on my way, way back home

Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd
Walt Whitman

Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,
Whispering I love you, before long I die,
I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
For I fear'd I might afterward lose you.

Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe,
Return in peace to the ocean my love,
I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;
Be not impatient--a little space--know you I salute the air, the
ocean and the land,
Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.

*

Sometime during the last two months of my father’s life, he sat me down on the couch beside him and we talked. I don’t know how he knew, maybe because he was going home him self, but he told me something that rings more and more true the longer I live.
He told me that after he was gone we were all going to go through a period of mourning. Each of us, in our own way, was going to have to face the reality that he was gone, and for each of us, in our own way, it was going to be a process. There would be days when we wouldn’t want to get out of bed, but they would pass. There would be days when we were angry at the world and bitter and confused and sad that it was Dad, but those too would pass. He told me that even though, from where we were sitting, it seemed impossible to imagine a time when the process would ever be through, no matter how dark it looked, there would be sunny days again. He assured me that no matter how dark it gets, life goes on, one day at a time. He said he didn’t want us to lose sight of what is really good and beautiful and worth living in life, living with a passion.
He told me we were all going to mourn and grieve and heal in our own way, and if we could we should try to support each other, but he seemed to know somehow that we all would have to heal in our own way as well. No matter how hard it was to imagine what a happy day on the horizon might possibly look like from there, he assured me life would go on, we would heal, and we would find happiness and faith again. He wanted to make sure that we knew that we had a lot of life left to live, he wanted to make sure we didn’t get bitter and grow up too fast, before we had a chance to really live life and learn it’s truths on our own, in our own way, each of us. Dad was so modest he tried to help me start healing before he even went. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel that I am to be so close to such a radiant example of unconditional love for 19 years of my life. Dad told me that eventually we would need to move on and keep growing and keep becoming ourselves and doing all those things he spent his whole life encouraging us to do.
The most poignant thing he said to me that day, the things that sticks with me and comes back again and again, is especially fitting for today, on the eve of my flight home. He told me that in the coming years, every time I came home it was going to be a little different. He said that the experience of coming home would be powerful, and it would change every time. At first it was going to be weird and sad, maybe even a little awkward. Christmas would be tough because it would bring back memories, coming home from college, everything, it was all just going to be a little different. But each time it would be a little bit better than the last time, and each time everyone will be a little further in their healing, and even though I couldn’t see it now, after enough times it would be all good again. It’s not that we would ever forget him; Dad will always be the fiber of our family. Dad will always be “on the back roads of our memories ever gentle on our minds”. He told me we would reach a point when we could celebrate his memories, and miss him, but not be so burdened down with the emotions of pain and loss we were all feeling right then. He wanted to assure me not to lose faith in the fact that we would be happy again. In a way, coming home would become a way to mark progress in my self and see how I’ve been doing dealing with Dad’s absence since I’d last been there. He said that not only would each trip home be different, each trip home would be a little bit better, a little bit easier and a little fuller and a little more whole. Sometime, somewhere down the road I’d be coming home to a full house again, a full home.
As I get ready to fly with Grandma out to California tomorrow, to show off the house Dad worked so hard to provide us with, it strikes me that I’ve only been home for less than two months since I graduated from college last May. After my five-month adventure on the road last Summer/Fall, I made it home early November just in time to go to the dentist and move out to Utah for the winter. After Utah I stopped by down here in Columbiana and literally drove right into where I needed to be to help Pop move across the great divide and Grandma adjust to being alone for the first time in 64 years. Now here it is, that fateful Sunday before thanksgiving, on the eve of my first trip home in a long time, and again I hear Dad’s words bubbling up into my self and making me wonder where I've been since then. How am I doing in my healing process? What all has gone on since that day Dad sat me down next to him on the couch and foreshadowed all this?
I’m thinking about it and I don’t know why I haven’t been home more. I mean, I love home, I love being in the house and I love Pasadena and my friends there. There’s nothing not to love, it just hasn’t really worked out that California is the neck of the woods I’ve been in since graduation. I haven’t been avoiding home, right? To be honest I haven’t even thought of coming home, or not coming home, for some reason it just doesn’t seem to even come into my I-stream very often. Weird.
In my quest to “surrender to the flow” I don’t ask too many questions that don’t have worthwhile answers to them, but maybe this isn’t one of those questions. I wonder if, on some sort of unconscious level, I put off “coming home” sometimes because Dad was right; every time I come home things are a little different, or even a lot different.
All the memories are still there, I still remember being in each room with my father on all sorts of different occasion. I remember when he put in the pool house, I remember the parties he did or didn’t let me have, and I remember him reading the paper and eating his breakfast on the back porch. I remember him in his closet, I remember the things he had hanging up in his closet. I remember that he could afford to spend so much time on the pool house because he was home doing his chemo for so long, it was all he could do. It was sort of like his arts and crafts project I guess.
I also remember when he was real sick that first year and he couldn’t get up the stairs so we had him in that hospital bed downstairs. I remember he lost 60 pounds. I remember how much pain he was in, but only now when the memories come up can I really grasp it, and it overwhelms me sometimes. I remember him and mom would watch TV together at night, he’d post up on that couch right there because it was the most comfortable place for him and his tumor. I remember the stretches of time when we considered it a good day if he came downstairs at all. And I remember, clear as anything, the day I said goodbye to him because I had to go back to school like he wanted. I remember how cool his bald head was on my chin when I hugged him for the last time, and then left out the side door in the dining room to drive out to school.
As loaded as the house is with all the good times, there is nothing I can do to remember them without remembering them with the hard times we had in that house too. It brings back an inner understanding and perspective on my self and who I was when that was all going on that I can’t get anywhere else. The walls and the yard literally resonate with past layers of myself, my father, my family, my life.
So you see it’s not fair to say I don’t like coming home, because I do, though perhaps its fair to say I might unconsciously avoid it sometimes because it’s not just coming home. I can’t really just come home anymore, it isn’t that simple, because the process, the experience of coming home comes right along with all those loaded memories and it’s always a lot to deal with sometimes, consciously or not. Short of repressing and denying and avoiding all the painful, emotional images that come to mind, the other option is to walk straight into them, chin up, as honestly and openly as I can. There are times in my life when I’m more or less prepared and stable to do just that, and I’m thinking, I’m hoping, this time is one of those times.
This time truly is special and will certainly be different, because this time I’m taking Grandma out there with me and the whole family is going to be there. Grandma has never been out to California since we lived here, never seen our house, and she hasn’t been out of Alabama and off the farm in more years than she can remember. On top of that, not only is our whole side of the family going ot be their (except for Christian and Justin and Spencer and Kate because they are tiny) but Mollie’s whole family is going to be their too I believe. This quickly adds up to not only Thanksgiving, but an engagement party as well. Our first group in-law experience! Oh boy!
This time home is also really special for me because I feel like I get to show off for Dad. Not show off in a bad way either, but show off what Dad accomplished for his family, show off only and to none other than, his very own mother. Having lived with Grandma on the farm for the past several months, and really taking the time to root myself in this small town, and after doing my best to recreate what some of my father’s childhood was like and really getting a sense for where he came from as best is possible, I can honestly say that I don’t think Grandma has any idea what’s in store for her. I don’t think she ever really got a chance to comprehend where Dad worked his way up to after he left the farm, and the culture shock on top of that, I can’t wait! In many ways this is the trip of a lifetime for her, and for me too I suppose. I remember all of Dad’s coworker’s talking about how all Dad could do was brag about Brooks and I and our sports awards or scouts or school or whatever it was we were doing, and now I get to be the one to brag about Dad to his mom, to let her know and see this whole other aspect of who Dad was and what he did with his life that she’s only ever heard of, but never gotten to see. I know I may be making too much out of it, and I’m biased and all, but I don’t think so. This is a really sweet deal, Grandma is the best. With me it was going from the big city to the small city, now we have the small city out to the big city, and I can’t wait to her what Grandma thinks.
As proud of Dad as Grandma is, which is indescribably proud already I’m sure, I think this trip might find a way to make her feel something new, something more, something wider even. Not that any of it makes a difference really, but when you’re 89, to find yourself moved on deep, inner levels, is a very profound thing I would imagine.
So as for me, I hope I’m ready to come home with strength and clarity this time, but I’m not really worried about me this time. I have the perfect excuse not to worry about me, which is that I can put all that energy towards making sure Grandma has a good time. Just like Dad lives vicariously through me, maybe I live vicariously through Grandma. Hmmm? Just thoughts I play with…
This trip home I’m an escort for daddy’s mama, and that is what makes my heart glow more than anything else. Thank you God for all we’ve been given. Thank you for the foundation my life is built upon, the stock we come from and the examples we’ve had set for us. I pray for the strength to mold my own life into a life of example that is even one tenth what Dad, and Pop, and Grandma, and Papa Joe and Mama Nell and my own mother the Dawn have set. Thank you for the opportunity to show Grandma a new part of the world and a new part of her son, after all these years. We pray for safe travels, good timing, and can’t wait to hang out with good friends once we land.

