Home Diary

Home Diary on a Monday. The beginning of a work week for some people. Others have a life where they are retired, going to school, are unemployed, healthfully challenged, live without a home, or live an unencumbered life for many reasons. So, I think saying it’s the beginning of a work week does not exactly encompass all the peoples. It is difficult to talk about things in a general way for me as nuance exists in the corners. We each carry our life view and over lay it with its own captions onto the wider world culture. All of that being acknowledged - I would like to try talk about Home on Mondays.

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”

— Oscar Wilde

Home is a word of comfort to me. I have a moon in Cancer after all. The place of home, family, relationship lives in the fourth house astrologically. It is important to me to make a nourishing nest. Home is wherever we are. We are home with this Land that we are a part of. Land is us. We are of the Land and not standing on the Land. Home is a place that is a deep and integral part of each of us. It is interesting to look at this word - homeland. Really, it is where and who we are. I don’t think it is something that we find.

home shelf

Homemaking - the art of keeping home. Everyone, no matter who they are, lives in a home place. It might not be the ideal home that we wish to have landed in. It is possible to find small and grand ways to make our home space. As I mentioned yesterday - a nature altar offers to us a meaningful and free way to create a special corner to inspire us. An apple sitting on the table is an altar to the Land - each of us. The apple sits there looking lovely as we walk by. Each pass by the apple altar requires of us a simple unconscious shift to take in its beauty. These living neurons awaken in us a creative moment of awareness.

How do we make the space in the places we call home? What is comfortable to us? How are we making home or place toward our own living ideas? Contentment requires a settling - in some ways on this topic. So many images of beautiful homes inspire us or in a moment - disappoints us because we cannot have what the image represents to us. The busy life of pursuit and want and longing - requires us to veer off the path of home keeping. What is here in front of us? How can simplicity bring us beauty and simple comforts? I am not speaking about minimalism and a particular aesthetic. It is the inner compass of what we desire made manifest in the tiny ways we arrange and navigate within our home places. Where is the direction that I want to be living in - imprinting on my home place.

flowers

“Home is the nicest word there is”

— Laura Ingalls Wilder

spirit of home

The Spirit of Home oracle card from The Divine Muses Oracle by Maree Bento about home and family life. Your home is a sanctuary from the world where comfort and stability can be found. It’s a joyous and harmonious place to share with family, friends and pets. Where you may celebrate special occasions and give gratitude to your community. The Spirit of Home oracle is a positive card that shows abundance and happiness. Your home is a reflection of who you are. It has consciousness and it breathes because of you.

““I’ve learned that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling.” ”

— Cecelia Ahearn

The well known song by Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros - Home is a moving song about Home being Wherever I Am With You. Home is who you are with. Home is a contentment we might feel inside. If we are on the street or in a prison - Home might be the scratched together pieces that are found holding us together. It is good to think about this Land - that is a part of us and we are a part of it. It is a deep process to explore our first home maybe being our own mothers - the good and the bad of it. Explore this with someone that can hold the tender places it might bring up in you.

Home holds over us in the the sky as we live out our lives in places with traces. Remembering the importance in crafting a home place - bringing along our senses and feelings of what the truth of all of it is for ourselves. Home is for all of us. As we walk along the byways in our lives - we are walking with each of us together. It is a community of Home. I breathe in as you breathe out. We are the Land breathing together. As we formation a life of Home - we carry all that we are inside the suitcase of meaning as our individual selves. The sky view might be - what is enough - what is meaningful - what is needed - in making a Home place.

“Sycamore Gap Tree at Hadrian’s Wall”

Autumn Trees

“I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Dwelling is a word that has long enfolded me. It brings to mind both inner and outer dwelling. I have memories of being a small child - very vivid images come to mind of little me, in spaces both made and created. At times I have experiences that find me in places that are difficult to describe. Perhaps they are in times of before or in the future. Star lands that might visit during sleeping or active imagination times - a surprise glimpse of a wider consciousness - gifts of presence. All of this informs the way that I experience the world. Dwelling is a lifeway that I have been drawn to for as long as I can remember.

