What a Wonderful World

Pics from 36 of the amazing people who share their pics on Flickr

click below to listen to Eva Cassidy's cover of What a Wonderful World while you are reading my post, and looking at the photos ....


or, you can listen to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole playing his medley of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow & What A Wonderful World" -- this is one of the sweetest renditions I've heard of these two songs:




New Year's Day, Planet Earth, 2007

Today, beginning, we take
our first steps into whatever
comes next, we open our hearts
to life and faith, we find
courage , we hold it out
to others
with the kind of compassion
that comes only
from having lost, or never
having known ...

we look out from
interior worlds through
handprints on the glass
we see behind us
know there is more
find the seed of
acceptance, somewhere
deep
inside, or maybe
it was planted
by one who loved us
long ago or only
just this morning
when the sun
rose
like it always
will

we go on
into the day
into love
into wonder
into joy
we go into our future
as if there is
only this
wonderful
world.



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

With this, I want to thank everyone who has inspired me, shaken me, helped me, befriended me, held me .... everyone who has been honest, real, connected, open. For every insight, compliment, helping hand, critique, loving or kind thought. For all of your comments, for sharing your lives with the rest of us, for sharing your knowledge, your place in life, your homes, your little piece of our home planet, Earth. Thank you for making the world a better place to call home

I wish for all of you the best in 2007. I wish for you the courage to go forward, to find your life, to find your place in the universe. I wish you all that your heart desires. May you all be blessed.

--Maureen
Helena, Rocky Mountains, Montana, North America


These photos I collected specially from Flickr, for my New Year thoughts for today. I hope you will go visit some of these folks photostreams. Flickr is such a cool thing!

1. [ L ' a t t e s a / L ' a m o r e ] VI, 2. Climbing The Stairs, 3. p u r e . j o y, 4. ., 5. Untitled, 6. Four pairs o' feet, 7. 1st capture_August 29, 8. After the thrill, 9. Treasure, 10. Mother and Child, 11. khalil_in_stall, 12. the west wind, 13. Perpetual awareness, 14. day 269: the feet of a future marathonist?, 15. Life is a journey, 16. Baby Hippo, 17. Boxmeer 2002, 18. fear, 19. Ranunculus, White, 20. January, 21. CRBR003088, 22. Gisimba Memorial Center, 23. Lines of Life, 24. First Step Into Water, 25. day 218: first step?, 26. Mother and Child, 27. Hello World, 28. First steps in the big world, 29. First steps..., 30. primeiros passos (first steps) ..., 31. His first steps!, 32. first steps, 33. First steps, 34. Img14532, 35. Taking It's First Step!!, 36. First Steps!

Band Names Generator

I guess I needed a diversion today. How I found this website, a band-name generator, certainly I don't know. Three page refreshes got me this cumulative list:

• Ziggy Claypool and the Stellar Plumbers
• Five Pancakes and Their Java
• The Invisible Puddle Adventure
• Venomous Alpha
• Caustic Boy
• Bob and the Constantinople Carpenters
• Stone Claypool and the Toronto Angels
• The Vicious Tapirs
• Sylvester Phillips and the Stellar Accountants
• The Bumblebee Conspiracy
• Ziggy Edwards and the Universal Land Racket
• The Invisible Purity Quartet
• Leather Chain
• The Ravenous Temple Encounter
• Insane Snout
• Buckaroo Johnson and the Young Tapir System
• The Bishop Brigade
• Gammaman
• Plague of Rivers
• The Leather Hammer Group
• feargun
• Confederate Men
• colorgarden
• A Temple of Fingers

hey, there are some pretty good name ideas there ...


Josh ( I think that's who has the word generators) has other word generators, Adolescent Poetry and Post Modernism Essays... reminds me of really really bad academic papers. The papers even have footnotes! '-D

Here are a couple of excerpts from "The Posttextual Paradigm of Discourse and Nationalism

In the works of Burroughs, a predominant concept is the concept of precapitalist culture. But Foucault promotes the use of semantic desituationism to read class. Nationalism suggests that the task of the participant is deconstruction, given that reality is distinct from language.

or this one:

In a sense, the premise of the posttextual paradigm of discourse holds that academe is capable of social comment, but only if Bataille’s critique of nationalism is valid; otherwise, Baudrillard’s model of the posttextual paradigm of discourse is one of “Lacanist obscurity”, and thus intrinsically impossible. The subject is contextualised into a postcapitalist dialectic theory that includes reality as a totality.

