Gratitude Monday-- Bastard? What Bastard?

I have what I have come to call an interesting ear.
The auditory canal in my right ear is the wrong shape. Instead of a gentle curve it has some sharp angles. For as annoying as that can be I have to say I am grateful for it.
Here's why:
Because of this words get in, mix around, and come through far different from the innocent intentions of the speaker.
For example, back in the eighties I was walking though the downtown Edmonton Hudson's Bay Store on my way back to work.  The store had the radio on to a station that offered a contest with a chance to win one of ten Air Canada trips to the Neutral Zone.

A few years later there was a devastating hurricane on a Caribbean Island. Donations were coming in from all over and I heard it announced on the radio that Edmonton had been so generous it was sending its own planeload.
I shook my head. I could not for the life understand what possible good a planeload of Dalmatians was going to be.

One of my early hearing hits happened in 1969 in Grimshaw, in Northern Alberta. It was July,  family reunion time. Cousin Wayne, whose family hosted that year, our cousin Becky, and  I went to the tunnels for a Sunday morning smoke. The tunnels ran at an angle under a street near the downtown, were at least five feet high,  and came complete with a bit of mud and wet and rocks. One side opened near a church.
We were busy lighting up when Wayne said, "There's the Pastor."
It fell on my right ear and I asked, "Bastard? What bastard?"

Over the years I've adjusted and even though I hear odd things still, they rarely match the fun I had when the ear canal was young. Until Saturday when my husband saw goji berries in Superstore and asked if I wanted any grouchy faeries.

Well, if can pack them in a plane full of Dalmatians headed to the Neutral Zone, why not? But we'll need to be careful. I've heard they can be real bastards.

Photo-Finish Friday --Spring Day in Estonia

It's Kevadpuha*, that is Spring Day, in Estonia. In honour of it the above is a photo taken in a church yard there two years ago.
__
* The "u" in Kevadpuha requires umlauts.

An Alien Concept

I've made mention of my thinkythoughts from time to time here. At times they take over and I have to sit and let them have their way with me.
This has been happening with more frequency lately. Mostly they are about space, infinity, and are other worlds inhabited?
I'll tackle the last one first: of course they are.

This isn't about little green men or greys who abduct and experiment on humans, or reptiods who harvest us for their meals, or any other popular belief or convention on the subject.
It is about simple fact as I see it.

It's not like I have proof, but what I do have is my own version of logic and it is based on infinity.
If you've ever stopped a moment to consider what is beyond the known solar system, you'll know where I am going with this.
Space is infinite. It cannot end and neither can it begin as both require definite points. To help my puny human mind grasp this I've had to designate a definite point. I chose Earth.
No matter which direction we leave from we can travel forever simply because it cannot end.
Even if we got to the end of our galaxy we go into another one, and so on.
Let's say the end of the galaxies is a great big wall we can't get past.
What's the other side of it?
Nothing.
That's fine, but what is nothing and for how long does it go on?

It's overwhelming, dizzying even, to consider, so we give ourselves a galaxy or so to contend with and don't think much beyond it.
It makes sleeping at night easier.

This brings us to time. Where did it begin, how does it end? Can it?
So we have infinity: there has always been and there always will be.
Now we have Earth and all its creatures including us.
In vast unending reaches of time and space how can we be alone?
How can only one world out of endless possible worlds be the only one inhabited by intelligent life, or any life for that matter?
It may be easier to believe this, and if you do then good for you. Do as you need to live your life as you see fit.

This brings up God, for those who swing that way. It is often said that God is all powerful, is in charge of everything, and creates everything. God is purportedly unlimited.
If so, then how can we say the Earth is all there is? That limits God.
Further, we see ourselves as His best creation.
That is both arrogant and frankly, I would think from God's perspective, a little insulting.

The inhabitants of Planet Whatever may not be visiting us. It doesn't mean they don't exist, it means they don't visit.
Good for them.
If they do stop by, that's great.
If they choose to keep themselves hidden, who are we to say they are wrong?

Whatever is the case I say they exist.