When I was thirteen - I read Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This important work laid out a course for me for the rest of my now many decades long life. I used to carry that copy of Walden around with me in my backpack and pull it out to read wherever I had a moment to fall into it. Next to my backpack was often my fiddle that I was playing every day. I can still smell the scent of the pack. The outline of what Walden represented to me was a captured moment in time of dwelling. It showed how one could set up a life in a simple, intentional and way finding journey. I understood that the world that Thoreau was able to inhabit was unlike my own - both in time, privilege and gender - however, it was a template for me to begin to conjure what was most important to me in my life. The way of Dwelling.

Deciding to dwell internally - a locus of importance- framing exploration was awakened in me by Thoreau and his work Walden. In a closer look at the books that held importance as a young person - it is there in revisiting that we can find seeds of what our future life might become. This has held true through all the years for me. I notice that when I stray too far from those long ago held ideals - life begins to flatten for me. Dwell into the past to seek what was important - before you had an understanding of it. It is the picture or story that is found at a moment that seems to hold us in its arms.

cabin

“Nowadays almost all man’s improvements, so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of the forest and of all large trees, simply deform the landscape, and make it more and more tame and cheap.”

— Henry David Thoreau

window into

“Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.”

— Henry David Thoreau

firewood

“Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection. I love to have mine before my window, and the more chips the better to remind me of my pleasing work..”

— Henry David Thoreau

chair

“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.”

— Henry David Thoreau

window

“The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode.”

— Henry David Thoreau

It is in the word Dwell that I will return again and again to share with you the reflections that have etched upon the life that I have lived. May you find your own dwelling place - within or outwardly - on this quiet Sunday morning The woodstove is burning. A big fat rabbit greeted me outside my back door. The sun comes up a bit later now in this autumn turning. May good things find you…

Multi Deck Tarot Spread

Still - in the Full Moon energy transiting through the days. How has it been for you? The strong pull of big Aries may have you thinking of your big ideas. It is a good time to get this written down in a journal. Write down all of your ideas - even if you feel they are outlandish. When we write down what lives inside of us - possibility can then be seen. Our mind sees the written word and we begin to imagine that some things are possible.

How wide can we forecast and dream what lives inside of us? At midlife and later - it may seem that our paths are set down for us. We have lived our lives - what can be changed now? The are plenty of examples of people changing the course of their lives - in all walks of life. I was listening to a woman yesterday speaking about - Legacy. What does legacy mean to each person? What might be important to me would seem mundane to another. It is something worth thinking about and mulling over before we die. What are the things that have been important to us in this life - currently - no matter what age we are, this is a useful thing to contemplate.

Often times as we move along through the days we might ignore what is bringing contentment to us. What are the things that light us up? It does not have to be grand. Maybe we are good at something that just comes very naturally to us. It doesn’t feel like a particularly special gift. It is something that we easily do with enjoyment and ease. Others perhaps frequently compliment or remark on our ability. This might be something that will open possibilities in our thinking about our lives. Sometimes, we search for the big clues - the flashy ideas! How can we be different and unique in this life and “make our mark”? It is a part of our modern culture to look only to what is in front of us. Some have lost touch with the ancient knowings that were once just a part of our lineage.

The things that humans have always done over time is very much still the same. Our basic needs must be met to survive and thrive. So, that includes - shelter, food, clothing. After this - we might have time to expand what is needed, to align with a bit more creativity in our lives. The more a society allows for the care and tending of the people - People Care - the more opportunity for real imaginal awakening would be present. If we are scrabbling to get by - where can we find the space to create a life that suits us individually. The community allows the individual to thrive or not.

It is somewhat of a myth told to us from childhood - typically in the United States - “You can be whatever you want to be!” While I might agree that in theory this is so - in practice more systemic change needs to occur before this is a truth. It is true we have the opportunity, if we have the support and networks - lifestyle and family support - systems in place that support humans and their well being. However, without these basic safety nets in place - it becomes much, much more difficult for everyone to begin on a level playing field. Isn’t it a playing field after all?