Peace in our Hearts ... and ... Peace on our Earth

May we each find our inner light,
may our dreams become real for us,
in this time of year when friendships grow,
when darkness recedes and
light grows strong again ...

in this *Winter*season,
this Solstice Season of celebration and change,
I want to thank everyone
who has helped me grow as an artist, a writer
and photographer -- and most especially, as a person --
through your kindnesses, your generosity
your friendship and your light.

May each of you be blessed with
the time to go inside, reflect on what
nourishes you, on what gives you
strength, on what makes you happy

May the light and peace of the Great Spirit always
shine in your hearts

Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year

Montana Web Blog Awards

retreat activity, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Wulgar over at the blog, A Chicken is Not Pillage, has posted a list of nominations for the 2006 Montana Blog Awards. Last year through the same process, I discovered some gems I have enjoyed reading over the past year. The awards put a spotlight on some lesser-known blogs as well as some gems in several categories, including political blogs and creative blogs.

Thank you, Wulfgar, for hosting the Montana Blog Awards. I know it took time and effort to put it all together. You are much appreciated!

So, to all of my blog readers: even if you don't live in Montana, if you enjoy my blog or any of the others listed below, please head over to Wulfgar's blog to vote for somebody -- anyone can vote.

Of course, I would appreciate your votes for either of my blogs, Raven's Nest or Land of Little Rain. And there lots of other blogs on the list that also happen to be some of my favorite regular reads: Bitterroot and Bergamot is one -- most of my blog readers already visit her blog regularly, but in case you haven't, check it out -- she has an eye for capturing the beauty of Nature - from tiny details to wide open landscapes.

Another of my favorite blogs is Karen's excellent blog about life on a Montana ranch: Karbon Kounty Moos.

Watermark is filled with creative writing and dynamic conversations with her blog readers, always stimulating to read.

Another Missoulian, Patia -- A Drivel runs through It -- writes about life, politics, culture with a subtle sense of humor that makes me snort out loud.

As long as I'm lobbying for votes for my own personal favorites, I can't leave out this irreverent blog, even if I rarely agree with his views. What I Think (as if you Give a Damn) is funny, honest and straightforward. Even if you are easily offended, I dare you to give it a read -- everyone needs a good chuckle now and then. Here's an excerpt on the weather (i'd much rather read about the weather on Justin's blog than watch the weather guy on channel 12 -- anyday!)

Why isn't there a market for snot? I've got barrels of the shit and no end in sight to the supply. So how about it? Anybody want to buy a barrel of snot?

Didn't think so.

Sorry to be so brief once again, but I seriously feel like ass. I'm gonna go have another Airborne and echinacea cocktail and go back to bed. Snow on the ground and one of our drivers is off for the week so I doubt I'll wind up with a night off. I guess if I'm going to be sick I might as well get paid for it. From what I hear, the snow's supposed to be short lived but the cold assed temps are likely to hang around for a few days anyway. Do yourself a favor and dress up like an Eskimo tomorrow night, I wouldn't advise the nude surfer costume.

Now, that's a weather report. Wish Justin had his take on the daily weather in his sidebar.

Here are the nominated Montana blogs, with links so you can check out some of the best blogs in the west.


Montana Blog that best represents popular culture:

Better Living Through Blogging
Bah Weep Grahna Weep Ninny Bon
Patia Stephens/ A Drivel Runs Through It
City Lights
Thoughts From The Middle Of Nowhere

Best Montana History Blog:

A History of Montana By Kodak
Electric City Weblog
Karbon Kounty Moos
Prairie Mary

Blog That Best Represents a Montana Lifestyle:

Karbon Kounty Moos
Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere
A Chicken Is Not Pillage
Pragmatic Revolt
What I Think (as if you give a damn)

Most Creative Montana Blog:

MOTTO
Watermark
Patia Stephens/ A Drivel Runs Through It
Raven's Nest

Best Photography:

Thoughts From The Middle Of Nowhere
Bitterroot and Bergamot
Out There With Tom
A History Of Montana By Kodak
Karbon Kounty Moos
Land Of Little Rain

Best Written Montana Blog:

A Chicken Is Not Pillage
City Lights
Watermark
4 & 20 Blackbirds
Dave Budge
Intelligent Discontent

Most Humorous Montana Blog:

The Monkey Cage
A Secular Franciscan Life
Bah Weep Grahna Weep Ninny Bon

Best Left Leaning Blog:

A Chicken Is Not Pillage
4 & 20 Blackbirds
Left In The West
Intelligent Discontent
Montana Netroots
Speedkill

Best Right Leaning Blog:

MT Politics
Electric City Weblog
Montana Misanthrope
The Hammond Report

Best Independent or Libertarian Blog:

Dave Budge
Pragmatic Revolt
The Last Best Place

Best Political Blog:

Left In The West
4 & 20 Blackbirds
Intelligent Discontent
MT Politics
Montana Netroots

Blog That Had The Most Impact on the Elections of 2006:

Left In The West
Electric City Weblog
4 & 20 Blackbirds

Thanks again, Wulfgar.

