Crossing Our Own Bridges

July 10, 2013 / still a dreamer / 7 Comments

When I first saw this photo, I had to swallow hard. That is not a bridge I’d be able to cross. The photograph is of the Carrick-a-rede-rope bridge in Northern Ireland and connects the mainland to a tiny island. It is now a tourist attraction, but was once used by salmon fishermen for over 350 years. It is 98 feet, above rocks and the sea, built only of wood and ropes. It is easy to imagine how it would sway when one crosses to the little island on the other side.

It reminds me of bridges in my own life … the sometimes difficult paths that I am traveling to places I want to go. Just like real bridges, some of these can be crossed in hours, days, or maybe years. Some are nice and secure and amazingly happy, like when I used to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, and some are much more challenging, like this one would be. Some feel like they have a sheer drop to the sea and cliffs below.

We all have bridges we need … or want … to cross. I’d had a discussion of this metaphor with a friend a few years ago; a particular challenge I faced, (and still do), seemed the equivalent of crossing this rope bridge. How would I get where I wanted to go? She suggested I imagine the rope bridge bathed in white light, one continuous safety net. I accepted this in theory, but it didn’t banish my fears. And then I had a thought. If I really, truly wanted to get there, I could crawl. Maybe not a bold or terribly brave move, but if that’s all I can do right now? Then I can crawl.

And sometimes that’s what we have to do. Some days we can dance around and through wherever we want to go. Others we can walk with our head held high. But if we sometimes have to crawl to get there, at least we can say we never gave up. One day, one step at a time.

We’ll all get there.

Dreams and Plans

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

We all have them, right? And then something occurs in our lives and we can watch them go up in smoke. Or at least for a while.

But what I’ve found is that the phoenix can rise again from the ashes, except this time, the dreams and plans have changed, perhaps evolved. Or maybe are new altogether. In any event, they have been colored by that event and now they look quite different. Can you relate?

I was often told as a child that I daydreamed too much. It was made out to be a bad thing. But how do you proceed in life without dreams … something to hitch our stars to? It seems to me that when we lose our dreams or when they get mired in the muck is when we get in trouble. I never minded being called a dreamer. I still am, and it’s just fine with me. When I have no dreams, I’ve lost my moorings.

Recent events caused my dream of being published in children’s books to be pushed into the background, to be, at least for a period of time, not that important in the grander scheme of things. That happens. But early, early this morning – certainly before I wished to be awake – the dream was stirring again, and as I thought about it, a next step came into view … a plan. As I lay there, a number of things fell into place, and I knew what I would soon do. A dream with a plan … that felt good!

Sometimes we just make plans that arise out of an event, in my case related to my health. OK – that happened, what will I do now? Up until this morning, I didn’t really know. Not exactly, anyway. However, it seems my unconscious has been quite busy when I wasn’t looking. A number of recent events – a conversation with someone I’d never really had a chance to talk to, a book that crossed my path, a wanting to know what I should do – click, click, click – it all fell into place, and suddenly I had a plan. Ideas that had been more on the line of `maybe someday’ or `that seems impossible,’ suddenly seemed real and do-able.

It’s amazing when we have a plan, how much lighter we feel. It’s as if a fog that has been swirling about us has burned off and we are standing in radiant sunshine, arms lifted in joy and anticipation. A plan, enlightened by a dream, is a wonderful thing. The path may have pebbles or rocks along the way, but it glows nonetheless.

That old Irish blessing comes to mind, and I wish a beautifully lit path of dreams and plans for you, too …

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Buffalo and My Beautiful County

May 18, 2013May 20, 2013 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

I have really had a hankering in recent months to do something/see something different. I am in love with the beautiful county where I live, but I’ve also wanted to just see something new, local or otherwise. So when a friend mentioned going to a buffalo watch, which would most likely offer some good photo ops, I thought it a great idea. And off we went. The day was overcast, but for me, that doesn’t detract at all from the lovely views.

This is a photo of the Readington River Buffalo Farm from a distance. My friend and I decided to take the tour, which is a bunch of us in a hay wagon pulled around the farm by a John Deere. The farm is 200+ acres, and also stables a number of polo ponies. There is a store on the premises which sells a variety of cuts of buffalo meat, which, of course, I did not go in. I am well aware why they’re raising the buffalo; I wanted to simply enjoy the animals.

This is Lance, who drove the tractor. Our “tour guide” on the hay wagon is a member of the nearby Whitehouse Station Rescue Squad which benefitted from the small fee for the tour. He provided us with a lot of information about the economics of raising buffalo, the farm, the animals and how the owner came to raise them. I love that a woman runs this entire operation and that the whole farm is solar powered!

