Mindwhisperings

Gratitude explodes in my heart

2011-05-04T17:49:00.002-04:00

"...I seek truth & beauty in the transparency of an autumn leaf, in the perfect form of a seashell on the beach, in the curve of a woman's back, in the texture of an ancient tree trunk, but also in more elusive forms of reality. Sometimes working on an image in my darkroom, the soul of a person appears, the emotion or vital essence of some object; at that moment, gratitude explodes in my heart & I cry. I can't help it. Such revelations are the goal of my work."

- Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia

A New Year: returning to the origin of things

2010-12-30T20:53:00.006-05:00

And stepping into the new year, a pause beckons to us from the shadows. "Slow down!" it whispers, inviting us to sit quietly, our focus shifted inward, reaching into the center and returning us to what is real, to what is original. "Original has two meanings," writes John Berger in Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos. "It means a return to the origin, the first which engendered everything that followed; and it means that which has never occurred before."

In this new silence, the world (for but a moment and forever) still, may we learn to hold these tensions -tensions between the first things and that which has never occurred before, between the past and the present, the distance from and longing for - side by side, in a way that is no longer contradictory.

A piece of inspiration I caught recently on Studio 360- Origin Lessons by Amy Bender. Have a listen:

Hold everything dear

2010-12-28T19:27:00.002-05:00

The faith and

the love and

the hope

are all in the waiting...

~T.S. Eliot

On, In, and Around Mondays

2010-12-13T18:01:00.004-05:00

harvesting greens from the hoop house

gathering wood and hoping to stay warm!

P.S. Please remember to VOTE in support of Amazing Heart Farm's project for the Intelligent Use of Water Award!

A Letter To You

2010-12-10T19:03:00.005-05:00

I like to think of winter as a time of rest here on the farm. And now that the garden's covered over with snow, aside from collecting wood, it is. With more time on my hands, over the last few weeks, I've had a chance to look into funding for our up-coming projects. And a few days ago, I submitted a project to Rain Bird's Intelligent Use of Water Award. The award is, in their words, "an interactive grant program that awards funds to water conservation and environmental sustainability projects that promote green spaces. A global initiative, any Internet user can submit a project via the Intelligent Use of Water Awards website at www.iuowawards.com and promote it within his or her own community. All projects can be anonymously voted upon by visitors (one vote a day per project, per individual user), and the projects with the most votes will receive funding from Rain Bird according to their funding category.”

To help us meet our project goals (see goals below), we need your vote! You can vote once a day through March 1st, 2011. To vote:
• Click on the following link: http://www.iuowawards.com/Projects.aspx#search
• enter Amazing Heart Farm into the search
• click on the thumbs up sign to vote for our project
To increase our chances of winning, please pass along this information to anyone you know who might want to help out!

OUR Project Description:
With the help of her husband, community volunteers & a Project Orange Thumb grant through FISKARS, in the spring of 2010, Elizabeth Weller established Amazing Heart Farm, a Certified Naturally Grown CSA just outside of Gettysburg, PA. By harnessing the therapeutic benefits of creative and physical work, we aim to provide a safe space for members of the local community to engage in emotional work and healing, to gain access to community resources and to learn to use personal and community supports while providing themselves, their families and the local community with locally grown, fresh food.
OUR Project Goals:
To irrigate our crops, we currently harvest rain water and overflow from our well from two 275 gallon containers. As we expand our production, we’ll be using more water and we’ll need to have an irrigation system in place. We’d like to use the Intelligent Use of Water Award to build a small irrigation pond that will be store the overflow from our well and to build a corresponding irrigation system for an acre of Certified Naturally Grown vegetable production.

To learn more about what we're doing, please visit the Amazing Heart Farm web-site.

In the mean-time, please vote!

Many thanks,
Elizabeth

2010-10-29T20:17:00.001-04:00

A spark in the sun,
this tiny flower has roots
deep in the cool earth.
- Harry Behn

Now I feel the tenderness to which the season rots

2010-10-09T15:13:00.004-04:00

"Autumn teaches us that fruition is also death; that ripeness is a form of decay. The willows, having stood for so long near water, begin to rust...