exactly

I am sitting quietly in front of the computer, typing mundane words into a mundane keyboard on a mundane Monday morning. Slowly I begin to notice something unusual in the air, in the atmosphere around me, a soft incredibly fine flickering of rain, a gold-dust twinkling, a wistful mist sprinkling and shining everywhere, a quiet riot of psychedelic platinum enlivening every direction I look, the world become alive with the articulate beating souls of every single raindrop, each being a small opening, all of them small apertures, into a radiant infinity that slowly invades my mind and soul as well, my heart begins to fill with that radiance, to spill gratefully out of itself and gracefully back into the world, an ecstatic painful radiant bliss that touches each with wonderment, the yearning of love and the dreadful tears of tender embrace, each shimmering raindrop a hidden soul reaching out to me and then, suddenly, a collective cacophony of Gods and Goddesses all singing as loud as they possibly can, looking at me and calling to me and urging me louder and louder, more and more thunderous, and me to them, and spontaneously, uncontrollably, we all start shouting and crying and singing in unison, lord what a sound, what a thunder there was, as we all sobbed and we all shouted: is not this simple, present moment the very face of Spirit itself? And a total revelation that could never be improved in any way at all?
And with that, with the utter obviousness of it all, the rain simply stopped. I type the next mundane word into the mundane keyboard on this mundane Monday morning. But then, somehow, just a little, the world will never be the same.
-Ken Wilber

the good life

the good life
railroad earth

they got tired of livin’
in an apple going black
went up the mad river valley
and they never looked back
way up the mountain over campell ridge
up an old loggin’ road
‘cross an old mill bridge

they built a little house out of
stone they found
put their backs to the plow . . put
their seeds in the ground
water from the spring runnin’ plenty and good
from a hardwood forest . . choppin’
fire from the wood

oh . . they’re livin’ the good life
oh . . livin’ the good life

they got bread in the oven, got
books on the shelf
they’re lookin’ deep into each
others’ eyes deep into themselves
pursuin’ ideals with grace and style
and they’re makin’ ends meet with
their huckleberry guile
oh . . they’re livin’ the good life
oh . . livin’ the good life

way up the mountain over campbell ridge
up and old loggin’ road . . cross an
old mill bridge
they built a little house out of
stone they found
put their backs to the plow and
their seeds in the ground
they’ve got the power of the sun
the strength of the soil
they’re finding peace in their hearts and
faith in their toil

oh . . they’re livin’ the good life
oh . . livin’ the good life
oh . . they’re livin’ the good life

living legends

Me and the founder of waffle house last past weekend! I mean WOW! That’s the actual head within which the idea, very idea of "Waffle House" was first conceived! all of your many many Waffle House experiences on all levels are directly rooted in his head! This head! This one! If you have ever eaten at Waffle House, or even heard of Waffle House, this guy is a fiber in your life! Incredible when you start thinking about the chains of things, connections and all that, you know? Tom is very cool man, he's Winn’s uncle. God bless that man.

