Magic Words (An Inuit Poem)

In the very earliest time,
When both people and animals lived on earth,
A person could become an animal if he wanted to
And an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
And sometimes animals
And there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
Might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
And what people wanted to happen could happen
All you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this:
That’s the way it was.

HoRsEs iN My dReaMs

Hope.....always.....always...........syawla......syawla.......epoH

ShApEsHiFtInG

2012 An Incomplete Reading List

One of the 15 or so New Years Resolutions that I have made for myself is to read more books!  I got a bit lazy about it in 2012 and watched more movies than I should have.  That said, here is an incomplete list of what I read in 2012.  I most likely forgot some of the books I read and I also am not adding books that I didn't finish.  I have been crawling through some pretty heady stuff at a snail's pace, so not everything I have been reading has been completed.

The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay-all by Suzanne Collings (I needed to start the year with some fluff!)

A Branch From The Lightning Tree by Martin Shaw

Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver

The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun by Martin Prechtel

Gilgamesh by Herbert Mason

Ecstacy by Robert A. Johnson

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martin Precthel

Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson

Wisdom of the Mythtellers by Sean Kane

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk

Thin Places by Ann Armbrecht

The Raven Steals the Light by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst

Ten Poems to Change Your Life-by Roger Housden

Ten Poems to Change your Life Again and Again-Roger Housden

Poems from Prison/ Belly Songs by Etheridge Knight

The Faithful Gardner by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Gift of Story by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Ten Poems to Say Goodbye by Roger Housden

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Crow and Weasel/ Lessons from Wolverine by Barry Lopez and Tom Pohrt

By The River Pedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coehlo

In Mad Love and War by Joy Harjo

From The Forest by Sarah Maitland 

Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo

On the Wing 2

On the Wing

Butteflies are lovely, silent, like angels.  In the Middle Ages they were a common symbol for the Resurrection: first there is a stumpy little caterpillar, earthbound and greedy; then it apparently dies and is buried in the coffin of its own cocoon; the butterfly emerges metamorphosed-colorful, beautiful, apparently no longer needing food (adult butterflies are primarily nectar drinking), and flying free on gentle wings.  The image is better even than it first appears because something very dreadful and frightening happens inside the chrysalis.  We use the word 'cocoon' now to mean a place of safety and escape, but in fact the caterpillar, having constructed its own grave, does not develop smoothly, growing wings onto its first body, but disintegrates entirely, breaking down into an organic slime which then regenerates in a completely new form.  It goes as a child into the dark place and is lost; it emerges the beautiful princess, or proven hero.  The forest is full of such magic, both in reality and in the stories.

-from the book From the Forest by  Sara Maitland