Marti’s Blog
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Poetry
Looking at Things Differently
Growing in Power
Exploring New Territory
Love of the Earth
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Poetry
Mental Magic
Putting thoughts down on paper; putting thoughts down. When my mind seems obsessed, cannot stop talking to someone via my head, or working something out, if I write down on paper what’s circling in my brain – voila! I can walk away from it! I know the thoughts are there if and when I should…
Hugging
It feels just a few short years since shyly we began to hug. And now – we must back off! We stand 6 feet apart and long to touch the bare skin of another human being. To take and shake a hand today Could bring me tears. Now To hear the phone ring – a…
Someday
Someday I’ll read all these 280 books on my shelves. And then, after that, Someday I’ll mark every photograph in those five bank boxes, plus the one in the garage, with dates and identities for the sake of the grandkids. I’m going to one-of-these-days develop a whole chronology of my life because I can’t remember…
The End
THE END Jan. 26, 2020 #1 Struck! In the mountains of New Mexico. Flown home in small swift jet. He’s in special care now, special place. Each dawn I fight the traffic, spend each day speaking for the silent one, reading eyes, guarding care of him who’s struck. Exhausted I fight to…
Snoozing in Sunlight with the Cat
Christmas and my mind is full of shoulds. “Buy, wrap, mail, clean, cook! Give, get, thank, visit, “Enjoy”! Little shoulder-devil mutters “Bo-ring.” I see the cat stretched long on sofa pillows. Window-sun shines bright and warm across his fur: “Contentment” says the scene. Pulled magically, I find myself stretched out beside the…
summer poem
Covert Township Park, MI Do I belong on Riff Raff Row in that last campsite near the dune? I ask my Mom and she says “No. A lady, now, should stay at home.” I ask my Dad and he’s not sure, though he’s been riff raff all along. He doesn’t see me in that way.…
Looking at Things Differently
Destiny: Your Life is Beautiful
Here I want to summarize a 286 page book that has influenced me enormously – The Soul’s Code, In Search of Character and Calling, by James Hillman. Hillman was a maverick Jungian analyst, founding his thinking on that of Carl Jung. Hillman’s hypothesis about our human condition he calls “The Acorn Theory.” “The acorn theory…
Hugging
It feels just a few short years since shyly we began to hug. And now – we must back off! We stand 6 feet apart and long to touch the bare skin of another human being. To take and shake a hand today Could bring me tears. Now To hear the phone ring – a…
Dancing with the Handicapped
The White Saddle Band, one of the best-known Country Western bands in the Chicago area, was playing for my old circle of friends called Special People, a support group for the handicapped. I hadn’t danced in the last four years since the death of my husband Tom; he and I had loved Country Western dancing. …
Alternative terms for Death and Dying
He “died”. He’s dead. He’s gone to heaven. She “returned to spirit” (my own language) He “went to the rainbow bridge” Focusing friend John J., speaking of his pet.
Alternative Words for “God”
Alternative terms for “God”“I say God. I am not sure that is the name. You will know whom I mean.” ThoreauSome basic general categories for these terms: this force is “out there” separate from us.” or this force is inside us, or we are inside it. Or this force is both inside us and other…
Tom at Disney
[A travel journal entry from the college years of my son, Tom Dix, who returned to spirit 6 years ago today. Today = Sept 17, 2015. For those who knew him: doesn’t this just sound like Tom? Can’t you see him out there tromping in the rain, smiling and having fun? ] Tom wrote: …
Growing in Power
How To Improve Your Luck
Salty Snippet, July 2022 My favorite version of Solitaire requires two decks of cards and is a bit more complicated than the ordinary game, but it feels like a sharp person can win more easily. I play this to clear my mind and calm my nerves while I attend to working with the luck…
Poems for the Very Beginning of Spring, 2022
Skunk Cabbage [The very first “flowers” to appear in the woods, in wet places] What fun to be a skunk cabbage! Smells are one of Life’s delights. Out in the bog I could be a tiny center unfolding into a huge grand leaf reeking through with greenness, ever richer, ever smellier. Life makes…
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Breaking and Entering in my Own House
April 2021 I was “irritated” with someone and so decided to do some errands to let this go and get into a better mood. I went out to Trader Joe’s (always fun) and Staples, had enjoyable interactions, came home. I pulled up to the garage in the dark, reached for the garage door opener…
Christmas December 2020
“Do the work of a spider, strengthening the web of relationships around us, and throwing out threads to enlarge it and pull ever more people in.” -Pamela Haines, in Befriending Creation, fall 2020 What could be more of the essence of this holiday season at its best than strengthening bonds of love and light in our world? And…
The Light Bulb is ON
“You can’t take it with you”; we’ve heard this many times. These words are so old they fly past with little power, just a small shove to sort and toss a little more and try again to get organized. At age 72, I suddenly realize – THESE WORDS ARE TRUE! I’m…
Dream Healing and my Trip to Greece
“Nothing can guarantee a miracle. Nothing stops us, however, from seeking one,” wrote Dr. Ed Tick in his book, The Practice of Dream Healing. For a thousand years, sanctuaries from Asia Minor to Rome called upon the Greek god Asklepios for improved health. Though the services were free to all, seekers were required to…
Exploring New Territory
My Life With Children
I grew up in western Michigan, where fun is the way of life for all. Summer camps, swimming, canoeing down the Pere Marquette River, climbing sand dunes and jumping in the waves of Lake Michigan, picnics all through the Manistee National Forest, hay rides in the fall and horseback riding across fields, ice skating on…
??Why did I come for a week of French Immersion??
