Jone Rush MacCulloch
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  • Poetry Friday Details and Hosts
  • Children's Books
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Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday, Week 35: Abundance of Grace

9/8/2023

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Computer gremlins were at play yesterday as I attempted writing this post.  Was it as Patricia's SJT"ps title says: "Life at the speed of grace?"  Wednesday night I hadn't slept well. Grace was telling me Go. To. Bed. Plus, I was all over the map with this prompt.  How does grace meet me and how is it in my life?
One quote I lean on is "For the grace of God, there go I".  If you and I were sitting together, sipping tea or coffee, and if we were talking about our teen and young adult years, you would learn that grace protected me over some really dumb choices. (So GLAD there were no cell phones with the capability to record that period of my life!)

Thanks to Ramona, I was lead to this poem, 
 "Everyday Grace." at The Poetry Foundation.  This line resonated with me:

"...Suddenly an ordinary day becomes holy ground..." ~"Everyday Grace" by Stella Nesanovich.

Late August, I had my 
blood drawn. I walked into the little room, greeted by 'Aloha", the room decorated in a Hawaiian theme. The lab technician was from the Big Island.  As she drew my blood, I asked if she was affected by the Lahaina fire. She nodded, a great auntie perished. In that moment, I felt a shiver in my body, the shift, the day becoming holy.

we honor, 
welcome
in a hug
her new ancestor

Picture
This is the photo from this week's Wordless Wednesday, Week 35.

A secret heart, evidence of grace
A stranger feels safe sharing her grief
The bushtits have returned to the suet feeder
A friend confides about her struggles
Morning's coolness sends messages that autumn is arriving soon
Blood tests reveal I am in great health
​Grace abides



Please head over to Amy at The Poem Farm who is dishing up poetry advice.  I love her photo of the stones, having just played with some myself.
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Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday, Week 30: Turning

8/3/2023

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​I read Linda’s post for Spiritual Journey Thursday. I  was filled with gratitude that she used the song "Tis A Gift To Be Simple" by Joseph Brackett. It’s one of my favorites. 

Mary Lee at 
A(nother) Year of Reading is hosting  Poetry Friday and sharing a beautiful textile piece along with a poem. She has been reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and I am reminded that book needs to come with me on a roadtrip.
I’ve just returned from four days at the coast with daughter, grandgirl, husband, and husband’s former wife.  A tradition that is almost twenty years old.
​

Some of the questions that the 18 YO was asking made me think of ‘turning’; the turning of the seasons, the turning of our lives. Oldest grand has graduated and I am watching her enter adulthood with curiosity. She wanted to know about the “family member “cut off date” (translated how long everyone had lived) and whether she’d have access to the house we have rented all her life when we are no longer able to rent it. These questions show me the importance to her of traditions. It delights me that as the pages are turning in her life story (as are they in ours), that she holds some things close to her soul.

I am into writing Golden Shovels for the summer poetry swap this year and thus I took a line from 
"Tis A Gift To Be Simple"​.
Picture

To turn, turn, turn will be our delight.
Tis A Gift To Be Simple by  Joseph Brackett


Criss-cross logs ready to
light the match to turn
the stack into fiery flames. The sun turns
a page by slipping below the horizon. We turn
​
marshmallows on a stick, they’re gooey, golden s'mores. Will
we ever be 
too old, roasting marshmallows on the beach. Our 
answer is in the moon, full of delight.

©Jone Rush MacCulloch



The Sealey Challenge
August 1: field notes poems of the lost and found by Melissa Madenski
August 2: Twenty Love Poems and One Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
August 3: Recover by Allison Joseph

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Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday, Week 26: Summer Joy

7/6/2023

 
I'm on vacation and I am popping in with a couple of photo haikus from our trip to my old stomping grounds, On Friday,I met up with some of my high school pals. We missed our 50th reunion due to Covid in 2020.  On Sunday, I discovered this circular redwood grove at Santa Barbara Botanical Garden on Sunday.  Spiritual Journey Thursday's host, Carol Varsalona. Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins is hosting Poetry Friday.  
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Poetry Friday, Week 22: Combo of Spiritual Thursday Journey and Poetry Friday

6/1/2023

 
Picture©Graphic by Amber Fleek
Welcome to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Trisha at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Amidst moving, Trisha is gracious doing Poetry Friday and doing it old school.