...Today the sky is a wafer. Placed on my tongue, it is a wholeness that has already disintegrated; placed under the tongue, it makes my heart beat strongly enough to stretch myself over the winter brilliances to come. Now I feel the tenderness to which the season rots. Its defenselessness can no0 longer be corrupted. Death is its purity, its sweet mud..."

- Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces

posted for Deb.

The Unforseen Wilderness

2010-10-07T12:58:00.005-04:00

"And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be home."
-Wendell Berry

This flower, and a star.

2010-10-06T09:03:00.003-04:00

Whatever gladdens the mind is

of the scent of the Beloved,

Whatever enraptures the heart is

a ray from my friend.

-RUMI

The Seer

2010-09-10T20:03:00.003-04:00

"The boundlessly visible includes but also excludes man. He sees, and he sees that he is being continually abandoned. Appearances belong to the boundless space of the visible. With his inner eye man experiences the space of his own imagination and reflection. Normally it is within the protection of this inner space that he places, retains, cultivates, lets run wild or constructs meaning.

At the moment of revelation when appearance and meaning become identical, the space of physics and the seer's inner space coincide: momentarily and exceptionally the seer achieves an equality with the visible. To lose all sense of exclusion; to be at the center..."

John Berger

Majestic

2010-07-31T17:57:00.002-04:00

A strawflower, so simply........majestic.

Here Inside My Heart

2010-06-15T20:34:00.001-04:00

Last night, as I slept,
I dreamt--marvellous error!--
that it was God I had
here inside my heart
Antonio Machado

only sacredness.

2010-05-07T12:40:00.002-04:00

Something opens our wings. Something

makes boredom and hurt disappear.

Someone fills the cup in front of us.

We taste only sacredness.

-Rumi

Nourishing:

2010-03-30T17:55:00.004-04:00

Response to The Four's no. 25:

To Love and Let Go

2010-03-25T11:14:00.007-04:00

These photos are dedicated to Jane, a dear friend and kindred spirit who passed away yesterday evening. She taught me to live in Joy and with Curiosity, always seeking Truth. With an armful of daffodils and grape hyacinth, I went to visit her yesterday afternoon, hoping to fill her with the scent of spring (how she loved the days of spring!).

I found her in much worse shape than I anticipated and left in sobs, sadness lingering over my heart.

Upon returning home, I grabbed my camera and settled onto my new ladybug tree swing, spinning circle after circle, imagining myself a whirling dervish, gently urging my heart to Love and to Let Go.

Jane would have liked to hear about my new ladybug tree swing.

Toward dusk I returned inside. Soon after, I received a phone call from my mother. Jane Clawson had passed away, a bouquet of daffodils resting on her chest. I'd like to think that her last breaths were sweet, gently carrying her across the threshold of her life and into the welcoming arms of an eternal Spring.

Happy Spring!

2010-03-20T20:56:00.000-04:00

The Infinite: dancing from the tips of our fingers through the bottoms of our toes...

2010-03-07T21:02:00.006-05:00

"Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping..." Julia Cameron

Song

2010-03-01T20:51:00.004-05:00

(a New Orleans classroom emptied by Katrina)

SONG
This is a song for the speechless,
the dumb, the mute and the motley,
the unmourned! This is a song for every
pig that was too thin to be slaughtered
last night, but was slaughtered
anyway, every worm that was hooked
on a hook it didn't expect,
every chair in New York City that has
no arms or legs, and can't speak English,
every sofa that has ever been torn
apart by the children or the dog
and earmarked for the dump, every sheet
that was lost in the laundry, every
car that has been stripped down and
abandoned, too poor to be towed away,
too weak and humble to protest.
Listen, this song is for you even if
you can't listen to it, or join in;
even if you don't have lungs, even
if you don't know what a song is,
or want to know. This song is for
everyone who is not listening tonight
and refuses to sing. Not singing
is also an act of devotion; those
who have no voices have one tongue.

- Edward Hirsch

listen here

The Four's Challenge # 24

2010-02-21T09:58:00.002-05:00

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.

~Loran Eisely

A letter from Joanna...

2010-02-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

"...From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines...

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons.

It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth..."

from Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman

Treasure

2010-02-12T17:44:00.005-05:00

#59, Cold Mountain Poems

In the old days when I was so poor,

Night after night I counted other men's wealth.

Recently I thought it over

And decided to open a business of my own.

