Sunsets and Sandspurs and...

Sunsets and Sandspurs pretty much sum up life in Florida.  They are constant reminders of the beauty in life, and life's little annoyances.  Our days are filled with each.  I have never learned to wear shoes down here, despite the fact that going barefoot almost guarantees hopping back into the house and pulling a traveler out of my heel or the ball of my feet.  The sensible thing to do would be to slip on some shoes before checking the mail or taking out the trash.  Being a Floridian means you don't always have to be sensible.

"I believe there is magic here." --Kenny Chesney

I believe Kenny is discussing Key West in that song, but I believe it applies to where I live, south of Tampa.  The gulf coast boasts amazing sunsets that my mother rarely missed, and moved out to Matlacha, a small fishing village in Pine Island Sound to ensure her evening ritual.  She'd say, "I'm going to catch a sunset."  She meant she was going to spend a magical hour or two enjoying the view with a good friend and maybe a good drink.

 The years she lived on Matlacha were magical for me.  She and her friends would sit and chat on a porch or a dock, on the lookout for dolphins, and gaining inspiration.  Just sitting in on these pow-wows made me feel like a priestess-in-training, a squaw* learning the path of healer, dreamwalker, chief.  I felt the magic of those hours and that place deep within, with the certainty of knowing my own name.

When my mom died, her children fulfilled her final request.  We set her canoe in the waters of her backyard, rowed out among the mangroves and told our favorite stories.  We sang a song of remembrance, Sarah MacLachlan's "Angel" and poured her ashes in those waters to "swim with the dolphins".

I feel the magic of her presence when I see dolphins while boating with friends, on the drive through the Everglades on the way to the Keys or a Miami Dolphins game.  I sense her during great sunsets, especially after a rain.

If you're still with me, you may now understand the intention behind my Fantasy novel-in-progress, FaerieWolf.  I hope to infuse the magic of this place, as discerned through those magical sunsets, into a work that argues for and defends her life's journey of healer, champion of those misunderstood and often mistreated.  My mother is Jewely Patchouli and she is my Butterfly Queen.



*For anyone critical of my usage of this often inflammatory term, know that it was a term of affection from her to me, along with "girl-child".  She used it when she was imparting ancient wisdom to me.  My great-grandmother, Minnie Lalonde, was an Ojibwe woman who married a frenchman, Joseph.  I do not seek to disrespect, conflate, or dishonor anyone with my words, and sincerely apologize if I do so.  Please refer to the following link for further information of this term and its usage.
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/squaw.html