halloween Fortitude
“Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.” — Michelle Obama
Outside my window, our Halloween yard is a festivity of orange and gold–not of pumpkins, gourds, and cornstalks–but of leaves still clinging to plum, lilac, aspen, rose, currant, and clematis. On this last day of October, I usually find myself writing about the spooky wonder of bats. Today, I was drawn instead to a blog I wrote when living in La Grande just after Halloween of 2016, feeling the trepidation of that fateful election and sadly a portent of 2024.
If I were closing my eyes and reaching into a bag of candy to feel for a favorite, like a chocolate peanut butter cup, I think I’d also wish for —Fortitude. In that spirit, I’ll share my piece and then wander outside into our yard on a cool, gray day and turn to the two Steller’s Jays–bold, blue, and unafraid to speak up LOUD.
Enjoy my memories and photos from 2016. (You might also take a stroll through my redesigned website –still working on adding more content. )
FORTITUDE of broken willow sprouting new shoots:
FORTITUDE of cracked apple tree trunk bearing fruit:
LOVE gives us fortitude. Hold hands. We are not alone. When injustice sears and burns, when fear feeds hatred, where do we take heart?
Take heart in the young, innocent Halloween trick-or-treaters who come to the door dressed as princesses, witches, spiderman, and dinosaurs.
Take heart in nature always. Breathe deep. Be outside. Marvel in the panorama of clouds promenading across the Grande Ronde Valley.
Startle to full wakefulness when the pheasant flushes from the hawthorne shrubs. Touch the splintery wood of a jackleg fence above Ladd Marsh.
Open fully to the beauty. Find fortitude like the the broken willow sprouting new limbs and the unpruned, unbowed old apple tree bearing fruit. Take heart from each other. Love is our strength. We can stand up to injustice. We can keep going. We will ….VOTE. We will….care for our precious public lands. We will find the joy in every wondrous moment of this day.
I scrawled these words on a piece of paper above Ladd Marsh on Foothills Road, La Grande, Oregon, after a contemplative afternoon run –pausing along the way to take photos when the sun broke through the storm clouds.– Marina, Nov. 2, 2016.
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Marina Richie
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