"I get knocked down but I get up again...and again and again..."

they went skiing for a day
and she decided to try snowboarding.
"it'll be such fun!" she enthused.

***

"so, how's it going?" he asked two hours later,
taking in her disheveled appearance and snow encrusted hair.

"well, it's going okay," she said.
"i just wish i had packed some knee pads and a ton of charmin, baby,
'cuz my tush hurts!"

and he giggled in spite of himself,
trying desperately to kiss all the tender spots away.

Pocket Proctector

"you know, baby," she said as they walked to their cars,

"i think i figured out why yesterday was a no good downright poopy day."

"why?" he asked.

"because i inadvertently left henry at home!" she replied,

quickly pulling her tiny owl talisman from her coat pocket.

"baby! i love the fact that you keep a little owl with you all day,"

he said with a chuckle. "it's so cute!"

she giggled.

"between you and me, i really don't think he minds

'cuz he can catch up on his z's and he only sends out a "hoot"

when i forget to let him out at night so he can stretch his wings."

The Year of the...Half-Chicken?

they were sitting in a chinese restaurant,
pointing out the animals of the chinese zodiac on the menu when
her three-and a-half year old asked, "momma, what animal am i?"

"well, let's see," replied her mother looking at the dates on the menu,
"since you were born in 2005, it looks like you're a rooster!"

and her daughter sat there thoughtfully, pondering this news and then said,
"so, momma, does that mean i'm half chicken and half chinese?"

and her mother smiled, knowing that the questions from here on out would only get harder.

Who's Afraid of Pale Pants?

"i dig seuss books," she said proudly,
"but i have a confession - i'm still afraid of the pale green pants, baby."

"really?" he exclaimed incredulously,
"surely not that pair of pale green pants with nobody inside them?!"

"yes!" she replied. "those pants! they're scary, baby!
i mean, what are they doing wandering around at night
through snide-fields and brickel bush patches and
rowing about for doubt-trout on roover river?

"i mean," she continued, "it's just all shades of creepiness if you ask me."

"well," he replied thoughtfully,
"maybe seuss was just trying to point out that the things we're most afraid of are
really quite silly when you meet 'em face to face."

she thought on this and replied with a grin,
"well, you have a point, baby.
so this probably means that i should return your green pajama bottoms
that i hid a while back, huh?"

Snow's Out for Summer

they were driving in a bit of a snowstorm,
watching the fat flakes push against the windshield and flurry past them.

"wow," she exclaimed to him as he drove into the white wall of snow,
"these flakes are in a hurry to get somewhere, aren't they?"

"you bet," he replied, "it's almost as if they know
that winter's just about over and have decided to have one last hurrah."

"hmm," she replied, "either that or they just
finished school for the year and are keen to get going on their vacations.
i mean, if i were a snowflake, i'd be on the first zephyr out of town, baby!"

he looked over at her and laughed and said,
"sweetheart, somehow i don't doubt that at all!"

Musing on Muses

A few days ago I was perusing my friend Leah's blog "Creative Every Day" and I came across a TED talk featuring Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love". In the talk, Gilbert shares her thoughts and fears about the writing process and she chats at length about inspiration and the unknowable place from which ideas come.

I like Gilbert and I respect her memoir for both its brutal emotional honesty and her grit in the face of great pain. (See my thoughts on it here.) Still, what struck me most about her talk was the way she described her encounter with American poet Ruth Stone. (if you linked over to the TEDTalk, go to 10:13 in the feed.) Even more inspirational is the way Ruth receives her poems. Gilbert describes:

"...while she was growing up in rural Virginia she would be out working in the fields and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. She said it was like a thunderous train of air and it would come barreling down at her over the landscape and when she felt it coming (because it would shake the earth under her feet) she knew that she only had one thing to do at that point and that was, in her words, to "run like hell" to the house...and she'd be getting chased by this poem and the whole deal was that she had to get to a paper and pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it and grab it on the page.

"...and other times she wouldn't be fast enough so she'd be running and running and running and she wouldn't get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape looking, as she put it, for another poet.

"...and then there were these times...she said that there were moments when she'd almost miss it...she's running into the house and she's looking for paper and the poem passes through her and she said she grabs a pencil just as it's going through her and then she'd reach out with her other hand and she would catch the poem by its tail and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page and in these instances the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards from the last word to the first word."

(You can learn more about Stone and hear some of her poems read aloud in this 2004 NPR interview.)

I'm fascinated by Stone's life experience and the way the poems find her. Sometimes people ask me where I get some of my poems from and there's really no easy answer. I certainly don't experience a thunderous train like Stone, although I certainly welcome that into my life experience! My ideas usually come as small whispers; sometimes they are so subtle and quick that I now carry around a small journal to capture what I can when they find me.