Number# 3: Because I was being pulled here by The Great Unknown, And I said Yes.Number# 1: to stretch. to open. to allow spring inside me. to get pushed. to be with a best-friend for a whole week and another best-friend for two days. to be with adventurous and open-hearted people.to sleep beside a…
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Saving the Bobcat
I did a brave and interesting thing this morning: I got myself up and out and drove to a place I’ve never been for a 10:00 am Indiana Department of Natural Resources Commission Meeting to speak up for saving the bobcat from open hunting. I had almost no idea of what I was getting…
Today and Another Day
Today the weather is zero degrees outside, and two inches of new bright snow are keeping most folks at home. The day is sunny and still. I carefully drove the five blocks to my beauty shop, inside the Jewish old folks’ home. Here I sit under the hairdryer, watching the slow parade of…
Swimming with Wild Dolphins
How did I lose my courage? The first day we came out, I was the adventurous one, jumping into this northern Florida bay enthusiastically when Richard, our French-Swiss guide, would call, “Here they come; off to the left!” Nat was seasick and threw up all afternoon. I didn’t come here because this was…
Dancing in the ruins of an ancient Hawaiian temple
Because I have so many dead people in my life story, and have explored how to hold onto those relationships, people often ask me if I’ve ever experienced a “spirit.” This morning I’m remembering one very clear experience. I was in Hawaii. This was my second trip, this one alone, after I had…
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Love of the Earth
Celebration of the spirit of BEAR
Bear is a symbol of a personality balanced between the active and the nurturing personalities. We all know that bears are strong, can be ferocious, and are to be feared. The grizzlies and polar bears are the most famous for these characteristics. Bears are generally composed, calm, but at a ready to react…
May Day
I think of my Mother on May Day. May 1st is celebrated in a variety of ways that I know of: the common worker is honored in communist countries; pagan traditions celebrate Beltane, the time for mating; and spring is celebrated in northern countries. My Mom grew up with some tradition that she seemed…
A Day in old Japan
A Day in old Japan Here in the Anderson Gardens, in the middle of run-down central Rockford Illinois, we seem to have time-and-space traveled into a completely different culture. We’re back in the Shinto origins of Japan, to those times when Nature was worshiped. Centuries must have passed for the Japanese…
Poems for Real Spring
POEMS FOR REAL SPRING, from the “I Would Like to Be” series Spring Beauty, most delicate of all spring flowers, early to appear, how lovely to be her! Small and sweet and dear, my white five-petalled face with pink mint stripes will smile up like a shy girl-child at the awesome world around.…
“Early Spring”
The “I Would Like to Be” Read-Aloud Poems four of twenty poems “Early Spring” The Frog It would do me good to be a frog sitting still and still and still. Waiting, trusting, that Life will bring by a fly or a mosquito, that…
Salty Snippets
Salty Snippets
Taking a Break from Life: Meditation versus Dissociation
Recently on Facebook,afriend posed an interesting question: What is the difference between meditation and dissociation? I find this intriguing. Here in a nutshell is my answer: The difference is “Presence.” First, what is meant by these two words: meditation and dissociation? Re: “dissociation”, the dictionary describesitas “disunion,” and then “In psychiatry: the splitting off…
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Getting Un-Stuck
Salty Snippet November 2023 “Getting Un-Blocked” Sometimes we feel we can’t move forward, like a brick wall is in front of us. Writers and artists often feel this, but even daily life projects can bring us to a standstill. Actually, if we stay in this state, the standstill becomes down-hill, our spirit gets discouraged,…
A Welcome Doormat
August 2023 I picked up the old popsicle stick on my desk and it began to speak to me: “Don’t forget this large learning,” the stick said. “You still haven’t quite got it!” A memory came alive: a weekend workshop connected with trying to save my 15-year-old stepdaughter who had gotten caught in…
Glamour, Ideals, and the Acorn May 2023
Long ago I had a very important dream; it seemed to show me the big task of my life. I dreamt that I was riding smoothly on a silent sailboat; I, a boy of about 12 at the back of the boat and two handsome young men at the front of the boat. One…
<strong>There<u> IS</u> Warm Pink Soup! And – there IS Goodness!</strong>
Salty Snippet April 2023 The weather had been cold and wet, with a dark heaviness over the world all day. I tried to fall asleep, but only negative feelings came up no matter what I thought about. A yard of dandelions turning to seed, all lying flat and ugly against the wet grass –…
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How To Improve Your Luck
Salty Snippet, July 2022 My favorite version of Solitaire requires two decks of cards and is a bit more complicated than the ordinary game, but it feels like a sharp person can win more easily. I play this to clear my mind and calm my nerves while I attend to working with the luck…