nothin' like a bath of fire

Bath of Fire
The Presidents of the United States

I let my thirsty boots wander all over
And they come home with lies about women
And in the evening toe up to the stars
Sun is comin up and somethings feelin funky

Old moldy korn club stuck in the mud it makes me
Wish for a million dollar view
Spend my last lone quarter on the korn klubs kool aid
And theres nothin else Id rather do

Theres nothin like a bath of fire
To get this deep down dirt outta me
Theres nothin like a bath of fire
To get this deep down dirt outta me

Yeah
Razor fanged rattlesnake only tryin to protect itself
I had to haul off and blow its little head away
Sucked out the venom, kept the little skin and
Meat found its way onto my plate

There go my boots complainin, tellin me its time to go stompin
Id better listen or theyll kick my ass

Hell is down there yawnin, hopin I fall head first in it
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt out of me
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt out of me
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt outta me

Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt outta me
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt outta me
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt outta me
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt outta me
Nothing like a bath of fire to get this deep down dirt

the power of the OZ

I’ve wanted to write a song about driving through Kansas and so I’ve been brainstorming recently. I was talking about it with someone and they suggested a spin-off on Dorothy and Toto, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” and such. Well that got me thinking about tornados and the symbolism of tornados and what sort of situation “Dorothy” might be in where she would wish for a tornado to come. What sort of situation? Say- pulled over on the side of the road with a dog going through her car (K-9 / Toto, you see where I’m going with this)?
Then I was cleaning out the final few untouched bookshelves in Nell’s house, and I found a bunch of children’s book. Interestingly I found three different “Alice in Wonderland” versions, three copies of “Jack and the Beanstalk”, and the money find was one full length copy of the original “Wizard of Oz.”
Needless to say I’ve been reading the Wizard of Oz, and it’s so much more than I expected. Wow! This book is at least as good as Lewis Carol’s “Alice in Wonderland.” I’ve been following the yellow brick road everywhere I go for the past few days, but that’s not the point. That’s not what strikes me to write this.
The crazy thing is that anyone watching the weather yesterday saw that there was a super intense jet stream that came straight through Alabama. It wasn’t a cold front of bad weather or anything, it was a jet stream. If you look at the satellite photos it literally looked like a wide lane of bad weather running right through Alabama. Wouldn’t you know, there were Tornado warnings in effect all day. Crazy huh? Anyone watching cable news would have seen it. All this brainstorming… better be careful.
I went outside last night and there were still tornado strength winds going strong. The fruit of all this is that I developed a new joy for strong winds the past few days. Standing out there, feeling the power of these invisible forces blow from invisible sources, wind simply amazes me. It is invisible, but you can feel it and see its effect on the things it blows. The sound of wind whipping through the trees has a strange calming effect to me now, despite the raw power. I got to thinking, finally, great kite weather! Except this wind would tear my kite to pieces.
This morning I woke up and saw that this is how all the leaves come down off the trees. I also came up with a new verse for the song, which is a warning for anyone driving through Kansas with something they aren’t supposed to have. Only Dorothy can bring on a tornado, so don’t count on it.

I also happened to find this on the Kansas State website:

KANSAS
WINTER WEATHER AWARENESS DAY
Wednesday November 15, 2006

The National Weather Service in cooperation with Kansas Emergency Management and county emergency management officials, will observe Winter Weather Awareness Day on Wednesday, November 15. Winter Weather Awareness Day is a day set aside each fall to prepare for the cold, snow, and ice expected during the winter season in Kansas. It is a day to promote safety preparedness for the potentially hazardous weather that winter brings each year.

Winter can mean rapidly changing weather that often catches people unprepared. Precipitation can begin as rain and quickly change to snow or freezing rain. As you travel, make sure to obtain the latest weather forecast and road conditions before you head out. Traveling even short distances in winter can mean dramatically different weather conditions.

look up

Well I mentioned that I was going to try and get Brooks to write out a step by step guide to planting trees, and sure enough, he already had. I typed it up here before I found the website. Still, copy and paste this page, print it out, and pass it around to as many people as you can. Start the TREEVOLUTION!

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” - Ghandi

Tree Planting Steps

Selecting the perfect location for your tree is an important step, and one that is mostly dependent on the type of tree you are planting. Different trees need different degrees of water and light, so the best thing to do is go online and do a little research. This is the headiest website ever. It will tell you all you need to know and more. You can look at picture of different trees and order them directly, not that this is the only way to go about getting a tree. This site is also full of tips and planting advice for each individual tree. It will tell you more than I can here. It’s amazing, check it out.

http://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/

Once you have your tree and your location picked out, the next step is physical.

1. Put a smile on your face and dig a 4L x 4W x 2D hole in the ground.
2. Think about something loving and heady, mix in sand, peat moss, and organic material.
3. Soak thoroughly, let settle, add soil to fill.
4. Plant sapling with root ball at soil level, pack down lightly around base.
5. With dirt, build a water retaining wall about 2” high around roots.
6. Add mulch (leaving space around base)
7. Thoroughly soak area


Be sure to water it a lot for the first few days, and follow the suggestions that are given for your type of tree. Welcome your tree to the neighborhood, and now all you have to do is water it and send it good vibrations.

