Introduction
We cross borders without regard, ignorant or arrogant of the protocol
native to the transitional spaces that take us from this place to that
place. Traditions remembered and practiced would maintain and pass along
the right things to do, at the right time, and in the right frame of
mind. Have we all become wanderers with passports unstamped with the
memory of teachings from the Ancestors and Nature? There are rituals to
remember and common magic to induce respect for the beings and places
that share this planet.
Funny how Nature and Those-Who-Watch time the magic and adjustments for setting things right. Look there under the red awning...
Funny how Nature and Those-Who-Watch time the magic and adjustments for setting things right. Look there under the red awning...
What better medicine then the fabrication of a cozy place, common magic
and company worth keeping.
- The Joy Weed Journal
It was a day a duck could love. For that matter the week was a duck's
paradise. Dressed for the season in my long skirt, paisley wool shawl,
and tea cozy hat with the red hibiscus over my left ear my feet
splashed in puddles. The sensible shoes--black leather lace-ups-- answered
the silly duck talk coming from the edges, "It makes no never-mind to me. For though I have no oily feathers to shed the rain, my sensible shoes are always game." I'm sure the ducks got even sillier as I twirled at the end of every
city block. But by then they were out of earshot.
Most of the other walkers were tucked tight against the insides of their big black umbrellas, from under my red hibiscus I thought I caught the glimmer of blue. Pale and translucent fairy wings. "They don't usually come out in downpours," my eyes scanned the pavement for their scent. Sometimes you can smell a fairy as sure as see one. The wind began to dance with me as I lifted my nose and sniffed from beneath the felt hat now much soaked through with rain. No fairies. But, a large copper pin about the size of a butterfly dropped from the cherry red awning above me and landed on my right shoe. A pin. A safety pin. "My Ma,"besides being famous for carrying a flashlight my mother always wore at least one but more often a couple safety pins. Just in case. Long before it was punk fashion, safety pins were a talisman of security hard-wired in my DNA like knowing how to make something out of nothing. I fondled the pin and felt the distance of time between us compress. There. Here. Together.
A waterfall drained itself off the red awning. I side-stepped the cascade and picked up the pin. Twinkle lights brightened the windows under the awning where a woman smiled from behind pale blue eyes. A bright gold scarf wrapped round her neck seemed to smile, too. She pointed to the sign over the windows. In letters like liquid copper I read The Safety Pin Cafe. Ravens black and shiny as if dipped in wet ink sat in the panes of the windows out-lined and sparkling with fairy lights. "Against the seasonal darkness, the trick is to tickle the light from its hiding places," that was coming from the woman on the other side of the window panes. I smiled as I recognized a Muse and reached for the crystal door knob and pushed the front door open. The smell of warm cinnamon toast and hot milk filled my nostrils.
Most of the other walkers were tucked tight against the insides of their big black umbrellas, from under my red hibiscus I thought I caught the glimmer of blue. Pale and translucent fairy wings. "They don't usually come out in downpours," my eyes scanned the pavement for their scent. Sometimes you can smell a fairy as sure as see one. The wind began to dance with me as I lifted my nose and sniffed from beneath the felt hat now much soaked through with rain. No fairies. But, a large copper pin about the size of a butterfly dropped from the cherry red awning above me and landed on my right shoe. A pin. A safety pin. "My Ma,"besides being famous for carrying a flashlight my mother always wore at least one but more often a couple safety pins. Just in case. Long before it was punk fashion, safety pins were a talisman of security hard-wired in my DNA like knowing how to make something out of nothing. I fondled the pin and felt the distance of time between us compress. There. Here. Together.
A waterfall drained itself off the red awning. I side-stepped the cascade and picked up the pin. Twinkle lights brightened the windows under the awning where a woman smiled from behind pale blue eyes. A bright gold scarf wrapped round her neck seemed to smile, too. She pointed to the sign over the windows. In letters like liquid copper I read The Safety Pin Cafe. Ravens black and shiny as if dipped in wet ink sat in the panes of the windows out-lined and sparkling with fairy lights. "Against the seasonal darkness, the trick is to tickle the light from its hiding places," that was coming from the woman on the other side of the window panes. I smiled as I recognized a Muse and reached for the crystal door knob and pushed the front door open. The smell of warm cinnamon toast and hot milk filled my nostrils.
