(Written in January 1992)
\nCandle.\u00a0 30 minutes.
\nJust write.\u00a0 Begin from what’s in front of you.\u00a0 What’s in front of me?\u00a0 My desk.\u00a0 On top a blue recipe box with cards of people’s addresses, a beautiful thin porcelain bowl with odd bits of wood, amusing hand made tree ornaments, a little plastic bird with real feathers, calendar and clock.\u00a0 There is a carved design on the back of the top.\u00a0 It’s an old desk, I think it was my great grandmother’s.\u00a0 I write on the front that lets down, it has a piece of blue leather set into it.\u00a0 I face a variety of pigeon holes and two small drawers.\u00a0 When I was a child I turned the pigeon holes into cave dwellings for my little china animals.\u00a0 Now they contain envelopes, photographs, bank statements, paper clips, etc.\u00a0 There’s a plastic container of gold stars, a box of staples, a box of slides, a package of cards with a large heart made of flowers on the front.\u00a0 There are some spiral bound notebooks in the tall pigeonholes: one has the geomancy writings and the other the beginnings of “how I became a shaman” \u2014 two projects I haven’t gone on with.
\nOn the writing surface is an astonishing variety of odd items.\u00a0 A large double ended crystal sitting on a piece of gold foil.\u00a0 A small brown embroidered chinese pouch and the topaz crystal that I use as a pendulum \u2014 holding it by the price tag that I never bothered to remove.\u00a0 The lit candle: a cheap white one in a cheap glass star-shaped holder.\u00a0 A book of matches, odd pens & pencil, ink cartridges.\u00a0 Small bits of waxed paper containing tiny colored stars.\u00a0 A small card, written on in block print:<\/p>\n
COMPLEMENTS OF “THE PIG WOMEN”
\nHOPE YOU ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS
\nTHE PIG DID THE MILK.<\/p>\n
I found it in one of my Elizabeth Goudge novels, bought used, and I love it for the picture it conjures up: some farm wife sending extra or spoiled milk to the pig women, they return a cake or garden produce or even some bacon with the card, then the farm wife uses it to mark her place in Elizabeth Goudge.\u00a0 I love the sense of neighbors sharing, the short distance between the pig and Elizabeth Goudge, the feeling that she would have enjoyed it too \u2014 pigs and neighborliness being as much a part of her writing as spiritual effort and understanding.
\nSeven little bottles with droppers!\u00a0 One unlabeled, half full.\u00a0 Bottles of extracts: yellow dock, chickweed, usnea and senecio aureus.\u00a0 One of amethyst crystal essence, an empty tiny bottle of Rescue Remedy.\u00a0 There’s a pink ribbon, a salt cellar (because I eat so many meals at my desk) a tube of hand cream, an empty tea mug.\u00a0 There’s a small porcelain cup made by Dana and filled with angel cards.\u00a0 There’s also a small pyrex dish for vitamins and a potholder, both need to go back to the kitchen.\u00a0 What an amazing collection of objects!\u00a0 Fortunately most of them are small or there wouldn’t be room for my journal!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Time!
\n(What an amazing exercise.\u00a0 It’s brought me back to a sense of affection and humor for myself and my life.\u00a0 What a funny absurd magical woman who keeps all that stuff on her desk.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Written in January 1992) Candle.\u00a0 30 minutes. Just write.\u00a0 Begin from what’s in front of you.\u00a0 What’s in front of me?\u00a0 My desk.\u00a0 On top a blue recipe box with cards of people’s addresses, a beautiful thin porcelain bowl with … Continue reading