grandma's gold

I moved back to the farm this week. There’s just something about waking up here in the morning that makes all the difference. We’re going home in a week so I wanted to relive the good stuff while I know I still have time.
Grandma walked in last night on her way to bed looking at the books over my head, searching for something.
“What are you lookin’ for Grandma?”
“Well I need ‘G’…”
“G?”
“Oh no don’t worry about it, it’s just in my nightly reader they said something about gold and I wanted to look it up.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, is it true that no matter how hot you get gold it doesn’t do anything to it? Is gold the only one that does that? With stands all that heat like that?”
“You know Grandma, I’m not sure but I think you’re right. It’s unique like that. Unaffected by time I suppose.”
“Hmmm…” she says as I watch her wheel still spinning.
“We need Pop here for this one,” I said. “I’m sure he’d know.”
“Yup,” Grandma says with a little smile coming across her face.
=

She went on to get her nightly reader and show me what had made her start thinking about gold. It was this…

“Expose water to fire and it dissolves in vapor; wood, and it vanishes in smoke and flames, leaving but gray ashes behind; iron, and it is converted into rust; but fire may play on gold for a thousand years without depriving it of a degree or its luster or an atom of its weight.
Beautiful emblem of the servants of God! They, like gold, cannot perish, and their trials, like the action of fire on this precious metal, but purify what they cannot destroy.”

=
Then she asked me if I gave this to her, but I hadn’t, so then she said I should read it. It was really good, and she gave me this to read on a single sheet of paper…

A Thanksgiving Perspective and Appreciation

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the county with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked the son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
“The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond…our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

“Life is too short and friends are too few.”

on thinking about it

Marriage is a funny thing. Some weddings are big, some weddings are small, some people get engaged and then take a good long while to actually tie the knot, and some people run off to Vegas and do it right away. Some people worry about the dress and the rings and the rehearsal dinner’s more than others, but when it comes down to it, the commitment, the sacred part, is the same. It is the sacred commitment of two people to each other in the Presence of God that makes marriage holy and something to be protected and taken seriously.
I went to a close friend’s engagement party in Atlanta this weekend and had my first exposure to the madness and joy that is the approach to a wedding. Nerves get a little racked, hosts get a little tested, in-laws begin merge with in-laws, every thing seems to pick up energy as it rolls on towards the big day, the big moment, when the couple’s new life officially begins together- and then they’re finally off on their own…
What I learned this weekend is that a little pomp and circumstance before the big day is probably a good thing for a healthy marriage. I had lunch with the bride and her mother and sister before the party and it was the bride was a little nervous. We all did our best to calm her down, tell her it’s all in her head, that even if she did fall over or embarrass herself or something, at least she was surrounded by the people who love her.
Marriage is not something to be taken lightly, so it only seems right to test out the nerves a good bit on the takeoff just for future peace of mind before it’s official. E-T-E-R-N-I-T-Y is forever after all. But wait, I guess it’s death do you part? Hmmm, that shortens things up quite a bit doesn’t it? That might be a misinterpretation somewhere… Not everyone needs to have huge parties, but there’s sure nothing like it when they do. Family’s fuse together gradually, but the marriage between the individual is sudden. Engagement parties stick in people’s memory for a long time I bet. For the couple it’s a good way to get to know what it’s going to feel like from the big day onwards.
All in all the party was a great time. I was blessed enough to be close with both sides of the family, and so in a way, I had the easiest view in the whole place. It seems to be that wedding season, at least in my life, is just starting to open up. I can’t wait. It may sound like I’m talking about myself, but I’m not, I assure you. Like I said marriage isn’t something I plan to rush in to because it is something I only plan to do once, God willing. There is a weight to that I want to make sure I can measure before I’m sure. It’s one of the few most important things I want to do in my life, so I want to do it right. The pomp and circumstance are a distant second to finding the right girl. I always remember Dad telling me how easy it all is, the whole happiness for life deal, “See Cole, you just find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, and then you never have to work a day in your life.”
My friends, my brother, my family, there are lots of great parties on the horizon. I feel very lucky to have a few insider windows into marriage while still maintaining my independent observation booth. I guess this is another perk of being the younger brother; you get to see it done once first, so by the time my opportunity rolls around, I’ll be lucky enough to have some context to guide me.
God bless you all in your endeavors; show me how to take love seriously. Until the next party, stay sweet to each other, and wish me luck.

a quote i found

My mother’s happiness is the only thing that really matters to me – yet I
Need rest and peace and hate to go to work for others for pay – If I can
Start to earn my living as a writer all will be well on earth for me. –
But it is historically impossible for my work to be accepted, therefore
I’ll have to do what I should do anyway, live in a shack in the woods alone.
-Jack Kerouac

TREEVOLUTION!

Sell your cleverness
and buy bewilderment.
-Rumi

I opened the Shelby County Reporter while sitting in Waffle House this morning, and to my surprise I saw my name in there. They said they’d call before they’d run anything, but I don’t really mind them just putting it in there. Even though I wrote this weeks ago it was a fresh surprise to see it in the paper. Life is revealing the power and symbolism of trees in my life, and as it does, I see it’s been doing this for years. “To be a tree would be fine by me…”, “Tree’s are free because they know where they stand…”
This one’s for Dad, of course, because he spoke to me through the tree. For me it’s a metaphorical/mystical/metaphysical attraction to trees at this moment in my life. It’s that time of year when you can’t look anywhere, in any direction, without seeing at least a few leaves blowing in the wind. It’s getting harder to walk anywhere without hearing a crunch each step, and I love that. Crunch crunch crunch, there I go.
On the other hand, Brooks has been getting into the spirit of tree’s very deeply in a much more hands-on way, and so this is very much for him as well. One of the great things about trees are that they have integral parts that make up the whole, just like everything else I suppose. Tree’s are just so smooth and simple in the way they fit together, the way they embody a successful, divine, organic entity like they do. The roots, the trunk, the branches, the leaves: they are all so full of insight and symbolism individually and collectively. Same basic parts, and yet no two trees are exactly the same. Hmmm, there’s something universal laced in there, a motif of nature. Perhaps there’s a reason why I’m more caught up in the leaves given where I’m in my life right now, whereas Brooks is setting his focus on the planting and the preparation. He is a cultivator. I thought planting a tree was as simple as that, but after watching Brooks take soil samples, read through books, plan and plan, I see there is very much an art to it. Hopefully I’ll be able to learn a thing or two from him this tree planting season. Maybe I can get him to put together a real simple “how to plant a tree step-by-step” piece so we can all do just the same in our own neck of the woods. Maybe we can even print out the steps and pass ‘em around. Knowledge is power, and more trees, and more oxygen.
I want to make a t-shirt that says PLANT MORE TREES! across the front of it. Green maybe, with bold white letters. I don’t think anyone is against the idea, most people just don’t think of it that often I suppose. We can change that. I bet if more people had a piece of paper in their hand that told them in real easy terms how to go about finding a tree and planting/transplanting it, then more people would. We can help bring more trees into the world. Tree’s help everyone. PLANT MORE TREES! Let us begin- the TREEVOULTION!

