isn’t perfect (or even particularly interesting and certainly not what I’d imagined writing about) and as this 30 day experiment comes to close, I do have an overall sense of satisfaction about the process. Being “forced” to write every day is an experience in and of itself. Challenging myself to look closer and see more has been very rewarding. Going ahead and posting anyway, even if I’d expected something different or wanted to do more, or am afraid I’m being boring, or have to rush a little or leave something out or scramble to finish before midnight, or don’t have any striking insights to offer…that is a practice too, and I’ve learned a lot from it.
WoodsPriestess 