In the interest of not bringing you down into the depths however, I do think there is this often unexplored realm of living that begins in the psyche - the imaginal realm. If we can develop the skill to envision ideas, outcomes, futures, healing, well-being - it is a place to exercise a sense of possibility in the world that is unique and special to each of us. Without the skill to even begin to dream - how do we begin to find pathways of purpose and meaning that holds something for us individually? This is not something that is readily or easily talked about in many circles. Imagine - in early childhood if we were taught to dream and vision in our quieted minds. This is where the seeds of creativity live. Our minds would be awakened to creating as a matter of course. This realm of expansion would not be closed off or shut down. This is a huge topic - one that has lived with me through all of my days. What I am actually saying is that the culture does not support creative thinking - misfits - way finders - dreamers.

Creating a legacy - finding a purpose goes back to the beginning of creating a life. In order to find unique ways of living - freedom needs to be offered to each of us. If we are guided into particular funnels and tunnels - this is shut off early on in childhood. We cannot say - do anything you dream of - and then force people to follow particular guidelines in learning. It is only later on in life when discontent, confusion, depression - a sense of something is not right here - might we begin to look at this. It is for this reason I am a strong believer in imagination and fostering it early on and throughout one’s life.

“You may say that I’m a dreamer - but, I’m not the only one...”

— John Lennon

Of course all of this is said in full and utter awareness of the culture we live in now. However, the smaller shifts can occur slowly as we awaken to what is living inside of us. Is it true that there is so much discontent today due to the world cosmology? Or rather is it that the circumstance is not created that we can live as the free and loving humans that we arrive here on Earth as? I don’t believe that there is a narrow framework that we need to fit into. The challenge is in finding ways to live in a system that does not find room for our holistic human selves to find creative ways to live.

“Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky
Little boxes, little boxes
Little boxes all the same”

— Malvina Reynolds/Pete Seeger

So, maybe trying to live our lives as poetic beings is a pie-in-the-sky idea. Or maybe it is all that really matters. A legacy of what we can imagine into possibility is an effort worth looking at. The stars is one place to look…

What role does imagination play in your life? How might you connect with your imagination even more regularly? Journaling the Tarot: Evolutions by Andy Matzner, psychotherapist - is an excellent resource for journal prompts and questions for exploration.

“Image is Psyche”

— Carl Jung

tarot deck

It is an Aries Full Moon on this day in the constellations. This is a time that corresponds to peaks, culminations, and heightened activity and feeling. It is a good time to see your projects to the finish line, but remember to rest and nurture your system amid the activity of the moment. Trusting your instincts. Trust your passion. Trust the paths that light your heart on fire. If you are looking for daily information in an astrology app I use the Chani App for focused astrology delivered each day. Theresa Reed is also another very experienced astrologer and tarot reader that offers many resources. I highly recommend her. I will share more resources over time, that I have found useful, educational and inspiring. Astrology is a beautiful life map to help create rhythm and structure to your days.

This full moon finds me immersed in a class online. I will share about it in a later post. Taking classes is a wonderful way to stay engaged and grow in ways that enable you to find communities that perhaps you do not have in your own current community. It enriches me and helps me to take paths that I had not been living before. I have been involved in many trainings, classes, webinars, workshops both in person and online for decades. One thing often leads to another. The range of things I have taken have gone from a few hour workshop, to days long classes, multi-month trainings and finally full multiple year trainings. Being a life long learner is very important to me.

Reading books of course is a part of this self-development. However, a developed class allows for much more exploration. Opportunities for community and friendship are always present. The amount of time you put into your classes or learnings is in my experience - how much you will develop and learn related to the class. I have done both things. I have taken classes and let them wash over me without a great amount of work put into them. Other trainings I have put in daily concentrated work and effort and I grow so much more if I do this. I get out of the class - what I put into it. The responsibility is on me. The teacher has done their part in the offering. Now it’s my time to decide how this will manifest in my life. I am always more pleased with myself if I do the good work.

In this current class - as in most classes, I tend to use a tarot deck to travel along with me as guidance, inspiration and personal development. Daily draws bring a unique focus to the lesson or theme for that day. How is the card showing me to work with this days teachings? It broadens what the teacher offers and brings some personal insight as to how the teaching can work in my particular life. Throughout the day - I may draw a card when a question comes up - for clarification. It is an inspiring and visual way to keep my thinking living in an imaginal and magical way. I love the artful way of looking at things through the tarot as a helpful tool.

