Virtual Chorus

June 27th, 2020

6/27/2020

Diantha had shoulder surgery yesterday, and she sang the wonderful song below to her medical team! Here she is at home now,
in her hospital gown, wearing an ice water sling contraption!

"I wrote this song a few years ago during back treatment episodes at UNC. When I sang it yesterday to three medical people in my recovery room, one of them--a young man and I don’t remember what his role was--leaned down and grabbed both of my hands together within his and pumped them up and down grinning under his mask. I felt his respect coming through. It was very sweet.
Then they left."

Retrolisthesis
© Diantha Rau

Retrolisthesis, scoliosis
A little arthritis and stenosis
I got a whole lot goin' on
But all it can do is slow me down
Slow is good, I'm just fine
I do what I can and leave the rest behind
What more can anyone do?
I've got limits, how about you?

June 26th, 2020

6/26/2020

Diantha wrote this beautiful
piece recently from the prompt:
"I take myself to a place where..."
Thanks for sharing this with us Diantha!

"I take myself to a place where everything I remember is enfolded in soft cloth and petals of fondness, a place where no harshness of word or deed has scratched at the bone of me, nor demanded of me something I need not give. I dwell in a place where even pain has a place within the fold. There is no other way really, but to flow with the river of all sorrow and all joy, letting even hard memories soften themselves in the cotton embrace of compassion and humility. What am I but a speck of life in the vast ocean of existence? Why not open my heart, letting things in and out as they must do, all the while nurturing myself with a soft acceptance that passes all understanding.

I dwell in a place where daily activities are the holy grail, so grateful am I for Ann, for our life here, for the trees and for this body which, after all, still moves and shakes, walks its mile every day and finds music through the voice and hands.

This is the thing; I have the will and the power to be comfortable in my skin and at peace with what life gives me, and does not give me; what life becomes when I calm my expectations and do what needs to be done… for Ann, for our house, for necessary tasks and for the people I am fortunate to have in my life. My spirit calls on three sanghas here, and I can give back.

Yes, simple really. All things can be a choice. Reaction, purpose, internal process. I am lucky to be old. Memories can easily become teachers and all present things speak to a short enough future that choices become simpler every day. I choose peace.

I take myself to a place where I feel at home no matter what." Diantha Rau

Virtual Chorus post 28

5/29/2020

I just finished my scrap quilt which I've been working on since
March 11 or so. It has seemed fitting somehow to dig out all the crumpled small scraps from past projects and to use this enforced solitary time to meditate at my sewing machine while I reflect on where I've been and what has happened during this time. The world teaches us that all the small pieces are useful and together they make a beautiful whole even if we can't see it. We are stitched together and we are beautiful and connected. Love, Jane Price

Virtual Chorus post 27

5/28/2020

I heard about a project called PPE Portraits, where medical professionals interacting with patients during the Ebola epidemic, and now during Covid 19, wear pictures of themselves smiling, since patients can't see their faces when they are wearing masks. Studies, not surprisingly, have shown better outcomes for patients whose doctors and nurses wear these portraits. Here are links to info about that project https://med.stanford.edu/pcph/research/ppe-project.html
http://www.ppepor

I thought it might cheer me up and possibly others, if I wore a photo like that when I'm wearing a mask. So I have made myself a PPE Portrait and have worn it out once so far, to Weaver Street. People smiled, laughed and waved at me, so I will be wearing it more I'm sure! I plan on laminating one of them, so I can just wash it when I get home. I did buy some sticky label paper, since that is what the PPE medical people use, so they'll have a disposable portrait. But the sheets I bought were nearly impossible to separate from the sticky side. So I just pinned mine on! Here's a picture of me wearing my PPE portrait to go to town. Love, Kathleen

P.S. The portrait does show up a little better
in person than it does in this picture.

Virtual Chorus post 26

5/28/2020

Becky took this wonderful picture on her trip to Patagonia, Chile.

Virtual Chorus post 25

5/28/2020

Lisa has been buiilding an outdoor Catio for her three cats. These pictures are of the first stage. She writes: "Hopefully I will be making some progress on it so there will be some before and after pictures.
I want to add their tunnels and a tree limb for scratching
and climbing. They need to get some exercise and movement
from the catio as well as sun, air, entertainment and relaxation.
The same things we are all looking for in life!"

That is Olive above, rather extroverted. Her brother Baby Boy and sister Sweetness were in Lisa's cabin. They are more on the shy side.
Olive really loves to eat grass!

Below is the ramp from Lisa's door to the Catio foyer.

Here's Olive getting some excercise!

And here's Olive, Queen of the Catio, on her throne.

I look forward to seeing all three kitties playing in the catio!
Thanks for the tour Lisa and Olive!

Virtual Chorus post 24

5/4/2020

Lois Hill, a chorista and dear friend who lives in Maine, sent this beautiful spring collage. Some of you have seen Lois's work in the past, as her work was on the cover of my Count My Heart CD.
Here is that light filled heart!

