The Furious Spinner

Hello, m'darlins. It looks like another day in paradise. Need to get out into it. First I shall regale you with trivia. Yes, this post is in honor of the Goddess Trivia, so feel free to skip on by this "how I spent my day" post.

Yesterday I was a busy bee. Today I should rest. Maybe I'll roll around on the wet grass. Or work in my garden. I've started turning over the soil in preparation for planting. I keep disturbing the worms. So I've started hitting the ground three times before I dig, hoping the worms will head deeper underground for a bit. I talked to them about this first. Not sure I've got worm lingo down. It's kind of like before we vacuum the house. We announce to all the bugs and spiders that we're bringing out the thing that really sucks so they better hide and hang on.

Anyway, yesterday morning first thing I walked down to the grocery store to get the paper. Then I came home and phoned our friend Mary. Mary is very involved locally. She's a retired Major with the Air Force Reserves. (Recently retired. When the war first broke out she was in Europe off and on for about a year or more. She's fluent in Croatian.) She goes to city council meeting, county commissioner meetings, planning meetings, watershed meetings, etc. She organizes cleanups. She's helping weed the elementary school with us. We've got some sleazy things going on in our little neck of the woods. The old boy network is up and running. Developers are suddenly going crazy, despite the fact that we don't have the water or the sewage system or the land. I'm not saying money is changing hands, but something strange is going on. And it appears that the people in charge don't care about our quality of life, and some of those in power don't want any public participation. (Does this sound familiar? Well, it should. They're all Republicans.)

I'm getting to the point. Our local DA apparently didn't like our friend Mary being so involved. When she (and three others) challenged a proposed clear-cut on county land, the county came back with a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation). These lawsuits are designed to threaten, intimidate, and prevent public participation in the political arena. Why would you question your government if you know there's a possibility of a SLAPP. In this particular SLAPP, the DA sued the four participants AND their spouses. Now if that ain't vindictive, I don't know what is. If my friend loses, she'll owe $25,000 of the $100,000 court costs.

I called to make certain she was coming to The Gathering that night because we had a surprise party planned for her. (Not that I told her about the surprise party, but she was probably getting suspicious. All my friends know I don't phone often and I'd called her three times in the last couple of days.) We wanted to let her know that we appreciated her work, even if the county officials didn't.

After Mary and breakfast, I drove to Portland for a cranio-sacral session. A spider hung out on the window the entire session, and in the backyard, I swore I saw a dragonfly although I knew it was too early in the year. Afterward I went to Grant Park and hung out with the Sycamores. (At least I think they're sycamores. I've been having trouble identifying them for certain.) I took some pics to share avec vous all, but they didn't turn out well. I don't have sunshine and shadow figured out.



(I love these trees. The many-breasted goddess tree. And this part of the tree reminded me of a wooden sculpture of a woman's torso. Not sure you can see from the photo. Quite beautiful in tree life, however.)





(The lone evergreen in the park.)


I drove to the Grotto. A Furious Spinner reader, Nora, reminded me of the Grotto last week, so I decided to stop. For some reason I've had an urge to sit in the Mary chapel and eat lunch. So I went there and did that. All by my lonesome. It was very peaceful. And strange. I still get really creeped out in Catholic churches. I like this chapel—what is the dif between a chapel and a church?—because I can imagine it's really a goddess temple in disguise. "Behold thy mother."



And this time they had a new crucifix. At least I don't remember it from before. It's made of stone and wood. Much nicer than that poor man nailed to it and bleeding all over the place. Again, I can see the Pagan roots here. (Your roots are showing!)

(Sorry. A bit dark.)


(So you can get the perspective.)


Then I went up to heaven. Yes, that's what they call it. Or some call it. I took an elevator up to the top of the cliff. As the elevator went up 100 some feet, a woman's voice welcomed me and talked about God being in Nature. Once on top, I left the cozy little elevator and walked over to the meditation chapel. From there you can see Mount St. Helens. I sat there alone again, breathing in the silence.

(Look through the doors to the right. That white bump is Mount St. Helens.)


(Here's inside. You can't see but inside the glass is a mother and child. A wax figure. Kind of creepy. But I wanted you to see the glass wall and the view. It's near the airport so it's not the BEST view. Behind the mother and child is Mount St. Helens.)


Then I walked around the grounds. Dark. Green. Silent. Ahhhh. Then the harlot red rhodies. I worshipped at their petals.



Then home. Jumped into the shower. The person who cuts my hair came over....And cut my hair. Afterward I drove to the grocery store to pick up the cake I had made for The Gathering. (Don't you love kitsch?) It was all edible.



Home again for a quick sandwich. Then Mara walked over, and we drove together to the Gathering which was at Evine's house. (Remember Evine? She's our 85-year-old Peace elder.) Mara put together a booklet/card for Mary which had photographs and then scraps of paper pasted into it with our best wishes. Mara has a knack for getting photographs in strange circumstances. Last year Linda lost a lamb. She couldn't go out looking for it, and she thought a coyote or mountain lion probably got it. But Mara and Mary went out to the farm and looked for it. I think they may have gone out twice, in the wet and the rain and the ravines. Mary was dogged. And she found the lamb tangled up in briar in a ravine. She got her and saved her and Mara took a photograph of her going down to get the lamb. (No, I don't have it. Sorry.)

Eventually Mary arrived. We sang "for she's a jolly good fellah," on Linda's instigation. Then we went around the room telling her how much her work means to us. I think the party buoyed Mary’s spirits. And who doesn’t need that sometimes? It was great fun.

(Linda, Barbara, Sheila, Mary, Varryl)


(To the left in the back: Varryl, Lucia, Suzie. Then in the group, we were all saying "goddess." Sheila in blue, then up is Barbara, down is Mara, Betty, Linda, Joelle, Mary, Evine in black, Thelma behind her, me, Gloria. Yes, I know the knife in my hand is strange. I should have set it down. I was trying to keep it from getting anyone, didn't realize it would be in the pic.)



By 8:30 I was exhausted and ready to go. Once home, Mario made me a sandwich (even though he had worked all day, weeded the elementary school grounds, then mowed half our lawn—we have an electric mower so it only lasts for an hour, thus the half a lawn). I insisted I would make my own dinner—there hadn't been anything for me to eat at the Gathering—but when I didn't make a move to do that, my sweetie fed me.

Now, it’s Thursday and I’ve spent half my day doing this post and the laundry. Clouds are moving in. I better get moving.

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All photographs and written material copyright © 2003-2008 by Kim Antieau unless otherwise indicated. May not be used without permission.