Moss Whispers

While I’m setting everything up to publish the Jingle Book, I’ll keep working on the Hillock stories. If I can’t see the characters that I’m writing about, there are a few different ways I could go:

•I could just make them up! Since that’s what we do with most of Life: make up our own stories and interpretations of Everything! Actually, I already have quite a few characters: Slab, Claire the Cook, The Queen’s Cook, The Fairie of the Castle of the Heart, The One-Winged Bird, CritterSeahorse, The Artist, The Writer, Preena of Preena’s Spa,The Stone Mason, Twigs at Twilight, and a few more.
•I could look for clues: like the holes in the ground, the tiny tree frogs that hop right in front of my feet like they want to tell me something quick! and then hop away. After all, the earth is presenting us with mystery and drama moment by moment, we usually just don’t pay attention.
•I could look ‘within’ and see what voices come forth. There are so many things I’ve just learned about life while being the caretaker and the mosstender of the hillock.
•I could keep looking at less likely but more obvious possibilities for characters: trees, roots, rocks, the Hillock itself, a Map (of the Hillock or of some mission or to some treasure), the pond (reflections), birds! hmmm…birds!
•I could accept the fact that the characters are hidden, not visible by me, or that they no longer live there
•I could be the character!
•If the characters are no longer there, or are hidden, I still might need to have some way to know what they’re thinking….perhaps by ‘mail’ at the world postal box, or maps, or messages left in the bottle at the bottom of the old aqueduct, or by bird or worm messengers, or through sound? bells?
•If the setting is the character
•I could let the hillock be a microcommunity of our whole world and see how it plays out.
•And then there are all the visitors over the years that I’ve noticed down at the hillock. Box turtles, green snakes, black snakes, toads, tiny frogs, giant bullfrogs, snails, slugs, lizards, birds,
I’m open to other suggestions if anyone wants to comment! Thanks!

There is a MossWhisperer, I’m sure of that because I’ve heard her whispers. What she actually looks like, I don’t really know. The picture below is a crafted attempt to make ‘the MossTender’ out of a wooden doll I found at Goodwill. Someday I hope to paint ‘the MossTender’ but actually, she’s not the MossWhisperer. I think she just hears the whispers of the MossWhisperer more than most since she’s so close to the earth and its song. Yet from what I can surmise, ANYONE can hear the MossWhisperer, if they truly listen.

Who is The MossWhisperer? I only know what she DOES, for now…
The MossWhisperer listens…and through the mist comes a distillation of all that is…
She listens… to minglings of the night…to coyote and redwolfed triumphant howls mixed with baby screams of precious prey, dove croons, whippoorwill quails, and owl whoos mingling with windshrill cries as they crush air through cracks in the forest…to the mighty pines as they creak and tip themselves towards final breaking points…
She listens as morning harbinges hope for a new day, an new way.

The MossWhisperer feels…needing no eyes to see the grandeur of the lowest carpet of the earth, the textures that tell all…
She feels…the earth’s cool moisture that grows from twilight and forms an invisible envelope at its surface right where it needs to breathe.
She feels…the sun drained sweat of the earth …it’s lifeline for the day until night comes again, or rain drops by for a surprise visit.

The MossWhisperer smells…the soft earth’s sweat signaling that there’s enough!…assuring us that moss will preserve the earth’s water in its cells for all living things.
She smells…a scent reminiscent of moth balls, preserving all that is needed of the past to live in the present…only air and water taken from the atmosphere and radiant sun to grow chlorophyl.

The MossWhsiperer recalls…that ancient life is going on…in us…through us… and beyond us…

The MossWhisperer lets go…of struggles & stress…
She lets go…of pressures to figure out…of fears that freeze us…of distractions that lose or lock us in noisy dark closets we humans often create.
She lets go of needing…of wanting to be heard through the noise.
She lets go of frantic communication…
She just lets go…and

She LISTENS to the Earth’s whisper and then she herself whispers one word, thankyou, aciu, thankyou to All who together create her as she is this moment. And that is enough. She is enough. All is enough. Moss…prepares the present…and creates pillows of rest and renewal for all of us, and for all of life’s processes to go on…Oh…to listen as she does and learn from our ancestral storage of water and spirit! Oh…to listen to mosses…we will be renewed, restored, replenished and rebirthed!

Today was just too beautiful to stay inside! Francklin, our three-legged dog, who is my forever patient and playful companion, has found his top dog mound on The Hillock where he surveys the scene, always ready to bound into action if there is a stick flying through the air or if he can get my attention with his ball! I’ve been fine tuning the paths and walls. For some reason I am getting The Hillock ready for SOMETHING, not sure what. I’ve always wanted to have a ‘tea’ or some gathering here in the spring. And new dwellings seem to be popping up in anticipation of something! There are so many stories emerging from the mysterious mounds! Maybe after I finish publishing “What Makes a Jingle Ring,” I’ll have space in my head to hear the MossWhispers! Ready for the next Adventures!