The tarot is also very useful in setting up a small altar for my learning. There can be a larger arching tableau for any learning opportunity you are so fortunate to be in. I always count my blessings when I am enabled to take a class. Tarot used as creating a creative tableau for particular modules, questions, learnings is so helpful. The image might allow you to discover something that was outside of your thinking. I believe living with tarot and working with a variety of decks facilitates movement, discovery and internal dialogue along with imagination in my studies. I am always grateful for insights brought to me through working with the tarot as both a personal and a business tool.

Full Moon

What do you see here that might speak to you in your own life today? Look at the reading with a curious and open mind. The reading has meaning for me. The relevance you might find is in you own thinking. I hope that you find some measure of inspiration and seeking. May good things find you.

Pumpkin Truck

The annual pumpkin truck at The Farmers Daughter in Rhode Island. This is a continued journey through this garden wonderland. I hope you enjoy! As I said in the previous post, this little corner is a meandering place of beauty. I thought I would show you some more of this garden. Each time you go it is a different experience. This truck is always a highlight, and many people stop to take their family photographs here. I wonder how many times this truck has appeared as a back drop!

walkway of brick

A brick walkway leads down to the herb greenhouse, all the way at the end on the left. Just beyond that greenhouse is a pick your own field. When I was there, the dahlias were in bloom. You are given a bucket, left to your own devices and to picking your own dreamy dahlia bouquet. They grow many varieties and sizes. When my mom died - this was one of the things I went to do, not long afterward. Somehow, I was in that field with one other person. That bouquet was the beginning of living without her here.

Barn shop

This brand new barn was put up last year. It’s a lovely shop now filled with changing items each season.

Vintage Cart of Pumpkins

Each year things change at The Farmers Daughter. Displays are done by very talented artists that work here. One of the places that they get some of their antique and vintage items for display is at The Brimfield Flea Market show. I have heard stories about some of the acquisition’s that have come to live here. One story was about hauling a heavy cart out of an antique shop that might have weighed 700lbs at least. Muscling it up stairs and out into the lot and into the back of a vehicle. This done by a very petite woman! She does work non-stop as a gardener, so her muscles are mighty! Look at the knobby pumpkins here!

Garden Shed

This little garden shed holds all sorts of treasures. There are candles, books, artwork, dishes, baskets, unique containers, incense and a whole host of other things. All tucked in between, are little small surprises so that even with a small amount of money you can find a gift. More pumpkins!

Unique Varieties of Pumpkins

Displays of unique pumpkins and gourds sit in a very large main field where typically a huge variety of plants are displayed for sale. For the autumn season - of course pumpkins and autumnal items take center stage. These green textured pumpkins are some of my very favorites!

Seasonal Barn

This barn holds seasonal items and displays. It always smells so good in here. You can find incense in here that isn’t typical. The candles are wonderful, burn well and last a good long while. Always look up when visiting these barns because the ceilings are also always decked out as well.

Large Pumpkin Centerpiece

This corner is filled with pumpkins of all sizes. At other times of year this area carries the shade loving plants.

Pumpkins on a bench

Pumpkins Everywhere

In with all of the pumpkins, one can find plenty of ironware for the garden.

Greenhouse

A garden shed building filled with indoor plants, statuary, ribbons, lights, pottery, crystals and gardening needs.

Pumpkins

Here is a section overlooking the larger main part of the plant selling area. I often stop and sit here for a few minutes to admire the view. It is always fun to strike up conversations with folks here as it seems in general, when people are here they are in a contented mood. I think people with their plants are in a social mood when most leave their cares aside for a short while.

Pumpkin Close Up

Main sales area

The main building you see when you first arrive. Bulbs, book, cards, containers, bouquets, candles, ribbons can all be found here. The bulbs offered are unique varieties and always grow exceptionally well. All of the garden staff here make you feel like an old friend. They are always ready to help with whatever you need and will find the answer if they do not have it. Their customer service is exceptional!

