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Karen DeBonis's avatar

Ernie, meet Roddy, our groundhog. Ernie wins in the looks department, for sure, lol. I wonder why we name our wildlife? Maybe your muses will know?

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3musesmerge's avatar

Anthropomorphism? We give animals and plants human traits as a mechanism of metaphor and understanding?

Whoa! Where’d that come from?

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Karen DeBonis's avatar

Y'know what's so weird, Gail? I feel like we've had this anthropomorphism conversation before!!

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3musesmerge's avatar

Now that you mention it...I think we have!

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Gary Spangler's avatar

“...as our Midwestern daylight begins to eat away at both ends of night.” What a perfect phrase!

A zero degree morning and there sat Ernie, about the weight of a handful of powdered snow, somehow finding the power to greet the new day.

Wonderfully written!!

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3musesmerge's avatar

Thank you! Thinking about all the outside critters this morning as it in 10 below! 🥶

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Karbie (AKA Randomly)'s avatar

There are few things more beautiful to me than cardinals in the winter.

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Karbie (AKA Randomly)'s avatar

While I always love your musings, I absolutely love the citation at the bottom. I find it particularly relevant right now, and have stolen it to put on my Facebook page for safe-keeping. If for some reason I take a turn for the worst, I want to keep it in mind. I feel like I've got a better than average capacity for delight, and nothing can take that away from me.

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3musesmerge's avatar

Sarah closed out yoga practice this morning with a quote from Kabir—“All know the drop merges into the ocean, but few know the ocean merges into the drop.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that quote before.

I don’t think I ever read The Artist’s Way in its entirety, and yet the excerpt I shared has become one of my guiding principles.

I am finding much delight in resuming our I/Thou. ❤️

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Matthew Word Bain's avatar

Your ongoing active collaboration with the Muses, and specifically your exploration of their voices and characters continues to inspire me, Gail - thank you!

As Gary Spangler pointed out, "as our Midwestern daylight begins to eat away at both ends of night," is a perfect phrase. I can't help but think, given my own experience and the historical perspective on the Muses, that they are rewarding your attention with their own.

I've been getting to know the Ancient Greek pantheon since before I was a teenager, and the more I pay attention to them, the more I find they are real. That is not to say they are real to me in exactly the same way they were real in their time of origin in human consciousness, but what they represent is alive and well and they remain as clear and useful an avenue for finding expression and balance in this domain as any other I have found. I guess I see them on one level as parts of the collective unconscious, archetypes who we are better off honoring than ignoring.

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3musesmerge's avatar

Thank you for your appreciation Matthew! I perhaps know more about Hindu than Greek mythology just from hearing stories told at yoga class. The last few days I've been looking up the muses on Wikipedia. :) If I have captured their attention, I'm grateful.

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