Thrill the World...or Not

Good grief...

how can I still succumb to peer pressure

at this age?

Yet, it seems I have and because of it

I, once again

find myself doing something

I have NO business doing.

Kind of like paddling on the ocean while

being “swimming challenged”

okay, so this is not as dangerous or foolish....

no wait,

it is definitely as foolish...!

Maybe more so!

So last night,

with very convincing friends

(the same ones that talked me into paddling)

along with this “secret desire” in my heart

(that ultimately fails to occur)

I find myself on a dance floor

with sixty other people

with the same “secret desire”

but for THEM...

it actually appears to be happening.

This is no place I have ever been before,

(or should be for that matter)

I am trying to learn dance moves

I cannot begin to remember,

follow or execute.

It is soon very apparent

that holy crap....I SUCK...

Not that I didn’t already know this

but I thought maybe,

just maybe,

something magical might happen

Michael Jackson’s spirit would over take me

and I would be sliding across the floor

as if on the moon.

hmmm...not so much!

The moon in my mind, maybe!

It is a call to “Thrill the World”

on Halloween night.

Where we will supposedly dance

this very complicated number down

main street for Fright Night...

Because I am so in love with the idea

of participating...

I am torn between giving up the “secret”desire

or giving up every hour of my life

for the next three weeks...

to be a part of it!

Tough choice!

Like most people my age,

we grew up with MJ

(I thought I would actually marry him...

which is more ironic then my trying to

learn his dance moves)

I loved his genius and brilliance

and was sympathetic

towards his social challenges,

seeing him at times

to be

just too bright for this world!

So why wouldn’t I want to

for a minute in time

honor him, be him, move like him?

Well pretty sure none

of THAT is going to happen...

and after my friend,

tattled on me to the instructor

(who is adorable and super talented)

that I wasn’t coming back

she said, I couldn’t leave,

and to just have fun!

Hmmmm!

Soooo, I guess

there will be no sneaking off

to the lobby NOW

and I am going to just

have to learn how to dance for the first time

in my life...

So,

if you don’t hear from me for awhile?

I will be doing my booty bounce swim,

my zombie march,

my roar and claw

and my favorite “waz up.”

Pretty sure...

I won’t be THRILLING the World

or even Havasu

but hopefully my friends will be

cause I tried to learn something

I, again, have no business doing...

but if I can paddle on an ocean

that I am terrified of ending up in...

at least here?

I won’t drown

or encounter a shark.)

And the worst that can happen...?

is I might look really dumb

while having fun!

So what the hell...here it goes!

Stay tuned.

I will let you know!

Check it out...www.thrilltheworld.com

In search of Georgia..continued

While Taos didn't call my name

Santa Fe and New Mexico

seem to be yelling it...

Years ago in California

while being twenty something,

a red haired vixen of a women,

gave me a job, in a frame shop.

I knew little about art outside

of Minnesotas' wildlife stamps

and had to become slowly educated as

the posters passed by me, in their

various forms of framing options...

Many of which were large flowers

with capital O'Keefe at the bottom.

I didn't get her or her work

never thought of her much after that

...really!

But the red haired women?

She became a friend for life...

and lives in Santa Fe!

After Taos it seemed appropriate

to go to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum

in Santa Fe,

my traveling companion Ed

(a long time fan) is excited...

while I am quietly ambivalent.

There are quotes all over the walls,

her writings, are what

finally, truly

move me,

she speaks of her work, her life, her art

and I am drawn in...

a window onto this wondrous woman

is opened...

and I see her for who she was!

But the "museum movie"

leaves us feeling flat

I say again and again

"she had to be more interesting than that

she JUST had to be!"

It seems she was!

It is sunset

on my friends' patio,

Alicia, who is as spicy and feisty

as her hair color,

gives me a sense of "family

and sisterhood"

that only a "multiple decade friendship"

can do,

you know,

the one and only person

who knows you better than anyone,

who can jibe, poke and make fun

of the things no one else can

get away with...

(like the graying hair your not really

trying to hide but

hope... no one mentions either?)

We agree, that we have been at

one another's shoulders

for all the big moments in life,

first job,

first house,

first fire,

first mouse...