I dug a hole and found a hidden treasure-

A store of crystal jewels.

A blue-eyed foreigner came in secret

And wanted to buy them and take them away,

But I only answered him,

"These jewels are beyond price!"

-Han -shan

To live deep within your heart

2010-01-27T18:09:00.006-05:00

A Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with DISCOMFORT at
easy answers, half-truths, and superficial
relationships so that you may live deep
within your heart.

May God bless you with ANGER at injustice,
oppression, and exploitation of people so that
you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with TEARS to shed for
those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation
and war so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough FOOLISHNESS
to believe that you can make a difference in this world
so that you can DO what others claim cannot be done.

And a link that will touch your heart: the places we live

Weaving

2010-01-23T20:09:00.005-05:00

“To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?”

-Cicero

Happy New Year

2010-01-06T13:05:00.002-05:00

It's 2010 already! And winter. I've spent the morning planning for next year's harvest, working on CSA membership options, wishing for sunshine but savoring this time of rest. I've created a slideshow of our first year in our new home which you can view here:

Happy New Year!

2009-12-23T21:00:00.002-05:00

Living is a form of not being sure, not

knowing what next or how . . . We guess.

We may be wrong, but we take leap after

leap in the dark.

Agnes de Mille

Which do you prefer?

2009-12-10T13:59:00.003-05:00

Thank you Elk for your suggestions on Flickr!

I like the second version (posted 1st here) best. Which do you prefer?

(second version)

(first version)

A Joyful Walk in the Woods

2009-12-09T09:44:00.003-05:00

This magical pathway is a section of the AT just moments from my house, and 2 miles North on the trail... I discovered it a few weeks ago when my mom and I did the 20 mile section from Pine Grove to Caledonia and I think it'll be my new walking place. Dancing through the corridor of Rhododendron to the sound of water splashing a few feet away, it feels as though I've entered a sacred grove of the ancients, their wisdom breathing me, from the inside out, wide open and... free.

It's amazing how close adventure is, so easily found around the corners of our everyday world, as we pause to study it from new angles, in different light...

My heart is filled with gratitude for this sacred day.

Tread Softly Because You Tread on my Dreams...

2009-12-03T13:52:00.002-05:00

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

-W.B. Yeats

The Four, no. 20

2009-11-30T08:27:00.003-05:00

I found I could say things with color and shapes

that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.

-Georgia O'Keefe

challenge posted on The Four

"...as if she'd passed through some door into a place where she could walk surely on the ground of her life." B. Kingsolver

2009-11-27T10:59:00.005-05:00

Moving forward with dreams, taking risks, commiting myself to the living -the dangers of living for even one day!- fully engaged, participating, speaking loud enough to become visible, to say:

"But this is what I value and hold true. This is what I want. And I want to share it with you..."

Please, check out my new web-site, a space for me to articulate what I want and to engage others because living so fully, our hearts wide open, our breathing deep, involves a community of people, engaged in the conversation, helping us to understand and to evolve...

A Joyful (belated) Thanksgiving to all of you!

Response to the Four, no. 19

2009-11-23T18:25:00.003-05:00

For challenge no. 19, click here. My response:

Blushing with Gratitude

2009-11-22T18:39:00.006-05:00

These days filled with treasure, nights folded cozy beneath a starry sky. Following the rays of my head lamp, we walk arm in arm, stacking the furnace with wood, tucking our cold frames goodnight, with every step dazzled with gratitude, our dreams breathing us...

Patheos, balanced views of religion and spirituality

2009-11-18T19:14:00.006-05:00

Some of you might enjoy reading an article I recently wrote on the Christian liturgical year. It's posted on Patheos, a relatively new web-site dedicated to interfaith dialogue.

The bridge between

2009-11-14T18:54:00.001-05:00

"What is this flooding me, childhood or manhood...

and the hunger that crosses the bridge between?"

Walt Whitman

Moving Inwards

2009-11-09T18:57:00.004-05:00

"Fundamentally it is inward--into the depths where obscure resistances are overcome,

and long lost, forgotten powers are revivified,

to be made available for the transfiguration of the world"

-Joseph Campbell

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

"Curious, beautiful, wondersome"

2009-11-05T16:19:00.004-05:00

My response to The Four's no. 18:

sincerity of heart.

