At least I will know

If there is one thing that is for sure

at least I will know

whenever the time comes

whenever I go

that I’ve tried out some options

some different realities

of life here and there

there won’t be regret

nor any confusion

as I’ll have experienced my life

adding to my personal season.

looking out to the grey desert clouds today

after climbing through a rhododendron thicket yesterday

i am reminded that everything is what i make it

every bit of this life is here because its what i choose.

if i stay long enough i’ll know how my soul feels

how it longs or linger or what it finds real

i guess i’ll keep moving

along till i find

the place where i feel the best

where the sun shines bright.

the thing is that the light shines here

and it also shines there

some places a little more

some places a tad bit clear.

the smell of the dry pinion pine

traded for the honeysuckle of north caroline

of course there’s a happy medium in which i will find

i wonder if its the place i started

the one that transcends time

that stays with me wherever i go

that holds steadfast flying high like the crow?

rhyming my way through the roots of my mind

the leaves of my being

and the branches of time

it sure helps me at least i believe

that at least I will know

what life is like because i’ve tried

because i’ve thought about it

because i’ve made my life mine…

Enchanting North Caroline

digging my feet in the moist mountain dirt

while climbing from the river

up to the grove hand over hand on a rope

approaching three large mushrooms

an ants view looking up their skirt

like alice in wonderland

or some fairytale told to children

but it does exist…

a real live fern gully

of magical nature escapes

all found in a different reality

in the temperate rain forest

in the great smokies

of beautiful and enchanting

western north caroline

feminine and free

with easy careless days

and peaceful nights fireside

where everything seems to bloom

quickly, vibrant and withers

a dancing and constantly evolving landscape

where large cranes still perch

and at dusk play the fireflies

Two Places at Once

Sharing a current view

inside an institution

within a city

not just any

the big apple.

people walking all around

watching them

listening to the sounds

of jazz players

of a baby too

a gentle voice

and lots of chatter

all the while

sitting upon a deck

in Western North Carolina.

Incredible

it is

to have opportunities

as this

to see life

as its happening

through a friends view

of a coffee joint in the city

while I enjoy time

watching a raccoon…

here and there

there and here

traveling

without moving

what a treat!

Saturn Returns… I turn 29 on March 20th

My life has been in quite a transitional phase since I returned from Brazil. I have been trying to find the place where I feel the best, where I see the “most blue skies” if you will all the while trying to stay true to who I am now, not who I was. It is difficult to do so, when you look similar, you are back in the place where you have spent a lot of time, around old friends, but inside I have changed a lot… I have lived a life that words fail to describe accurately… even so the words I use to describe are relative to my experience, just as they are for everyone… its really all relative from my perspective…
I’ve been back in Yosemite staying with a dear friend who made it a point to pick me up from the airport when I landed back in the states, who has given me a place to stay and has shown me love and care in a way that I thought didn’t really exist in the world anymore. I feel very fortunate and lucky that I have had such a welcome and such a safe place to regroup.
In the past month I have been in a meditation training course in North Fork, California, one that is changing my life… taking what I had learned on the intellectual level to the experiential level and it is blowing me away. Learning that I am the Master of the Mind and I really do create everything in my world. Learning that everything arises and passes away and I cannot be attached to something that is so temporary as it is impersonal and constantly changing. I am actually returning in a few hours back to the Meditation Center to keep learning until I feel like I have this down, I will stay there, it is that important to me right now.
The topic of what sign are you seems to have come up a bit as of late and when I share that I am a Pisces that my birthday is on March 20th and that I am turning 29 the common response has been… ah… Saturn Returns… which I had never really heard of before, so I’ve had people explain it to me and it seems to totally make sense… Apparently, when one is born the planet Saturn is in line somewhere out there in the universe corresponding with your birth date and year. It takes give or take 27-30 years for Saturn to make its cycle back to the same place it was when one was born… and it becomes a time for rebirth… but at an adult stage, where one really finds where they are supposed to be… It becomes a time to rediscover what is important and rearrange life to fit this new self image…
So just as a quick recap… I fell in love and quit my job after 9 years when I was 27 and moved to Brazil… at 28 I realized that I wasn’t the person I was when I left to Brazil… then returned to the states at the end of last year… have been living mainly back in Yosemite where I lived and worked for five years feeling totally in between as I am very different from who I was when I was here last… now I am approaching 29, back in California where I am from, learning about my bodily sensations and will be meditating in North Fork (the exact center of California) on my birthday learning all about me… seems so appropriate…
I find it to be an interesting coincidence, or not, that most divorces happen amongst people who are 28-30 years old… just at the time that Saturn is returning…
If you are interested in learning more about this meditation training course, they call it a retreat, but it is not a relaxing kind of thing at all… check it out… dhamma.org its incredible… taking it from the intellectual level to the experiential level…
Wishing everyone health, love, happiness, peace and liberation!
jennifer.