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“Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:24

Standing here under a tree I know my father planted years before I was born, I pause to appreciate the mysterious nature of change. As I watch the leaves turn from green, to yellow, to red, to crunchy brown, I notice nature’s subtle clues that summer has passed, fall has arrived, and winter is coming.

There is a crispness to the air. Cool breezes send golden leaves fluttering to the ground. As they do, I wonder if Dad ever thought about me standing here under his tree when he planted it all those years ago. I wonder what this place looked like back then? Did Dad ever imagine his child yet to come would one day be standing here under his tree, now fully grown, wondering where he is?

We don’t often give ourselves time to think about these sorts of things. We use our watches to stay on schedule, but trees are hourglasses of a different order. Trees have the power to stay in touch from generation to generation.

Even though every one of these leaves will fall into the ground and die, a part of this tree is the same today as it was when my father first planted it. The roots are deeper, the trunk is thicker, the branches are longer, but it is the same tree. There is something I can sense through this tree that yokes Dad and I together through space and time.

No matter how many things seem to change around here, how many neighbors join the valley or how many new cell phone towers go up, there is something eternal coursing through this place that is deeper than all that. The pulse of life, the invisible force that lets this tree know its time to shed its leaves, is the same force that lets it know when its time to grow them back.

Soon all the leaves will be gone, but the ever present, eternal aspect of nature will be here to comfort me still. My connection to this land and my father are not threatened by the cold. They are a part of the cold, just as they are a part of the warmth that will come again next spring.

Fall awakens a zest for the eternal and reminds me that the hardest lesson in life to learn is to learn you have to let go. Without winter there would be no summer. Without fall there would be no spring. Without death there would be no life.

So you know what we should do? We should all go plant a tree this year. Not for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren yet to come. It may be years down the road, but when the day comes, your tree will be a portal back to you. It will be a blessed window into nature’s eternal continuum, just like this simple, beautiful tree is for me, winter, spring, summer, and fall.

Cole Suttle - Columbiana, AL

http://shelbycountyreporter.com/articles/2006/11/08/opinion/opin03.txt

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(See my goal was to open with a Bible quote and then never mention God, but talk about all the things that God takes care of. How did I do?)

(Thanks to Lauren for the logo. It's still a work in progress, or a tree in growth... get it? I told you tree's work on many different levels.)

"Hut-Hut- HIKE!"

a friend of mine passed this on to me today, as it had been passed on to her...


Quote of the Day - 9th of November 2006:

Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called
mad and are shut up on rooms where they stare at the walls all day.
Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.
--Meg Chittenden

Then I realized, who am I telling this story to? You? Me? Who?

“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it doesn’t behoove any of us to find fault with the rest of us.” – Frank Cole, one of the men in Pop's Sunday school class, which Jim and I have been attending.

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Then rain cleared his whole entire head one day. Weeks, months, years had gone by since he could clear the fog. Then one day- the storm moved on. It might have been a bolt of lightening, or hurricane winds, nobody knows for sure. One day he just woke up, and it was clear. Thoughts, tastes, understandings, everything radiated, illuminated by the divine consciousness that is like the water underneath the bottom of the ocean of consciousness.

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Keller Williams @ Alabama Theater, Birmingham 11/04/06

Set 1: Juggler, Burning Down the House > Once in a Lifetime, A Day at the Office, Play This > Jam > People Watching, Thunder w/ the videos, A Case of You, Get on Up > Money Money > Whole Lotta Love > Get on Up
Set 2: India > Stayin’ Alive > Brother’s and Sister’s, Keller sits on an exercise ball to play the slide guitar, does a few tunes, earl passed out next to him the whole time, Earl tease > Kinky Reggae, More than Often, Black Peter, Sing for my Dinner, Love Handles, Yoni > What I got > Yoni. Keller says thanks, wakes Earl up and they both walk off stage.
E: Martin Sexton comes out and they play Black Sheep and Halleluiah

*Earl, Keller’s dog, spent 80% of the show sleeping on stage right next to Keller.

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Hallelujah
Martin Sexton

Does Satan wear a suit and tie
Or does he work at the Dairy Queen
Does he listen to rock and roll
Does he feed the mean
Singing Hallelujah

What about Jesus
Didn't he do it too?
Hang out with prostitutes
And have a drink or two.
Power of example
My mama said it and I heard
She says one ounce of action
Beats a ton of words.

Singing Hallelujah.
Mama said there would be angels
Mama said there would be sun

Is the devil in Elvis to go where no white man went
Or hiding in Hugh Hefner's body or maybe even Larry Flynt.
Say, hows about the President shielding all them stones
Man if I could find a shield like that I'd run 'round naked
in my glass home.