This is one of the two prize breeding bulls. I honestly wanted to get out and give him a kiss, but who knows how he would have felt about that even if it were allowed? Not to mention, if I could smooch a buffalo, EVERYONE would want to get out and smooch a buffalo!!

This is the second breeding bull. Here are a few things I learned about buffalo: they have 7 layers of skin and 4 stomachs; males and females both have horns, but the males’ horns are bigger; the bulls weigh 1,800 pounds! and did I mention they’re damn cute?

This is a shot on the road leaving the property. So often I want to take photos when I drive the beautiful backroads of Hunterdon County and share them here. The problem is, almost all roads are 2 lane blacktops with a double line and no shoulder. Very rarely is there anyplace to pull over, (without being in a ditch), to photograph the countryside. But today on the farm’s road, I could get out and do so.

And another shot of a farm set back from the same road.
Thanks for coming along, and I hope you enjoyed the (short) tour!

Lucky

May 4, 2013 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Sometimes you just get lucky. And in this instance, it certainly was me. I was unable to go to the big annual library sale held by my county library in April, the one where over 100,000 books are on sale for dirt cheap. This has become a yearly tradition with a friend and her book-loving daughter, but circumstances prevented me from attending. So how is this lucky, you ask?

Because I had an unexpected benefactor who is also a regular book sale attendee, an avid reader and someone sympathetic to my situation, and … who hand-picked a bunch of books for me … my girlfriend’s husband. He was the one who somehow managed to divine that I would be a big Mercy Thompson fan – a book series I would never have picked up on my own. So without really knowing what I might like, he made a selection of books that included one by Ursula LeGuin, (an author I have enjoyed in the past), Alice Hoffman, one of my truly favorite authors, and others unfamiliar to me in the areas of fantasy, sci-fi, dark and edgy, and a couple for mindless entertainment. On the latter, he promised “no brain cells will be harmed.”

My girlfriend boxed them up and shipped them out, and here they are … most outside my usual realm of selection, but as he had personally read and recommended them, I’ m excited to try something new. The last 6-8 weeks have not had me reading very much … too many distractions and not much concentration, but the reader in me is back! And thanks to caring, book-loving friends, I’m one lucky reader to boot.

As you can see, Claude was quite bored by this whole discussion. His only interest in books is when I finally settle down in one place and have one in my hands. (So I guess that makes him lucky, too.)

The Consolation Chair

April 30, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

If you’re sensing that there may be a bit of a double-entendre in that title, you are so right.

Here you see a photo of a wingback chair, new to me. In some ways, it seemed to have arrived in my possession as a consolation (prize) to offset a number of things I found myself having to deal with recently. And, being an item that I’ve wished I had for such a long time, I find it not only the most wonderful reading chair possible, but also one that consoles me when I curl up in its winged shape.

There really are times when we feel we’ve spent as much of our energy as we have coping with whatever is on our plates. But wait … the Universe has one more challenge to throw our way. Really? I say. Apparently so. In Living in the Light, Shakti Gawain writes about problems as messages. She says that when there are problems in our lives, it may be the Universe trying to get our attention, to tell us something we need to be aware of, something that needs to be changed. If we pay attention, we learn from the messages; if we don’t, the problems often intensify until we start to pay attention.

So I’d say I’ve been smacked quite smartly about now. And I am paying attention.

But back to the chair.

I’d gone across the street to my neighbors’ house to discuss something relevant to said problem and we chatted for an hour or so. When we came out, I noticed a wingback chair sitting at the end of another neighbor’s driveway in the spot where he usually puts out his garbage or recycling. Could that chair really be there for someone to pluck? I immediately sat in it. Possession is 9/10ths of the law, right? Mmmmm – comfy. He was mowing the lawn so we waved him down to see if, indeed, this chair was there for the taking. It was.

In no time, I had this chair, which had been in his family for quite some time and is in excellent condition, in my living room just waiting for me to grab a book and read. He was happy it went to someone he knew and I was thrilled to have it. (And of course, he has visiting privileges.) Somehow this chair appeared in that spot in a very brief period of time … it seemed meant for me, a consolation for an array of recent difficulties and for which I am very grateful.

I sit it in it and read and I sit in it and contemplate … exactly what is the message I’ve been assiduously avoiding that I needed such a wake-up call? Of course, I’m quite sure I know, and now I have someplace to sit and plan what steps I next need to take in my life. Funny how things work out.