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Sharing windows - write where you are

4/14/2020

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Participants from Write Where You Are, a virtual creativity retreat, share moments

Silent wind-chimes suspended from red-painted ironwork...
....from my balcony, I gaze upon the Florentine Duomo...
...What’s my history of the world?...
...A Flicker, Flicker of my desire tapping on the ice to make a hole...
...​M​y green leafed Iris springing upwards toward the missing sun...
...For now, darkness is here and we can walk the earth unobserved...

Forest Heights, MD
Santa Fe, NM
Picture
Sunday, March 30      10:30am      Forest Heights, Maryland

Silent wind-chimes suspended from red-painted ironwork.

The yard needs mowing - shocks of wild chives and masses of purple dead-nettle erupting everywhere. 

The front end of my herb garden is just visible where hyacinths are popping up among the lavender.

It calls me to finish weeding beyond the sage. 

Fox Way, its eastern terminus directly opposite my door, gently curves away to the left

as it rolls downhill, cars parked on both sides and in driveways along its length,

nobody having church to go to today. 

The playground at the lower end where Fox meets Mohican,

its bright green slides and climbing bars highlighted

by a flowering cherry in the yard behind,

empty while children are kept inside. 

The scent of damp grass and soil, humidity held close to the Earth by an overcast sky. 

All the joyful sounds of Spring: birds singing and chirping in the distance,

a starling seeking a mate from his usual spot on the peak of my roof,

the chattering of the sparrow that lives in my porch awning,

flicking in and out as it gathers grass to build its nest above my door.

Nature understands that life will go on, the unusual silence from her human children notwithstanding.

Perhaps that's the point. Maybe she just needs us to listen for a while.  -   J-D Engle




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J-D Engle: Born in late-mid twentieth century Oklahoma
and grew up across America as an Air Force brat.
Been a retail manager,
middle school teacher and,
for the last decade
and a half, Facilities Manager, Volunteer Coordinator,
Newsletter Editor/Writer, Events Manager,
costumed interpreter
and general dogsbody
at a no longer existent National Park historic farm unit.

Picture
Sunday, March 30      3:18 pm      Santa Fe, New Mexico
 
From my balcony, I gaze upon the memory of the Florentine Duomo. 

She luxuriates under a full moon that illuminates her facade.

She has seen the Black Plague, extreme fires and floods, the renaissance, World War I, World War II and she knows...
 
She knows mankind’s darkest faults and grandest moments.  She knows heinous and unspeakable acts. 

She knows also acts of extreme sacrifice, divine acts of compassion and kindness and has witnessed

creativity in its utmost form. She comprehends our vulnerabilities, our strengths and abilities.
  
As she glows under the moonlight, she reminds us all, that our human spirit is resilient, it is divine, and that she and we, as a

collective consciousness, will remain, endure, perhaps in a new form. 

We will, as a phoenix, from the ashes, arise with more love, more compassion and finally unite as one. 

- Cathy Magni



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Cathy Magni is a retired Principal for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools.  She resided overseas for 26 years in Italy, England, South Korea and Turkey.  She currently makes beautiful Santa Fe her home.

Tuesday, March 31      6:35pm      Prague, Czech Republic
Picture
On the buildings across the street, what’s below is in shadow, while the up above is light with late day sun.

Slowly, as the sun lowers, the shadow rises. I’m trying to figure out direction. The moon showed me the other night.

It’s light now even though it is late because unbeknownst to me, Europe changed time the other night.

Each morning, I see a man through my window and then his window doing his exercises. The movements of his arms catch my eye. In another apartment at another time of day, I see a woman practice yoga. She has on all the right clothes.

Now, for the first time, I see that some of my unknown neighbors have placed flowers in their windows. Three. One to each vertical pane. Without my glasses and from this distance, they look like grape hyacinth. Yes, while all the stores are closed, flower shops are open. Isn’t that a wonder?

And when there are flowers, people can bring blooms home with them. 

– Linney Wix


Picture

Linney Wix usually lives in New Mexico and
is living in Prague for the pandemic.

She has a front window, with the view shown,
and a back window from her bedroom,
both for seeing through.


Picture

Monday, March 30      4:31pm      Santa Fe

Right now, I see huge clouds looking down on a sea of junipers.

I see winds of change sweeping away old ways of being in this world.

I see bird droppings on the deck.  Each morning, on the bird bath having their morning waters,

my close allies bring messages of hope.

Robins, bluebirds and often a flicker, flicker of my desire tapping on the ice

to make a hole to reach the water underneath.

He is persistent - tap tap tapping, drumming, knocking until he reaches his desire

in this high desert we call home.

In the distance, I see mountains to the south where I long to drive and reach the other side of this "Sheltering In Place"

Soon, I tell myself, soon. In the meantime, each day I crave yoga , and I drum up the discipline

to do it more and more on my own, though it often takes, primero, a cup of cafecito.

I see my Haitian Mermaid Metal sculpture outside my window. She hung all winter by the fireplace.