Sippin' Hallelujah
I think my angel's gone to Vegas
Sippin' Hallelujah
Holding aces in her hand. Hallelujah
As she's singing rock of ages. Hallelujah
On the table at the Sands. Hallelujah

Does Satan wear a suit and tie or
Does he work at the Dairy Queen.
Does he listen to rock and roll
Does he feed the mean
Streak in all of us.
All us saints here on earth
Hypnotized and over-advertised
'Til we're numb at birth

Singing Hallelujah
And my angel's turning pages
Singing Hallelujah
And she just don't understand. Hallelujah
That the devil's hot on her trail. Hallelujah
On the road to broken promised land. Hallelujah
On the TV and the radio. Hallelujah
Good and evil look the same to you

the farm this time of year

They’re finishing up the final cut of the year today. Three good cuttings this year. Jim cooked us all lunch, and as Grandma and I were standing by the picture-glass window watching them bale the biggest rows I’ve seen all year, I remembered the first cutting of the year. I remember it was early June and I was standing in the same place talking to Pop, who was lying in his bed and dying. He was sort of in and out of lucid talk by then, but somehow he knew when they started cutting the hay. If you go back in the archives of this blog I bet you can find the day they started cutting.
“They cut all the front fields yet?” he asked me. I humored him and went along with it, but I didn’t know they had actually started cutting yet. I was really hoping they’d get it done before he passed on, but I hadn’t seen them yet. It wasn’t until I walked outside later and heard the motors that I realized they really had started cutting! Somehow Pop knew. I’ve noticed that towards the end of life the person begins to sense things without their body. It’s the first stages of the morph back into omniscience.
Funny the things hay will bring to mind, isn’t it? I remember they started cutting a few days before Pop passed and loaded up the last bales the day of his funeral. Time passes differently on the farm. I remember the second cutting too. The first cutting without Pop, that’s why I remembered it. On the farm, different cues let you know what has elapsed, what has left, what has returned, what is going on. The cycle of life. First you notice the cycle, and then you look back and notice yourself and track where you’ve been floating. Sometimes it’s like watching a wet shirt in the washing machine go round and round and round.

Part 3

Walking into the String Cheese Incident Late Night venue it felt like a rainforest. There was no pre-show music, just jungle sounds and parrots calling, vines and well placed neon lights and monkey’s calling form the tree tops, it was unbelievable. During Welcome to the Jungle and Axel Rose look-a-like came out and sang while acrobatic circus folk danced above the crowd in tune with the music and the lights and mostly naked, twirling in sheets in that heady-heady space above the crowd. It was incredible. Cheese really does throw big time stage presentation shows better every time. They have it down to a whole level of art on its own. The music just sort of accompanies the experience. The dancers came back second set, as well as a bunch of dancers on the sides of the stage projected on two huge screens. They really did create a Jungle and we were all in there. Check out all the sweet jungle themed song covers. It was incredible, again. So sad I don’t have pictures, but they wouldn’t have begun to do the experience justice.


10/29/06 (Sun) String Cheese Late Night- Orleans Arena - Las Vegas, NV
Set 1: Hey Hey We're the Monkeys, Black Clouds, Bam, Piece Of Mine, Round The Wheel> Solution> Birdland> Wheel Hoss> Birdland, Las Vegas> Welcome to the Jungle> Drums> Jam> Welcome to the Jungle

Set 2: Shantytown, Rain, Little Hands> Concrete Jungle> Bumpin' Reel, Eye Know Why> Jungle Boogie> Texas E: Doin' My Time, Daryl

Show ended aprox. 5:15am as the sun came back around, same as it ever was…

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And from there I drove back to Park City, UT to celebrate Halloween. Now that I think about it, I guess that would be Part two and Part one would be Vegas. Boy, a lot happened. Pictures make it so much easier….

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The whole weekend felt magical, like it was as magical for you as it was for the band. Then they released this a few days after and it sort of makes sense now looking back at their faces and their passion.

Billy Nershi leaving SCI after Summer 2007 11/3/2006 - After summer 2007, Billy Nershi is leaving The String Cheese Incident to pursue other musical projects. There will be only a limited number of Incidents between now and then. Current plans include Thanksgiving in Atlanta, a New Years Eve blowout in San Francisco, Winter Carnival in Colorado, and a return to Red Rocks. Presently, there are no plans for The String Cheese Incident beyond summer of 2007. The band would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our friends and fans for all your support.

Part 2

Then we saw Jurassic 5 play in the Circus Tent, Tom Petty is still a Heartbreaker only because he is Tom Petty, and the next day Mike Gordon with the Rhythm Devils. They were awesome. Got a Mango Song, New Speedway Boogie, they rocked and had a great groove.

Phil and Trey played next:
• Shakedown Street >
• Sweet Dreams Melinda >
• Row Jimmy
• Let It Ride >
• Sleep Again
• Like A Rolling Stone >
• Back On The Train* >
• Bird Song >
• Help On The Way >
• Slipknot >
• Franklin's Tower
• Not Fade Away

And then Widespread Panic:

10/29/06 Vegoose City, Star Nursery Field, Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, NV 0: Climb To Safety > Surprise Valley > Henry Parsons Died, From The Cradle* > Pigeons**, Rebirtha > Tall Boy, Blue Indian*, Solid Rock** > Fishwater, Conrad > Thought Sausage > Barstools and Dreamers* > Action Man, Papa's Home*, Little Wing** > Porch Song**, Ribs And Whiskey > Goodpeople > Chilly Water E: Ain't Life Grand* * with John Keane on pedal steel
** with John Keane on guitar

and then left for string cheese late night, which is where the camera left me.