2009-10-14T19:13:00.007-04:00

The Four's Challenge no. 17: LOVE

2009-10-05T17:59:00.005-04:00

Pauses

2009-09-20T17:14:00.003-04:00

Dance.

2009-09-03T18:49:00.002-04:00

Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance, when you're perfectly free.

-RUMI

"And our faces, my heart, brief as photos"

2009-08-31T20:41:00.009-04:00

The flower in the heart's

wallet, the force

of what lives us
outliving the mountain.

-J. Berger

a BELATED macro/mosiac Monday:

2009-08-25T19:59:00.003-04:00

The bountiful harvest: August is such a FULL month... These hot peppers one of many delights!
May you fill your bellies with colorful greens and the sweet taste of ripened fruit!

Swiss Chard (Bright Lights) and Kale (Red Russian)

2009-08-18T20:20:00.003-04:00

Happy harvest: a rainbow of color for ElK

The Four's challenge no. 16:

2009-08-17T15:51:00.003-04:00

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
~Leonardo Da Vinci

To participate, click here

Summer Love

2009-08-15T17:16:00.002-04:00

I encountered the "blue screen of death" a few weeks ago, lost everything on my computer (deep sigh) and spent a few weeks off-line, realizing how quickly the priviledge of having a computer has (on both a personal and cultural level) become necessity. The weeks without weren't so bad actually, especially in the fine company of my summer love (who would be the taste of a blueberry of course!)... But I am glad to be back and I look forward to once again visiting the many blog-places I've come to love!

More of the Milkweed. a Wild Beauty.

2009-07-18T22:22:00.003-04:00

(more milkweed)

Being Different

How much difference between yes and no?

....climbing a tower...

Everybody has something to do

I'm the clumsy one, out of place

I'm the different one,

for my food

is the milk of the mother.

Tao Te Ching

In honor of those things wild and free...

2009-07-16T16:11:00.002-04:00

"Listen with the ear of your heart"

2009-07-13T17:17:00.006-04:00

There's a new twist to the poetry parties at Abbey of the Arts. Christine writes: "Instead of my selecting a theme and image and inviting you to respond with words, I select a theme and poem and invite you to respond with images." A reversal of sorts. I love it! To participate, click the icon below:

This month's Photo Party Theme is Listen with the Ear of Your Heart:

ears listen, eyes look,
hearing, seeing below ground

to the sacred source

...

Happy Macro Mosaic Monday!

2009-07-13T14:41:00.000-04:00

Friday Greetings

2009-07-10T07:42:00.006-04:00

Good morning! I'm off to meet my mom for a bike ride (glad I'm close enough to do that now!) Here's a shot from Lily's water bowl- A flower petal marked with love...

Gifts From the Sun

2009-07-09T19:39:00.003-04:00

In response to The Four's no. 13, a challenge by Darlene:

.Sunshine.

Baking Bread

2009-07-09T14:51:00.005-04:00

I love to bake, probably because my first "real" job was working in the Harvest Barn at Gould Farm (an amazing place, with many stories... for another time, perhaps) where I learned how to knead dough and braid Challah, make GIGANTIC batches of Zucchini Bread and sweet Pumpkin butter, blend basil leaves into delicious pesto, grind dried mint for tea bags, bottle vinaigrettes for sale at the Roadside Store and, my favorite, churn fresh cream into butter (with a mixer of course...) Rising at 5 am to milk the cows, then showering to pick up my work crew and begin a days work of processing fresh veggies for winter, baking bread and packaging Gould Farm specialities for sale--these were some of the best days of my life...

My favorite bread recipe these days is a spin off from The Tassajara Bread Book's Oatmeal Bread. My measurements aren't exactly precise and I add ground flax seed and wheat bran to the whole wheat flour and oats so it turns out a bit different every time, but always warm to the belly and tasty with a dab of melted butter, occasionally a spoonful of jam...

(a pause and much love for the woman who taught me to bake. Her gifts have stayed with me...)

I've fallen in love with the scent of a milkweed...

2009-07-08T15:48:00.001-04:00

Central PA

2009-07-06T08:07:00.002-04:00

Happy Macro/Mosaic Monday!