The Road

PatryFrancis wrote an interesting post about Cormac McCarthy's newest book, The Road. I stumbled on her blog post when I was looking around at all the many blogs that have used my photos from flickr (it's really cool that I can find websites that post my photos -- keep an eye on how the images are being used by others ...) Anyway, I was drawn in to her post because I have recently finished reading The Road. I ended up writing a monster of a comment about the book on Patry's blog. And I thought -- I should post it here, too. So here's the comment I wrote:

I just finished reading The Road. We had given it to my 25-year old son, Mickey, as a birthday gift -- something he requested, as he is an avid fan of C McCarthy's. Mickey finished the book quickly (as always) and brought it for me to read when he came home at Thanksgiving. He told me it was very very very sad (exactly his words) but that he thought it was worth reading. He also told me he didn't think I would like it, as in "Wow, this is such a good book!" but that I would probably think the book was a good book anyway. (if that makes any sense ...)

The Road was the saddest book I have ever, ever read. I read all the time. I actually don't mind sad. But this was extreme! Somebody else commented on Patry's post about how sad the book, No Country for Old Men was... well, The Road is definitely more sad than that one.

Others wrote about it being "scary" ... for me it wasn't scary. I just felt incredibly sad for the Earth, for humankind, for all the plants and birds and insects, fish, creatures ... though I know it was fiction, it is so close to what is plausible ...

McCarthy's way of writing dialog -- sparse, stark, succinct ... and his way of not naming his characters ... so that the 2 protagonists were "the boy" and "the man," makes it even sadder. So much more real. The way the primitive mind might think. (by that I mean, the deep human mind that lurks under our conscious mind) So much closer to what might really happen if we somehow destroyed the world, life, everything save for a few not-so-lucky souls.

I had a hard time sleeping each night when I would put the book down on my nightstand. My husband didn't want me telling him anything about the story. I tried to a few times, just to have someone to console me. He just fell asleep. Sometimes reading the story as it plods along unapologetically, trudging with the boy and the man along a half-hidden asphalt road through absolute 100% devastation ... sometimes I would be reading through tears. Tears running down my cheeks. And then, sobs. Sobs -- out loud. I mean it when I say, for me, The Road was the saddest book ever! It wasn't the kind of "sad" I've felt reading a book like "The Color Purple" or Wendell Berry's "Jayber Crow" where the story takes saddish turns now and then. The Road was thoroughly, deeply sad. When I finished The Road, I gave it to him. He put it on the bottom of his pile of books under the nightstand on his side of the bed. I know he won't read it.

And yet, the man and the boy, each the other's world entire, have such love -- that love sustains them along their forced journey through a bleak and ashy world. McCarthy conjures a vision of the worst that could happen to our world - through human fault -- and the best part of the human soul. There is 100% destruction of everything around them. Except for the tenderness between this father and this son.

That tenderness was, for me, the tiny flicker of hope in all the sadness, grief -- and anger -- I felt reading the book. The faith held between the man and the boy, that they were carrying the fire ... somehow carrying a seed of humanity's true essence -- in the face of the world's total destruction, that seed is hope.

Fire is an important part of the spiritual path I share with my husband. Maybe that's why the hope really sank in -- touched me deeply. Somehow this dark, dark tale made me glad to be alive, lucky for all the blessings and gifts we have -- now.

And for that reason, I would read the book again. And recommend it to anyone who knows they like Cormac McCarthy.

Here is a comprehensive NYT book review of The Road, with excerpts.

Truthiness: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year

What a cool word! Truthiness
I love how the English language is constantly changing -- it's a dymanic language, rather than being stuck, static. New words keep the language alive.

Truthiness is Merriam Webster's Word of the Year for 2006. This is a quote from their website:

By an overwhelming 5 to 1 majority vote, our visitors have awarded top honors to a word Colbert first introduced on "The Word" segment of his debut broadcast on Comedy Central back in October 2005. Soon after, this word was chosen as the 16th annual Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society, and defined by them as "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true."

