With a Mother's Encouragement

With a Mother’s encouragement I hit “publish.” The voice was astral but the message was clear. She believed I should write a children’s book. She thought it should be about my little farm and all the antics that went on here. What she doesn’t know (or maybe she does) it turned out to be about her farm and not mine. All those years and a life passed because I thought the book had to meet certain criteria - be the best, become known, be perfect. All of that ego process got in my way of the doing, that is, until a little girl, Juniper, was born. Then, none of that mattered. I just wanted to share with her the stories about my mother. So, there won’t be any book signing. I don’t need to worry or stress about the photograph for the inside cover. I will still have my quiet life. I will still be able to wear my bathrobe to my studio. And, when I bring the one book home from Costco in a week‘s time I will make tea. I will read the book aloud to my astral mother, shed a few tears because she isn’t here and then I will root around for the prettiest tissue paper and wrap that book up for little Juniper.

Happy Mother’s Day Great Grandma OO

Jewels of the Pacific Northwest

The clouds parted and the sun came out.

Little drops twinkled like jewels amongst the bleeding hearts.

Water

A precious resource.

May we always remember to treat it like a rare jewel.

Happy Earth Day!

Spirals

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. "

                                                                        - Albert Einstein

The growth of understanding follows an ascending spiral

rather than a straight line.

                                                                                - Joanna Field

"People like you and I, though mortal of course, like everyone else,

do not grow old no matter how long we live.

What I mean is that we never cease to stand like

curious children before the great mystery into which we were born."

                                                 - Albert Einstein

A Nudge

You know… one those gentle little pushes or joking shoves to move you off base? Usually they are given to you by a loved one or friend who knows you intimately and knows you really need it. Perhaps you have been too serious or have become too rigid in your thinking? Well, I have been getting quite a few nudges lately. When I turn around to see who is giving me this push and encouraging me in a new direction I don’t seen anyone. Humm…. Now isn’t that’s curious?
Who are these nudgers? ( forgive me Webster, I do love to make up words)
I started listening very carefully to the “voice.” In the daytime it is barely audible but it is often accompanied with a big nudge. When met with resistance and excuse making, solutions are given by the nudger. At night time the voice can be so loud that it wakes me from a sound sleep. Isn’t that weird? But worse yet - I have come to the conclusion my nudgers don’t appear to be from the living world.

My latest ‘push me out of a warm bed’ nudge came from a voice I recognized. It was a sweet voice with an encouraging refrain…. “you can do it.” It was the voice of my mother, a year and a half gone from this earth. I dutifully got up and continued working on the project I had been working on all evening. (She and I are working on a project for my new grandbaby, Juniper.) I have had doubts about my part of the scheme. The more I resist, the more she nudges.

She isn’t the only one nudging me and I wish “they” would get organized so I could finish something. I mean I am not a juggler by nature and like to do one thing at a time. But no, said this little girl voice. Oh, her! If she wasn’t so cute I wouldn’t listen. She’s the one who keeps making me draw little gnomes and ink drawings that are whimsical. I can’t help if they aren’t very good. (She has a harder time explaining to me what she wants sometimes. She‘s only about 8 years old, I think.)

I am still puzzling over whose bright idea it was to save tea bags for over a month to create a little book with the tea bag papers? Will the nudger please step forward? So far, I only hear giggling. I will have to get back to you on that one’s identity. Till then here’s an “ in-progress picture.”

I do know one thing - the more I give up ownership, the more creative they become. They are risk takers. I have had to adjust for that. I have been practicing my shrug. This also helps the sore shoulders from working all night!

I say, let’s celebrate our nudgers be they living or dead.

Earl grey or would do you rather

a chocolate coffee nudge?

Jan

Wild Hairs

I stared down at my locks after my haircut on Friday.  The way the little bundles of hair curved to a point reminded me of something.  Oh, it was like my favorite sable paint brush!  I know of wolf, rabbit and weasel hair paint brushes used for sumi-e painting & calligraphy, but never human hair paint brushes.  I picked up a little bundle of curls. I stroked the cut end. It was blunt and sharp. I stroked the other end and found it surprisingly soft. Before you know it I scrounged a chopstick out of my supplies. Unable to find any bendable metal in the stash I opted for black duct tape. I mean, why not? It was just an experiment. I spotted some strong button thread to dress it up a bit. A little trim to the hair and wow, it almost looked like a paint brush. The experimenting continued with black ink, walnut ink and some Indian yellow Radiant watercolor on watercolor paper. This was wonderful - if I ever should be stuck on some tropical island without my art supplies.

This Wild Hair thing 

 is probably the lunacy that comes with constant rain.

It rained all March.

Not to be confused with the rain of the winter season

October, November, December, January and February.

No, this has been different. 

And now that it is April -  

Rain is predicted for all this next week!

 I feel a little  trapped in this underwater world.

Can you see me?

Send me your sun, please.