Jackie says on her page ” though very shy and quiet, he was well liked here. ” A thoughtful and personal tribute
Chasing Light : Daffodil Whisper
So fellow travelers, reviewing the photos from yesterday morning’s adventure (“Was that you crouched on the sidewalk taking photos by the library ?” a coworker asked me when I got to work) I found one I meant to include. I was going to add it the previous post until I heard the whisper of a haiku within.
Shadows some times are
Beautiful things defining
Light for our mind’s eye
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready.
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 21, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/chasing-light-daffodil-whisper/
Chasing Light : Morning Daffodils
So fellow travelers, once again on my morning drive to work, the light was wondrous. As I posted recently this can be both a source of joy and frustration.
Today driving past the public library in town, I caught sight of these daffodils in the morning light.
With a school bus behind me I was unable to pull over. Yet as I drove on, I found myself unable to let the moment pass, these thoughts running through my mind~
The forecast for the next few days is cloudy with a chance of rain. The sun’s position shifts a few degrees every day, the angle of light will be different when sunlight returns.
Those daffodils glowing with ethereal grace will soon be past bloom.
Ok. “ethereal grace” was an editorial addition more than an actual thought in that moment.
The pull to capture the magic directed me to make a right turn onto a side street and turn around. I’m so glad I did.
Claiming the chance to capture magic, no regrets; a small victory on the quest to live in the moment.
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready .
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 20, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/chasing-light-morning-daffodils/
Lighting the Lamps of Hope
“For hope to have substance, it has to acknowledge the pain. But hope is saying that’s not the final story. It’s not saying pain doesn’t exist, but it’s saying there isn’t a period at the end of that sentence .” Tim Foreman.
So fellow travelers, this quote comes from a member of Switchfoot my favorite (currently recording) band.
Pain exists yet it does not have to define us. It may overwhelm us at times on our journey and we often need help to rise above it. My greatest life challenge has been those relationships where I must watch others make choices to remain lost in their pain. Sometimes we have the option to walk away, sometimes we cannot because we are obligated to standby and remain ready to offer support when needed.
Sometimes, we are the ones, who light the lamps to keep hope alive.
The lamps come on
as darkness falls
The light of day is gone
Memories rise with bullfrog calls
of life before the pain
began to build such daunting walls
Night cries tears of gentle rain
Weep too, but be not downcast
Like lamplight, hope will remain
Peace will outlast
Love will hold fast
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready.
Editor’s note: This poem is written in a format called terza rima which uses an aba bcb cdc dd rhyme scheme. I have been challenging myself to try new (to me) formats introduced by poets participating the National Poetry Writing Month Challenge.
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 19, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/lighting-the-lamps-of-hope/
Simple Tasks
So fellow travelers, thoughts on how I grew to love laundry
The simplest tasks
Become safe haven in storms
Chaos kept at bay
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready.
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 15, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/simple-tasks/
Return to Sterling: postscript
So fellow travelers, a few more thoughts rattling around my brain about the first hike of the season.
I returned from my Spring Equinox hike feeling more peaceful than I had in weeks. As I said in my earlier post, I didn’t know what shifted, I just know something settled in my heart which eased my troubled mind and lifted my spirits.
That night I woke around 3am from a dream so lucid and powerful it took a few minutes to understand why I was laying in a dark room. Just seconds ago I was sitting at a picnic table next to my camper, writing notes in my journal. Everything, I mean everything, made sense and I was writing it all down in concise, clear phrases.
Of course the knowledge of what I had actually writing faded with the dream, so unlike Einstein, who discovered his famous E=MC2 in a dream, I have no worldly wisdom to impart yet the sense of clarity stayed with me. I settled back to sleep feeling content and solidly grounded.
A few hours later, I would wake to my phone buzzing with an emergency message from our High School crisis team. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt my ability to be fully present through the difficult day ahead came from the grounding experience of my Equinox hike and the resulting dream. This kind of mysterious, almost mystical alignment is not the norm for my trail adventures. As much as I enjoy hiking, most of the time it’s simply a good long walk with a few bird sightings and maybe even a handful of photos worth keeping. I think this is why I didn’t write about it originally.
Over the next two weeks, trails called to me in a more meaningful way and I continued to seek guidance and solace by hiking in whatever location came to mind, drawing strength from solitude. I sense a deeper level of awareness has been opened and wanted to acknowledge this. Even as a kid growing up in the Bronx I felt a strong connection to nature, although my experience was mostly limited to simply climbing a favorite tree by our apartment. Yet now I feel more deeply attuned to the little sacred moments which will fill my heart with hope and keep my footing steadier on the Path.
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready.
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 13, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/return-to-sterling-postscript/
Easter Lace
So fellow travelers, I miss Spring. It was here not long ago.
Pretty little periwinkles in my daylily bed. I regret to report they expired after snow and frost hit this week.
and I found it not too terribly far away when I traveled to Philly to spend Easter Sunday with my family.
Yellow explosions of forsythia by my parents townhouse
Back here in Upstate New York, Old Man Winter has sent Miss Spring scurrying away.
