Mission San Juan Capistrano

Happy Thanksgiving

 

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes

  And roofs of villages, on woodland crests

  And their aerial neighborhoods of nests

  Deserted, on the curtained window-panes

Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes

  And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!

  Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,

  With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!

All things are symbols: the external shows

  Of Nature have their image in the mind,

  As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;

The song-birds leave us at the summer's close,

  Only the empty nests are left behind,

  And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Do More Of What Makes You Happy

 

Nine hundred Days Left On Earth

 

If I only have 900 days left on this ground 

Every evening to say I made a better web, 

shared love, 

 and create new. 

I let go a those people I used to be when Elle died. 

It's easier to say no with a plan. So here is my plan ~

Yes please to:

Share my skills before we die.

Plants seeds in other gardens.

Propagate specimen cuttings.

Build a house with my hands.

Teach how to read a painting.

Complete the children's book.

Exercise my strong body daily.

Open soul into nature' timing.

Tell moon, season, sky stories.

See fun animals in the clouds.

Stop fear of the night talons.

Welcome a hero into my life.

Be silly, express wonder, sing.

Cook always delicious meals.

Farmers market, know names.

Recite the rosary and meditate 

Join community as need arises.

Show up on time,  tools ready.

Do jobs for free and well done.

Call friends to remain listening.

Be forgiving extra zillion times.

Shut my desire to blurt answers

Don't bit advice to the broken.

Hug more than speak my mind.

Express open sex a one trusted.

Risk what they say ignore critics.

Paint from memory or plein air.

Give away treasures not touched.

Trust the worthy to see my heart.

Keep promises forever, deliver it.

 

 

 

Eulogy For Elle

Celebration of My Sister 

Elle Gerardo Borlin Smith

9/29/2023

 

At sunset Elle's ashes swim with the dolphins.

Bring peace to her struggle and let us sleep.

Fall's a favorite, forever monarch butterflies

return to spin a chrysalis to become again. 

Will pieces of Elle sink into the sea deep?

Summer fades into the earth, brown spiders

weave to survive, and milkweed goes furry.

Planted garlic in your garden, season to 

harvest the scapes and roast the crowns,

keep away squirrels who steal in a hurry.

I'm blessed to have loved you sister.

Left with the golden glow to share.

Love you created, your smile of joy,

be brave, strong enough to compare. 

9/23/2023