Thunder In the Snow ~ Welcome 2022

Back in the blogging day, I'd fall into an antique house of menagerie, put an upside down hat over my face and call it a day - silliness and revelation all in one adventure. Now it's masks and Omicron and vaccine status checks and Booster debates before even thinking about roaming about unsupervised - which even on a good day is  perilous for me. But oh.so.much.fun.

I used to take my camera out-and-about writing "news pieces" in laundromats, interviewing unsuspecting suspects witnesses and covering the storm of the century in red hats and boots. I don't know how CBS has managed without me since the pandemic began.
Since it's supposed to get cold next week and I heard thunder today while I was out on my walk (in 70 degree weather!) I'm going to assume that snow will follow exactly ten days after the sound of thunder in winter. That's the old wives tale, anyway....usually on point. Better find my boots and wash my red hat, just in case. 
I think I may have a fever.It's the blogging bug. I've been bitten. And smitten. Again!I've suddenly acquired a taste for wordiness and wailing inside a blogger box of blankness. I've missed the mojo moving through the intrawebs. And the sexy sound of alliteration. Have you noticed? 
Lockdown was other-worldly and weird, like I'd been thrown back in time for a full two years of do-overs - make that three-overs. Four? The planet jolted to a screeching halt.  The Universe said "Start here, Mimi. Start all over. Again. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Start here." And so I did. The do-overs I did were doozies. It was a doozy of a dance. On so.many.levels.you.have.no.idea. And then I got to use the word doozy in a blog post just as my dizzy spell ended at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

However, I'm heartened by the feeling I had about three minutes past the vertigo on January 1, 2022. Just as I heard and saw folks kissing and laughing and trying not to fall down happy-struck on the dance floor, as I waved bye-bye to 2021 with nothing but a passing ultra-confusing glance, I felt something more profound...a gigantic earth-shattering sigh of relief
Like thunder before snow
 The pandemic years created a population of people who became a menagerie. Weren't we just that? The dictionary explains the word Menagerie as: A collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition; a strange or diverse collection of people or things. I don't know about you, but some of my longest days were wild and strange!
Dr. Sanjay Gupta (my secret crush) is declaring new variants are clinging to the old variants which are stuck-like-glue to the original strains who have the NERVE to bypass any and all antibodies despite the dreaded vaccinations we've endured ad nauseam to be the next challenge we face in this crazy battle. Aren't you glad I'm NOT a medical doctor after that layman's explanation??? But 'til March, maybe???  Say it ain't so! Since I am in cyber-love with the good doctor (those eyes...) I'll take his word for it that there may be trouble ahead, but more flu-like than the end-of-the-world news we're used to hearing.
 For two years we've lived in an invisible cage fighting an unseen enemy all around us, in us, over us, under us, through us.  Aren't you weary of doomsday? And yet, if you are reading this you can say that you lived through the apocalypse. Thus far. I'll take that as a good sign for 2022.  

"Dampteurin in "Kreutzbergs Menagerie" public domain
aka Bloggingham Palace

After all, the issue lies with the virus's ability to change and morph into some menacing unpredictable behavior at the drop of a sneeze. 
That sounds a lot like me.
It's who I am.It's what I do.
I can adapt. And so can you. If it brings the beautiful snow, I'm ready for the thunder. 
ACHOO!
Images: Mimi Lenox, Pixabay, Public Domain
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I Am Sure, Quite Sure, That Today is NOT My Birthday

Nov 22, 2021 
Feeling introspective

Every single year on November 29th for eons I've posted on this blog that today is NOT my birthday. Not! Not! Not! It's a tongue-in-cheek attempt to grapple with age-that-is-just-a-number and my ever evolving image of me and my place in the world. 

I was fifty-years-young (just a baby!) when I started this blog in 2006 and today on not-my-birthday-day I am still prancing around in the trees wearing long black boots, still writing stories in the midnight hour, and eligible for Medicare (!) what? 

You do the math.

How could this happen!!? Me? Medicare? medicare? I can't even look at the word.

I remember the day I turned thirty. I called my mother crying in the phone because I was soooooo old. 

She hung up on me.

*breathe Mimi breathe*

Maybe it's time you see the other side of my face. Or not. I'm fickle that way.

I may not be getting any younger in human years, but I'm getting older in accumulated experiential wisdom. 

Did you buy that? Me neither. Let's proceed.