Merriam-Webster's #1 Word of the Year for 2006 based on votes from visitors to our Web site is:

tada .... wait for the drum roll ...

truthiness (noun)

1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

more about truthiness:

"I think there's a serious issue lurking behind the popularity of the word truthiness," said John Morse, President and Publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc. "What is it exactly that constitutes truth today? This isn't just a political question-it's relevant to a broad spectrum of social issues where our ideas on the nature of authority are being challenged. Adopting the word truthiness is a playful way to deal with this important question."

Traffic to Merriam-Webster OnLine now encompasses 100 million individual page views per month. On average, the website responds to approximately ten lookup requests in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary or Thesaurus per second. During peak hours, this may increase to more than 100 requests per second. Here are the other 9 words in the top 10 words of the year:

2. google
3. decider
4. war
5. insurgent
6. terrorism
7. vendetta
8. sectarian
9. quagmire
10. corruption

I like quagmire. It reminds me of when my boys were much, much younger and they, along with me and an adult friend, Jeff, got my VW Rabbit stuck in a big mud puddle -- actually it was a mixture of mud and cowshit. Mickey had just learned the words, quagmire and cesspool. He delighted in saying them over and over -- laughing -- while we tried to get unstuck.
Pronunciation: 'kwag-"mI(-&)r
1 : soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot
2 : a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position : PREDICAMENT

Groceries or Gifts wrapped in Furoshiki?

The furoshiki is a square cloth, dyed in a variety of colors and patterns, that is used for wrapping, storing, and carrying things. The name "furoshiki," which combines the words "furo" meaning "bath" and a form of the verb "shiku" meaning "to spread," dates back to the Edo Era(1603-1868) when public baths were in fashion, and people carried their belongings in a square cloth, then spread the cloth for use as a bath-mat.

Over the years, people realized the versatility of these cloths and began using them in many ways. Very large furoshiki can hold futon (Japanese bedding set) and small furoshiki can wrap just one teacup. The typical furoshiki is 70 square cm and until very recently, Japanese would not leave home without one.
They are folded like a napkin or handkerchief when not being used, so a furoshiki will conveniently fit in a briefcase, purse or backpack.

I would love to get our local natural food store, and the food coop we belong to in Bozeman, to start providing furoshiki as one of our choices at the check-out-stand. They now give shoppers a choice of using a plastic bag or purchasing a cloth bag (or, of course, you can bring your own cloth bags or reused plastic bags -- this is what we do now.)




I'm going to experiment with wrapping miscellaneous groceries in a furoshiki to see if it might be a practical thing for the Real Food Market to begin offering as a choice.

May 17, 2006, at the Foreign Press Center/Japan found Japan's Minister of the Environment, Ms. Yuriko Koike demonstrating the use of a furoshiki she designed and produced, which is made of recycled PET bottles. She encourages the audience to start using furoshikis instead of the many, many paper and plastic bags used to carry purchases home. Here is an excerpt from her talk:

I am introducing this furoshiki [square cloth used for wrapping objects] that I designed and produced myself. The picture is a bird-and-flower painting by Ito Jakuchu [1716–1800], a Japanese painter who lived in the middle of the Edo period [1603–1868]. At first sight it might look like a scarf, but I made it as a furoshiki. I called it the “Mottainai Furoshiki.” Mottainai [waste not, want not] is a Japanese word that is extremely difficult to translate. This furoshiki can be used as a scarf, but I also suggest that you take it with you to the convenience store or other shop and use it instead of a plastic shopping bag to carry home your shopping. The furoshiki is very familiar to the Japanese, but it is not used very much these days. So I am now involved in a campaign to revive this piece of Japanese wisdom about the environment. I have tied the two corners of this cloth. If you tie the four corners, you can used it to wrap up this globe. (I am the environment minister, so I brought along a globe!) You can also use it to carry two bottles of wine, which I’m sure you all like very much. You can wrap the two bottles like this and then take them to your friend’s house. The good thing about the furoshiki is that it can be used to wrap both round things and square things. And this furoshiki is made in my constituency of Toshima Ward. It is called the “Red Furoshiki of Happiness.” The design shows how you can use it to wrap things. Both of these furoshiki use fiber recycled from PET bottles.