(don't ask!)

Thanks to Ed our exchange

and charm and adoration

is captured shot by shot!

And is a gift!

Also, gratefully and perfectly,

she has the Georgia O' Keefe

Lifetime movie

recorded

and we wonder and murmur over it's

supreme storytelling,

(while running down the hall

to write down various lines!)

This artistic woman of strength

and iconic character

becomes my hero, my muse

my guide,

in a matter of three days!!

It started with a symbolic trip to Taos

and Mabel Dodge Luhan's lodge,

a note in a tree,

a question where to go and be,

Georgia everything...

and the spirits of significant friends.

Am I am being

led to make a change?

...I am listening...

waiting ...wondering!

Funny, I didn't even know

I was looking for Georgia,

yet there she is at every turn

this woman who not only painted

the New Mexico sky...

she actually, became it!

So I am thinking,

what are we without

our hero's and friend's?

And when they call our names

isn't it true...

our only answer can be

"Yes,

I am on my way!"

Pam Reinke

In Search of Georgia

Is there a place you have heard spoke

of again and again,
in stories and tellings
so much so,
it takes on a mythical quality
and you wonder what it holds
for you when you finally arrive
on its threshold???

When we drop down into Taos
from along the Rio Grande river
it is sort of as I imagined,
a town nestled in the breasts
of blackened shadowed mountains
with far reaching skies and churches,
pueblo this and pueblo that.
Georgia O'keefe's beloved home
and her artistic inspiration.
We are in search of her and
the magic!

I anticipate and fear
a voice might call out,
"welcome home
pack your bags, your moving"
(my friend, suggests there
might even be residents with signs

saying as much.. oh dear.)
There is neither.

Yet at the lodge of Mabel Dodge,
I sit, I write where many
famous guests gathered
D.H Lawrence and Gertrude
and Ansel,
the same soil under my feet.
I walk where the poets walked
and there is a hum
in my ankles.

And there is a labyrinth!
The ancient meditative maze!
I can barely contain my delight!

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol
of the circle and the spiral into
a meandering but purposeful path.
The Labyrinth represents a journey
to our own center and back again
out into the world.
It is a moving meditation of prayer.
It is a walk.
A metaphor for life’s journey.
A sacred space and place that
takes us out of our ego to
“That Which Is Within.”
A labyrinth has only one path.
It is unicursal.
The way in is the way out.

My first walk having been in Maui,
which I directly went and got a tattoo
to permanently
mark the experience!
It was that profound!!!

The intention is to ask a question...
walk in with it and walk out with
an answer or a better understanding
of what is being sought!

Mine is
"what shall I do,
where shall I go?"
(granted, maybe a little too lofty for
a Monday as a tourist
but IT IS Taos...)

The answer seems is so simple
too simple
"be the artist, poet you are
and know you are supported
by all those who have come
before you...just do what you do"
hmmm, okay anything else?
yes, build a labyrinth in your back yard
and that spiral staircase to nowhere,
the one you've been waiting to do,
it has greater relevance than
you imagined."
okay, hmmm?
.... thank you...i guess.

Yet... along the path to the lodge
we discover a note
tied to a branch with a
filament of iridescent ribbon...
a surprising treasure
that makes me feel instantly ten
it reads,
"you are an artist,
act like an artist...
show your work
and please return to Mabel
where magical things happen."
Steffani Zachry Holubec 7/09

I am stunned and look for others
but there is only this one,
one confirmation!
What a gift.
(Thank you, Steffani!)

Wondering, is this everyone's
question here?
Thus this answering note?
Or was this some kind of magic?

Past the twin steepled churches
and rushing Rio,
under the ceaseless New Mexico sky,
it is clear, I won't be moving here,
that I found more than Georgia,
maybe some of the intrigue...
and it looks like
there is a plan for a labyrinth
and spiral staircase to nowhere,
to be added to my backyard.

And more simply...
I need to keep doing and being
what I am doing and being!
And maybe tie a few notes
of my own to a tree or two!

(...oh and there won't be
any tattoo for this one...
i think I got it
deeper than skin this time.)

So... if you are an artist

act like one!

