What Every Woman Needs

Every woman needs to have had at least one man in her life who is strong, responsible, wise and ethical. All others will be judged in comparison to that one man.

The Firefly

"Firefly teaches us to bring things into focus and to lighten the path that is hidden in order to understand our life force. He gives the spark of divine insight and inspiration. Firefly aids in illuminating what is hidden, understands what is confusing, brings wonder and awe in the darkness. He will teach strength to replace fear in the midst of the darkness; spiritual or emotional. Sometimes the faintest the light will see you through. Allow firefly to guide you - in the moment, through the forest of life and to navigate what you are unable to perceive or understanding. It is the light that should be your focus, not the dark. Firefly will show you how, so watch carefully!"

From HERE

Here is a summary list of symbolic meaning of the firefly:

• Inspiration
• Illumination
• Patience
• Attraction
• Energy
• Hope
• Aspiration
• Guidance
• Efficiency
• Creativity
• New Ideas
• Awakening

The symbolic meaning of the firefly of course deals with light, illumination and the like. Although an important focus, the issue of light is not the high feature behind the symbolic meaning of the firefly. Rather, it is the messages this wondrous creature gives us while her light is off may be most profound to our growth.

An ordinary looking creature during the day, admittedly, the firefly is a remarkable sight when it glows at night. This is a symbolic message to us humans that although our physical appearance may seem one way - it is our internal makings - what is inside us (such as our spirit) that makes us shine from the inside out. That which is within us will always illuminate us and those around us.


"Fireflies"
JJ Grey & Mofro



When we were youngin's
We used to play all day
Lord and when the night came
Oh them lights would dance away
Oh so good so warm it felt to play
Like being in your mama's arms
So safe

Where did all the fireflies go?
Hold your breath no more movement in the night
Where did all the fireflies go?
I heard someone say
They ain't never coming back

Running wild feeling oh so free
Trying to light the night up
With the fire inside of me
Oh them lights Lord they let me be me
Where did all the fireflies go where did they go?

Where did all the fireflies go?
Hold your breath no more movement in the night
Where did all the fireflies go?
I heard someone say
hey ain't never coming back

This Place

I found this scribbled on a piece of paper, when I was going through some old journals and boxes of mementos.

-----------

this place
what can I say about this place
were it not for the properties known to me
i would not have come here to begin with
the fallacy of their truths
the untimeliness of the years
it's much less than i care to experience
such an unfriendly place
with it's tempting unruliness

© Rachelle LeCount

See last June's postings

Beautiful Things

Every day I write the list
Of reasons why I still believe they do exist
(a thousand beautiful things)
And even though it's hard to see
The glass is full and not half empty
(a thousand beautiful things)
So... light me up like the sun
To cool down with your rain
I never want to close my eyes again
Never close my eyes
Never close my eyes

I thank you for the air to breathe
The heart to beat
The eyes to see again
(a thousand beautiful things)
And all the things that's been and done
The battle's won
The good and bad in everyone
(this is mine to remember)
So ...
Here I go again
Singin' by your window
Pickin' up the pieces of what's left to find

The world was meant for you and me
To figure out our destiny
(a thousand beautiful things)
To live
To die
To breathe
To sleep
To try to make your life complete
(yes yes)
So ...
Light me up like the sun
To cool down with your rain
I never want to close my eyes again
Never close my eyes
never close my eyes ...
That is everything I have to say
(that's all I have to say)

My Name is Diaphanous

I am Diaphanous
And I am weightless
I am serene and impalpable
Nebulous and yet material
I am the obscurity of a parable
As vague as the wings of a moth
I am delicate and I am meager
Though I am porous and thirsty
I am powdery fluorescence
Ever ambiguous and yet distinct
I am the transparency of a cloud
I am weightless
And I am Diaphanous

© Rachelle
June 2011

Also see:
Door of Glass
Bells of Heaven
Pegs & Holes

Lately

What's going on with me lately? Dentists, Dogs and Closets - that's what.

Our poor oldest shih tzu, Chester, started having seizures a few months back and they're getting worse. Perhaps the heat it contributing.

A closet make-over that was supposed to last a weekend has turned into three weeks.

Major dental procedures are planned for the next year or two. They'll have to be spread out over a period of time due to insurance limitations. Not to mention the problem I have with TMJ. I also have panic attacks at the dentist's office sometimes. But I'm developing a relationship with this one, so it's getting a little easier.

While I'm working on various projects and otherwise being scattered brained due to my busy-headed nature, particularly under stress, I have lines of poetry and things I want to write that swim around in my head, but I can't seem to relax into it. Oh well.

That covers the basics of what's up with me.

Witness

This song has a special place in my heart.

"Witness"
by Sarah McLauchlan



Make me a witness
take me out
out of darkness
out of doubt

I won't weigh you down
with good intention
won't make fire out of clay
or other inventions

Will we burn in heaven
like we do down here
will the change come
while we're waiting

Everyone is waiting

And when we're done
soul searching
and we carried the weight
and died for a cause
is misery
made beautiful
right before our eyes
will mercy be revealed
or blind us where we stand

Will we burn in heaven
like we do down here
will the change come while we're waiting
everyone is waiting

Naming A Lake

This is something I wrote a few years back and felt it needed to be tidied up a bit.

----

I have come to the conclusion that naming a thing perhaps lessens it's value. Words are deviant. They may be necessary tools of human communication, but in reality they are only symbols of a thing, rather than the thing itself.

