(Note - I have appreciatively copied the images in this post off the web - please click the links below each picture to go in a separate window to the page where the image can be found).



 

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Spring displays on the land where I live feed my soul for quite some time.  And this year they have been especially bountiful.  Somehow Mother Nature seems to know this is probably my last here.  Daffodils started blooming in the latter part of March - over the years my mother planted fifty bulbs a year, so they spring up in all sorts of nooks and crannies on this hilly woody plot of ground.  For several weeks, they bloomed in relatively solitary splendor - the weather was warm enough for them to flourish but too cool for the trees to leaf or other flowers to pop out.

And then a week ago temperatures went up into the eighties - and the trees, flowers, and birds went *wild*.  From Friday to Sunday the leaves came flooding out - and our feathered friends were tripping over each other in their mating choruses.

Most significant to me are the calls and "drumming sounds" of the pileated woodpecker - once scarce enough to be firmly on the endangered species list - now flourishing in most of the lower forty eight states.  The information I've found suggests they have territories of several hundred acres - and yet, with the windows open, I hear their unmistakable sounds several times every day - leading me to the precious hope that they may be nesting nearby.  If you've ever seen one - they make quite an impression.  Almost as large as crows, with an eye-catching flash of red cap and black and white feathers, they're both powerful and endearingly awkward - great models for Woody the Woodpecker.


love and blessings -


Sylvia



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Over the years, I've attended a number of rallies, protests, vigils, and other social activism events - and I keep running into people with whom I've shared peace cranes.  They'll say to me - you look really familiar, but I'm not sure where I know you from.  And then I'll fold a crane, and they'll say - "oh, YEAH!  You shared a crane with me when we marched together at X event"  Or when we visited one of the legislator's offices together, or sat at a table together at a lobby day, etc.


Sometimes I'll share butterflies, lilies, flapping birds or other creations - but with activism it's usually peace cranes, because of their symbollism and spiritual significance.  One of my friends is currently writing a children's story, and I will show up in it as the origami woman :-) because of some cranes I shared with her as she was dealing with her mother's death.

Mother's Day this year was especially painful, with my mom and both my grandmothers gone and not having children of my own.  It was really hard with the sense that this will be my last in this house designed by my dad where I've lived off and on since I was nine years old.  So I've questioned my place in the world, and what I've really done with my 44 years, and what I have the ability to do once I leave here.

And in the midst of that - there are various folks in whom I've fostered a passion for the whimsical and wonderful  Japanese art of origami.  There's a trail of paper creations with my finger prints stretching around the globe.  I had the honor of giving my Japanese sister Kimi 1000 cranes when she went back after living with my mother and me on exchange for a year - and of leaving a handful of cranes at Sadako's memorial in Hiroshima when I visited with my sister in 1987.  A friend of my brother and sister in law's took one of my cranes with him when he hiked through Latin America.  And they're scattered all over places I've visited in the US and Canada.

One of my current projects is several hundred flapping birds for participants in a nearby library's summer reading club [smile].

One of the things that's both challenging and most precious about origami is its relative fragility.  It is made of a renewable resource - paper, and can return to the earth without leaving lasting litter.  It can easily be crushed.  And yet, in the midst of that fragility is an amazing way of being a conduit for sharing beauty, whimsy and joy.

One of my favorite crane memories is from one of my periodic visits to Niagara Falls.  A group of folks that I identified as speaking Japanese were taking pictures on the Canadian side of the falls, giggling and dodging water drops from where the mighty current went over the edge of the cliff.  I offered them cranes - and they became very excited.  We shared maybe 10 words total of communication between us.  Even without being able to speak to each other - they made it very clear that they wanted me to be in a couple of their pictures - and so cranes were a bridge beyond the barriers that might have otherwise separated us.



[hands cupped, gently offering a crane]


Namaste!



Sylvia

Image from:  http://www.proudparenting.com/node/843


 



Today I was present when my sister of the heart L was finally able to adopt the 3 year old who has lived with her and her partner J since K was a couple days old.

According to the laws of the state of Ohio - K can have a mother and a father - but she can't have two mothers.  Interestingly - they are able to jointly foster parent ... but not to jointly adopt.

In state law - it doesn't matter that both of them have gone through hell dealing with K's health and behavior challenges in her first three years.  It doesn't matter that they both mother the various children who have resided in their house - and since they've been foster parents, there have been around 20.  It doesn't matter that they are fundamentally coupled with each other - facing jointly the challenges and blessings of life.

I am profoundly grateful that the magistrate ruling on the case was flexible, resilient and understanding - so he allowed J to be in the courtroom with L through the whole proceeding (the rest of us, including K, waited out in the hall) and K's last name is now a hyphenated combination of both her momma and her mommy's last names [smile]. 

This may be a benefit of what my heartmate Brad called "practical politics".  In November, the Democratic challenger for Probate Court judge in this area won a significant victory over the 18 year Republican incumbent.  The incumbent did *not* have a good reputation in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning community - and I spread the word widely among folks I knew to vote for the challenger - who is very supportive of the lbgtq community.  I was aware that there is only one probate judge per county - who has power of appointment over all the probate magistrates, etc. - and so his victory could have a really significant impact on basic issues such as adoptions, wills, trusts, legal custody, etc.  Without favorable state laws - who sits on the bench can really shift the experience of the process and the outcome.  So today is a smile.  Politics can make a difference.  And K is at home ... officially carrying both her mothers' names.


love and blessings -



Sylvia