Paper Follies ~ A Bit of Whimsy

Stop. Breathe.

Writing on Not Writing

~Jack Myers

I can feel my ship about to come in.

A white ship in a snowstorm

moving in.

 

The ship is made of gulls

huddled together

in the shape of a ship.

 

When it arrives, they will fly out into the storm,

leaving a space inside it

clear as reason.

 

I can tell there's going to be a blizzard

of being somewhere else

any minute

 

because of time's noise eating itself up

that is the noise of listening

that looks like a seething, florid whiteout of wings.

 

{I miss you. I miss me. I miss this.}

 

{blossoming}

 

{every day is an opportunity to blossom}

{moments of clarity?}

 

{note 1: i really thought i would blog every day in july. i think i might be a committment-phob. its just not for me. i don't want to post just because i said i would. there is something very organic about this whole process and a post a day, as much as i WANT to be able to do it, just doesn't exist in the heart of who i am, how i process life. so...}

{note 2: i am wondering if blogging is really for me. i love that it is a space where i can share my thinking, my wanderings, my highs and lows. but there's something in me that WANTS to have comments and friendships that i read about in Artful Blogging and feels competitive. hmph. i don't like that part of me. i keep trying to banish her ~ she keeps coming back ~ kind of like that creepy chick in The Ring movies ~ you know the drippy, wet, slimy girl that comes through the t.v.?

note 2 1/2: i LOVE the folks that come by...LOOOVEEE you, but i love visiting you just as much. maybe i'm just meant to be a commenter?}

{note 3: i think, perhaps, my blog is a little unfocused. i keep thinking that structure is the key. that if only i kept to a structure for each day of the week, i would be better (?) at this ~ "go away creepy girl" ~ see i just can't seem to get her to go away.}

{question: your thoughts? your experiences? please, please i want to hear from you...if you're out there}

 

and a poem, for creepy girl:

Dilemma

I want to be

     famous

so I can be

     humble

about being

     famous.

What good is my

     humility

when I am

     stuck

in this

     obscurity?

          ~David Budbill

 

 

 

 

 

{recognizing creativity}

 

*i love to create little vignettes with my treasures ~ a tangible, changeable form of expressing my creative self*

{creativity takes many forms}

{is there something you do that you can bestow the lens of creativity upon; something that makes you realize that creativity does not have to be defined so traditionally?}

{indulging luxury}

 

*i love to read late at night, when everyone else has long dozed off ~ my midnight snack*

{indulging in luxuries is not a selfish act, it makes you more present for everything else}

{what are you loving reading right now?}

{being industrious}

 

*i love the feeling of accomplishment that comes when i wake up to meet the dawn and start checking off the list and having time to enjoy the little moments too.*

{being industrious brings such sweet honey}

{write a list, check things off as you go, enjoy the feeling of satisfaction as you tic the little boxes off - one by one.}

***************************************************************************************

today's list:

bake cake - check

take photos - check

try out new hot rollers for country-western star hairdo - check

peek in on sleeping teenager - check

pick up new chair - check

take more photos - check

pack for lake - check

love on dogs - check

go to grocery store - check

pick up an iced chai - check

go to bookstore - check

frost cake - check

love on cats - check

pick up teenager's contacts - check (freak out at price - double check)

text husband twice because he has my driver's license - check

birdwatch - check

fold laundry - check

blog  for the days i will be gone - quarter-check...

pack a camera, ipod, computer, gears k'nex kit - check

blog some more - half check...

and its only 2:43. yum ~ sweet honey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

pearl forming {mosaic monday}

 

{teenagers}

One day they disappear

into their rooms.

Doors and lips shut

and we become strangers

in our own home.

 

I pace the hall, hear whispers,

a code I knew but can't remember,

mouthed by mouths I taught to speak.

 

Years later the door opens.

I see faces I once held,

open as sunflowers in my hands. I see

familiar skin now stretched on long bodies

that move past me

glowing almost like pearls.

