For many years Halloween was my favorite holiday. I did – and still do! – love everything about it. The costumes, the parties, the candy! The spookiness of it all! Or is it the scariness?? On a walk through the woods the other day, I got to thinking about what spooky really means. And, is there a difference between spooky and scary? All this time I’ve definitely been in the camp that says, yes, there is a difference. But I…
be yourself
January 23, 2017I am reading a book that was a Christmas gift, called “The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember” by Fred Rogers. Yes, the Mister Rogers that many of us grew up with. This book was published in 2003, which is also the year that he passed away. There is a whole section titled The Courage to be Yourself. One of the paragraphs goes like this: “The values we care about the deepest, and the movements within society…
cities of the dead
November 1, 2016We had the good fortune to spend this Halloween weekend in New Orleans. I took a bunch of garden photos to share with you later, but since this is Halloween, let’s look at something a little spookier. We walked through Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. According to www.saveourcemeteries.org, this is the oldest of the seven municipal, city-operated cemeteries in New Orleans. This is not the oldest cemetery I’ve visited, but might be the most interesting. The city is built on a swamp, so the…
art & spirituality
September 19, 2016Julia Cameron makes the statement “Art is a spiritual transaction.” In fact, it is the very first sentence in the introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of The Artist’s Way. I suppose that belief depends on one’s outlook, as do many things. She points out that artists throughout the centuries have spoken of inspiration coming through God or the angels. Steven Pressfield has some really cool things to say about this topic in The War of Art. He quotes Xenophon, an…
beauty
March 18, 2016The last verse from a really great poem called “This is me” by David Neuman: You are beautiful because you are rare, Because no one else can compare. Your face, Your nose, Your eyes, With your sense of humor to comprise, Someone no one else can match. Try to make it in a lab… Try throw it down the hatch. You compare yourself to everyone else, When you are one of a kind. Why can’t you get that in your…
leaving it be
March 2, 2016Looking for signs of spring and new garden life, I came across these pieces of broken sculpture. There must be a story here… how did they come to be here and how did they end up broken? Maybe a strong wind storm knocked the little cherub over, or maybe it was an unfortunate handling mishap. Resisting the urge to mentally engineer a repair, I am finding the pieces appealing just as they are.…
