L'aura del Campo

A beautiful day; alas, I have meetings

Winter 13 'Ala (March 14)

2006-03-14
afternoon, 50 degrees. 34 in Pittsburgh.

Bad weather in the Northeast. Wind and snow. Here sunny, mild and Springlike. Got a picture of rows of purple hyacinth in front of yellow daffodils. Magnificent.

Went to a meeting this morning. Reminded me of how difficult it is to be on a committee. One person made the very valid point that there was no reason for the committee to exist if the city council wasn't going to listen to it.

After that, went to meeting with Jeannette, to see about me moving on with my life. I told her we can talk about Missoula next time as she has actually considered moving there! Similar people seem to have similar ideas. She is no more amused with this town than I am. She also understands how Easterners think and how if your on their shit list, beware! Some organizations, like La Familia, neither forgive nor forget. They know how to carry a grudge in one hand and a hammer in the other.

EM WONK OT GNITTEG

128. As a left hander I find it easy to write backwards, even upside down and backwards. Learn this as a child. My handwriting backwards is better than most people's 'normal' writing.

129. Yes! I have great penmanship when I concentrate on it. My poetic sketches in my notebooks can be almost illegible however.

130. Can't see worth a damn by day but can read in very low light and can write in darkness.

131. Hearing is a problem. Loud noises make me jump. But I can't hear you if you mumble or over other people's loud conversations.

132. My sense of smell ain't what it use to be. At least it's not as bad as my Aunt Verna's was in her 70s, when she could only smell onions.

133. Touch and taste probably aren't as acute either; thankfully, I can still taste anything sweet and chocolate is still chocolate!

134. Favorite sounds: steam whistle of a train; song of the meadowlark; any bird in winter; mourning doves; harp; flute; cello; english horn; wind in the fields of grass/wheat/corn.

135: Favorite smells: coffee ; hyacinth; most flowers; fresh mown grass; mist.

136: Favorite tastes: sweet; bittersweet; sweet and sour; chocolate; garlic; butter; orange; nutmeg; cardamom; Harrar or Kenya coffee; violet candy.

137: Disliked tastes: acid; canned pineapple; tin; onion; spicy suicidal hot. I also don't care much for tomatoes or strawberries.

Just got done reading Nada's and Forever's blog. Must make some time to get to everyone elses. Haven't had a lot of computer time recently.

Trying to find a better way to grasp the painting Forever bought for her husband, I sketched this yesterday:

Faces of the baobab

Trunks thicker than the elephants,
sparse shade this season of
golden brush and golden dust
before the rains.

What faces etched in bark peer back at us
with large grey ears that flap?
Can imagination grasp
the stump of tusk, the hollow bellow?

And what baboonish form is silk-screened there,
what zebra's stripes lay hidden
in the shadowed grass, what mirror of self?

Under the spreading baobab,
the guineas peck, the elephants watch
and me move on and fade like dust,
into the golden brush. [162.796]

2006-03-14
evening, 52 degrees. 12 in Luleå, Sweden.

It has been a very calm, sunny, nice day! Even made it to a meeting this afternoon, where I spoke up of course! Put a muzzle on me.

Genealogy ... the bane of my precious time. It is addictive. Probably found my father's father's mother and her sister, brother and parents. The Lentz were originally from Germany, either Prussia or Hesse and Elizabeth Lentz may have come here in 1847 at the age of 16. Anyone on-line a descendant of Conrad Lentz? Lots of kids. Guess they didn't watch much television in 1860 or 1870.

SENSED

In bloom: vinca, hyacinth, red tulips, helleborus, maple, hazel?, phlox, daffodils, mini-daffs, quince, pear, magnolia, henbit, a weed with small yellow peaflowers.

Smelled: crush of mint, thyme and juniper.

O CHILDREN OF DUST! Tell the rich of the midnight sighing of the poor, lest heedlessness lead them into the path of destruction, and deprive them of the Tree of Wealth. To give and to be generous are attributes of Mine; well is it with him that adorneth himself with My virtues.

~ Bahá'u'lláh, Persian Hidden Words #49