 

{pat mora}  

***mosaic monday inspired by this lovely one: curious girl***                                                                                          

 

Round and Round She Goes

 

I love the cyclical nature of teaching. There is such a rhythm to the year, such that when I say new year I mean August not January. Life skips to the beat of the school year.

These days, of course, it is the summer holiday. Summer days, dreamed away, pondering new ideas, considering those first days back and then lapsing into days of summer reverie. The approaching return lingering in the back of my mind. New faces, new lessons, new pencils, new shoes. Ideas float and resurface, like little cards attached to the spokes of the wheel.

While I am cycling the freshly unpacked treasures back out into our life ~art materials from the garage to the shed, dishes from the kitchen to the garage, linens from the laundry room to the hall closet ~ in all these seeminghly rote moments, I know what is happening. Somewhere in my subconcious I am processing, mulling, percolating the ideas that will come in this new year. New classroom arrangements, new procedures, new ways of teaching, new ways of being a community.

So even, while I feel that I am just walking in circles right now, I know those circles are going to get me somewhere. Unlike Frost, I get to travel down both paths and arrive at two destinations: a finished house, home,  and the beginnings of a new year worked out in those circular treks of unpacking.

Round and round she goes.

Unfolding From a Bud of Quiet

 

What is your current obsession?

Finishing this, err, lovely? remodel.

What is your weirdest obsession?

Journals. I always touch (more like caress, but that sounds oddly creepy) the paper…the paper texture is soooo important. And then I buy them and have oodles of them tucked away in various closets, purses, bags. I really need to actually consistently write in one.

What are you wearing today?

You do not want to know. Since I have the summer off {teacher}, I am pretty fashion backwards for three months. And I really love to wear minimal clothing, so the uniform is usually shorts and a tank. Which is a long way of saying, today: shorts and my Chris Isaak t-shirt ~ because Chris, I love you in all your weirdness. I am sure we would be a wonderfully quirky couple.

What's for dinner?

Just ate my favourite salad. I love lazy summer salad days ~ with sunflower seeds on top.

What would you eat for your last meal?

Artichokes with butter and some crusty French bread and a really good glass, no, bottle of Sangiovese. No dessert, I don’t much like sweets. Just another glass of wine, please.

What's the last thing you bought?

Hmm…sadly I think it was a new comb. Okay, I actually bought three because I’m indecisive like that. I had my old comb for 10 years and hated parting (no pun intended) with it. It was too hard of a choice to try to find one to match the perfectness of the last one.

What are you listening to right now?

Jonatha Brooke. Hem. Michael Jackson. My dh hitting on the shelves in the closet ~ getting it ready for a new closet system! (yes, the work room closet is finally getting organized AND it’s the last big part of the never-ending remodel!). And the dogs click-clicking on the wood floor with a little panting thrown in for good measure.

What is your favourite ice-cream flavour?

Well, I’m not so much an ice cream girl, so this is the question I’m dumping off (see rules below) and changing it to this:

If your life could be summed up in six words what would they be?

Teach, dream, teach, create, teach, love.

What do you think of the person who tagged you?

Kendalee  amazes me. Humorous, loving, articulate, great eye for detail, curious…still getting to know her, but love visiting her blog every day.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

I might fix up the barn a bit.

Lake Como, Italy

It wouldn’t hurt to have George {Clooney} around too.

Abiquiu, New Mexico 

Georgia O'Keefe got it right. 

 If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Which language do you want to learn?

Italian ~ that way I’d be ready to move in when George {Clooney} finally called to have me move into The Villa.

Who do you want to meet right now?

Oh. There are so many. That is really tough. I think I can narrow it down to two women: Mary Oliver and Barbara Kingsolver.

What is your favourite colour?

Stormy sky, steely grayish blue. I don’t use this color in my home or my wardrobe, but when I see it in the sky, which is often these days of our early monsoon season summer, I just feel at peace.

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?

Blech. I need to lose weight, so nothing really.

Your favourite quote?

"Words are a form of action, capable of influencing change."

  ~ Ingrid Bengis

What is your dream job?