Today I spent working on finishing touches to the Jingle story, and some time procrastinating on the next finishing touches. Nothing to post yet, so what can I write tonight? Tonight, was the dogs’ turn. On all their trips each day down in the meadow, they have gathered matts, thorns, and burrs in their fur, and I’ve just been painting and writing away!
Francklin and Lacy, lay at my feet, watching me. If they’re waiting, only I imagine that they are ‘impatient’ and ‘wondering why I waste my time with computer and brush and pencil, mostly eraser.’ no they just lay there and watch, observe, with that wise knowing look of persistent patience. Even now, if I move towards the door, they have learned to not jump up the first time, but rather to watch and wait, until I have made many trips back and forth, gathering shoes, contact lense, cell phone, and all the other paraphenalia that I seem to think I need just for our walk down in the meadow. They KNOW, just know when the last forgotten thing has been gathered, and then they bound to the door, and only then go out if I make that final step over the threshold. Then Francklin grabs a stick from the kindling basket by the door and bounds off on his three forever young legs, while Lacy makes up a four-legged romp to signal PLAY! And off we go! I carry my bucket for gathering rocks along the way. By the time we get down to the hillock, the bucket is full and putting the pieces of the cobblestone puzzle together begins! I am always amazed at how each piece has a perfectly fitting place as long as I’m willing to turn and rotate it to ‘see it another way’…Isn’t that just IT! To be open and willing to ‘turn and turn til we come round right, in the land of peace and delight.’ Or however the Quaker song sings it! And how easy it is to think ‘we know’ the way it or anything should be!’ I can think of so many times of frustration in my life when I’ve tried so hard to force things to match my point of view, when really what I need to pray is: there must be another way of seeing this! please help me see it! This whole cobblestoneway puzzle has been such a meditation in practicing being open to another way of seeing. Then comes quickening my trust process to ‘let go’ of my way so I can see the other! And all the while, Lacy and Francklin, just sit and wait for me to let go of each stone as it forms the way through the hillock. No judgments, no expectations, except maybe a stick every now and then. So tonight, I just write what comes, no judgments, no outlandish expectations. And I guess that’s just it…writing…just like breathing…

Awhile back, I posted a painting I did of the Castle of the Heart. Behind that castle, in the distance, can be seen a one-winged bird. He is looking longingly towards the castle. I’m posting this, and pondering whether to tackle his story next. I’m not sure it’s ready to ‘put out there’ as it is still flying around in my head…and believe me, it goes round and round since it’s flying with just one wing! There are many other story drafts already written that I could put here next, but for some reason, the characters at The Hillock are all clamoring for front seat on WordPress. Off to bed to see who wins out. AND there’s still one more painting sketched out for the title page of What Makes a Jingle Ring! So much to do!

While I’m polishing my last paintings and writing, I’m breathing in the nutrients down at The Mossy Hillock in the Meadow. Every day when my hands get too numb for writing or painting and my mind mingles in thoughts beyond words, I take a breather and take Lacy and Francklin (our wonderful three-legged companion) for a walk to sniff and breathe in the freshness of the day! It’s the best way I know to smooth out wrinkles in my tightening jaw and to let my brain stem unwind to its most natural primal being.

It’s during such meanderings that I hear MossWhispers that stir my soul and renew my real self! It’s moments lilke these that I am a singer, even when I can hardly match a pitch. And I’m a dancer even if I trip over every root! Steps in nature are so forgiving and nonjudgmental. The ground meets me where I am and together we greet the world! Gratitude is close at hand and all fears just fall away! Down at The Hillock, characters and settings unfold so effortlessly and time literally IS without needing mechanisms at all! (Those only matter when I get back up to the house and I realize the other world has kept on going without waiting for us!)
This particular photo is the place where ‘the artist’ dwells…there is a tiny easel that often has a piece of lichen covered bark or some other ‘study of the sunset’ sitting on its ledge. Once there was even a small tree toad sitting in the doorway to her cottage. This particular day, the artist is pondering the droplets of dew shimmering on the grapevines above her. And the moss below all of our feet is swollen with green so lush that snails would probably line up for miles just to take a turn making their diamond trails. As for me and the dogs…we just listen, and honestly I must say, everything fits together as one big many! Manifesting in one magnificent marvelous silent JINGLE RING! MossWhispers….

Even Snails Must Sleep!
No matter how much I want to help this little guy with all of his aha moments and self discoveries, I’m highly aware that I need to allow myself time to rest and renew! These last few pages are important ones and I want to be fresh and free to listen and create! So tonight I am giving myself a break! And this little guy is happy to have more time to process his new discovery! So, I’m off to my treetop room both in my mind and in my house to allow my ‘wires’ to unwind and listen to the deepest part of who I am. I even took a nap today that soften my rough edges and renewed my hopefulness and strength. After many wee hour nights, I felt myself turning into quite an ‘emoticon’!
sleep well!

It’s time for me to take a painting and writing break! After all, it IS Saturday! So I’ll give you a glimpse of what has been happening ‘down at the Hillock’ in the meadow… Someone has been hard at work!

From what I can gather from ‘MossWhispers’, this is construction of CobbleStoneTrail which is branching off of CobbleStoneWay, which is the wider roadway at the bottom of the picture. Maybe someday I’ll try painting it, but for now, it looks like a mighty lot of stones to paint!

To my surprise a few days ago, a tiny kitchen appeared. It happened so fast, I haven’t even had time to water color it! And with each passing day it seems to absorb more gold from the sunlight, almost as if it’s on fire itself. It’s on the western side of The Hillock, directly across from Slab, the Potter’s outdoor kiln. And nearby is a raised cauldron of hot colored stones. Hmm. wonder how these two ‘stoves connect…the potter’s kiln ‘stove’ and this outdoor kitchen? Just a skip or two down the hill from the small stove is a relatively huge grinder…nothing in it right now…so we don’t know what it grinds…mystery kitchen…mystery ingredients. hmmm…

One rare night, one of those ‘blue moons’, I was walking when I heard some rustling over near a stump by The Hillock. This was a feathery sort of rustle, slipping through the silence like an owl hunting for prey. I quickly turned my head, and to my surprise, I saw three tiny twig people dancing ‘in the light of the ‘blue moon’. I blinked to make sure I was awake, and they were still there! This is the best I could do to capture them in my memory, for just then a true owl gave it’s mooncall and they were off! into thin air!