I said just now that you can use the furoshiki instead of a plastic shopping bag. In Japan, 30 billion plastic shopping bags are used every year. We are carrying out a campaign so that the use of the furoshiki, eco-bags, and personal shopping bags becomes something quite natural. This was the case 20 or 30 years ago, but then people succumbed to convenience. Our campaign is a kind of admonition of this trend. By making such easy-to-understand, enjoyable, and rather fashionable presentations, we hope to enhance the consciousness of the people. Regarding the two pillars of environmental administration, we hope to share easy-to-understand contact points with the public and proceed smoothly toward the two goals of building a low-carbon society and a sound material-cycle society.

later in a question answer period, Ms. Koike elaborates on what she is doing to encourage furoshiki use in Japan:

... department stores like Mitsukoshi have (now) set up furoshiki corners. Previously furoshiki were hidden in a corner of the kimono section, but we have been asking stores to put them right in the center as much as possible ... Also, recently I have been recommending Japanese companies and foreign companies as well to make furoshiki instead of expensive paper bags when they are offering a service ... Furoshiki are a familiar item for Japanese, but I was delighted that foreign companies have shown a good understanding of the furoshiki idea as well.

How to tie a furoshiki around round objects such as a bowl of fruit or a melon, from WAKU:

This Two Knots Wrapping(Hikkake-zutsumi) style is used for rectangular articles. It is useful when the diagonal length of furoshiki is not long enough to be tied. Two corners facing each other on the short side of the box are just twisted around each other and each corner is tied with the nearest on the long side of the box.　The style looks neater when the two knots are aligned in the center of the bundle.

Me as Pop Icon

Me as Pop Icon, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Well, since I am still w/o camera or computer, I am reduced to playing around ... ahem harumph. Reduced to playing around with my previously posted flickr photos ... I'm having fun anyway. Here's me -- Warholized -- as a pop icon. Not bad, eh?

A doorway, a mirror, a meditation

Raspberry Leaf Autumn Nierika
copyright 2005 by Maureen Shaughnessy


Amur Maple Nierika
copyright 2005 by Maureen Shaughnessy


Cleome Flower Nierika
copyright 2005 by Maureen Shaughnessy

Soup for Body and Soul

This week I had to postpone two root canals (oh darn!) because I have a sinus thing/chest cold going (it would be hard to have my mouth crammed with fingers and dental tools when I can't even breath through my nose.) I'm taking all kinds of goodies for it: echinacea, osha, occiloccinum, garlic tea, kill-the-cold hot drink, hot baths ... that old phrase, "Feed a cold starve a fever" (or is it the other way around?) keeps running through my head though nothing sounds appetizing to me right now.

I guess I'm hungry though ... so I'm going to cook up some Immune Soup. This is a recipe from Thia, the wellness manager at the Bozeman Community Food Coop. We live in Helena but we are members of the Bozeman Coop because we have no coop in Helena (sad but true) and we support the concept and mission of food coops over for-profit natural food stores. Unfortunately we can only shop at "our" coop once every couple of months, but when we do, we really stock up.

Here is Thia's recipe for delicious Basic Immune Soup:

5 cloves of garlic
2 medium onions
1 T olive oil
8 broken shiitake mushrooms
2 pieces astragalus
1 reishi mushroom
½ c up each chopped broccoli, cabbage, carrots
1 small handful of sea vegetables (kelp, dulse, wakame, kombu)
(optional) 1 3# hormone-free, cooked chicken with skin removed
(optional) 1 cup cooked beans, barley or brown rice
Water
Miso

Chop garlic and onions. Saute’ in olive oil until just brown. Add chopped vegetables and astragalus. Break reishi mushrooms into small pieces and to pan. Add shiitake mushrooms and water to make the desired consistency. Add sea vegetables.

If desired, simmer the chicken in the soup. Add cooked beans, barley, or brown rice. Simmer for 2 hours. Make miso paste: Remove ¼ cup of broth and add 1 teaspoon of miso FOR EVERY CUP OF WATER you add to the soup. Add miso paste to water, and mix thoroughly.

Remove astragalus and reishi mushroom pieces from soup; their therapeutic value has already been added through simmering. Serve soup hot and enjoy.


Slurp your soup from a bowl and use chopsticks to eat the mushrooms and other solid ingredients. Here (left) is a little diversion to get your creative juices flowing again (I know being sick can drain those juices real fast ...)

I must have been thinking about the Food Coop because I had planned to make a shopping trip there while in Bozeman today for my root canal work (Helenans have to travel 90 minutes or so to Bozeman for root canals) -- shopping at the food coop is a great pleasure, even though I generally don't like grocery shopping (or any kind of shopping, for that matter) so it's my way of making a less-than-ideal situation pleasurable. Anyway, I thought I'd check the coop's website to see what kind of specials they have this week -- and I found this delicious sounding soup.