A Thought

Embrace the weird that makes your heart ring.

Gratitude Monday -- Ask and Ye Shall Receive Edition or: Oh, My Hat

I decided the other day I needed a conical hat. I needed it to help me get in character and get back into the manuscript I am editing.
I finished the first draft of it last June. It went down a few different paths, one as far as chapter 14, but I eventually found the story I was to tell and it got done.
It sat for several months.  I wrote something else that is now simmering on a mental back burner as I fix this one up.
But back to the hat.
I often have a prop or two around when writing to help me focus. I bought cowboy boots for the vampire western, a fedora for the story of the man who went to the wrong side of heaven and had to do God's dirty work to get a new life, and for this story I made myself a pine staff and took up drawing.
It wasn't quite enough. I wanted the style of hat commonly associated with witches.
I said so on Facebook on Friday. There was some loose talk of a cousin maybe making me one. She'd already sent me an infinity scarf which helped me with the first draft of this story ( thanks again, Terry) so she'd already helped in a big way.
I thought I might check the dollar stores as one never knows what one may find on a shelf. Meantime, my husband offered to make me one.
As there were none on the shelves Mike did make the hat for me.  Black construction paper,  a leg from a pair of pants that my once belonged to my dad later worn by Mike, and the cheap hat I bought in Australia in the early nineties.
Mike rolled up the paper, cut it down several times, glued on the pants leg and pinned it all to the hat.
It is wonderful, and for it all I am grateful.
It has a nice weight to it, if a bit heavy, but it is a good place to store my thinky thoughts while rewriting.
Because no description can ever do it justice:

Hat with infinity scarf.

A character photo, this time with reading glasses and staff.

Please click to enlarge photos for the full glory.

Photo-Finish Friday - The Wild, Gruff Wind

The wind, blustering and slapping through the Siffleur Valley.
**

It was good to be out in the wild again. I spent Earth Day with a friend, and with the Earth.
We looked for goats and a cabin, and we spent time with the trees in the wild, gruff wind.
It slapped and ground a layer of civilization off me, one that had applied itself while I wasn't paying attention.
I felt smoother afterward.  Refreshed. Wilder.
It reminded me how I spent most of my time outdoors when I was a child. Society, civilization, being an adult and being housebroken covered the wild inside with a thick dull veneer of getting along by being a little less.
The layer is wearing away with the help of the wild, gruff wind.

To Talk About That Weird Stuff

There are plenty of places to talk about that weird stuff.
This is one of them.

Years ago when I moved to Rocky things started happening. To lead in, the day I moved in to my apartment, Wednesday Nov. 30, 1988, my mother said, "Maybe you'll put down roots here."
Prophetic?
Possibly. Or simply her desire that at age 30 I would stay in one place rather than keep moving from newspaper to newspaper.
Either way,  it is what occurred and I am pleased as all get out over it.
Now, back to the weird.

Perhaps it was because I became comfortable here and maybe on some level I knew I'd stay, but shortly after settling in the spiritual side of life asserted itself.
When I went to bed I'd lace my hands together over my lower rib cage.
It  was comfortable. Physically it still is.
But then, as I fell closer to sleep I felt my legs rise. I was aware of them on the bed and under the covers where they belonged, and yet they lifted in the air.
As this happened my hands locked.
The bedroom light was on. In real life it was not, but I was aware of the room being fully lit and that's how I recall it.
This happened for several months. Having my hands locked together bothered me, but the rising legs were fine. In fact, I would forget about it during the day and only when I laced my hands together at night did I remember.
Eventually I did remember and looked forward to the rising with both joy and trepidation.
They got quite high. At some points there were straight up. Then I'd fall asleep.
This lasted most of the first year I lived in Rocky,
I believe now it was my guides or angels slowly introducing me to a spiritual awakening, making sure I was okay with it.
It's a good way to proceed.
For years I'd lace my hands together when resting then immediately unlace them, remembering how upsetting it is to me to have them locked.

I can do that now. I've finally gotten past it, but what I haven't gotten past is how great it felt to have my legs rise out of my body.

That I miss.