May Day

Today is Friday May 1. I just finished rearranging my altar. I'm very happy with it right now. All I'd like is another stem of flowers for the Mary vase. Wonder, can I keep it up? I'll try.
Last night I searched the Internet for a picture of Christ that I can identifiy with. Its hard. Most are too masculine, not recognizing the Divine Feminine in Christ. But then, I found just the perfect picture. Christ meditating in a garden, sitting in the lotus position. No artist credit given. I printed it in 5 x 7 format, put it in a frame and now the picture is the center of my altar. The wonders of the computer still fill me with amazement.
This picture seems to put everything in order. My small alabaster Buddha sits to the left and a white porcelain Mary in prayer with a vase behind her in on the right with 2 stalks of pale purple irises that I picked this morning in the rain. That's where I'd like another stalk of flowers. Some day the pink yarrow that I bought yesterday can go in there, or soon the blaze red roses from the herb garden. They are about to pop open today. Just need a little sun for encouragement.
In front of the Christ picture are two very small framed pictures of my parents - one is on their wedding day and another 2 fold has one of my dad working at his lathe and one of him holding me outside when I was about 5 months old. On either side of the Christ picture is a blue tall candle. On the far left, near the Buddha statue is my mindfulness bell. Finally in front of Mary is a glass paper weight with small multicolored strips of fabric embedded in the clear glass. This is something from my childhood home - something that has fascinated me since before I can remember. Under the paper weight is the Christmas letter from my friend Marion Stokes who asked me to pray for her son Rob who is facing life-threatening kidney disease and need for a transplant. I intend to put prayer petitions under this paper weight. The whole altar arrangement is on a piece of white lace curtain that was my mom's and is on top of my cedar chest in my writing studio. I am pleased.

The open window behind the altar looks out to the verdant woods which changes hour by hour. The green of spring oak, hickory and ash fills nearly the entire view with tiny bits of grey sky peeking through and slashes of straight, charcoal grey trunks and branches interrupting the green sea of leaves. In the right foreground a few branches of maple close to the studio poke into the picture, already showing tiny leaf veins of red color and providing perspective to the farther off forest trees.
I imagine that its kind of like living next to the ocean which entirely fills your view with the blues, greens and greys of water. Here, I live in an ocean of trees. In winter they drop their leaves and I am able to see a little farther, to place myself among the distant hills in each direction. Today, May 1, I am already closed in, completely surrounded by trees in all directions. Sometimes when I walk out to the road, I stand a few minutes looking up and down the hill giving my eyes what it seems they long for, the chance to look off in the distance for just a few minutes before I turn back home to woods again.