Luscious

2009-07-05T20:34:00.005-04:00

I climbed through a fine patch of poison ivy for these luscious beauties (dressed in my long-sleeved, rugged finest of course; I'm not completely mad) and at the moment I'm thinking they were worth it... Let's hope I'm still thinking that a few days from now :)

*These photos were inspired by this lovely image...

BLUE

2009-07-04T22:27:00.003-04:00

Finally, I have an image for the Four's no. 12, Jaime's challenge: BLUE

Happy July 4th!

hidden in secret places I find-

2009-06-25T11:34:00.004-04:00

I will give you the

treasures of darkness

and riches hidden in secret places.
Book of Isaiah 45:3

Mulberry Muffins

2009-06-22T11:45:00.003-04:00

To add to the joys of moving, we've discovered we have an abundance of Mulberries and June berries in our back yard! For these muffins, I used a recipe for whole wheat-blueberry muffins as my base, substituting honey for sugar and adding lots of ground flax seed and wheat germ in addition to the whole wheat flour. They ended up a bit burnt (perhaps 400 degrees was a bit high!) but delicious, especially with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon crusted on top.

What discoveries have brought you joy today?

Pauses

2009-06-19T02:03:00.003-04:00

"How might your life have been different, if, as a young woman, there had been a place for you, a place where you could o to be with women? A place where you could be received as you atrove to order your moments and days.

A place where you could learn a quiet centeredness . . . to help you ground yourself in daily patterns that would nurture you through their gentle rhythms . . . a place where, in the stillness at the endsing of a task, you could feel an ancient presence flowing out to sustain you . . . and you learned to receive and to sustain it in return.

How might your life have been different?"

--Judith Duerk, from Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself

Macro Monday

2009-06-15T14:43:00.009-04:00

In keeping with the tradition started by Georgia B, a few Monday macro shots and much gratitude to--

my parents, and their continued dedication as they celebrate their 35th year

ELK's bird song and loveliness

the life-giving work etched upon my calloused hands

and these magical colors, glittering in the afternoon light...

I've been missing all of you...

2009-06-09T20:01:00.006-04:00

I have been gone for too long! The Four are already up to no. 11, Kirsten's challenge: “Then swing your window open, the one with the fresh air and good eastern light and watch for wings, edges, new beginnings.”
~Monique Duval

As I read her words, this photo flashed before my eyes...
It was taken on a hike with Lily after three days of rain. And scraping paint. Discovering roof leaks. And basement snakes...
Ahh, to be outside again, absorbing the sun into my skin! The morning light and fresh air circled round us like sacred fairy dust, singing songs remembered by heart:

The Four no. 8, Jamie's Challenge

2009-04-29T15:20:00.004-04:00

The world held so gently in a tiny waterdrop...

I thought this fitting for The Four's challenge no. 8:

Inside water, a waterwheel turns. A star circulates with the moon.
We live in the night ocean wondering,What are these lights?
~Rumi

Macro Monday

2009-04-20T14:18:00.004-04:00

This one's for Macro Monday, a tradition I discovered through Char's most recent post:

(I'm looking for a title for this one - I'm pretty awful with titles. Any thoughts?)

The Four, no. 7: Kristen's challenge

2009-04-17T14:00:00.005-04:00

(more photos from New Orleans: Bywater)

Challenge no. 7 from The Four:

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

William Shakespeare

What I remember by heart

2009-04-14T21:29:00.005-04:00

This morning I rolled out of bed round five, threw on some layers and headed to the trail. Lily (my pup) and I climbed the overlook tower just as the sky began showing colors of pink. I lit three tea candles and stood wrapped in my orange hoody, breathing in this moment that once, so long ago, I had remembered by heart.

Today, a message from Yogi Tea

2009-04-13T19:54:00.001-04:00

#58 SHE

2009-04-07T23:59:00.007-04:00

pressed flowers, a macro shot

...

And a poem from Saul Williams, a voice inspired, and filled with, Truth:

i presented

my feminine side

with flowers

she cut the stems

and placed them gently

down my throat

and these tu lips

might soon eclipse

your brightest hopes

SAUL WILLIAMS

from SHE

#57 Seedlings

2009-04-04T13:25:00.006-04:00

TOMATO

BROCCOLI

It's rainy and cold here but watching these seedlings grow lifts my spirits!