Today will be spent with my new full-faced friend (ME) who will be looking in the imperfect Maybelline mirror of life and NOT counting wrinkles or gray hair in despair. NOT. I'm never colored my hair and I'm NOT starting today. NOT.  Each line, each nuance, each change tells a story; stories I'm thankful I lived, experiences that not only made me who I am but who I want to be.  Thankful for living this long when really my expiration date came up years ago with this that and the other calamity.  Clarity and direction will roll right into your life unaware when you're not looking for it, in the middle of just living your life as best you can, when you're just being YOU.  My theory is that authenticity keeps us young and happy. This "number" is only a downstream data load of life and I'm loving every minute of it.

 So what do I do on those days when I'm asked for my AARP card or "do you want the senior discount, ma'am?" (I so hate the ma'am)  I take a long slow drag from a cigarette (only in my mind. Smoking causes wrinkles. You don't really think I'm gonna do THAT, do you??) but let me continue with my fantasy.....yes.....a long slow inhalation (ahhhhhhhh) puffing out circular smoke rings towards the ceiling, and drinking two litres of highly leaded coffee (hiccup!) sipped slowly from a cup bearing the faces of my grandchildren when BAM! it's caffeine and nicotine revelation. The muse. The beginnings of a book, a poem, a song, a letter you need to write, a visit you need to make.....words you need to say.....and you realize that the run-on-sentence writer's words on the paper are YOURS and yours alone. 

And you.don't.care.about.the.grammar.police.

You're just living life on the daily. All of it is beautiful. All of it. And suddenly, that wicked little crease in the corner of my face reminds me how much it has often cost to own my words.  There have been authentic routes I thought too expensive, you see. They weren't. Gold nuggets were rolling into the muse, creating invaluable cracks in the mush that is me, opening and expanding....and there's no price tag on that treasure.

Nov 2006
Time flies by when you're having fun.

It hasn't been blue at all.

I'll just be here in the castle with Homer and Snickers celebrating a monumental birthday and being me

Want some cake? 

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A Perfect Meal for Thanksgiving 2021

Fill your Thanksgiving table with loveand all will be filled



photo: Mimi LenoxFollow Me

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Dona Nobis Pacem ~ The Visitation

The first peace globe

Welcome to the 16th launch of BlogBlast For Peace aka Blog4Peace. Please sign the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this page so that we may read your beautiful peace posts and visit each other. Most peace posts/globes stream on social media platforms instead of blogs. Doing a hashtag search will get you to many more postings in the coming days. Enjoy the view!

Dona Nobis Pacem in the Blogosphere began in 2006 and is held annually on November 4th. Our theme for 2021 is "Courageous Peace in a Time of Great Change" and my peace post is called....


The Visitation

I've been dealing with ghosts of late. Some real. Some imagined. Some in my dreams. All viscerally attempting to get my undivided undivided UNdivided attention. Pictures full of orbs from a musty old basement room and taps on my shoulder in the middle of the night make me believe in the sound of deep dark sacred spaces; except, really now, what's so mysterious about unseen things? I was about to find out. 

Papa's grave

One cold moonlit night not so long ago, a flock of birds flew straight over my head  as I stood on a porch of regret. They were low in the sky and aiming straight for the questions in my heart.  My soul trembled. This beautiful time in my life was a slippery slope.  While I pondered how to stay and whether to go, I knew the path of least resistance would always serve both of us. And my fragile feet were firmly planted to love. Committed. But love has a way of knowing what to do that heals before it breaks what you think can't be broken.  And love was the reason my feet had followed in the first place. 
They came from the northwith great deliberation and anointed speed. 
Whoosh! Flying in perfect formation and headed, incredibly, undeniably south. I looked straight up into the sign I'd asked for - one I didn't want. 
"Come with us!" they whispered, "Follow us!" 
"But Love called me here," I replied to the holy sound of wings in the crisp night sky. "Do you believe in signs?" shouted one stubborn bird, "Well, do you?!"I believed in that one. 

"Stand in your power," whispered those mighty wings. 

And even though the day came when I followed the Guides sent to reassure me, I knew I had wholly and unconditionally left Love where I stood.
 

