8. Rising, falling

It was a dark and misty morning.

The loving mind can observe peace and joy in one moment, and then grief in the next moment, and it will not be shattered by the change. A mind filled with love can be likened to the sky with a variety of clouds moving through it–some light and fluffy, others ominous and threatening. No matter what the situation, the sky is not threatened by the clouds. It is free.

~Sharon Salzberg

In the softness of a misty morning.

Maria is now a tropical storm.  The National Hurricane Center advisory describes her position as “crawling northward off the North Carolina Outer Banks.”  For those not in the U.S. and not familiar with our geography and where I’m located, the Outer Banks are about 3-4 hour drive south of where I live on the Eastern Shore.

Better yet, here is a screen capture from Weather Underground:

Courtesy of Weather Underground.  I put in the names of the storms and the arrow pointing to my approximate location.  I took this screen shot early this morning.  As of 3:30 PM, Maria has strengthened slightly and is considered a hurricane again.  (New screen shot at the bottom of this post.)

As you can see, we’re in no danger from Maria.  She’s a good distance out there.  Lee, off to the right, is a hurricane but he will remain out to sea, perhaps dragging Maria out with him.  Or so they are predicting for now.

End of season.

After about an hour of yoga and meditation, I completed my early morning ritual by stepping outside about ten minutes before sunrise.  Although the sky did lighten, the cloud cover (thick and a uniform dark gray) kept the morning dark.  The wind was nearly constant, the gusts much gustier than yesterday.  The rain was warm, light and misty, a mizzle (mist and drizzle).  The mistiness imposed a softness on the meadows and marshes, mellowing out the edges and borders.  I tried to capture that with the camera, leaving the photos a little soft and blurry.

Hosta leaves.

The scent was that of rain and warmth, hard to describe.  Tropical might be a good word for it.  If you were to stand in this morning’s mist with your eyes closed, you might expect to find yourself in the midst of a rainforest, a thick canopy of leaves and branches overhead, when you opened them again.  The sounds were the usual and the familiar.  Crows off in the distance, the local rooster announcing that morning had arrived, two catbirds mewing back and forth, and the wind sighing, whispering, then shhhhh’ing loudly when the gusts would come along.  The dampness kept the sounds quieter than usual.  No rustling of grasses and leaves.  Just the quiet hissing, swishing, and shushing.

Collecting tiny raindrops.

Thank you for stepping out in the rain with me.  Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Meadow in the mist.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  326)  Green tea with jasmine.  327)  Three mockingbirds sitting on the fence.  I like to think one of them is Merril’s mockingbird.  He’ll learn new songs here and carry them back to her in the spring.  328)  Izzy Cat, my companion in yoga and meditation.  You can learn a lot about relaxation from a cat.  You could also learn about reflexes.  Izzy will get under me when I’m in plank or attempting chaturanga (a yoga push-up), and as soon as I think about moving down towards her, she scoots out of the way.  Sometimes I think she knows my body movements better than I do.  Or she’s a mind reader since it’s just the thought that moves her.  329)  A lovely and quiet breakfast with M.  330)  The softness of misty mornings.

Around 3:30 PM. The X marks my approximate location. Sort of. The Wabi-Sabi Ranch doesn’t take up as much space as that X.  Maria has moved closer to us and it’s getting windier than originally forecast but they’re saying the cold front coming through tomorrow will bring us even stronger winds than Maria.