Part 1 (borrowed photos from the event)

Keller Late Night at the House of Blues
10/27/06

Jam > It’s a Plant, Freshies, Stinky Green, Karate, Loser, Hepped Up on Goofballs tease > Run Like an Antelope > Runaway Jim > Antelope, Get on Up > Money Money Money > Whole Lotta Love > Get on up, Thunder, “Scrubba-dub-dub to the back of the bus kids”, You Are What You Eat
E: Celebrate your Youth

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Yonder Mountain String Band
Vegoose – 10/28/06

…Too Late Now, Night is Left Behind, Mother’s Only Son, Get Me Outta this City, Left Me in a Hole, 40 Miles from Denver, East Nashville _____, “Damned if the right girl didn’t go wrong”, Death Trip

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“I don’t think there’s too much cooler than bluegrass in Vegas.” –Keller

10/28/06 (Sat) The Keller Williams Incident- Vegoose - Las Vegas, NV
Set 1: Burning Down The House > Once In A Lifetime, Ninja of Love, Blatant Ripoff, Luckiest Man, Mullett Cut, Sing For My Dinner, Porta-Potty, Lightning, Bob Rules > Restless Wind > Bob Rules, Bargain, Life, Freeker By The Speaker


Burning Down the House
Talking Heads

Watch out
You might get what youre after
Cool babies
Strange but not a stranger
Im an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

Hold tight wait till the partys over
Hold tight were in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house

Heres your ticket pack your bag: time for jumpin overboard
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too far, maybe you know where you are
Fightin fire with fire

All wet
Hey you might need a raincoat
Shakedown
Dreams walking in broad daylight
Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees
Burning down the house

It was once upon a place sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna come in first place
People on their way to work baby what did you except
Gonna burst into flame

My house
South of the ordinary
Thats might
Dont want to hurt nobody
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet
Burning down the house

No visible means of support and you have not seen nuthin yet
Everythings stuck together
I dont know what you expect starring into the tv set
Fighting fire with fire
>
Once in a Lifetime
Talking Heads

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

official camera fund has begun: donations welcome

I’ve been distant lately, I know. I went off to Vegoose and had the adventure of a lifetime and then I didn’t come back and spill it all out to you like I normally would. I know. I grew up a little during this adventure, I got some perspective I needed and I learned a lesson. Not the way I would have wanted to, but when do you ever learn a lesson the way you want to? That would almost defeat the purpose don’t you think? You can’t learn something you already know, or can you? Really, it’s not that bad, I’m being dramatic, but this isn’t about me, it’s about you. I’m just trying to look at the globe of truth from all sides.
Vegoose was incredible, the musical line-up unparalleled, organization smooth and efficient, the scene the best ever, the costumes the best ever, it was all-great, and in direct inverse to proportion to how great it was is how bad the one tragic flaw stings. One flaw from some angles is a flaw, and from other angles is really the source of the lesson. The seed crystal is you will. If you can try to imagine what a time we had, how great we all looked in our costumes, how amazing all the bands were, you might begin to imagine how great the pictures I had to post up here for you all were. then you could begin to understand how much of a blow it was to lose my camera the last day of the festival. SHIT!
I know I know! I’ve been through all sorts of crazy adventures with my camera, some more belligerent than Vegoose, and through them all I kept it with me. I’ve had that thing for years, and yet I lost it just when I needed to, or hated to the most. Oh, spitefully witty universe of tricks! A hallowed eve’s for sure! I see that now, now that I’ve talked myself into it.
It was somewhere between leaving the festival grounds after Widespread and heading over to the String Cheese Incident Late Night show at the Orleans Arena that it must have happened. I didn’t realize it until after the cheese show when it wasn’t in the car where I figured I had left it. As I was scanning back over my last memory with the camera, trying to track it down amidst all the fun, I remembered the last time I had it.
On our way out of the festival there was a row of portta-potties next to each other for about the length of a football field. The excitement in the air was like electricity as everyone left the Festival to head to the strip for the Late Night shows after what had already been an unbelievable three days. Knowing some of the best was still yet to come made for a sort of delirium that had everyone in a fit. The last memory I have with camera is as we were walking past the row of porta-potties I was changing the batteries when someone had a call to greatness and jumped up on the roof of the first porta-potties in the row. Drunk and determined the whole crowd watched the guy start running across the top of the porta-potties at full speed, all the way down. I remember wishing my camera had been ready so I could have taken that guy’s pictures to show you. That’s my last memory. As he ran more and more people noticed him and cheered louder and louder as he went further and further with only a few close calls. It was great. This man’s journey is only one little example of what a great set up the whole situation was, and a perfect example of how much I wanted to share it with you. Somewhere between watching that guy and getting everyone back into the car I must have set it down and it disappeared into the abyss… damn damn damn. I hope whoever finds it does a lot with it, and gets a kick out of all those funny photos. What else can I do, right?
When I realized what had happened, which was the next day since String Cheese played till 5:30 in the morning, I began my process of learning the lesson. It really bummed me out, hard, not so much to lose the camera, but lose the pictures! Oh you should have seen the heady organic giving tree costume with us passing out leaves of wisdom to everyone. And the pictures of the bands, and the sunsets, and the ferris wheel, and the chapel, and all the costumes, the strip, the giant pumpkin head! ARRRRR! There were so many priceless photos and I wanted so bad to do, more than anything, was show them to Grandma! Damn! I feel like I let her down. This, I see now, was the source of my pain. I was attached to the camera, true, but more than that I was attached to sharing with Grandma, and you too BLOG public. You’ve been on my mind too much. It was web-gold and I knew it the whole time and it wasn’t until I didn’t have any of it that I really had to practice surrender.
Once I surrendered the sweetness of the whole experience got a whole lot more vivid. I didn’t have it, I didn’t worry about it, and the real time experience in direct proportion to what a bummer it was I wouldn’t be able to share. I guess it really is true. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Each day it sunk in a little more and a little more what had been lost, what had been gained, what had been going on. I see now that in many ways BLOG’s have killed the written word. Blogging becomes an expectation, not so much to nail all the grammar, but just to get it out there, ramble it off whatever, no need to edit, just tell the story. It’s great and all, but I’m ready spend all my writing time writing my best. It’s better that way. I was too caught up trying to document and artificially capture life instead of experiencing life fully as is, and then devoting myself to a written craft that is equally as full, as possible. I understand now why journalists always take a photographer with them. It is too hard to try and absorb something with words and with potential photo angles at the same time. Taking photos makes your Presence lazy. Not lazy really, but fractured and confused. A picture is worth a thousand words, so if I took enough I didn’t have to worry about the writing as much, right? This was the lesson to learn. This is the lesson I am still learning.
I don’t know when I’ll get a camera again, and the time has come for me to curb the daily ramble portion of this blog. I will take a lesson from Brooks on this one. In the evolution of blogging as an accent to self-realization, less is more. We must be careful not to get too attached to our tools and lose sight of the essence. Words are power. Fewer of the right words are even more powerful.
The goal I am working on right now is the silencing of the mind. It’s not about having a whole bunch of half-ass angles; it’s about having one really good angle that is like a laser beam. I don’t want ten voices speaking in there at once; I want one steady voice that’s my best voice. It’s that voice I hear when I get my mind real still. Like the surface of the level of a lake, take the time to be calm. I want to write with a single focal point for communication and play. One I to one You. Do you see?
I wasn’t even going to write this BLOG but I need to, I want you to know what happened. I feel like I owe you something, you see? I don’t even know who you are really. You’re an idea, you see, and that’s not healthy for me right now. It’s just that every time I sit down to try and write you all about what happened in Vegoose I get bummed out all over that I don’t have the photos to show you, I get a little discouraged for a moment, and then I put it off a little longer. Hopefully I’ve gotten enough of the point across and we can go from here, which is where I am. Here in a good place. A nice, quiet, still good place, back here on the farm.