And so....It was of great consequence and no accident that just twenty months earlier, a few short weeks before the world shut down, I'd stood on the edge of Bloggingham mountain, high above the dusty problems of earth, far removed from where tribulation flies callously into waves of calamity such as the world was about to reap, and firmly, deliberately, placed my fragile feet under the shelter of an oak whose branches had begun to bend in the strange energy whirling on the mountain that day. The wind, upended, filled the space I had entered. 
I came for an answer.
I opened my arms and twirled around like a girl about to dance.  Another beautiful place. Another slippery slope. A place of highs and lows, epiphanies and spirit.  Certainty had called me to a place of uncertainty. Again. What am I doing here?? Why am I always compelled to follow unsteady paths of slippery rock? Nonetheless, my trembling, obedient heart trusted in the ways of revelation; clarity borne of pine trees and swaying branches in the woods. Such was my normal life. My familiar compass.I stood waitingon a healing
It was January 4, 2020. 
The sky was dark. The clouds, menacing. Raindrops fell teasingly on my face, one here....one there. "Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in signs?" said the first few flashes of Light from the cloud formations filling up with Holy Holy rain around me, "Well, do you?" 
 I was guided up the hillside to a specific stretch of cold January land where the pines stand tall enough to buffer the wind, where the soil is beginning to make a rutted southwesterly trail down the side of Bloggingham Mountain when I felt them.  A rustling in the top of a brittle cedar.  My soul quietly shook, trembling, watchful. 

They came from the north with great deliberation and anointed speed

"Love called me here," I said to the spirits. "I'll stand with my arms wide open until it's time to go," I said to the wind.  They came flying toward me in a buzzing swarm of loving presence, set free from the chilly pond in the lower northern valley and perched in flight straight above my startled face, my heart pounding, my soul mesmerized, my body vibrating on a cellular level to the whoosh...the swoosh...the rush....the beautiful twinkling of wings. 
Have you ever seen the sparkling power of white-bellied angels in flight?

The visitation

 I wish you could feel what I felt in that moment. Fireworks launching in my very DNA. I only have this cellphone camera shot I quickly took before the rain started and before I was overtaken with awe and peace.  
They appeared like an angel army coming up over the hill, bathing me in incandescent energy, shimmering as they turned towards higher land, burning into me with auroral radiance in the misty afternoon sky. The fading sun caught glimpses of dazzling white skin that flashed in the sky directly above me whispering, "Mimi! Stand right there. Just like that. Don't move."
I didn't need to speak and yet the creatures answered,  "You always have the power to stand in your power."  

Closer..... closer.....

 I closed my eyes and played in the thunder, soaked in water and the power of blazing birds. It wasn't magic, it was magma. Not fire, flame. An eruption. Winged spirits of Light. Have you ever danced in blue fire?
I felt energized and still all at once.  Right down to my coreacross bloodlines and cursesgenerations and genomes

When I made my way back down the mountain, I knew I was whole again. If you allow yourself to see the unseen, you will be too. 
In the nooks and crannies of the homes you inhabit, between the walls and the covers of lovers you keep, the stronger part of you never simply leaves a part of you behind. Love is big enough to leave all of you behind and still carry enough with you to sustain you.It's ever expanding. It's ever enough. 
Today I visited Papa in the cemetery and realized that even on a slab of stone he is still teaching me about life. 

Papa's grave

His hands taught me to prayHis hands taught me to reachHis hands taught me to sootheHis hands taught me to love
Do you think love is small? 

Whatever you're facing, remember this:It doesn't take much courage to run.It doesn't take much courage to stay.But it takes great courage to stand.



Had I not been kissed by Holy birds on the cusp of a little mountain, I might not have been willing to trust in blue fire. And for that, I will forever be grateful.

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The DJ is Ready and The Cats Are Purring Peace!

Are you ready to Blog4Peace? 

Diane Hasz ! CT

click to hear them sing!

The DJ is ready! The Peace Bees are ready! Social media is buzzing! Ireland has posted! (with an awesome quote from Greta Thornburg)
Texas has posted! Scotland has posted! Australia has posted!  Canada is on the groovy move!  The Bear A Tones are giving peace a chance on YouTube! A quote by Greta Thunberg lands on a peace globe annnnndd the countries are pouring in early this year.

Our very own resident Blog4Peace DJ is from the great state of Connecticut. I just received this message from her, "I have some awesome music to play on November 4th . Let me know where you want me to post it. I will post things on my Facebook pages tomorrow asking for requests."

Make those requests, Friends. Every year Diane Hasz takes requests and plays nonstop peace songs on social media for BlogBlast ForPeace. She'll keep them spinning! We can't wait to enjoy her peace lovin' playlist this year. Her choices are always eclectic and powerful. Check out DJ Diane's feed throughout the day and send in your requests! She'll post them on our FB page at BlogBlast For Peace and I'll also link them here on the blog.      How cool is it that we have our own DJ?? Thank you, Diane.

