Small answers

Distances

SHORE AND GROUND

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances. That’s not
for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes
you move.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and
frightened.
Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical
instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the
ground.

~ Rumi

Patterns

I finished reading Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith last night.  During the second half of the book, my brain (or my spirit or my something) began firing off epiphanies, one after another.  It really is like having a light bulb turned on inside my head, light shining into long-forgotten corners where the cobwebs have been growing and the dust has been gathering.  Reading the book, I’d have moments of remembering that brought about moments of understanding.  “Ah-ha!” my brain (or my spirit of my something) would say, and I’d think maybe I should stop reading for a while, let this all germinate.  But it’s a library book, and I’m heading over that way on Saturday to pick up a book I ordered.  I’d like to return the two I borrowed during my last visit, so I kept reading until I finished.

The sand swims

Having finished, I have time to sit with the small enlightenments.  Often, in the past, I’d have a flash of understanding and I’d leap right into something with it, something such as trying to change a behavior or establish a new habit.  Often, in the past, that didn’t work.  It was too soon.  Much too soon.

Bits and pieces

The problem with epiphanies is that they rarely come with instructions on how to follow up or follow through.  Or if they do, they are in some kind of symbolic code you have to decipher in order to put it all together (kind of like Ikea furniture without the Allen wrench).  On those occasions when there are instructions that appear to be clear and concise, you find out that crucial middle bits and pieces are missing, and you’re operating like the Underpants Gnomes:

• Phase 1:  Collect underpants
• Phase 2:  ?
• Phase 3:  Profit

Phase 1 and Phase 3

I wrote down the flashes of insight as soon as possible, and now I’m going to let them simmer for a while.  They are juicy and can stand to cook down to their essentials, becoming rich with flavor.  Sometime during the simmering process, I expect they will begin to coalesce, for the assortment of small enlightenments is really a whole, of one piece.  That much I can see from where I am right now.

Separate but together

In other news…

John has finished as much as he can on the construction of the addition and three-season room.  The vinyl for the three-season room is on order and should be delivered in three or four weeks.  In the meantime, M and I will be working on the addition to the sunroom.  We have to put down flooring, wall up the door to the master bath (it is a useless entrance to the bathroom for many reasons), install baseboards and trim, repair the walls in the old section (the previous owners used many, many nails throughout the house and left them behind for us to remove and repair the holes), and paint.  The colors are M’s choice because the addition will be his media room (man cave).  He hasn’t made a final decision, but I can tell you it will be dark in there (all the better to watch movies).  I think it will be interesting to pass through the darkness of the man cave and into the light of the three-season room (which is really just a fancy name for a screened in, vinyl-windowed, porch).

Wading

There might be more we have to do, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.  Once we finish with all of that work, we can begin moving in furniture.  This is the happy, happy, joy, joy moment because it means we can finally sort out what stays and what goes.

Should I stay or should I go now?

Even more exciting, this will allow us to finally clear out the formal dining room which will not be turned back into a formal dining room.  The wallpaper will come down, fresh paint will be applied, and the room will become our meditation/yoga/exercise room.  There will be bookshelves going up in there, too.  A dream room for me.

Searching for messages. (Edited in Picmonkey)

That’s about it from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch for today.  Thank you so much for stopping by, for your comments, for your likes, and for just being you.  Today’s images are from my last visit to Chincoteague Island on January 20th.  I thought those of you who have been experiencing a harsh winter might not want to see more photos of frost or ice.  Hopefully the beach scenes will warm you up a bit.

Netting

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

The thinker