Yesterday, as if I needed a reminder (I didn’t), rain fell gently upon the Earth all morning harkening the end of summer and the changing of the seasons. I’d already begun to reflect with nostalgia on certain visuals I found still lodged in the memory of my camera, light bound in a black box, serving to tweak my heart and delight as I relived private random moments I’d experienced during this summer, like the sunflowers above in that big round unlikely vase I’d found.

Another particular pleasure was the lizard that came to keep me company for nearly two months, staging a home in the lavender that lives just in front of the front porch area. Here’s where he was hiding:

Not a bad place to choose as your home, right? Well, he was in there, every single day, for weeks and weeks! I’d never really experienced that before. He came out each afternoon to sun himself, which I would routinely manage to forget, so that when I stepped down off the last step onto the sidewalk, thinking only of ending my business day with a trip to the post office, he would suddenly dart, whish, back into the lavender, and then we’d somehow often repeat the ritual when I returned. (You’d think I’d learn.) Lots of mini adrenaline rushes. What if I’d stepped on him?? (I never did.) Anyway, here he is, dear thing.

I never really looked him up. Maybe someone knows what he is. Then one day he was simply (sadly) gone. I like to think that it was not a certain black and white kitty that is notorious for coming into my yard at night when no one is watching. It wasn’t, right? It was just time to move on and he’s safe somewhere down the road. I’m sure he is. I certainly enjoyed him while he was here. I would come out and talk to him and he never minded. And it was particularly gracious of him to let me take his photo so I can remember him and share him with all of you. Cutie.

Then there were the flowers.

Dahlia from Conny which kept on giving and giving

And Conny herself, on a summer jaunt! (She’s going to kill me, but I love this impish grin!)

Trumpetvine which tried my patience all summer long, it is so invasive but beautiful

Gorgeous blue morning glory greeting me on early morning doggie runs

And the animals…

“Ruby, have you been playing in the mud, again?”

Kitties got a new bed, finally!

Summer brings all kinds of tasty treats, like…

Freshly picked peaches from the farmer’s market spun into luscious pie

No little summer pictorial would be replete without my new summer shoes! Wahoo!

And, yes, I let my manicurist paint and decorate my toes with various colors and rhinestones. Yes, I do. You’re not a bit surprised, are you? I thought not.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Much love and summer blessings,
Kathryn xoxo
Loving postscript: my deepest thanks to my peers on blotanical.com who have honored me by making Plant Whatever Brings You Joy a finalist in the Best Blog Writing and Blog of the Year Award categories. I am deeply moved and grateful to receive your blessings. xoxoxo

Posted on September 20th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Life | 24 Comments »

Afghani refugees studying in Pakistan– photo courtesy of Central Asia Institute

A dream and vision has lodged in my heart and it will not go away. I want to adopt one of the schools Greg Mortensen has set up in Pakistan and rally the hearts and hands of readers to make scarves for at least one classroom of girls to help them stay warm through the winter. I realize that bureaucracies and distances being what they are that it might be next winter when this dream is finally realized, but it’s my commitment to see it through. Toward this end I called the Central Asia Institute in Montana and they are unable to assist me with this endeavor as they have learned through experience (and I hear this) they must stay focused on the building and maintaining of schools. I support that. Can you imagine what that alone must take? What this has uncovered, however, is reflected in the next statement from Greg’s lovely assistant. “We get calls like this all the time, of people wanting to help, and we simply have to turn them away.” Ouch. So parallel with the Scarf Initiative is a need to find some solid leads where those wanting to help can plug in and make a difference. I’m working on that.

So I googled the Consulate of Pakistan. There was an office in Los Angeles, so I called there, and spoke at some length with a very nice gentleman named Ahsan Wagan, who has promised to help me find a safe delivery system for scarves. He has assured me (and I will doublecheck) that mail does arrive in Skardu, where Greg’s Gultori Girls Refugee School is located (for example). Here is his follow up note to me:

Dear Ms Kathryn,
It was pleasure talking to you today. I am delighted that you are thinking of doing some thing for the girls up in the mountains. I will certainly work with you to finalize it.
Best regards
Ahsan Wagan

I wrote back asking if he could also help me find some reliable NGO’s where folks calling Greg’s office might offer their assistance. I have promised the Central Asia Institute to pass along any information I get, and they seemed quite grateful for this assistance.

