asakiyume | (no subject)

The birds sit on the wire, shoulders hunched, while overhead the clouds and sun fight for mastery of the sky. It's like they're the battle's foot soldiers (wing soldiers?), too battle-worn (except for that one on the left) to take to the air.

Below, there is a bright and narrow road. You walk balancing on it, poised four inches above the earth, almost touching it. Almost. Like a ghost, not quite through the veil into the living world.

The warring sun and clouds and the narrow path remind me of another thing we saw lots of in Alabama: painted yard signs featuring Bible passages. Not the words of the passage, mind; just its chapter and verse. One little house had two small wooden signs on its lawn.

PSALMS 23, said one. JOHN 3:16, said the other.

The first is the famous The-Lord-Is-Our-Shepherd psalm, and the second is the often-quoted "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Elsewhere, we saw "2 CHRONICLES 7:14" ("If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.")

More ominously, in an abandoned-seeming park, there were three crosses standing, and on the chain link fence around the park, signs saying THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH and REPENT.

Sometimes people used their own words rather than Bible passages. One house had a sign that said, "When God moves out, disaster moves in."

Churches issued directives and warnings:

"Prepare to meet your God"

"There will be no fire escape in Hell."

Like the sky this morning, all those signs and messages were very atmospheric. I felt like we wandering all unaware through a supernatural battlefield.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I figured it might be, from your description of Ragna, the owner. She's wonderful and, yes, intense. I met her first several decades ago when she started The Sundial, and she taught me an enormous amount about perennial herbs when I lived in the area and visited her shop and garden several times yearly. I still have and regularly use tea tools and a small mortar and pestle purchased from her shop. I rarely get down to CT anymore, but I wish I could go visit Ragna again. Someday.

This is awesome--that you guys were talking about the same person.

I checked out her website--looks like a great place.