"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
- Crowfoot, (1811-1890)
a Native American warrior of the Blackfoot tribe.
I found this quote today- at a blog I like to visit. I should have linked Dean way before now...sorry Dean!
Anyway- I guess I'm pondering where the time goes.
Perhps the REAL question is, where does life go?
Behind us- stretched out forever like the highway in a rearview mirror, and before us...vast and expansive like the ocean or the desert.
If we were outside of time and space, as some think we will be one day, things would look differently to us.
Grief would not have the stonghold it now posesses.
Love would be grander- because, as I think about it, love is the one thing that will endure...will flourish~
I also think that love is planted while we live, and while we reap the benefits of love as we are living- I suspect the greater harvest comes even later.
I'm not sure how to explain this...except to say that at the ripe old age of 37 (stop laughing!)- I planted seeds long ago in the past- that bear a greater crop today than I ever imagined possible.
What if I hadn't taken the time to get to know that person? What if I hadn't apologized? What am I missing out on because I was an ass sometimes?
Life
Love
Friendship~
Pride
selfishness
emptiness~
The planting time is short.
The harvest, good or ill, is lasting. Love endures, and so does emptiness.
The flash of a firefly is beautiful and quick, but can be seen from quite a distance.
And if given a choice- I'd rather lose myself in a sunset than disappear into the dark.
Here's to life...and to love...and friends...and to not being an ass whenever possible.
:)
29 comments:
Actually I couldn't stop laughing!
Just kidding...I love this post.
This sentiment you express so beautifully is a great reason to keep on blogging--don't you think?
To a large extent, I feel that it is the purpose of our lives. I don't think this a trivial point at all. We plant the seeds, we reap the harvest, and when the season comes, we do it all over again (but perhaps not in the same way, or for the same reason--after all, you're suppose to rotate your crops).
I wish though that my ass where firmer... at theh e ripe ol' age of 38...I know I have to work on this...love will follow next..hee!hee!..
Oh'Cooora...I'm cleaning up my house and I'm tiiired...I'd love to have a coke...yup'..I think I'll head out and grab one...
I miiiiissss yaaaah!...
Ps. Tomorrow...I'll be writing down about my purpose for this year..yep'..will do that..
/bark bark bark
when the firefly flew into the buffalo breath he dropped like the sunset behind a mountain.
i dont know where all ya'll's lives go, but i lost a s**tload of mine at the intersection of buford highway and lenox road.
grherhaha
im just kidding mayden. this is a lovely post.
one thing about planting seeds is you gotta watch out for the sherriff and the dep -u-ty. because they will kill it before it grows. and one day, something from my bottom will drop out. grrherhaha
im sorry mayden i am weirded out!!!! and have SHB'ed all over this thoughtful post.
a firefly in the sunset. now theres a painting!
/grrrrr
Wow...K-9 has a bad case of the free associations going today.
Very nice Mayden...life, or time is such a fluid abstract, wavering at our slightest narrowing, stretching from our own tiniest nudging...the tendrils of memory is what is left in the end...
I used to live in Kansas, and let me tell ya...you don't want the breath of a buffalo at any time of the year
SJ- I'm older than you are! You better stop laughing! :)
Always good to see you~
Firebird-
I'll be blogging for a while yet- I do believe :) If for nothing more than getting to know so many great people~
X~ My friend- yes...we are supposed to rotate those crops.
Happy New year to you- hope the holiday was a good one :)
Lux- love you! :) YOU are so funny- I did another 2 miles today...my ass will be as firm as...cold butter? LOL! It's ok- I'll never be perfect- but I'll always be me. I'd better learn to live with that! :) But, ummm- the walking does help in other places :)
K9- I'll be sure to avoid that intersection! Or I'll be sure to have my seatbelt on when I go through it~
Pup- you are wide open today! Love it!
Try planting the seeds along with the tomatoes...or in a little green house. I suppose that would work...but I don't really know ;)
xx-smooch-xx for that wet nose of yours :)
iamnot- he's cute when he does that! :)
John- if the tendrils of memory are whats left- heaven help me...I'm forgetting things all the time as it is!
Someday John- in a parallel universe- I'd like to swing by your bus stop and take you to work :) I wonder what you'd end up calling my hair???
(hay for hair lady- lol!!! that is funny! :)
JL4-
I promise to heed your warning- if I'm ever anywhere near a buffalo :)
/t-
Sorry I took you out of turn...
but thank you :)
When my first book comes out- you get an autographed copy :)
I won't forget~
:)
good thoughts, cora! i just have one question...what happens when it's not you that squanders the seeds, but someone else? seriously?
ah, love and life and seeds.
sometimes, i wonder about the seeds i planted that somehow grew up wrong -and the harvest is not a good one. because of course, i didn't intend to plant seeds that turned out to be weeds. or ugly, sqiggly, unholy, dark, wormy things that bring all my lesser attributes to the fore. how was it that i picked the wrong seeds, or worse, had good seeds but tended them so poorly that the crop was a bust?
uh oh. some melancholy coming over.
and i am thinking of those in my life whom i was either powerless to help, unwilling, or unknowing - confused myself - and the impact of that. but then, was i their gardener? i don't know. maybe it was my job; maybe it wasn't.
then i think again, i've planted and nurtured plenty of hardy little seeds that have done well.
but it's such a mixture.
and i have trouble reconciling that on the one hand, i can be a tender, true, expert gardener and on the other, the evil dispenser of worms and muck and gross monstrosities.
i think i'll amble over to the crossroads and have a drink before the wind separates the wheat from the chaff. before the weirdness gets too weird. oops, perhaps too late.
but this was a lovely post mayden and true to your spirit.