Along these lines, I really believe that this can be everyone's experience. I believe that we all have access to this invisible place from which creativity comes and the trick is twofold: opening yourself up to the possibility that this is true and being ready for what finds you. Why not try it as an experiment? Think about it, you could be the receptacle for the world's next big something!

***UPDATE: This morning as I was driving into work, I glanced at the license plate of the car next to me. It read: "To Muse". I giggled and giggled and giggled. Synchronicities like this are such fun!***

A New Kind of Streaking

she looked up at the sky and
saw bright meteors skimming the skies.

"oh, what amazing journeys they have," she mused.
"i wonder what their frequent flier program looks like?"

A Night of Falling Stars -- Reflections on the 1833 Leonid meteor shower

1889 drawing of the 1833 Leonid meteor shower as seen by Joseph Harvey Waggoner, a minster traveling from Florida to New Orleans during the shower.

The contents of the heavens -- its constellations, comets, galaxies, planets -- have long fascinated me. When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming an astronomer and spent nights watching the cosmos unfold before me, gazing closely as it uncovered some of its secrets while I gamely hunted for others. Getting my first telescope at age ten helped the desire along, as it allowed me to focus in on the moon and her moods, the rings of Saturn, the martial planet of Mars and the whereabouts of galaxies and clusters with magical names like Andromeda (M31) and Pleiades, respectively.

Realizing early on that astronomy required a great proficiency in math (let's just say math wasn't my best subject), I abandoned astronomy for poetry, happy to realize that the switch allowed me to continue gazing at the cosmos in wonderment.

And, I still keep astronomy as a small hobby today, perusing "Astronomy" magazine monthly and tracking the movement of the planets and other celestial objects from the vantage of my boyfriend's hefty telescope. I like it when I learn new things about the universe I didn't know before. Last summer, I stumbled across Native American accounts of a great meteor shower in 1833 in which great numbers of stars fell to the earth. After more digging, I discovered that during the nocturnal hours of 12-13 November over 200,000 meteors fell to the ground, alternatively shocking and amazing its viewers. Many believed this fiery portent from the sky signaled that the end of the world, while others, like Abraham Lincoln, drew inspiration from the event to later assuage fears that the world was ending during the Civil War. He wrote:

"One night I was roused from my sleep by a rap at the door and I heard the Deacon's voice exclaiming 'Arise, Abraham,the day of judgment has come!' I sprang from my bed and rushed to the window and saw the stars falling in great showers! But looking back of them in the heavens I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now."

Sometimes as I gaze up into the sky, I find myself musing on how people of the past made sense of the mysteries of the cosmos, especially when it seemed to be in a fiery free fall. While a doctoral student at Princeton, I came across accounts of strange and increased celestial activity in the years leading to Pope Urban II's declaration of a First Crusade in 1099. Then, Europe witnessed several auroras which reddened the sky as if it was seeped in blood, sudden comets and meteor showers, lengthy solar and lunar eclipses which blackened the earth or turned red, leaving witnesses to wonder what was afoot. (Jonathan Riley-Smith's "The First Crusade and The Idea of Crusading" is especially good for more detailed information on this topic. See pages 31-35.)

I raise this because even now the universe continues to surprise and delight us -- oh, consider just how little we really know about space! It is still one of the few uncharted terrains that allows for unencumbered imaginations and vivid dreams. For me, it remains a most trusted and constant muse. Where would we be without the splendor and glory that resides all around us?!

Bouncing is what Tiggers do best

"oooo, it's such a fantastic blustery day today," she enthused.
"days like this always remind me of winnie-the-pooh!"

he laughed and asked,"so, which pooh
character do you think you are most like?"

"tigger, of course!" and she bounced up and down for effect.
"i mean, did you even have to ask?"

"nah," he replied, "but it was still fun to ask and get entertained in the process."

Quotidian Tasks

"ironing sucks," he said.
"even with a cup of tea, good music and a burning candle
to help banish nasty feelings about getting ready to go to work."

he paused and added, "feel free to quote me on that."

Turning the page

she packed up her belongings now that her tour was over,
feeling a little bittersweet about its end.

"well, i guess that's that," she thought to herself as she said her goodbyes,
"onto the next adventure!"

but what she didn't tell anyone was that
this experience came into her life when she needed it most
and proved to be the first ray of sunshine after a long hurricane.

and as the months passed, the light grew
and magic surrounded her and infiltrated her life in the most unexpected of ways.

so, now, nine months later, she found herself
skipping to her car with a full heart, twinkly eyes and a mirthful spirit
and readied herself for all that was next.

The Pony Express

"oh, i miss the west!" she wrote her friend.