I could say "Look, there is a lake." But what have I said? I might rather have pointed out the thousands of sparkling reflections of sunlight, or the splashing sounds of a log as it bounces on the surface. While someone else envisions a source of an evening's meal, or the elementary composition of liquids. They might say "No. This is too small. It is, rather, a pond." While I have thoughts of frogs perched on lily pads.

In calling it a lake, I have provided too narrow a definition. Then, again, perhaps too broad. It would be better if I had pointed out the sounds or the tiny splashes and twinkling reflections. Would I be wiser to reference the way in which the water sways, or make note of the scent of bedding trout.

So now, I think I should refrain from calling it a lake again because, in doing so, I've lessened it's value.

© Rachelle

To He Who Created

And so she says to he who has created her:

I could embrace you as a wife embraces her husband, or name myself your immortal soul. I could declare that I am more than myself. And still, I would ask, who am I? What solid thing should I lay claim to and what name shall be my true definition?

I should resolve to cease my attempts to give meaning to myself. It is a futile endeavor. If from you I was taken, only by you may I be defined. If it is you who has created me, then it is only you who can name me or give me purpose.

© Rachelle

Also see Name Me

Night Writing - 3

Part 3

(continued from HERE)

i see a dark room
i walk in
there are closets of glass
glass closets filled with water
inside are what appears to be people
are they sleeping i wonder
but no, i think they are suspended
they're not dead
but more dormant than anything else

their positions are odd
half standing and half slumped
in their strange unnatural slumber
the water is murky

there are beams in the room
pillars to be more precise
like the ones outside old colonial homes
but the paint is worn off

i think about what i see
it doesn't bother me
but i think about and find it peculiar
and i still hear myself speaking to you

i see things often
more nights than not
i wake in the wee hours of the morning
i see
i think

but it seems rather silly to say "i think"
doesn't everyone think
surely they must
all people think things
perhaps they don't think much about the thinking
i do

how many things i think in the night
in the morning before dawn
but i let myself drift back off to sleep
and later i get up and i live another earthly day
as the day goes by i think about you
i think about telling you the things i see
what i saw and heard during the night

things and thoughts and sights
between sleep and wake

i think about eve and adam
about angels and heaven
about mysteries so beautiful
that to solve them might almost seem a crime
but i secretly long to solve them nonetheless
or at least be challenged by them
during the morning before dawn
and at night between sleep and wake
things i let myself forget as i live another earthly day

and i still can hear myself speaking to you
saying and opening
asking and inquiring
wanting and needing
to give and to receive
to respond
to say
to speak
to see

© Rachelle

Part 1
Part 2

Gravity

Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

Oh I'll never know what makes this man
With all the love that his heart can stand
Dream of ways to throw it all away

Oh Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

Oh twice as much ain't twice as good
And can't sustain like a one half could
It's wanting more
That's gonna send me to my knees
[repeat]

Oh gravity, stay the hell away from me
And gravity has taken better men than me (now how can that be?)

Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where the light is
C'mon keep me where the light is
Oh... where the light is! [repeat]

Night Writing - 2

Part 2

(continued from HERE)

a woman in a rocking chair
her hair tied up in a scarf

the window is to her back
beams of sunlight shine through the window
just brightly enough to hinder slightly my full view of her
she's more than a silhouette
but i do not see her face

she rocks
her head leaned against the back of the chair
and tilted upward almost as if staring up into the sky
a sky that would be visible were it not for the ceiling above
yet she's more lost in her thoughts than lost in looking

by her side is a boy with curly blonde hair
perhaps 4 years of age or so
and in her arms a baby
the boy has his head leaned against her
her hand strokes his hair

she knows he's there but it's a saddish scene
though perhaps not - who knows
she's only partially present
or seemingly so

but the odd thing is the children change
first the boy and the baby
then two small girls around 2 and 6 perhaps
then a baby and a girl

changing
shifting the image

but the woman is the same
distant yet not
looking but not looking
not praying but almost
in this semi darkened basement

and my discourse continues
my chronicle of words and thoughts
and explanations

then the woman is gone
the children are gone
and i'm crossing over some rocks
intent on each step

tan suede hiking boots
the way the small boulders move and shift
as i walk my feet challenge the solidity
and they challenge my determination
each testing the other

the sound is crisp
the sound of the rocks
the crunch of stones and dirt
the dampness of earth

and i think of telling you of this
that's always the case
i see things most nights
most nights, likewise,
i say i will speak to you of it but i don't
day comes and i live another earthly day

© Rachelle

Who Am I

"Who Am I"
by Casting Crowns




Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.
Who am I?
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart.

Bridge:
Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.

Chorus:
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again.
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.

Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.


I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.

Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And you've told me who I am.
I am yours.
I am yours.
I am yours.

Whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
Cause I am yours..
I am yours...

What's Up

What's up here is that we need to get busy finishing up our home remodeling projects, which we started nearly three years ago, thinking it would take us a few months.

We started with the idea of ripping up the carpet and replacing it with laminate flooring, in addition to purchasing a new stove and microwave. But the stove and microwave led to a kitchen update, which led to a hall bathroom update, and on and on.

After hubby's car accident things were on hold, half way through the project. One thing after another, whether winter chill or summer heat, we've only managed to take a bite out of the project here and there.

Now we're reorganizing the master closet. It's a walk-in but too narrow. So I'm putting up organizer shelves to maximize space. I'd love to be able to 'walk in' the closet without knocking clothes off their hangers.

Lord willing, and the creek don't rise, we'll get it finished one of these days. I'll try to let you know how it goes.

Now, that being said, enjoy the tune for today by Ray Lamontagne.