Helloooo Mrs.C.
The little green Monster is back and Me is so happy to see that your posts are still filled with love and warmth.
Me likes coming here to reassure me self that there is still hope for us all.
Fireflys are pretty, aren't they?
I dont wonder where the time went... I just cant believe it is over! For the most part I have enjoyed my (cough)42 years! I would rather run in the rain than sit inside and watch someone else do it... but I think that in the past I have done the opposit. I have done what I thought I should... and now... I know I need to do what I need to do. Life is a journey. There is no real way to plan for the end, but we sure can choose our paths wisely... and if not wisely... then for the good of the soul! *wink
cheers!!
Libby-
I so FEEL what you are saying here...because I too have given seeds away seeds that produced nothing- or worse yet- heartache...
but we MUST keep planting.
One crop might be bad- but MOST are good- at least that has been the case in my life.
Love to you darlin'...hope that thie year will yield a crop you DESERVE! :)
BTW- if I come North to see my granmother in Indiana- I'll let you know...I'm not sure I will pass close by to you (I haven't checked the map)- but if I do- we have to meet for lunch or something :) Ok? :)
Hugs Libby!!!
/t- I have CATS for that kind of interference :)!!!
Bird-
I love it when you muse here...like you've had a glass of wine and can think things over...
Oh- for the freedom to do that! :) (I am- 2 shots of Kentucky Knob Creek in my system now!)
My Mom- a poor girl from Virginia- always thought the "Queen Ann's lace" was the prettiest flower she'd ever seen...
Only to be told later that it was a WEED~
I've never forgotten that-
Beauty is beauty- no matter what the higher ups call it...
YOU are a beauty-
and all that you have planted have a tiny bit of you inside or it.
At least-
That is what I think :)
SC- I left a note at your place- Happy New Year to you :)
Kate- Oh...what a soothing hope your words brought to me..."What's good for the soul"...is not always what others think is right or good...
Make's me wonder :)
Hugs to you friend- I so admire the way you think- and the way you live and love :)
I like this side of you and have a corresponding one. When my new non-silly blog goes up I'll have to take off the Percy mask and visit from there!
That would indeed be interesting...don't worry though, I don't pick on everyones' hair! LOL!
Regret and "what if" scenarios are indeed a part of life. Or at least a part of the human condition.
For instance, WHAT IF the Blackfeet had landed a Nike endorsement deal early on? Sure, they'd be more comfortable, financially well-off, and capable of covering greater distances. But they would no longer be the Blackfeet.
This is why we must all march to our own drummer, independent of choices in footwear.
I will be an ass umptive visitor and say best wishes for you and your loved ones, and for checking on by. I am more of an ass erted person because of that.
Beautiful, as always, Cora. My mind is where your thoughts are of late, so reading this made me feel really good inside. Thank you.
Percy, (darius, paul :)
Whatever mask you wear- you are welcome here~
(but you aren't the only one with a few masks :)
Pug-
You kill me- and you are reminding me that I need to take a pic of my new heels and send one to crash :)
Q- I wouldn't want you to be any other way! :) Welcome, and thank you :)
Amy-
so good to see you...your blog today almost had me in tears- beautiful :) Happy New Year friend :)
I wish I could go back fifteen years and do everything over again. High school, college, all of it.
This is a wonderful articulation of a complex thought. Well done.
oh... i am in a better musing space today and your queen anne's lace comment sets well.
once driving on a country road in sonoma, i stopped by the side of the road to pick some wild flowers - i knew deep down they were weeds - but they were beautiful and i coveted them.
alas - they made my nose run and my eyes water.
hahaha- but somehow - that didn't really matter - the flower-weeds were still beatuiful.
flap/flap/swoosh!
I trust you refer to having masks of your own only in a manderbandying, swaggish, jocudacious sort of way?
A rhetorical question, obviously...
I hope my life isn’t buffalo breath. I haven’t ever gotten close enough to smell a buff's breath, but I suspect it would be a bit on the rank side.
The planting time is short.
The harvest, good or ill, is lasting. Love endures, and so does emptiness.
Mayden - WOW - thanks!
Malnurtured Snay-
I read up on how you got your name- fun :)
We've got what we've got- we are where we are...nothing from yesterday will change that,
But you can change tomorrow.
Try not to live with regrets- it doesn't change anything-
What do you want? Where do you want to be?
You can do ANYTHING you want to do...you live in the greatest country in the world-
You really do :)
Seven- You impress the heck out of me- thanks for being here! And for not writing me off as a nut- now that you know the truth :)
Bird- glad to see you again- and musing better :)
I'm a country girl- I even had daises in my wedding bouquet- Mom would have put those weeds in it if I'd let her- and it would have been lovely :) (but something about the itchy eyes- just didn't bode well with me! :)
Percy- obviously :)
TPK- you are not the only one who thinks that :)
Baron-
*blush* Thank you :)
Hugs to you friend- I always want to give you one when I see you :)
Mayden, sweet thang, I looked over those 2006 photos--thas' fun! Youse got such a sweet spirit.
Post a Comment