Retreat

In honor of Halloween I offer this photo of an orb weaver's web. I am fairly sure these spiders will build a new web each night - so here is the day's creation shining in the morning sun.

I've decided to go on retreat. I'm not sure exactly what that means. I just know that for the month of November I'm going be more than do. I'll figure it out as I go along. The whole point is to offer myself some extra rest and loving kindness. I do know that I will reduce my time spent on my computer for this month - which means I may not be getting around to read many blogs. I may not respond to email too quickly either.

I have also decided that in honor of my retreat I am going to post only photos on my blog. I have no plans to write anything here until December. But I will post a photo sometimes. Wishing you all a Happy Harvest Season......... Love and Light to you..........

Mom's owl balloon reminds me of my sacred life

One last shot of the balloon I helped deflating while other balloons flew over looking for their place to land. I decided to leave this area and meander my way home. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of the Owl balloon I'd seen flying by.
I drove home on a back road. No sign of the owl balloon. Ah, but wait there is a cat balloon. Oh, that's cute! This balloon fiesta has caused me to feel how I miss my mom. She loved the balloon fiesta and hot air balloons. Late in her life she didn't feel able to go out to see balloons but she always watched them on TV and always recorded the coverage of the weekend mass ascensions. All her online friends would get a report about the balloons or the gas balloon race.
So I took a picture of the cat balloon for Mom. And then imagine my surprise when I discovered the other side of the cat balloon is the owl balloon. Oh, how perfect - Mom loved both owls and cats and I've always thought they looked so much alike. This is Mom's balloon!
I treasure the balloon fiesta even more because it reminds me of Mom. And so for today's My Sacred Life post I offer these photos. Grateful to have such things to make me think of my dear Mom. My Sacred Life project has evolved to a Sacred Life Sunday post. Click here to find links to other blogs posting about their sacred lives.


The ballonists have a prayer

May the winds welcome you with softness.
May the sun bless you with its warm hands.
May you fly so high and so well that God
joins you in laughter and sets you gently
back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

Fiesta

When I woke up this morning I watched the live TV coverage of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. It's the second and final weekend for this year's event. Book your plane and hotel for next year now. I heard the balloons were catching the easy winds to the north. Well I said to myself why don't I go see if anything is floating into the town of Bernalillo. Lo and behold there were balloons. And lots of them.

Not long after parking my car I was witnessing this one woman chase crew trying to hop over a high fence.
It isn't always easy to find a good place to land an object that is upwards of 70 ft tall. Sometimes a fence can block the chase crew. This balloon made it around the power lines but the single woman crew needed help pulling the balloon and it's basket of riders down off the edge of this drainage canal.
It took a bit to figure out just how they needed help - first the pilot asked for only one person to come help pull. There is a danger of being in front of a balloon so he probably only wanted one person. However, right after this photo I ran down to help pull also. The pilot wanted to get away from the power lines and out of this messy field. We helped guide the balloon with the ropes - the pilot gave it a small bit of hot air
to get the balloon over that same fence I originally saw his wonder woman of a chase crew hop over. Another balloon watching helper just like me grabbed the rope on the other side of the fence and the rest of us ran over and around the fence. By then we had 4 or 5 of us who helped the balloon land again. Bump and it was down.

Then the pilot said everyone get around the basket to lift it and we are going to walk the balloon forward several feet. He knew up ahead he would have a clean place to lay down the balloon. We all just moved the balloon forward then we turned the basket to position the balloon. As the passengers got out they were told to hold onto the basket. The only thing keeping the balloon on the ground at that point was the crowd of us holding our weight on the basket. As long as I've lived here I've never helped a balloon in this way. I saw this as a kid, but I was too young then to be a helper.

To be on a chase crew one has to be committed to getting up at 3 am for 9 days. And yes, most balloons need a bigger chase crew than just one woman. I can understand why people catch the excitement of this sport. I'm almost ready to volunteer next year to be on a chase crew. I've never been in a hot air balloon.

When you think of all the hundreds of balloons that go up, it is rare a tragedy ever happens, but this sport has it's dangers. I know all of us in Albuquerque send our prayers for the family of the woman who died this year. Yes, sadly the wind on Monday caught some balloons this year. Unfortunately one woman fell 60 feet after the balloon she was in ran into power lines. It just breaks all of our hearts.
Don't let that scare you though. Life has risks and sudden winds will take you places unexpected not just in hot air balloons but in living. One must be willing sometimes to catch and ride inspiration. I don't know if I'll ever go up in a hot air balloon, but I will always love them. And the ballonists will keep flying. To be on a field where they all go up at once is really a sight to behold.

After assisting this balloon - (here's shot of it before I got more involved) - I turned toward home andon my way, I found another balloon which I'll show you in tomorrow's post. In the meantime go look at this photo gallery it's better than any of the photos I've shown you here.

Daily Lump offering......

The little face at the top is a yoga pose called the lion. My yoga teacher has been teaching it a lot lately. Along with some other poses. I'm trying to remind myself to do it at home in the mornings along with the breathing exercise she has given us.
The other lump is an inspiration from a friend's email today. I plan to make it into a plaque with wire and beads. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just be you. We get so afraid of making a strange face and being seen wrong but the great cosmic joke is that the only way to be seen right or at least to feel right is to be you. Only you can be you...........

Hello it's you my friend........

I haven't been around for a few days. Really I keep meaning to get here and post - but I just don't know what happens other than I can get myself so scattered. If there is no deadline then I may let days slip by.........

It isn't that I haven't been busy on other things - I spent 2 and a half hours yesterday moving rock. Yup that's what we do in New Mexico - we landscape with rock. It's not purely decorative. It's practical too - holding down our soil and creating stream beds for the rain water coming off the roof to run. My husband and I have a huge job to do, but when it's done we'll have a backyard labyrinth too.

But I'm sure you came here for a visit and I'm not being a very good host. Please come sit down...............would you like to try a celery soda?

Yeah, it's weird.....I thought so too........but I had to try it. Let me get the cheese on this

Let's visit my friend.......
So tell me what would you like to find here when you come to visit me? What dream or passion would you like to let fly?