But last week, she wanted to be moved to the Winds of Change outside.

She is inside of me, a creature of living waters.



Picture
Lowry Sands is a
longtime Bodyworker,
Empath,
Nature
and Tarot lover,
Dream coach,
world traveler nomad
and a Yogini.
She currently lives
in a yurt in Santa Fe, NM
Picture

Tuesday, March 31      2:07pm      Forest Heights, MD

My Daffodils are fading from their glorious bright yellow full bloom. 

My green leafed Iris are springing upwards toward the missing sun on an overcast day.

My red tinged sprouting Peonies are showing their gratitude for being adopted and transplanted by me. 

In their previous location, in another yard, far away, they felt unwanted because they were mowed regularly,

not allowed to show their full glory. 

I look forward to the arrival of all the bright colors of spring, hoping and praying that I live so long. 

I see the eastern slope of my backyard and halfway up the slope, a dark hole perhaps a rabbit hole or a fox’s den.

Thinking of a rabbit, I think of the Mad Hatter, of Alice in Wonderland fame.

“Oh, no!  Oh, no!  Oh, no!  Oh, no! 

I’m late, I’m, late, I’m late for a very important date.” 



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Roger Smith is a second generation native born Oklahoman.
He worked for over 52 years for the US Department
of Transportation,
Federal Aviation Administration,
and is now retired.

Picture
PHOTO by Marc Bailey, published in the Los Alamos Daily Post, April 8, 2020


Monday  April 6 8:30pm                 Santa Fe, New Mexico

There you are, clear against the night sky rising from Picacho peak,

as if the mountains were just a door mat waiting for you.
 
Nothing else matters in the world but your translucent brilliance.
 
Your beaming smile laughing at us tiny humans down here. As if all our drama really mattered.
 
Is my face a moon? 

Is my chest filled with your glow?
 
Gliding endlessly through our space, tied to our turnings, sucking, pulling our waters.

The rhythm that makes our hearts beat. Our breaths rise and fall.
 
Now, you show yourself as a thin lucent sliver with Venus hanging there, like the most brilliant diamond.

Seducing me to step inside that radiant portal that leads to a hundred thousand sighs and a billion tears. 

Watching with no waiting. Watching in the boundless neutrality of our universe.  

I know in your long view you care somewhere in your changeable soul.

But, for now, darkness is here.

We can walk the earth, unobserved.



Picture
Helen Chantler is a
jewelry designer
who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
www.Reflectivejewelry.com



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Coral de Los Reyes - Sevilla - Spain

4/2/2020

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Picture
Picture

April 2. Sevilla, Spain.

Today the dawn brought rain; it has suddenly become winter again.

To see the neighborhood patio with the door open, inviting you to go out ...it's something that calls to you more than ever, within the confinement of this State of Emergency that we are living.

This rain makes me feel that heaven is crying, that Mother Earth is sharing with us how she feels, how sad she is.  So many deaths, so many sick people in hospitals, among so much uncertainty…. any ray of sun  that enters from the windows is like an embrace of love and possibility.

Even my cat "Piki" is enjoying it on the balcony.

I wish that this all passes soon, and that one day, we can tell our grandchildren that it was a "zamarreo" - something that shook us up - a wake-up call from our Planet  - and from that point forward, all the residents of the earth, we changed our way of thinking and habits so that they, our grandchildren could have a better future. So it will be and so I see. Namaste.




Picture
Coral de Los Reyes  is a flamenco singer,
born in Jerez de la Frontera
into a traditional flamenco family
known for artists such as
Anzonini del Puerto, Juanele and Rubichis.
Her website: coralreyes.wordpress.com/


CORAL DE LOS REYES
Cantaora Flamenco. Jerez de la Frontera
Coral, gitana nacida en Jerez de la Frontera
en el seno de una familia flamenca por tradición,
conocidos por gitanos rubios, como Anzonini del puerto,
Juanele y Rubichis.
https://coralreyes.wordpress.com/



2 de Abril de 2020. Sevilla.

Hoy amaneció el dia lluvioso, se ha vuelto de pronto el invierno… ver ese patio vecinal, con la puerta abierta, invitandote a salir… es algo más que atrayente, dentro de este encierro de confinamiento en el  Estado de Alerta que estamos viviendo..

Esta lluvia me hace sentir que el cielo llora, la Madre Tierra, nos esta enseñando como se siente, esta triste.. Tantas muertes, tanta personas enfermas en los hospitales, entre tanta incertidumbre….  cualquier rayito de sol, que entre tras las ventanas​ e​s como un abrazo de amor y positividad.. Hasta mi gato "Piki" lo esta disfrutando en el balcón
.
Deseo que esto pase pronto, y que podamos contarles a nuestros nietos algun dia, que fué un "zamarreo" de llamada de atención de nuestro Planeta..y que a partir de ahí, todos los habitantes, cambiamos de forma de pensar y de hábitos para que ellos tuvieran un futuro mejor. Así será y asi lo decreto. Namaste


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    Curated by Shebana Coelho


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