Bird Droppings April 24, 2021

Eating some left-over chicken parmesan and thinking about the circle of life

A couple days ago I made a huge pan of chicken parmesan and had plenty of leftovers. So I am sitting at my computer working on my Birddroppings and dissertation eating some. Several things have led me to my writing today. I am a student of Carl Jung in terms of my psychological philosophy is more in tune with him than say Freud. I see events intertwining and taking us to the next event. As I have been working on citations for my dissertation and verifying page numbers from several references, I ended up yesterday reading Dr. Michael Garretts book Walking in the Wind again.  

“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.” Black Elk, Ogalala Lakota Medicine man

If you think a bit soon all you will see is circles. Hurricanes and tornadoes move in circles. Birds build their nests in circles. The more philosophical meaning could be looking at life, we have birth and then the circle of our own journey until death completing the circle. In the past six days or so several friends from high school have passed on. Each had a journey in life touching many people and many friends.

I was mowing my front yard yesterday trying to stay ahead of the rain that was forecasted to hit early this morning. I have a rather large selection of music on my Apple music through my iPhone and hearing aids. My middle son had suggested a group, Mandolin Orange and I have become a fan. My iPhone however has recently decided that after an album finishes it will introduce me to similar music in that same genre. So here I am mowing listening to my music, and it changes still similar in what I like so I just keep mowing.  A song by Jason Isabelle is playing. Honestly, I can say I do not know him. The song title is a bit weird, “If we were vampires”. The chorus hit me hard. I cut off the mower and went to my front porch to sit and listen again without the mower running. I had to look up the lyrics. Perhaps it was reading about a friend passing just before I started cutting grass. It might have been thinking about my wife Pat and I married forty-three years I am not sure, but I was crying.

“It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever, likely one of us will have to spend some days alone.

Maybe we will get forty years together, but one day I’ll be gone or one day you’ll be gone.” Jason Isabell

Words to a song can impact us perhaps opening up memories and forgotten pieces of our lives. The intellect and the artist in us intertwining, intersecting, and blending the avenues of our soul. I read more in Walking on the Wind and finished my mowing with this song stuck in my head. We live life so flippantly and waste precious moments. I thought back to friends lost over the years and to my father and father-in-law whose birthday is today. I thought of my mother when she lost my father nearly fifteen years back and then my mothers passing. I shared with my grand daughter I miss my writing spiders and they would be coming out soon as they get bigger. I am writing today with several dream catchers around me reminding me of the web of life. We each are merely strand on the web. I thought of the word synchronicity used by Carl Jung. I was taking my wife’s car to wash this morning and gas up. As I pulled off the ramp a red-tailed hawk swooped by me. Ten second sooner or later and I would have missed it.

“Wellness is harmony in spirit, mind and body.” Carol Locust, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Harvard Educational Review

I read this line from Dr. Garett’s book from a list written by Carol Locust. It sounds so simple, but it connected with the lyrics from the song of Jason Isabelle. Dr. Garett stressed that we need balance in our lives. I some how seem to be drawn back to a yellow sticky note left on my computer screen over twenty-five years ago my sixteen-year-old son. He was a big fan of Aerosmith and the words he wrote were from a song on one of their albums. A young man had been severely injured in a car accident; he was close to all of us. I spent the night by his bedside watching the monitors and holding his hand. Come morning he was declared brain dead and he had always said he would be an organ donor and he was taken for surgery to save other lives. I was hit hard that night having three teenagers at home myself. I drove home from the hospital and sat down at my computer to see this yellow sticky note.

“Life is about the journey not the destination.” Steven Tyler, Aerosmith

These threads intertwining being spun as I sit here writing. Savor the moments and time we have. I have a digital photo album next to my desk and as I looked over a spider web was on the screen. A writing spider, amazing how life and our journeys interconnect. My dear friends please keep all in harms way in your hearts, on your minds and always give thanks, namaste.

My family and friends I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

bird