Pam PiperRain

photos by Ed Earley

Closure

It is the last day of summer

one more time on the boat,

I need to allow

the release of her finality

of her heat and her warmth,

so many things to let go of...

wondering is this the end day of...

everything beautiful?

Maybe!

Hotter than expected

there is egg salad

and C batteries,

a "patch" of beach,

(that can be barely called "beach")

a dog's nails "pedi pawed" off,

(with the look of terror on her face)

window crayons on skin

that nearly don't come off,

a parade of bouncing bubbles

like implants stuck to water

and the exchange of great ideas!

There is swimming (sort of)

but it is too cold too "float" now

just can't

maybe next year,

when the fluidity of life

takes me away from this flux

of conflictual change...

When it is time to go

the mountains glow with their

"I'm not summer

nor am I fall" colors

and shadows

multi shaded in shadowed contrast.

there is speeding and bobbing,

a pause to toast the day

without true celebration

instead a goodbye to

the end of the "ride"

and the absence of the "hero."

Summer's farewell...

on the horizon

like the rising moon

only less shiney.

And I think I will miss "her"

like the deserts

miss the rain!

Jeans and Q's

Okay

I know I have been absent

and tho I knew there would be a

time I would take this untimely

needed break.

I did not expect

it to last so long...

to the point I have had even

chest gripping anxiety over

even a short visit to my own blog.

Was it because I just turned fifty

and I seemed at a loss to

relate my own ideas about it?

Which have changed as

the month quickly

become Oct.

Or was it simply

the things in which I could

relay here...

were just too big for this arena,

not ready for my tendency towards too

much truth telling?

Probably!

But I have missed the fun

and creativity of it

and plan to return with

the new adventures

of being an artist in the desert

and an swimming challenged

athlete on the water.

Meanwhile, let me comment

on one scarey thing...

that moment when

you try on your jeans

for the first time because

it is actually cool enough to do so

and your not sure they will fit after

a summer of indulging

and wearing nothing but

sarongs and paddle shorts,

with my upcoming trip to

Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival

and their cooler temps...

I will need to

I will know soon enough...

(And that is another thing

that is scarey...

trying to spell Albuquerque

without looking it up,

so many vowels and Q's)

Geez!!!

Surrender

so it comes with

it’s own heave of

grace given weight

to put us on our knees

in gratitude and grief

to the beauty of breaking

more open...

more willing,

more heightened

more expanded

more of everything

right up to the edges

to spill forth

in rivers of wet weeping

life force

that wants and doesn’t...

want it all

to be left dripping

in puddles

of passionate choices

that led the way

the way we could not

not follow

to our running, our flying

our being tossed

and turned

to be back on our knees

in grief and gratitude

and in humble repose

waiting for the next wind

to blow us...

away!

Nothing profound

been waiting for something

profound

to come into my head...something...

anything to write about

...waiting,

waiting,

still nothing

at least nothing profound

that is...so

when wondering

what will happen

when a bubble wand

is placed in front of a room fan

just do it!

Won't say here...oh but you must try it!

And when did my beloved crayons

add a website address to each color...

a span off 50 years is crossed

on this treasured childhood tool!

Seems, like if I am not acting

hormonal crazy, my friends are...

how long is this going to last

and should we be obligated to

hide out in our own homes

when we are having one of those

"I hate everyone especially, you"

kind of day?

I think it's probably the polite

thing to do!

Is being a Virgo weirder than any

other sign?

Probably not, but I've noticed

when I am speaking to another Virgo

we have our own language...

so would that be speaking Virgoees,

Virgoism

Virgoian or Virgoish?

Someone told me the other day

I should sit with the thought!

Hmmm, so if a friend calls and

asks to come over

would I say

"no, i am sorry I am sitting here

with a thought?

Always wish I was older during the 60s

instead of ten...and why is it every

time I tell a story... I am always ten?

What happened to the other ages?

After a rain in the desert doesn't it

smell wonderfully like wet dirt?

And you want to catch it on your tongue

like a snowflake....

which makes no sense at all.

And then this...

why doesn't any one make paper airplanes

anymore and do they also have a website?

Happy Wednesday!

P