Do You Know Where Your Ham Is?

I was just at my hair stylist's house getting my Easter "doo" and he told me a very funny story.   His wife is a vegetarian but on special occasions she buys a piece of meat and cooks it for him.    She had been the grocery store and had purchased a piece of ham for just this purpose.  As she was hauling the grocery bags into the house, the telephone rang.    She dropped the bags at the door and went to answer it.   When she returned a few minutes later, she was just in time to see a very large raccoon with the piece of ham clutched in his teeth waddling away triumphantly.   The morale of the story....."always keep an eye on your ham" and "we are being watched!"   Warm Easter greetings to you all.

The Power of Words

I am a great believer in the power of the unexpected as you may have guessed from my posts.   For as along as I can remember I have kept journals full of quotations, photos, letters, passages from books....anything that has moved me in some way.   I mentioned a little while ago that I was having trouble sleeping and that I was trying meditation using CDs that my DH had purchased for me.   One of them ended with the most beautiful poem by Wendell Berry.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


— Wendell Berry 


Coincidentally, I was to make skinny pages for an exchange with the theme  "The Essence of Dreams" so I used this gorgeous poem as my inspiration.

Lessons in Nature

I witnessed an amazing occurrence recently.   I was walking into work early in the morning when I noticed a disturbance in the sign above the Mall door as I entered.    It is one of those large lit signs with each individual letter lit from behind.   I had noted that sparrows were nesting in it but hadn't paid much attention.  A furious flapping, however, beckoned me to take closer note.   A male sparrow was hanging by his foot from one of the letters.   At first  he desperately flapped his wings to try to release himself.   This didn't work.   All of a sudden, another male sparrow made an appearance and took hold of his "friend's" beak and pulled, flapping his wings furiously.   After approximately three tries, the trapped bird was released.   I felt so blessed and humbled to have been witness to this display.  Why did I not think think that birds, like humans, would come to the rescue of another?  

The journal pages above were created with the parallels between humans and birds in mind.   I used quotations from a vintage bird book about the care of the young.   They just struck me as so similar to the care of our young.   Ah, nature has much to teach us if we pay close attention. 

Today I'm Gonna Try to Change the World

Have you ever had a piece of music immediately speak to you?   bring tears to your eyes?  a smile to your face?   Songs are so powerful that way.   I just borrowed the latest Johnny Reid CD from the library called "A Place Called Love".   On it is a song called "Today I'm Gonna Try to Change the World".  It made me stop as soon as I heard it and listen closely to the lyrics.   It's all about those things we do day to day without thinking about reward or return that do make a difference in others' lives.   We may not know this for a  while or ever but a smile to someone who is lonely or a kind word to someone who is hurting can indeed change a person's outlook.   I was having a very bad day this past week and a colleague stopped by the area where I was working with a piece of warm banana oat bran loaf.   It was like a hug to me.   Did she know that she had perked me up and made me feel nourished and nurtured?   Maybe or maybe not....but she had.   Hope you enjoy the song as much as I do.

 

Life is Like a Dance

I just spent a marvelous, soul-warming few hours with a good friend of mine. We went for lunch to a lovely tea room nestled among pine trees. The place started as a potter's studio and continues to run as one in addition to the restaurant. They actually serve the meals on the potter that they create. In the course of our discussion, my friend imparted something that she had recently heard. She said that instead of looking at life as a journey, we should perhaps regard it as a dance. Sometimes the music changes but we are constantly moving in some way. We may change partners, dance alone or even collide with people but we continue to move to the rhythm. I thought this was a lovely metaphor and could feel the wisdom in it. It reminded me of this piece that I had created a while ago.

Worry

I consider one of my biggest struggles in life to be "worry". I live sometimes in an almost constant state of anxiety. Did I do the right thing? Am I good enough? Did I remember to do everything I should? Should I really be taking time off work when I have so much to do? This constant circular thinking sometimes keeps me up at night and tends to rob me of precious moments that could be spent in more relaxing and beneficial ways. My DH, in turn, worries about the effects of my worrying and purchased a CD for me on meditation. Think it's time to gift myself with a little time each day not spent in anxiety of what could of been or what might be. It's time to live for the now.

Awakening

So is anyone else checking out their gardens VERY frequently discovering sprouts here and there. Perhaps, like me, you planted spring bulbs in the fall hoping that the squirrels wouldn't eat them all!! I'm already seeing crocuses fully bloomed and daffodils and tulips well on their way. I'm amazed by the bird song on my early morning runs. After a winter of virtual silence on the bird front, the noise just seems almost deafening at times!! Well, 'tis the season to find a mate and produce some of those wacky babies we all know and love. I'm looking forward to watching their antics. Stay tuned for spring/summer 2011!

Above is a photo of a wee robin who visited a couple of summers ago.

Mina Benson Hubbard

I read a book....yes, I know that is shocking given that I'm a librarian....but it was a book that has stayed with me for years. It is a book about a woman called Mina Benson Hubbard. She was a remarkable woman. This is how the online Canadian Encyclopedia described her and her accomplishments:

From the time she plunged into the unknown Labrador wild, crossing huge lakes of wind-whipped white caps, running kilometre after kilometre of dancing, foam-flecked rapids down the George River until it lost its wilderness spirit in Ungava Bay, Mrs. Hubbard was not idle. She brought back the first maps of the Naskaupi and George River valleys, which were accepted by the American Geographical Society and the Geographical Society of Great Britain. She made notes on the flora and fauna of Labrador. She described in detail the great Labrador caribou migration and photographed the Naskaupi and Montagnais Indians who hunted the animals for their food and clothes.

Mrs. Hubbard's expedition was extraordinary by any measure. Given the era and the fact that she was a woman, her trip stands out like a beacon in the annals of Canadian exploration.

I'm blessed to be a part of a round robin journal exchange that has just begun. I have to admit that I am partial to exchanges in which the journals actually travel. I know the risks....postal issues being the biggest....but it means something to have a journal in one's hand. To feel its textures and experience it's colours and vibrancy. The theme of my journal is "Women Who Dared...." and that is what inspired this post. The spread on Mina Benson Hubbard had been nibbling at my artful subconscious for some time and this was my chance to release it. I hope to continue to commemorate females who accomplished extraordinary feats in times of incredible hardship and in societies that discouraged them.

If you get a chance, check out the book on Mina....you won't be disappointed. I'd love to hear about the women who inspire you!

An Unexpected Surprise

I belong to a wonderful yahoogroup with a small group of artists. Each year, we select forms and themes of art we'd like to exchange with one another. For the past 12 months, we've passed around skinny pages. I find even a change in shape of page can be inspiring and this long thin form is no exception. I've been in an artful funk for about a month now so was overdue with my March pages. The wonderful theme was "From Grandma's Attic". I don't know why it took me a while to get my head around the subject but it did. I procrastinated and half-heartedly gathered bits and pieces. Yesterday, my muse finally stretched and awakened after a long nap. I remembered that I had purchased a packet of old letters on Etsy a while ago. When I had received them, I hadn't really paid much attention to the contents. I dug them out and discovered a bunch of love notes sent by a young woman to the man she adored. Included in one envelope was a series of tiny photos and a lock of her hair! I was thrilled to say the least and used one of the letters and an envelope for these two pages.