As Thia wrote, "You don’t have to have health problems to benefit from an excellent immune-strengthening diet." Enjoy good health and Thia's delicious Immune Soup.

And if you like soup, making soup or eating soup, PCC (a co-op I belong to from the early 70s in Seattle) has an excellent list of soup recipes here.

Soul of a Tree

The Festival of Trees #6 is up at Arboreality ... and here is a link to the main Festival of Trees blog. I'd like to share this slideshow with my blog visitors, in celebration of trees, photos I have taken over the last 4 seasons:

If you'd like to see any of the slideshow photos individually and/or at larger sizes, just click on the photo in the slideshow window and it should take you to that photo's page in my flickr account. For the large sizes, you have to click the button above the photo that says "all sizes"

Thanks for visiting my blog, for reading and (hopefully) enjoying the photos
Maureen

He is Fire to my Water: we're stayin' warm this winter

He is Fire to my Water, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Although I am still without a computer or camera ... I was able to access ... oh, maybe 6 of ... my photos from the dvd of salvaged data from my fried/dead hard drive ... using my husband's laptop and Picasa (he doesn't have photoshop on his computer - sob sob) Gives me a whole new appreciation for what I had ... and for making backups (which I hadn't done adequately) So, I've been playing around with that half dozen images just to ward off those drooling, wolf-like symptoms of withdrawal for a bit longer. heheh (more sob sob)

I made this digital "quilt" from a photo of skeletal leaves ... just playing around with levels, saturation, etc in Picasa (fun program, but nothing compared to Pshop) It's a reminder to stay warm in this winter. I made this specially for Tim, in celebration of his 59th birthday which is today, December 3rd. I am so blessed to have Tim in my life. He keeps me warm in many ways: in my heart and in my body. His voice has a warm timbre, his hands are always warm, his arms are warm, his thoughts and whole personality is what many people think of as "warm." He's a furnace: fire to my water.

And the love of my life.

Happy Birthday, Tim!

Calendar for December

Dear blog readers:
this month I am ahead by a couple of days, with my calendar. Please feel free to download and print this calendar -- I publish these downloadable calendars monthly as a gift of appreciation to you for sharing your lives with me through your writings and photos and comments on my blogs. (you can see my other blog, Land of Little Rain, here)

To download, click anywhere on the calendar and you should get a new window with the image. Click on the photo again in that new window to go to the large version of the calendar. Right-click to download the calendar. It should print out 8.5" x 11". If you have a printer that requires a margin, please print this slightly reduced to fit on a standard letter-size paper.

I hope you enjoy the monthly calendars, and please let me know if you have any problems downloading I can send them to you by email attachment.

Warmly,
Maureen

For Thanksgiving a prose poem of gratitude

giving thanks
for my life for my health that my legs work, that my heart and lungs and mind and hands and eyes are whole that all my parts of me work as they are supposed to, for my body, that i can dance and ride my bike, and get down on my knees or lie on the floor of the forest, that i can walk to the top of a mountain to offer my prayers for my spiritual path, that i feel such love for our Mother, the Earth, for all of Creation, for every living thing i am giving thanks that i am alive another year that i have what i need that i am a whole being that i am part of something much larger than just one woman


giving thanks
for another chance at love for true friendship, for my husband for the deep soul-love we share for his understanding his touch his unconditional loving his knowledge and kindness his companionship on our path his courage his perseverance his eyes that see me and know who i am and mostly for the way he says my name


giving thanks
for our children, for their beauty inside and out, for the young men my sons have become for their kindness their intelligence and spirit and enthusiasm for their lives for their health and goodness i give thanks, that they have taught me that they have stretched my heart and made me grow into more than i was before they were born for the beauty and love i know they bring to the table

giving thanks
for my family my parents and grandparents for brothers sisters and all who share my eyes and heart and lips and name for love for acceptance for honesty for connection memory and a hand given without thought of return

for my mother's courage and growth for the look in her eyes for the wisdom of her years and her experience for her folding and enfolding arms that she has never given up


giving thanks
for my friends, who know the core of me who know my darkness and still point to the light in me for lifetime friends and new friends for inspiration and tears and laughter and knowledge ... for the mirror they are to me for their faith and understanding


giving thanks
for our four-legged companions for their teachings their animal-wisdom gentle ways especially Sam who has saved my life more than once in his old-soul way


giving thanks
for our home Earth for this planet this jewel that is ours only to care for and the winged ones and swimming ones for insects and worms lions meadowlarks eagles and deer for the growing green things flower root leaf grain fruit tree fern for everything green


giving thanks
for clean water for rivers and rain mist for lightning for darkness and moonlight for snow and snowmelt glaciers ponds marsh ocean and bay for dancing aurora borealis for clouds for stars to remind us how small and how precious each of us -- each living being -- is ....

