Wheel of Fortune

October 5, 2022

My family, friends and I have all survived Hurricane Ian. No damage to our home. My son's business has had damage, my ex-husband without power still, but grateful we are all alive and well. That being said, internally I am sensing that everything has changed. I don't feel like everything is over and it surely isn't over for Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island. The devastation is real, the heartache is real.

In a blast of good news, however, our McNasty neighbors have moved. I will be happy if we never see them again.

I learned that the bald cypress knees that appear after a storm are now believed to help the trees anchor during storm and not necessarily to provide oxygen to their roots. I want to align myself with those cypress knees. Many of the trees still standing have leaves that have turned brown, typical for cypress needles. Not so for the others, I am guessing they have been "burned" by the fierce winds and moisture sucked out. I imagine they will recover. Not certain SW Florida will recover. My life is back to "normal"--we have power, I am working, stores are open, but things feel "off" to me. Perhaps time will help.




Oracle of the Essences--Black Pepper

Wetland

We have no mountains
rising to the sun
the eye arcs north and south
across a river of grass,
the palm trees and mangroves
sluicing the sky
as we drive the Tamiami Trail.

Over and over, the children ride
the dragon coaster
at the Everglades fair
unknowing that beneath them rides
the vouivre , a coiled serpent
of telluric currents
full of the earth's energy.

Our watery world floats
on shell mounds
left by the Calusa centuries before
and one perfect storm
might erase us, too.
The wet center is endless
and may not hold.

Destructive Patterns--willingness to change, be honest with yourself and others


I wrote Wetland in 2010--but particularly significant to me after Hurricane Ian.