And yesterday we received an order from Johnny's Selected Seeds: red romaine, bolero carrot, hansel eggplant, american slicing cucumber, smooth leaf spinach, echinacea, basil, chives, anise hyssop, sunflower, red bulb onion, watermelon, parsley, canteloupe, wild marjoram, bright lights swiss chard, long island cheese winter squash, zucchini squash, sweet peas, buttercup squash, butternut winter squash...

A bit much for the amateur gardener but I'm so excited for warmth and spring, for digging and growth that I could barely reel myself in!

#56 Glide

2009-04-01T11:33:00.007-04:00

GLIDE

This photo, taken on my spring trip to New Orleans, reminds me of a scene from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams writes about the ways in which her life and understanding are changed by the cancer slowly killing the women in her family and the flooding of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a Refuge she cares for, learns from and loves. Her experience of both beg the question: 'How can we find refuge in change?'

After heading to the Bird Refuge on an especially difficult afternoon Tempest writes:
"I love to watch gulls soar over the Great Basin. It is another trick of the lack to lure gulls inland. On days such as this, when my soul has been wrenched, the simplicity of flight and form above the lake untangles my grief. 'Glide' the gulls write in the sky--and, for a few brief moments, I do."
(quoted from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, 75)

#55 The Four, Maddie's Challenge

2009-03-31T06:50:00.005-04:00

I love each new challenge posted by The Four, seeing how they interpret the chosen words so differently, and how beautifully their interpretations overlap. Challenge no. 6 is from Theodore Roethke: 'a small thing, singing...'
For my own response, I'm torn between two. I've decided to post both:

Joanna Greeting Light

2009-03-30T13:16:00.007-04:00

Joanna, sharing her life in New Orleans, so vibrant and full.

Her kindness, her heart, explodes into the streets, like treasure.

[You can support her amazing work at the Kid Camera Project!]

greetings from the South

2009-03-26T23:19:00.004-04:00

I've been visiting New Orleans, am now in Jackson, returning North on Sunday... It's been three years since my last stay here and my days have been filled with the laughter of old friends and stories of remembering.
Raw scenes torn from my heart.
Wounds bathed deep purple, strengthened orange,
the layers of color healing deep and settling into...me.

My first days here I couldn't pick my camera up, then one morning- alone with the light in my dear friend Joanna's kitchen- I couldn't put my camera down. I spent the next two days filling my memory card with painted doorways and reflecting stars, beaded costumes from the Sunday Indian parade and fences covered in flowers, in each picture trying to capture the deep resiliency bursting through, and pouring out of, this city.
(check out the Kid Camera Project's latest endeavors if you're looking to be inspired!)
But, long story short- in a careless moment, the wrong button pressed, I lost my photos.
(Does anyone know how to reverse formatting a memory card?)
And now I'm back to having trouble picking my camera up, as though each picture I take increases the distance between me and my rememberings, as though my journey-not over yet-has already been erased. The experience has me thinking about my photographs, the space they fill and what it means to me....

And my travels here have me thinking about Home, about my sense of place and orientation in the world, about my move back to Pennsylvania the beginning of May, my desire to root deep, beginning with a garden, to paint walls and open windows, to turn compost and put fresh bouquets of flowers in every room.

"Home is the return to where distance did not yet count," writes John Berger.
Perhaps we spend our whole lives remembering what it means to return...

#54 I saw light

2009-03-16T19:58:00.005-04:00

On Foot I Had To Walk Through the Solar System
written by Edith Sodergran
On foot
I had to walk through solar systems,
before I found the first thread of my red dress.
Already, I sense myself.
Somewhere in space hangs my heart,
sparks fly from it, shaking the air,
to other reckless hearts.
(translated by Stina Katchadourian)

#53 In Her Hands

2009-03-13T06:20:00.004-04:00

Beside this image I see the image of my grandma's hands, holding a purple coneflower... or maybe a rose. (she'll be 102 this July)

In our hands, we carry the legacy of those who have come before...

#52 I found grace

2009-03-11T22:28:00.012-04:00

I found grace

painting her toe-nails

along a street filled with graves.

She wore a white-lace hat

and a dress to match,

its bottom corners stained with grass.

...

