A circle of friends shares the darkness and tastes the silence two hours each morning. The sun rises at seven. -Geoff Shōun’Keeffe October 2021
Dawn
Avian Mishegoss
Avian Mishegoss Before dawn, sitting in the dark, all the zendo windows are open and the air moves gently, a perfect temperature for me in a Golden State Warriors t-shirt, breezes dry and savory with the smells of crisping wildflowers and high mountain grasses. As if on cue, a hundred crows, jays, woodpeckers … [read more]
Sun Ra on a hot summer day
Sun Ra on a Hot Summer Day It’s a languid, Sun Ra sort of afternoon, memories peek out from the shadows, thoughts soft and ill-formed. “Really, is that true?” I am left with, “I don’t believe I know.” We have thirty air conditioners for these hot days and they all open. Proper interior temperature management … [read more]
Moments
Moments July 28, 2021 I’m doing my best to focus and stay efficient. Three screens going. A dozen apps apping away. Windows open since we’ve no A/C. 90 F outside. Lots of lists and timelines and spreadsheets. We all have multiple acre “yards” of forest, grasses, cactus and wildflowers up here. My neighbor friend Paul … [read more]
Five Days Together on Sacred Land
Image courtesy Peter Cunningham Five Days Together on Sacred Land -Geoff O’Keeffe To the east lie the Black Hills, to the west, the Bighorn Mountains. Between is a vast prairie: grasslands, sagebrush, lightly forested in places, sometimes lush, most often bone dry. The rivers are iconic, the stuff of legends: Yellowstone, Powder, North Platte, Bighorn. … [read more]
It’s never too late
My friend cared for her mother the last years of her life until it was time for her to depart. She was willful and clung to her life, though it was painful and sad. She could not let go. The hospice caregivers came and rubbed her hands and feet with soothing lotion, put on her … [read more]