I fully realize there are more “practical” avenues I might follow. Even Mr. Wagan asked if it might not just be simpler to adopt one of Greg’s schools, raise funds and follow the education of a child or two. Yes. Money helps, and I know there are those out there who would far rather simply write a cheque and let someone else carry out the endeavor. I’ve done it myself. Last year I helped sponsored a little girl who needed funding to go to a private school in Nepal. Three minutes later it was done. I got a photo back. Sweet.

little Gita in Kathmandu, Nepal

But this is not the same.

Maybe the new dream was kindled by watching the vids of Oprah’s staff giving hordes of orphaned children in Africa a single pair of jeans and a pair of sneakers and a backpack. Probably so. Oh, the joy! Maybe it was reading in Three Cups of Tea that for many of the children the new uniforms with which they were provided were the first new clothes they had ever received. Can you imagine? Some of you can. Or maybe not. I personally had times in my childhood when the best of clothes adorned my closet and other times when the clothes I wore to school were largely second hand. They are different, important experiences, to know abundance and to know not so abundant. It offers up perspective, and, more importantly, compassion.

One other thing really struck me in reading Greg’s book. It is pointed out to him in Pakistan that it is popular in America to support children of, say, Tibet. Or Africa. It is not so popular to support Muslim children. It is no stretch to understand why this would be so. And I recognize that reticence in myself. I do. And I am staring that in the face, in the mirror, and I am breaking my own internal glass ceiling. I am going to help Muslim girls, future mothers of sons, however small a gift it might seem. It will be made by my own hands, and the hands of women who hearken to this request. And it will be made with love, for them, the clearly disadvantaged. And it’s a stretch for me. Calling the Pakistani Consultate was a stretch for me. (Will I now be on some weird list?) I mean really!

Anyone who has ever traveled outside America understands that when you meet ONE person from another country you have never visited, that person becomes the representative, the ambassador, the impression of that country for you. Oh, yes, “I know someone from Sweden [fill in the blank]. He’s nice.” Greg is that one person for thousands of Pakistani people. Seriously. He has risked his life over and over again to help educate girls.

Greg at Gultori Girls Refugee School, Skardu, Pakistan–photo courtesy Central Asia institute

But why scarves? I personally adore clothes. I do. I’m a clothes horse and offer no apology. It’s part of my artistic temperament–design, cut, fabric, color. I’m a palette. Dress me. I also tend to dress other people (ask my daughter) and I give tons of clothes away to shelters, dress for success places, etc. I just do. I also know that personal things can matter. It depends on intention. My intention in this dream/endeavor, the Scarf Initiative, is to share myself, my wealth, my contacts, my heart, my skills with children less fortunate than I was as a child. They have been blessed with a rudimentary education from the Central Asia Institute. They have been blessed with the opportunity to be given an unbiased basic education that honors their culture and traditions. I want to bless them with beautiful, colorful scarves, made by Western women (men welcome!) who cared enough about them to send them something warm and lovely to help them stave off the cold of Pakistani mountain winters, and to hold in their hands a personal handmade gift someone outside their culture sent them. I do.

What has heart and meaning equals joy. If you are inclined to join me, in knitting or crocheting scarves for the mountain children of Pakistan, would you please leave a comment below and I will email you back? I promise you that whatever scarves you knit or crochet and send to me I will get into the hands of Pakistani children!

Community school, Pakistan–photo courtesy of Central Asia Institute
Thank you so very much!

Love and blessings,
Kathryn xoxoo

UPDATE!: I have already heard from over three dozen folks who want to do this, some making multiple scarves and others asking friends to join! Please make scarves five feet long and one foot wide. Use colors and yarns that inspire you! Here are the woolen yarns I chose to use.

Posted on September 4th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: The Scarf Initiative | 82 Comments »