Garages of North America

Tim and I live in a pretty small house, by North American standards. For us, it's just right. Well ... we could use one additional room I guess. That would be excellent. Still, we're pretty happy with its size. It's easy to heat and doesn't take much to keep it clean.* Conversations in our house are easy to have, no matter whether you're all in the same room or not. Might as well be in the same room. We're basically on top of each other most of the time. (ahem!)

* disclaimer: the garage photos are not representative of the state of our actual house, thank you very much.

Anyway, here's our garage. Since the house is so tiny, most of our "stuff" is out here. Opening the garage door (on the alley) feels a little like flashing a stranger in public. Leaving the garage door open for any length of time is like undressing slowly in front of the picture window in our bedroom! I have a bit of an exhibitionist streak in me, but not that bad. Why would I want to let the whole neighborhood have a peek into this garage? Would you want to if it were your garage? I don't think so ....

"Well," you might ask, "Why are you putting these embarassing photos on the internet for the whole world to see (never mind the neighborhood)?"

I guess it's a family thing. Uncle Edward started it. Sent a couple of photos of his way-too-tidy garage to his email list. As a family, we tend to chomp on bait like that: Lunge, bite, chomp. Must be genetic. After about the 5th batch of garage photos, I decided to get serious and blog about it on our family blog. Then I decided my regular blog readers might get a kick out of it. So here it is: our garage.

If you've read this far, I am astonished and I commend you for your suffering through my mundane blitherings. If you're a glutton for punishment, read on:

My sister, Moira wrote, "Maureen, how can you find anything in that garage?" My answer: "We don't." The question mark on that apple box (above) represents, ironically, the status of most of our stuff out there. "Questionable contents"

Sigh.

Big sigh...

I wrote this to my family to accompany our Montana-garage pix:

Hi everyone, I might as well fess up. Here is our garage, of which I am not proud.

I think ours is the worst! We should win the prize for the most crammed garage. Also the prize for most disorganized, and last but not least, the prize for the garage that barely has room to walk around in, much less park a car!

Now before you hit the Reply All button and fire off a scathing email telling me we have too much stuff or that you are disowning us and from now on we are not part of the family, or that all I have to do is throw away 99% of that stuff and I'd be able to fit my car in the garage, please read this list of flimsy rationalizations:

• Our garage is probably smaller than most of yours. It measures 12 x 18
• We have stuff from all five of our kids in there
• Tim's stuff from his "former" life (before he moved to Montana) is mostly still out there. We barely let him bring his tv into the house [grin]
• I have my entire papermaking studio crammed into one end of the garage. Someday I will have my studio again!
• Three years ago I moved from a spacious office to a home office in Gabe's former bedroom which is 1/10th the size -- so most of the stuff from my business is piled in the center of the garage.
• I know -- I know... there is that "rule of thumb" that if you haven't used it in a year you don't need it -- I keep thinking "what would happen if a former client wanted me to do something else on their project and I had just tossed their files? Or what if Mickey's comic book or pez collection is really worth millions? Or what if .... ?"

Tim and I take turns when we have to go out there to find something we "need" ... neither of us ever wants to face that task! Can you see why?

Go ahead. Tell me I'm messy. I already know it, though. ;-D

November Calendar

Hi friends and family, I haven't posted calendars for the last couple of months, but I'll try to be more regular about it starting right now. So here, again, is my (almost) monthly offering to readers of my blog, this calendar which you are welcome to download, print, use however you want to.

Click on the photo for a larger version. It looks best printed out at 8"x10" size on heavy weight matte photo paper, but any paper will do.

I'm always curious if anyone is actually using these calendars, so if you do, please leave me a comment. (that's optional as always, though). And for sure ... enjoy it!

Tim and Baggins Watching Election Returns

Tim and Baggins Watching Election Returns, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

Baggins is a politically astute feline. He is perhaps more interested in watching the Dems win tonight than even Sam, our 17 year old dog, is .... as long as Tim lets Baggins stay on the inside of his work shirt, Baggins is happy to root for the Democrats across this great country.

all we need to make us happy ...

all we need to make us happy
Copyright 2006 by Maureen Shaughnessy
originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

We act as though comfort and luxury
were the chief requirements of life,
when all that we need to make us happy is
something to be enthusiastic about.
-- Albert Einstein

Sam, at age 17, still has enthusiasm about going for walks every day, or sitting next to me, taking in the beauty through his seasoned eyes.