 

The cats!!!! Many thanks to The Cat Blogosphere for promoting peace globes once again. We love to see kitties purring for peace. They've been a strong force on peace day since 2006! 

  Ireland's Silvia Hoefnagels is drawing as only Silvia can. She writes, "Every year on 4 November, thousands of us blog for peace and environmental issues. I used my "World" tarot card this year, because of its message: "The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle. It is an indicator of a major and inexorable change, of tectonic breadth." Quote on the drawing is by Greta Thunberg, a wonderful person who I greatly admire. Join us in peace blogging!"  

So much more to talk about! Join us Nov 4 - 7, 2021 for this inspiring annual event. Follow the links at the top of this page. Go to Blog4Peace.com to see the beautiful peace globes, also seen HERE in the original gallery.  Our theme this year is "Courageous Peace in a Time of Great Change"

Haven't we all been challenged this year? But I know you're going to inspire on November 4th. You always do.

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Bzzzzzzzzzz!!!

How To Get Your Own Peace Globe and Participate

Blogging for Peace on Social Media is Easy! ~ Join us Nov 4- 7, 2021

Use this template to make your own peace globe

 

 On Nov 4 Change your status to Dona Nobis Pacem (Latin for Grant Us Peace). Post a peace graphic. Share! Anywhere you are online. It's that simple. Need more explanation? New to the movement?
If you want to be a peace blogger, you'll need a peace globe and one of these: a blog or website,  Facebook profile,  Twitter account, Instagram,  Pinterest, Tumblr,   BlogHer ...anywhere you are online.

You can simply post "Dona nobis pacem" as your post title/status AND you can do the really cool thing and make a peace globe as well. We'll even make one for you. Just tell us what you want on it and one of our volunteers will assist you. Message us and we’ll connect you with a volunteer designer.

1. Choose a template.
Go to the Official Site of Blog4Peace @ blog4peace.com to find blank templates like the one you see above OR CLICK THIS LINK for Peace Globe Templates.  There are many colors and choices. All are free to use, except commercially of course. Choose your favorite. Decorate as you wish with a message of peace. People put all kinds of things on their peace globes: pet pics, website urls, quotes, original drawings, poems, song lyrics, nature photos, family pics, anything that inspires and brings them peace!
See thousands of examples on the peace site for inspiration. There are pre-made globes for you as well. Just grab one. Even easier? Simply choose one from the albums on our Facebook page. Right click and save. Voila. You have a peace globe of your very own.

2. Post it anywhere online November 4.

TITLE your post/status update Dona Nobis Pacem (Latin for Grant us Peace). You can even make it your profile pic for the day! The goal is for all to say the same thing on the same day in the title. Then go do what peace bloggers do best. Write. Write powerful powerful words of peace. Peace prose. Peace poems. Peace songs. Peace art. Peace prayers. Use your unique voice and share it with people all over the world.  Our theme this year is "Courageous Peace in a Time of Great Change." 
We're still in a pandemic. Your thoughts during this time are historic and important. A global crisis has caused humanity to suffer en masse with the same affliction. Oh, but we can also SOOTHE and HEAL and LOVE across the world when we harness the power of HOPE and COMPASSION. Unifying one day for the same cause across the world organically creates a sense of well-being and order. If there's anything we need right now, it's stability and tradition.  Peace globes are seen on the pages of people in  214+ countries. It's phenomenal! Participating is empowering. Words are powerful. This matters.
Post it on your Facebook page and on the Fan page timeline, on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, anywhere online.

3. TAG me @ facebook.com/MimiLenox and Hashtag #blog4peace.
Send your peace globe to blog4peace@yahoo.com so that it may be counted and documented on the Official Site. Visit each other. Wherever you see a peace globe, share it. It's empowering to see so much positive energy floating through the Blogosphere in a world where so much peace is needed. 
This year we're blogging peace for several days in a row. November 4 (Thursday) - November 7 (Sunday). This gives everyone a chance to participate at their leisure.
Questions? EMAIL blog4peace@yahoo.com or message me on Facebook

We believe that words are powerful....this matters.
Let's make this day count.
Mimi Lenox Founder, Blog4Peace/BlogBlast4Peace @ blog4peace.com
Links at the top of this page are full of information!
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