(written in response to the prompt "searching for grace" found here)

#51

2009-03-09T14:51:00.001-04:00

throwing flowers against evil

#50 The House with the Yellow Door

2009-03-03T21:24:00.003-05:00

I used to drive by this house mornings on my way to work. It's been a few summers since I lived in Sheffield and that summer, I remember, was filled with cleaning houses and lots of landscaping. I passed this beautiful yellow door twice a day that summer, the house settled next to a historic New England cemetery, bikes out front, a soft breeze blowing through the screen door. It felt lived in. And warm. As though it welcomed me. Occasionally, I've wondered about the family living behind that yellow door. What smells fill their kitchen? What music wafts down their hallways and into the street? Are the rooms quiet or filled with laughter? Are cupboards empty or filled with canned corn and beef jerky?
But I like not-knowing. Because in not-knowing, there's space for the house with the yellow door to be just as I imagine it, constantly changing, the energy shifting, the colors bright. And always, it is filled with kindness and love, with care and gratitude. And as I imagine having my own home someday, its colors guide me gently, breathing hope into my dreams.

Tell me, what spaces inspire you?
And add a link if you have writing or pictures!

My Etsy Store

2009-03-01T17:52:00.003-05:00

So, I've opened an Etsy Store. For greetings cards. Because I love to write them. And I'm always thrilled to receive them! And, of course, as I prepare to graduate from a Masters program in Theological Studies (so marketable, I know!) and plan to move away from the city, with all of my student loans in tow, I'm kinda nervous (okay, terrified if I must be honest) about the whole money thing... And a little extra cash can go a long way.

I know quite a few of you are seasoned "Etsyers" and I would be grateful for your suggestions. I'm quite uncomfortable with the idea of "marketing myself," but I've gotta dive into the world, visible and exposed, at some point. So why not now?

Please, if you happen to check out my store, send along some feedback! And if you have the time, let me know what has worked for you or . . . maybe just some advice on taking risks, and on making ends meet in this big and beautiful (and did I say big?) world.

Smiles and gratitude,

Elizabeth

Joy

2009-02-26T23:30:00.001-05:00

Joy

PAY IT FORWARD results

2009-02-26T08:02:00.007-05:00

"A mosaic is a conversation that takes place on surfaces.

A mosaic is a conversation with light, with color, with form.

A mosaic is a conversation with time."

Terry Tempest Williams, Finding Beauty In a Broken World

Thank you everyone for participating in my PAY IT FORWARD! A few days ago I received ELK's lovely Song Bird, it's pockets filled with words to ground and to inspire... And today Braveontherocks is the recipient of my photo card sampling. May the love shine forward!

#49 (the camera teaches awareness)

2009-02-24T19:30:00.006-05:00

I love how my camera teaches me to look more closely, my eyes intent on the details of things, watchful and curious. I'm learning about things I didn't even realize I'd be interested in, and they're fascinating! In learning what they are and in naming them, I feel invested somehow, as though I have a personal stake in their well-being and a responsibility to care for them in any way that I can (be is taking water samples from rivers, recycling my bottles, composting my food).

For example, I never knew what praying Mantis egg cases looked like. For that matter, I doubt I've ever given it much thought . . . Until, one afternoon while I was out with Lily, I kept seeing these beautifully delicate nest-like things clinging onto brush edges and nestled between branches. I took lots of pictures and, through a Flickr contact, I discovered they were Praying Mantis cases:

Yesterday on my morning walk, Lily and I stopped by to see how they were doing. It was quite icy out but this one looks okay:

What has your camera shown you?

#48

2009-02-23T10:45:00.005-05:00

"How does our intimacy with each other, or lack of intimacy, affect our intimacy with the land? Like death, I think our sensuality is something we're afraid of and we have avoided confronting it. I am interested in taboos, because I believe that's where the power of our culture lies. I love taking off their masks so we can begin to face the world openly.

I believe that will be our healing."

-Terry Tempest Williams

in interview with

David Peterson of The Bloomsbury Review

1991

#47

2009-02-20T21:39:00.003-05:00

Which do you prefer?

OR...

#46

2009-02-20T11:01:00.000-05:00

#45

2009-02-19T23:01:00.007-05:00

GIFT

R.S. Thomas

Some ask the world

and are diminished

in the receiving

of it. You gave me

only this small pool

that the more I drink

from, the more overflows

me with sourceless light.

Today: much love and gratitude to my parents.