Maybe she will come back when she reads this haiku I wrote in her honor:
Even the willow
Puts on it’s finest green lace
Dressed in Sunday Best
Creekside willows blowing in the gentle breeze on Easter Sunday morning
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 9, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/easter-lace/
Chasing Light
So fellow travelers, the light as I was driving into work a few days ago was incredible. Incredibly poetic and incredibly frustrating too. Driving past image after image I longed to capture, unable stop all I could do was take mental snapshots and make notes of shots to get on a future morning off, provided of course conditions are similar. Which they rarely are. Patience and creative expression are testy balance sometimes.
So I drove on, past rose tinted tree tops, past glowing willow trees, past a stunning hilltop view of the tiny church steeple washed in peach and gold above still darkened village rooftops, past my favorite field…no wait.
Here I could easily pull over, roll down my window and grab a quick shot with my phone.
I am working on a series of images featuring this tree in different light through the seasons. I hope I can capture this same light with my DSLR another morning before both tree and field green up, but the weekend forecast may not cooperate. This day dawned cold and clear; our weekend says cloudy with snow. I have that shot already, several versions in fact.
By the time I pulled into the parking lot, the light was already shifting from watercolor washes to pure white daylight. As I pulled into the high school parking lot, I did catch this view of the steam vent on the roof.
Rose tinted smoke signals reminding me of some “official statements” the staff and community received via email the day before. (For the record they are unrelated to the recent death of one of our students. They stem from an entirely different matter.) Thoughts began to flow in a rhythm of their own.
Obscure smoke signals
are not clear
communication
The veiled messages
do not hide
lurking ugly truths
Hollow protocol
feeds rumors
adding to turmoil
A community’s
trust broken
can it be rebuilt?
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready.
Editorial note : for this poem I used a form new to me called lune with 5-3-5 pattern. I am learning a lot from the work poets are posting during National Poetry Month and hope to explore many new formats in my own writing.
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 8, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/chasing-light/
… on a message from your sponsor
A most excellent post from Lisa Dingle. I hope I have managed to raise my daughters with a bit of this wisdom too.
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 8, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/on-a-message-from-your-sponsor/
Return to Sterling: Lakeside
So fellow travelers, if there is one lesson I have learned and taken to heart, it is this:
When my soul is restless, when something is amiss, when my body, mind and spirit are out of sync there is only one reliable remedy I can take.
I take a hike, or at the very least a good long walk, where I am likely to encounter more birds than humans.
This is not a remedy unique to me, as I know from reading the most excellent writing of other bloggers, many of whom I am blessed to also count as friends. In fact it is not uncommon for someone to write about an experience which happens in sync with one I have just had. The synchronous posts used to deter me from writing out of a self imposed concept that being authentic had to also be completely original. Gradually I realized this synchronicity was actually a hallmark of how connected many of us really are.
After all my standard salutation “fellow travelers,” is a reflection of my true belief that we are all on this journey together, whether we walk parallel or different paths. We all need joy, yearn to love and be loved, seek peace and want to be heard. Allowing myself to put my experience into words and images, even when they were similar to other posts was a conscious choice to acknowledge my experiences. The more I do, the clearer my voice has become to me, because when I started this blog I had no idea how to write with “voice.”
Even before our school community faced the challenges of coping with a student suicide, I was struggling with a vague feeling of foreboding. Reading pieces from my creative friends told me I was not alone, a reassuring and clear directive to listen to my restlessness and seek calm where I knew to find it best.
So it was I found myself on the trails at Sterling Nature Center.
The eerie sights and sounds at the heron rookery did nothing to calm my uneasiness. As water, even in stormy weather, is my favorite centering element I decided to head for the Lake Trail. Along the way I watched an ermine dart along the opposite edge of a creek, too elusive for me to photograph clearly. Some moments of joy are not meant to be held.
Ermine, hiding behind the logs on the far side of the creek.
I spotted salamander egg bubbles on another creek’s surface, a sure sign of spring which fortified my resolve to face the single digit wind chills I knew were blowing in off the lake.
The rhythmic pulse of waves grew louder as I approached the shore. Signs of winter’s force blocked one trail, so I headed towards the beach. Weird ice formations in random spots decorated the shore like a mad artist’s sculpture garden.
Flat, grey lighting made it difficult to capture the full impact of these images. At least the shoreline provided a colorful array of stones, rolling like gems being polished in a tumbler.
I sat for a while on a large fallen tree and let the waves wash through my mind. I sat, I am not sure for how long, feeling the waves shifting and rearranging my jumbled thoughts until I sensed my face had gone numb from the cold winds.
I stood and headed to the trail leading back up the hill, yet my feet trudged past the trail and kept going up the shoreline, climbing over more fallen trees, walking, walking, walking on tired legs until I reached this view
A sharp cry above me drew my attention to an osprey flying inland from the lake, pursued by several gulls intent on stealing the fish clutched in it’s talons. They were moving too fast for me have any chance of getting a focused shot; I made a conscious decision to watch rather than reach for my camera.
And suddenly there it was ~ I felt the jumble in my mind shift, like the tumblers of a complicated lock clicking into place. In that decision to consciously be in the moment whatever it was I seeking settled in my heart. I had no idea what it was, only that it was there and my spirit was calm.
Suddenly aware of being tired, hungry and quite cold, I headed for the trail leading back to my car, promising myself one stop on the way home
Comfort food from Rudy’s a Lake Ontario legend.
Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready
Posted by Deborah H Rahalski on April 6, 2016
https://dhrahalski86.com/return-to-sterling-lakeside/