My Town Annotated

My Town Annotated, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

This is our town, in Montana where I live with Tim, Sam and Baggins ... if you click on the photo, it will take you to my flickr page where you can read all kinds of little notes I annotated on top of the photo. You should be able to just hover your cursor over the photo and you'll see the notes. I hope you enjoy looking, and seeing the context of where I take most of my photos.

On October 22, 2006 ... this is what our town looks like from the hill behind our house, where we take Sam for at least one walk each day (his other walks are in other places, like Spring Meadow Lake -- one of my favorite places to photograph) This hill is less than a block from our house.

Calendar for October: happy birthday to my mom

happy birthday, mom, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

even though i didn't write this poem, it conveys what i feel in my heart:


there are times in life when one does the right thing
the thing one will not regret,
when the child wakes crying "mama," late
as you are about to close your book and sleep
and she will not be comforted back to her crib,
she points you out of her room, into yours,
you tell her, "I was just reading here in bed,"
she says, "read a book," you explain it's not a children's book
but you sit with her anyway, she lays her head on your breast,
one-handed, you hold your small book, silently read,
resting it on the bed to turn pages
and she, thumb in mouth, closes her eyes, drifts,
not asleep -- when you look down at her, her lids open,
and once you try to carry her back
but she cries, so you return to your bed again and book,
and the way a warmer air will replace a cooler with a slight
shift of wind, or swimming, entering a mild current, you
enter this pleasure, the quiet book, your daughter in your lap,
an articulate person now, able to converse, yet still
her cry is for you, her comfort in you,
it is your breast she lays her head upon,
you are lovers, asking nothing but this bodily presence.
She hovers between sleep, you read your book,
you give yourself this hour, sweet and quiet beyond flowers
beyond lilies of the valley and lilacs even, the smell of her breath,
the warm damp between her head and your breast. Past midnight
she blinks her eyes, wiggles toward a familiar position,
utters one word, "sleeping." You carry her swiftly into her crib,
cover her, close the door halfway, and it is this sense of rightness,
that something has been healed, something
you will never know, will never have to know.

-- by Ellen Bass, 1985 from Our Stunning Harvest

Pond

Small Craft on Pond, originally uploaded by MontanaRaven.

My sister, Marybeth, gave me a wonderful book for my recent birthday -- a book I intend to read cover-to-cover the way I read the Webster's Dictionary I received 30+ years ago as a highschool graduation gift. The book is Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney. Thank you, Marybeth! Here's the first of (hopefully) many photo/word pairings inspired by this book.

Pond:
Pond is one of the most flexible words for describing a small body of freshwater. Uplift, landslides, volcanoes, and glaciers can create ponds, as can human beings and animals. Beavers are great ponders, and so are farmers and ranchers who dig them for irrigation and livestock. Glacial kettle-hole ponds such as Thoreau's Walden and Cape Cod's freshwater ponds are important features of the New England landscape.

George Stewart tells us in Names on the Land that native peoples of the Northeast called ponds paugs, and that this has resulted in felicitous redundancies such as Mashapaug Pond in Massachusetts. At least since 1641, the English have referred jocularly to the Atlantic Ocean as the great pond.

And there is no end to the compound forms of the word: sagpond, millpond, fishpond, duckpond, pond life, pond lily, and pond yard to name a few. Regardless of size, location, or purpose, any pond can become the radiant and beguiling point of a landscape, even a muddy or algae-covered farm pond that's nothing more than an isolated earthen water tank. Thoreau thought of Walden and nearby North Ponds as Lakes of Light in which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
-- Michael Collier from Home Ground

This is my sister, Marybeth

So, thanks again, Marybeth.

Look what you started!

This photo of the small leaf-boat is also part of a series of leaf photos I made for our weekend Utata tagging project, Utata Leaf. You can see everyone's thumbnails in this Utata Leaf project here.

Autumn in Montana

I thought I might entice a few of my readers who don't know I have a photoblog, or who don't normally visit my photoblog, to see some of my recent Autumn in Montana images. I'm posting this grouping below. If you click on any of the photos, it should automatically take you to the Autumn in Montana album on my flickr page. Thanks for looking! :-D