"hey, the west misses you, too, lady k," he replied.
"but i'll tell you what. i'll bring yellowstone to you!
i mean, i'm confident that my car, lilly, can handle
at least one bear in the front seat and
i'm sure i can squeeze in some mountain goats in the back."

he paused. "hey, do you think my roof rack would hold a moose?"

and the thought made her giggle to imagine
his tiny honda coupe transporting a menagerie of
animals across the country just to make her feel better,
although she was sure they'd make quite a scene at roadside rests.

Abracadabra

she recently walked into a room full of cold pricklies
and thought, "ooo, they need some sunshine in here!"

so she picked up her wand and dialed up the sun
and requested a rush order of "warm fuzzies"
to be delivered immediately.

"oh, and you better make that COD,"
she informed the operator. "it'll make
'em register what they're receiving
and take a little responsibility for what they've created."

Water Cooler Chat

as heard in the hallway this week:

"sometimes all you need in life is a cape and a good pair of boots."

and she wanted to interrupt and inquire if the look came with a choice of super powers.

Lunar Lesson

she looked up into the inky cosmos,
freckled with tiny stars,
and gazed up at the full, bright moon with wonder.

and in that moment she was reminded
to shine at full-strength even when things felt dark and uncertain.

given the moon's example, she felt silly not to
and so she made sure her glow setting read:
"super intense blinding brightness, you need shades 'cuz i'm so bright"
before stepping into work for the night.

Little Fox and the Hound

"sometimes i think my soul
is really a bloodhound named clyde,"
she said out loud.

"i gave him a whiff of what my perfect career smells like
and then sent him off on a journey to sniff it out."

"he hasn't found it yet, but he will and
i'm okay with waiting, especially since he sends me the
most lovely postcards from his travels.

"he's always so thoughtful," she finished with a grin.

Oink! Oink!

"it's been a while since i've met such a disagreeable personality,"
she said to her sister.
"i mean, she takes the cranky pants award of 2009!"

"well, don't let her get to you," her sister replied.
"in fact, if i were you, i'd just turn her into a pig 'cuz
somehow it's easier to work with people
you don't like when you imagine them
running around on all fours and sniffing about for truffles."

You're Not in Kansas Anymore, Doc!

"oh, i survived this crazy ski trip," he wrote her.
"i mean CRAZY, even for me!"

"how so?" she replied curiously.

"well, i was in the outback of montana
trying to survive this ski trip and its attendees.
as best as i could figure,
either their drinking club has a skiing problem OR
their ski club has a drinking problem.
"the lines were very, very blurred!"

he paused and then added,
"oh, and did i mention cleavage like a train wreck?"

"wow. some trip!" she typed back.
"it sounds more like a reality tv show
which could be aptly called
'doc in the woods:
surviving the great outdoors and the people who live there.'

"i just hope you have all your shots," she finished with a wry grin.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Brady playing in the snow, January 2009.

she arrived at her childhood home
greeted by a flurry of lazy fat flakes that floated past her,
holding up little crystal welcome signs and whispering "you're here! you're here!"

it was such a lovely gesture
that her soul danced in the beauty of the scene
and giggled deeply.

as so she spent a week in a winter landscape
with a light heart and
happy feet which hopped through mounds of snow and
happier hands that helped to build snow angels and pirate snowmen
with the family dog and the man she loved.

she soaked up family,
watered her roots
and breathed in the wonderful moment that was all of this
and knew she was content and full and happy.

Only the best pirate snowman ever!

A Different Kind of MiracleGro

sometimes she felt like her plant simon.

she often found herself following the sun
and never stopped reminding herself to grow BIG.

There's a New Gang In Town

they were driving through chicago at night
and she looked up at the sears tower and giggled.

"wow," she said to him, "did you ever notice
just how much the tower looks like maleficent,
the evil dragon/queen from "sleeping beauty"?

"hmm," he mused.
"i don't think i ever noticed that."

"well," she replied, "word on the street
is that she relocated here after her altercation
with flora, fauna and merriweather
and is helping snow white's evil stepmother
turn lake michigan into a replacement mirror."

"well, there goes the neighborhood," he said with a grin.
"so, just to be safe, maybe you should hand
over that shiny apple until things improve.

"then again," he paused, "maybe you should eat it so
i can wake you with love's true kiss."

"but, baby, you already do that!" she exclaimed.

"i know," he replied, "but it doesn't hurt to practice...
just in case."

"Hoo" said what?

she discovered recently that
a group of owls is called a 'parliament'

and it made her giggle to imagine
a bunch of wigged owls sitting around a chamber,
drinking tea and civilly debating
the number of licks it takes
to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop.

according to mr. owl, a member of the house of commons,
it is "a three."