Hands down, artist ~ to be able to create every day and put a message out to the world for others to connect to and make enough to support my end of the family finances.

What is your favourite magazine?

Hmmm…I’m not much of a magazine reader. Of late, I have enjoyed a mysterious subscription to Wired that we have been receiving. And then I realized that there are two that are always around: Ode Magazine (because who doesn't want to be an intelligent optimist?) and The Sun. My least favourite: Sports Illustrated ~ the half read editions that languish in corners and piles around my house OR the fully read editions that get a solid two hours of undivided attention, hanging on every word, with no ability to attend to anything else, that still get left languishing in various states of repose around the house.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?

That translates to $164.92 in US dollars.

I think I would spend in on something that fit, so that I could have an answer to my current favourite piece of clothing because even chubby girls can look good in something!

Favourite designer?

Meh.

Describe your personal style.

Very eclectically modern and vintage. Simple. Clean. Sparse.

What are three things (big or small) that you would still like to achieve this year?

A healthy body ~ firm thighs and unflabby triceps.

A hefty body of complete artwork.

To quit making excuses and do the things that would really make me happy.

What are your favourite movies?

I’m sure there are oodles more. I have a binge movie problem, so there are years where I can’t watch enough and dry years. But here’s a few I’d watch again and again:

1. Bennie and Joon and any other Johnny Depp movie (sigh, he’s my weakness, sorry George)

2. Waking Ned Divine

3. Once

4. The Brothers McMullen

5. Mystic River (I do think I might have a little something for Sean Penn, too. Perhaps because at one point I really wanted to be Madonna.)

6. 21 Grams

7. The Breakfast Club: only because it’s a great high school memory

8. The Lion King: Ryan’s first movie

What's your favourite fruit?

I have a love hate relationship with fruit. It seems that unless I have just picked it myself, it really doesn’t have much flavor. And then, too, if it is mushy or spotty or generally funky, I have a hard time. So, I think I’ll settle on the tastiest, non-mushy, perfectly ripe cantaloupe. Grapefruit, you come in a close second.

What inspires you?

Hope. I am hopelessly hopeful. Every morning I wake up inspired by the hope that today will be the day for something. And music ~ my life is remembered as a soundtrack.

What music do you like this week?

The better question would be what music don’t I like this week.

That would be misogynistic, cursing music. Otherwise, I can pretty much listen to anything. (Well, there might be some adult, easy listening music that would be cut too.)

Today, it’s been acoustic version day and a little reggae-inspired rock. I’m really loving:

Alanis Morissette ~ Head Over Feet (acoustic)

311 ~ Amber (a little reggae funk)

Michael Stipe and Coldplay ~ In the Sun (acoustic)

Rob Thomas ~ Ever the Same (acoustic)

Bryan Adams ~ Summer of ’69 (acoustic)

John Mellencamp ~ Small Town (acoustic)

Rufus Wainwright ~ Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (doesn’t fit either)

Keren Ann ~ Are You Lonesome Tonight? (doesn't fit either, either!)

Hey, and I only see one reggae-esque song. Hmmm…

 What is something you know with every fibre of your being?

That love is a fire which consumes me.

*"The rules": 1. Respond and rework - answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own. 2. Tag five other people. {3. Rules are made to be bent.}

Reason for Rule #3: I really don’t like tagging folks. I never was any good at that game. I much rather liked freeze tag, where you got to untag people. So if you want to share a bit about you, don’t forget to let me know, so I can head on over and get to know you better.

 

Phew, how's that for breaking the silence?

What Begins with G?

 

Green!

Growth!

Garden!

Goodness!

(one of my favorite mother nature color combinations:

apple green and chocolate brown.)

{i love going out into the backyard and glimpsing these colors exploding over the back wall. and occassionally, i'll spy a tennis shoe or two and hear a giggle or three, and i am taken back to my tree climbing days. days when billy and i would sit in the branches pretending to be in a spaceship, stuffed monkeys by our sides,  headed to the moon. }