Yesterday, Dave at Leap of Dave, offered the prompt for the monthly Spiritual Thursday Journey.  This has been something that I decided to be curious about and join in this year.
His prompt had these questions:
  • First, is there a physical place that has deep spiritual meaning to you? 
  • Secondly, are there people  who have invested in, walked alongside, or that you have walked along side of in your journey? 
  • How have they encouraged you on the way?
  • Has your spiritual journey given your life purpose? 
  • Does your journey have a way?  In other words, what has been your path on that journey?

Picture
A lot to ponder! And I want to speak especially to the first question bo t physical place. It made me think of a book I have been reading recently, Celtic Ways to Pray: Finding God in the Natural Elements by Ruth Lindberg Pattison. Visiting Ireland last June, resonated with me in a deep, deep way. I was home.  I creturned very curious about how the Irish meld the  Celtic beliefs with Christianity. I am a seeker, I always have been. Maybe in another life, I would have studied theology. ​

Part one explores God in Earth and it was perfect for Dave's question about physical place.  I have several to share below.  I collect rocks (my suitcase was too heavy returning from Ireland and Scotland because of this).  My photos are 
visual prayers.

Spiritual Journey Thursday: Shall We Dance?

5/4/2023

 
Picture"Shine" ©mixed media art, Jone Rush MacCulloch, gift for a graduate
Christine asks, "Shall we dance?"  And she shares  several music offerings and a poem.
This line from  Lord of the Dance speaks to me:  Dance, then, wherever you may be.

​I have been retired since June 2018, almost five years. I've been learning new dances as I move further away from my teaching days (complicated by the two years that was the pandemic when time stood still). Maybe I have learn some of these dances before but they have a new twist, a new nuance.
​I am learning the dance of 70, feeling more sassy, curious.
I am learning the dance of art, or creating.  
I am learning the dance of rejection and acceptance as I submit poems for publications.(I've submitted more this year than another year).
I 
am learning the dance of grief as friends and acquaintances struggle with health and family issues.
I am learning the dance of intuition,  discovering my visual signatures of the moon and spiral, both dancing n the universe. 
I am thinking of this art piece above as I danced with it into creation. It will have a companion piece, "You can dance, no matter where you are."

Dance wherever you may be in joy, in love, in grief, and for each season.
 



    Author

    All photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me.

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    2023 Progressive Poem

    ​April 1 Mary Lee Hahn, Another Year of Reading
    April 2 Heidi Mordhorst, My Juicy Little Universe
    April 3 Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference
    April 4 Buffy Silverman
    April 5 Rose Cappelli, Imagine the Possibilities
    April 6 Donna Smith, Mainely Write
    April 7 Margaret Simon, Reflections on the Teche
    April 8 Leigh Anne, A Day in the Life
    April 9 Linda Mitchell, A Word Edgewise
    April 10 Denise Krebs, Dare to Care
    April 11 Emma Roller, Penguins and Poems
    April 12 Dave Roller, Leap Of Dave
    April 13 Irene Latham Live You Poem
    April 14 Janice Scully, Salt City Verse
    April 15 Jone Rush MacCulloch
    April 16 Linda Baie, TeacherDance
    April 17 Carol Varsalona, Beyond Literacy Link
    April 18 Marcie Atkins
    April 19 Carol Labuzzetta at The Apples in My Orchard 
    April 20 Cathy Hutter, Poeturescapes
    April 21 Sarah Grace Tuttle,  Sarah Grace Tuttle’s Blog,
    April 22 Marilyn Garcia
    April 23 Catherine,  Reading to the Core
    April 24 Janet Fagal, hosted by Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference
    April 25 Ruth, There is no Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town
    April 26 Patricia J. Franz, Reverie
    April 27 Theresa Gaughan, Theresa’s Teaching Tidbits
    April 28 Karin Fisher-Golton, Still in Awe Blog
    April 29 Karen Eastlund, Karen’s Got a Blog
    April 30 Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, and Writing



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