Thank you Lois!

Virtual Chorus post 23

4/30/2020

Celebrating Beltane - A Passionate Burning

Dear Earth-Loving Friends,

I hope that you are all healthy and able to get outside to enjoy this most delicious spring.

May 1st is May Day and Beltane. Since we are unable to meet in person to celebrate, I thought you might like to see some colorful photos and read a compilation of past Beltane Celebrations. It's a sort of "Best of Beltane" with Pilgrimage to the Sacred Spring, Maypole Dance, Fire Ceremony, and lots of exuberant creativity. It's to lift our spirits a bit and remind us of the pleasure of dancing, singing and creating ceremony together with nature and spirit, in community, which we will do together again at some point!

Above all it's about holding hope and igniting the passion of our heart's desire for loving communion and creative solutions to the challenges that face us, so that we people, animals, trees and all of the natural world can thrive, woven together in one circle of being.

Celebrating Beltane: A Passionate Burning is here: https://earthsanctuaries.net/the-beltane-celebration-a-passionate-burning/

Warm virtual hugs,
Betty Lou

Virtual Chorus post 22

4/30/2020

I was so sad not to visit my great niece and nephew
in San Francisco that I started writing for them.
It all just fell out, whole cloth!
I was inspired by a book about adults improvising and
story telling to kids including events from their own lives.
So these are stories from these children's lives!
I hope to tell them many more! Meggan

In the Western Woodlands
For Fairies Everywhere
1
Once upon a time in the heart of the Western Woodlands on the side of Wise Mountain two fairy infants fell newborn from their very own green leaf. They arrived a touch soon and a bit early.

2
Mama and Papa picked them up and cleaned them off and wrapped them in fairy dust and placed them tenderly upon the healing dirt in the Fairy Forest.

They covered them with branches and plants and moss and the scent of wild blossoming flowers.

3
Mama and Papa kept them hidden there from fairy friends and fairy foes until they were fully formed.

One fine day the two crawled out together laughing and shrieking! They came home to the Fairy Tree House in the Welcoming Tree where there were rainbows and stars and sunshine and clouds and rain, just enough to make everything twinkle!

4
The children tumbled and flew with their lightning-colored wings. They hugged as they fairy sparkled. And they practiced their blessings and the old fairy ways and they kept growing stronger and stronger.

                                  *********************

5
One sad day Momma Fairy got sick. Poppa Fairy scooped her up in his arms and placed her oh so tenderly down onto the healing dirt right there in the Western Woodlands.

The elder fairies brought green plant potions and secret healing poisons to help her get better and better.

6
While Mama was healing Grandma and Granddad, Oma and Opa and pretty Auntie and gentle brother all played with their wands and read fairy books and practiced flying with the fairy children.

7
Slowly, Mama Fairy got brighter and brighter and gradually all bright again! She fluttered gracefully from the fairy mound and came back to the Fairy Tree House in the Welcoming Tree where there were rainbows and stars and sunshine and clouds and rain, just enough to make everything twinkle!

Here she held her fairy babies to her heart and cried with golden fairy tears of joy and wonder!
                               *************************
8
After some time, and time is very different in the Woodlands, there came the strange word that at the edge of the Fairy Forest a new kind of bug had appeared.

This bug was slippery silver. It was not green like the bugs they knew and understood.

9
But Mama Fairy and Papa Fairy knew exactly what to do! They gathered the children and lay down on the healing dirt. And, they covered themselves over with branches and plants and moss and the scent of wild blossoming flowers.

10
The fairy elders decreed that all fairies stay quietly in their places so that the slippery silver bug could not get to them. The elders searched for the spells and blessings to turn the bugs green like the other bugs they knew and could handle.

11
One day the elders learned to use soap and taught all the fairies to use soap so the slippery silver bug would dissolve and not hurt them. They warded off the silver and turned the bugs green so they could not bother the fairies ever again.

12
And Mama and Papa and the little fairy children, Granddad and Grandma, Oma and Opa, and pretty Auntie and gentle brother gathered in the Western Woodlands with their fairy friends. They danced and ate fairy cakes and began to think of new fairy mischief!
The children cuddled and read and they hugged and they sang as they flew and they fairy sparkled. And they practiced their blessings and the old fairy ways and they kept growing stronger and stronger.

P.S. Meggan's friend Joy Brown, sculptor and illustrator,
is working on pictures for this story!

Virtual Chorus post 21

4/30/2020

STAYING POWER: Practice gratitude, the full-body kind. Find beauty. Settle into the self-love you have within you, and then enjoy being there, moment to moment. Complete your work and offer what you can, but never leave yourself out of the gift. Honor the cycle of slowing and retreating, one of nature's prime wisdoms for a balanced life. Relearn the meaning of home. Let something be born in the interim, that place where creativity takes root. Staying can be an opportunity for whatever might have been missing in the day to day. I am lighting a candle for all of us and sending a prayer for peace, health and Love. Diantha