Grianstad an gheimhridh

'Tis a good day.

Fugace

Like a sand mandala
and before the day was done, 
the painstaking effort blew away 
with the gust of a turbulent wind.

Bien-être

Following a self-imposed exile from all chatter, the writer began to scribble like a possessed composer hearing the dulcet tone of a returned flute.

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

I find these pages floating as through a haunted house; where the proverbial bump in the night may merely be the settling of floor boards or, if one is quite imaginative, the whimpering of a shade trapped in the hoary rafters above one's bedchamber at 3 AM. And I have an uneasy feeling most work utterly evaporates among the assorted lairs of les livres très chic  jutted along endless aisles of tomes blessed by undefinable fortune...or cast aside by indiscriminate fate.

Se lasser

At the end of the day, tangles on social internet forums are no more and no less than a swirling deck of cards.   When the threads become knotted, it is difficult to remind oneself that it's all but flying hearts and diamonds, clubs and spades; symbols and virtual illusions.  It's reality is found only in one's head.   We know no one's deeper story and scarcely comprehend our own. 

Eidolon

Today's word is from the Greek eid, 

from eidos, form. 

 And the word is: 

Eidolon 

 ei·do·lon (-dln) 

 n. pl. ei·do·lons or ei·do·la (-l) 

1. A phantom; an apparition. 

2. An image of an ideal. 

eidolic adjective 

Sacré

It's 2 AM in the morning. I have been listening to the whorl of Zephyr winds beyond the window screen, and an echo of a barred owl calling from a valley tree. Last week, the red-winged blackbirds returned to the pond. Earlier in evening, a lone frog called from the Winter dried cattails. 

 Captivating. 

 On Earthy, witchy nights and for a moment, just a breath of a moment, all feels unutterably...holy.

Pouvoir le Jour

"I went to the toad that lies under the wall, 

I charmed him out, and he came to my call."

Masque of Queens 

Ben Jonson 1609

"The respect of our peers matters much more than anonymous applause.  It's an anchor for an ego that wants to know it has a home."
-Richard Thieme

I wonder if a toadstool is a good home for the ego?  It's as good as any other,  I should suppose.  A good place to observe,  is the toadstool,  I would imagine.

And,  if one happened to be an actual toad sitting on a toadstool,  I wonder if one would be aware one were actually a toad sitting on an actual toadstool?

And if one were quite aware one were actually sitting on a toadstool and therefore,  indeed,  a toad,  what then?  

Now,  I should rather be a toad that does not know it is a toad than a creature which has deluded itself into thinking it is not a toad when,  in fact,  it is a toad.  

Speaking of toads...saw a toad in the back garden this day.  We exchanged no conversation,  but I sense an observation took place between us in the spirit of Lao Tzu.  

I think.  

There is something to be said about anonymous applause.  The toad in the very real garden was quite amused.  

No,  I don't know what I am talking about either.  Perhaps this is why May is often referred as the Merry,  Merry Month.  

Folklore on a theme of toads and such like:

 

Toads and Toadstools:  The Natural History,  Folklore, and Cultural Oddities of a Strange Association -Adrian Morgan

*Woodcut~Charles Leland text 1891
*Alice~Sir John Tenniel

Bonjour

I have come to compose a story

... in my fashion.