Dandelyon's Worlds

The Union of Concerned Scientists is once again having a cartoon contest, and I've been focusing on drawing instead of posting for a few days. Once again, I came up with two entries; I don't know how they feel about stuff like posting active entries, but I could post the ones that didn't win last year, I suppose.

They will use the 12 finalists as a calendar, to publicize the problems caused by political interference in science.

Hmmm.... now if I can just figure out how to post pictures...let's see if this works!

May’s full moon is often called the Planting moon, though new moon is generally recommended for planting root crops.   This year’s May new moon I have named in honor of accelerated spring cleaning due to taking the Himalayan in for his lion cut (necessary when the very full hair gets too long for him to care for, and it starts getting matted), and having the groom tell us he had “just a few fleas”.  Sigh.  Bathing him isn’t too bad, he’s learned to be resigned to it, but bathing the other cats is a real chore.

Someone’s post last week got me thinking about talking about the things that are a drag, the things that get you down.  Zie was talking about how futile (and depressing) it is to get into a competitive state over such things, the “my scab is worse than yours” silliness.  A number of people said that was way they didn't post about their problems, disappointments, and pain.  It made me think back over a lot of my posts, which have often been about the problems and frustrations of my life.  Why has that been what I feel pushed to write, lately?

Then, I thought back on my moon posts; so many of these have not been the meditations I first imagined, but instead, amount to “shit happens, and I'm not happy about it, but I’m still here.”  In the day or so after the last one, I wrote two proto-songs—words without music, which I never count as finished, since so often the music inspires improvements.  It’s as if “speaking” about my problems, even not knowing if anyone’s “listening”, let those thoughts and feelings out of the buffer, leaving room for something more creative.  I'm not sure about the others, I wasn't thinking in terms of tracking things this way, but it seems to me that there was a connection, that the timing wasn't accidental. 

I did a poem once, called Emptiness is a Womb.  I don't have it handy to post right now, but even just the title resonates.  So does planting--before you plant, you clear out the weeds, leaving the ground empty.  Maybe my moon posts aren't supposed to be the great literature I'd dreamed of, maybe they're the weeding, the spring cleaning, the work that makes room for something new. 

So, I dub today the Womb moon, to honor the dark, waiting quiet, the welcoming space, the open time, with hope for what will sprout and grow and bloom. 

Maybe even soon!