Here she is---a little farmgirl and her ducklings. I found this wooden puzzle at an antique mall and couldn't resist. It's so cute that I may start looking for more. I'm not sure how to display her--maybe in a shadowbox?
Have a great week!

Owl in Road---a poem

The traumatized owl
sits in the road,
stares at the three people
trying to save him

with the mildly autistic expression
of a pre-schooler
who's seen too many episodes of Barney,
comprehends the absurdity of a talking dinosaur,
yet still believes,

having never known the degradation
behind the happy family,
lives in the realm of primal imagination,
is still in touch
with the Pleistocene within his soul.

Master Naturalist

Yippee! I've been accepted into the Illinois Master Naturalist program. Orientation is tomorrow. This is something I'm really looking forward to and I hope will enjoy. I want to learn all about this region and share it with others. People today are so distanced from the natural world. I believe this is the source of a lot of the world's problems. You don't want to blow up the things you love, so if everyone loved Mother Earth.....as Chrissie Hynde put it "Bring on the revolution--as we watch the children play/remember how the privileged classes grew/and from this day/we set out to undo/ what won't undo/looking for the grand in the minute/every breath justifies/every step that we take to remove/what the powers that be can't prove/and the children will understand why..."

If you don't mind....

I've been reading lately about mindfulness, the quality or state of being aware of you and your surroundings at all times. Mindfulness is important because we spend so much time living in the past or worrying about the future. Mindfulness takes us out of our distracted mind and puts us where it really matters--the here and now, this present moment. It sounds easy but is really quite difficult. It's hard to sit still with one's thoughts, especially when your mind is going a mile a minute. But when you do, it's amazing some of the insights that you gain. Not all of them are pleasant but at least being mindful takes hot issues off the back burner and puts them up front where you may better deal with them. Why a picture of Boxer to accompany this post? Because dogs are masters of living in the moment-the past?Huh? The future? What? Hey, there goes the neighbor dog walking down the street--I'll have to bark to get his attention! Rowf, rowf, hey, it's starting to rain. Rain is wet. Hmm, it's not fun to get rained on but---gee, there she comes up the driveway! Time for supper! Oh, what a wonderful thing, supper! I like to eat! Here she comes in the door--I'll have to bark to get her attention! Rowf, rowf!
Have a great day.