#44

2009-02-18T19:56:00.004-05:00

I'm simply thrilled with the newly discovered (by me that is) world of textures! Many thanks to Mary for sending me a "how-to" link. I've also been finding many free offerings on Flickr (for example, here and here and here).

The following is for my oneword February, "Breath":

"Reflections, a pause"

In patterns of four: a photo

2009-02-18T10:30:00.003-05:00

I've been tagged by Karyn over at Mundane Details. The rules, in her words:
1. Go to the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun!

So, this photo, delightfully uncovered by these patterns of four, is a photo of a family friend taken last summer. This is the corner store where she's been buying her potato salad and lunch meat for over 40 years. She's in her 90's now, and things I've come to value over the years, supporting local business, buying handmade and writing letters the 'old fashioned' way, for example, are simply how it's done in her world.

Now, I tag: Lucy, Char, Kelly, and Mary to spread the fun... My experience of this has been one of re-discovering, of finding forgotten treasure within the piles of folders and photos in my Picture file. So, if on first try, you run across a photo you've shared many times over, perhaps a little flexibility in the rules would be helpful in finding the dusty gems of your computer's memory... Enjoy!

#43

2009-02-17T20:10:00.005-05:00

This week, the Four's bi-weekly challenge is to interpret

the following quotation:

Time stands still best in moments that look

suspiciously like ordinary life.

Brian Andreas

While visiting my family this past weekend, I filled my memory card

with images from childhood. These details that fill my parent's home

are etched beneath my eyelids, and into my heart:

PAY IT FORWARD

2009-02-17T16:52:00.005-05:00

I'm pleased to be the winner of ELK's "pay it forward" over at Red Or Gray and would like to keep the spirit alive with my own offering, a set of six notecards, each with a different photo:

The notecard sampling includes: Pine, Winter Beauty, Tread Softly, Return Softly to me, Untitled and Stars Flashing Through Our Hearts.

So, any of you who still enjoy the fine craft of letter-writing, comment on THIS post (and be sure I have your e-mail so that i can reach you) by midnight Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25th. If you're picked, you can keep "pay it forward" in motion by offering something on your blog... maybe a copy of your favorite poem, a colorful stone you've been keeping on the corner of your desk, a drawing or family recipe...

I'd love for people to participate so seasoned bloggers, if you'd make note of this on your blog, I'd be much appreciative!

#43 My Gratitude

2009-02-11T17:26:00.004-05:00

My gratitude, worn into these pieces of sea glass, stashed together in a container from the Barrington milk exchange. "Tripletest," it reads, "a name to remember."
My gratitude written into the pages of The Open Road, its pages torn out, replaced with the poems of Shakesphere and e.e. Cummings, glossy photographs saved from old magazines and a hand-written copy of The Yellow Wallpaper, "a story," she told me, "reminding me of you."
My gratitude etched into the lines of this scallop shell, and into the palm of your hand, remembering what you carried through those sacred paths and hidden places.
My gratitude written into these lines from Ginsberg's journel, scented with lavender. Then
bursting open and given to You (as light shines through these water drops)

#42

2009-02-10T21:40:00.002-05:00

"This morning hour"

#41

2009-02-08T21:49:00.003-05:00

pauses in my day for knitting

and breathing deep,

hand moving mind still

even as I sit

these moments

pressed with urgency

(The yarn comes from Marion's Etsy shop)

#40

2009-02-08T18:05:00.002-05:00

And today I am grateful for:

"these precious details"

and the courage to risk living

#39

2009-02-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

"Exhale"

#38

2009-02-06T14:52:00.002-05:00

This afternoon hour I am grateful for:

precious details and morning walks,

these small beads of color carved into sleeping landscapes.

#37

2009-02-06T14:47:00.001-05:00

"me, a scarf and one angry thorn."

#36

2009-02-05T07:06:00.007-05:00

Practices of visibility.

Born and
Rising, we
Enter quietly
these
Abbeys of
The
Heart

#35

2009-02-03T20:47:00.003-05:00

Treasure

I spotted a bird's nest in this tiny (wild Crab Apple?) tree yesterday filled with berries. I felt as though I'd stumbled upon treasure...

#34

2009-02-03T07:17:00.006-05:00

"finding Home"

#33

2009-02-02T21:59:00.003-05:00

dancing