Weird Sh*t [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Two weeks ago we popped a sweet potato into some soil. Today its vines reach nearly halfway across the deck. The message is clear: don’t sit still next to the sweet potato plant if you value your freedom. We don’t think it is a carnivore but neither of us is willing to test the theory.

Over the years we’ve developed a shorthand phrase, a catchall for the unexplainable stuff of life. Our phrase is a leveler, a way of making the edges less edgy. For instance, after a particularly harrowing medical emergency, Kerri looked at me, knowing I was scared, and said, “Weird sh*t.” I laughed. My blood pressure dropped several floors. Suddenly, the unknown, the terrifying, the mind-run-amok-with-fear had a solid anchor. A simple explanation. Nothing to worry about, it’s just more weird sh*t.

It’s a phrase that comes in handy with the news of the day, the family zoo, the unexpected stuff of life, and the sweet potato plant that is rapidly entwining the house. “What do you think of that?” I ask, amazed at the plant reaching for my feet.

“Weird sh*t,” Kerri says, stepping back.

And with that pronouncement, the unexplainable is explained. Sense is temporarily restored and we allow ourselves to believe that all is right with the world.

from the Logos series, 23″x32″ acrylic on hardboard

read Kerri’s blogpost about SWEET POTATO VINE

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Hear It [on KS Friday]

divine intervention song box copy

When I was sixteen years old, a new driver, I made a left hand turn in front of a delivery truck that I did not see. I’m not sure how it missed me. At the time I had the illusion that it went through me. I saw the grill, felt the rush, and watched as it skidded to a stop in the turn lane I’d just vacated.
After college I went to Europe with my pal, Roger. I was penniless (almost) when we flew back to the USA. We landed in a snowstorm. Roger’s connecting flight to California left without a hitch. I missed mine to Colorado. I was stranded and desperate, knowing I didn’t have the resources to get home. A man standing in line behind me heard my plight and told me of an announcement – a limited number of cheap fares. I raced across the terminal and bought the last ticket, flying the next morning. I had the EXACT amount of money in my pocket. I used my last penny. Literally.
I have thousands of these stories. As, I believe do all of us. I suspect they happen every day, though go largely unnoticed. A single moment this way or that…a stranger’s hand that pulls us back to the curb. A generosity. A gut feeling. An inspiration. A knowing. A calling. A touch. Sisu.
In a world with no compartments, no division between life or death, fall and winter, it’s all divine intervention, isn’t it? Life?  Helping hands are everywhere. There’s no need to believe in a god with a big G or small to appreciate the quiet magic of it all. The scope and mystery of being. The assistance from ‘beyond.’ That’s what Kerri captures in her Divine Intervention. It’s there if you can hear it.

DIVINE INTERVENTION from the album RELEASED FROM THE HEART available on iTunes & CDBaby

 

read Kerri’s blog post about DIVINE INTERVENTION

 

cropped head kiss website copy

divine intervention/released from the heart ©️ 1995 kerri sherwood