Driveway Display

Mums

When I am leaving The Farmers Daughter, I always take one last look when I get to the edge of the plants. A feeling of contentment fills me. There is so much more to see here and I know that I will keep coming back over all of the years, like I have been for so long now. Thank you for joining me on this tour of one of my favorite places.

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”

— May Sarton

House Garden
thread and thistle weave a story of being - sky blue dome is my roofed thinking - legacy channeled into foundation of soil - in our belief of small, insignificant - an entire life can be moved through or along - not held back by stationary movement - the questions formed are of a great magnitude - slightest breath flutters an oath or a path of hurricane.

thoughts found wily enough without brittle contemplations - doldrum might ask you if you have yet climbed Dolomites - travel inward toward essential nutrients - searching horizons anew brings renewed sense of lack - leanings into immediate surroundings arch over the bridge you forgot to cross.

sense of pace rises and falls again in the light of your eyes - weed ways grow to keep moisture in thought reveals - color ways are wefted stories that hold where imagination ables - the mythic fable is your life way - held in close proximity to shimmering beauty of - just beyond - presently a home garden is where you will natively grow a set of beeing wings - you don’t need saving - I will catch threads entangled.

~thebonelines

I traveled to a garden of a different kind this week. The Farmers Daughter in Rhode Island is a beautiful garden place and nursery. It is one of my favorite places to go for plants - inspiration - friendship - imagination - wonder. The plant keepers there are friends that have grown over time - just like all my plants from this wonderland.

Gymnocarpus physocarpa, or Hairy Balls is in the milkweed family. Of course the name makes me laugh inappropriately! This plant makes me smile whenever I see it. It is also stunning to see up close. Here is some information about Hairy Balls from The Garden Diaries if you want to try growing it.

This change in the season here in New England is generally quite short. It sneaks up on you and suddenly we have the woodstove fired up - yesterday while the rain drizzled down all day. When it reaches the high 40’s F here at night, a woodstove fire is needed to take the chill off of an old 1700’s house.

It seems that many people like to decorate during this autumn time - especially with gourds, dried grasses, obligatory mums, and of course the wide variety of pumpkins available. I tend to love the misshapen, wonky, bumpy, other than orange colored ones. Even if I don’t purchase many, I love to look at them and run my fingers over a few with especially fancy characters. I think one way to enjoy the season can be to go and have a look at garden nurseries - botanical gardens - parks - or a walk or drive around your area. It isn’t necessary to purchase something. Drinking in others celebratory decor can provide us with a fill of beauty - if we don’t have the money or do not want to purchase more. If you do decide to purchase decorations - it would be useful to buy from your local farmers and perhaps decor could be made from items in nature. It does not have to be costly. A lovely dried branch stuck in a bottle you have on hand is just perfect.

A cart full of sugar pumpkins is the perfect autumn image. When you walk down the pathway and are greeted by such an abundance of orange in this old fashioned vintage cart - I feel full, and joyful and there is a sort of contentment that the simple things in life are available to us. Just a simple note with the price for you to step right up and pick out an orange pumpkin treasure. It is just the right small size to sit on a window sill. Things do not always need to be big and fancy. Small and simple can be just as satisfying.

In a time of life when we might wallow in lack, worry, trepidation about the world - the earth - finding ways to celebrate in quiet ways is helpful. The big fancy celebrations are wonderful of course! If we find smaller ways to celebrate and ritualize our daily lives - imbuing magic into them - life can begin to take on a festive and meaningful practice as we walk through the obligations that we hold.

Begin to find ways that make life feel sacred and meaningful to you. Of course this is different for everyone. For me here at The Bone Lines - finding meaning is a daily practice. It is not always the same and what is needed has varied over the years. Seeking small and doable moments will begin to build up a Life Way of living a breathing magical story. Your life is a biography. Imagine living in what is most important to you. Don’t let too much time pass. If a tiny inspiration catches you on an inbreath - try to pay attention to what is calling to you. Creating a meaningful and magical life is where The Bone Lines tromps along. Cinch up your skirts or belt up your pants - being land pirates of our lives is so much fun!