Maharshi talks

"With regard to the question concerning departed souls: So long as a man identifies himself with his gross body, the thought materialized as gross manifestations must be real to him. Because his body is imagined to have originated from another physical being, the other exists as truly as his own body. Having existed here once it certainly survives death, because the offspring is still here and feels he has been born from the other. Under these circumstances the other world is true; and the departed souls are benefited by the prayers offered for them. On the other hand, considered in a different way, the One Reality is the Self from whom has sprung the ego, which contains within itself the seeds of predispositions acquired in previous births. The Self illumines the ego, the predispositions, and also the gross senses, whereupon the predispositions appear to the senses to have materialized as the universe, and become perceptible to the ego, the reflection of the Self. The ego identifies itself with the body and so loses sight of the Self, and the result of this inadvertence is dark ignorance and the misery of the present life. The fact of the ego rising from the Self and forgetting it is birth. So, it may be said that the birth of the individual has killed the mother. The present desire to regain one’s mother is in reality the desire to regain the Self, which is the same as realizing oneself, or the death of the ego; this is surrender unto mother, so she may live eternally.

Maharshi then red out from the Tamil version of Yoga Vesishta the story of Deerga Tapasi who had two sons, Puny and Papa. After the death of the parents, the younger one mourned the loss and the elder brother counciled him as follows:
“Why do you mourn the lose of our parents? I shall tell you where they are, they are only within ourselves and ourselves. For the life current has passed through innumerous incarnations, births and deaths, pleasures and pains, etc., just as the water current in a river flows over rocks, pits, sands, elevations and depressions on its way, but still the current is unaffected. The pleasures and pains, births and deaths, are like undulations on the surface of seeming water in the mirage of the ego. The only reality is the Self from where the ego appears, and run's through thought’s which manifest themselves as the universe and in which the others and fathers, friends and relatives appear and disappear. They are nothing but manifestations of the Self, so that one’s parents are not outside the Self. So there is no reason to mourn. Learn it, realize it and be happy.”

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Well I'm back, but I'm still in the Process. I'll keep you posted.

happy two six

HAPPY TWO SIX EVERYBODY!
As those who know know the 26th is always a special day. For those who don’t know, look for it. It’ll only find you if you look for it…

Mom came in town, always a delight. We ate at Joe’s last night, introduced her to my friend MaryBeth, caught up on all her big adventures living with Winn. She was described as “super heady” and I have to agree. Mom, you’re super heady.
We went and had a good old Waffle House breakfast and then she took me to my eye doctor’s appointment. It was another one of those simple silly things you don’t forget you used to do until you do it again. It’s been so long since Mom took me to a doctor’s appointment but my car was still getting serviced and I needed a ride. As we pulled in all the memories of all the times her and I used to go to eye doctors and eye specialists and all that stuff came back. I’ve had glasses since I was four mind you; we have a lot of memories dealing with this sort of thing. Of course it’s been years since she came with me, but it was a nice, normal treat to have her there again.
I had to have my eyes dilated too and so she was great helping me pick out new glasses. Picking out new glasses is hard enough because all of them always look weird because they aren’t the old ones; they aren’t what I’m accustomed to. I couldn’t see a thing with my eyes as big as they were so she was a great help, as was the lady who helped us pick. There’s an art to picking glasses I see so I turned it over to the women folk. Hope they come out all right. I’ll show you when they come in.
I’m off to Vegoose tomorrow, everybody wish me luck. I came up with the best costume idea too. Since I’ve got four days in Vegas plus Halloween, which isn’t until Tuesday, I needed something to go along with my swanky seersucker suit. Then I started thinking that I wanted to be something heady and organic, so what better to be than a super heady organic giving tree? I cut out all these leaves on construction paper and then Brooks, Mollie and me started writing little fortune cookie quotes on the back of each one. I’m going to get a bunch of safety pins and pin the leaves to a green shirt, maybe even a camo top (which really looks like a tree) and then go around the strip giving people leaves of wisdom. Haha! We were having such a great time writing things on the leaves, everything from Shel Silverstein poems to Buddha quotes to anything with wit, like “Call your mother!” I even took some of the blank leaves over to the farm and Jim and Grandma are writing some wisdom nuggets on them too. Whoever gets a grandma leaf is going to have a blessed weekend I can tell. It’s such an interactive costume, organic too! I can’t wait to work the strip with it. I’m going to look for the most lost soul I can find and go up and give them a leaf. If I can help just ONE person it’ll all be worth it…