this day in image and quote

                                                           snapshot from a journal page

"These are the transitional times when I am not what I was nor am yet what I am becoming. In limbo times, I must live with alert attention to my feelings of vulnerability. I must guard against hasty choices and rushed decisions. In limbo times, I must learn to simply be. Soon enough, life will move me onward. Today I practice the action of loving non-action. I allow my life to alter organically and without unnatural haste. I trust the tempo of my unfolding." --- Julia Cameron

I love these words, feeling that they express perfectly how I've been feeling as of late. Each time I read them, I feel reassured and at peace, my breathing deepens and slows. Thank you to the friend who shared them.

beginning the journey

"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice - - - though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. 'Mend my life!' each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations - - - though their melancholy was terrible.It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice, which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do - - - determined to save the only life you could save." - Mary Oliver

Happy New Year!

This image is from years back. Sixteen years ago, give or take a few. But I found it today when I was cleaning out a box of things and it seemed to fit the quote I've been carrying around and wanting to share here as we celebrate the approach of this new year.

"If, like a Cherokee warrior, I can look at the new year as an opportunity to stand on new ground, then strength and courage are on my side. If I have waited a long time for everything to be perfect - and there have been moments, brief as they were, that filled my expectations - then I can face the challenges. I will remember that things do work out, bodies do heal, relationships mend - not because I said it, but because I believe it. But it is time to make things right, to stay on the Path. As water runs fresh and free from the woodland spring, so new life and meaning will bubble up from my own inner source. I will be still and steady because there is nothing to be gained by showing fear in a chaotic world. I can turn from ignorance and prejudice toward a light that never goes out."-- Joyce Sequichie Hifler

May your new year hold many blessings. xo

"I have loved the stars too fondly..."

Wanna see what became of the wee wooden man of a few posts back?In the last few months constellations have been showing up in my work. When it came time to paint my nutcracker, it seemed only right to give a nod to the "father of astronomy", Galielo Galilei (1564-1642).
Meet Galileo Nutcracker. He has a telescope made of part pencil, part lollipop stick and part toothpick so he can see the stars. I imagine that the real Galileo lived and breathed the night sky so I put a constellation near my wooden man's heart. It's Orion, the Hunter. Stars on his shoes and on his hat; Galileo thinks of the heavens as he walks. He discovered four of the largest moons of Jupiter, you know. The hares are there to ground him to the earth. Thinking of the heavens as much as he did, it's a wonder he didn't just rise on up in the night. And I read once how in numerous ancient cultures the hare and rabbit were associated with the moon. We see a man in the moon; they saw a hare. In Egyptian myth the rabbit is closely linked to the cycles of the moon. I've named one Virgina and the other Livia, after his two daughters. Galileo has vintage lace at his wrists; being a guest at the Nutcracker Ball meant I would have to make sure he looked his finest.

Favorite Galileo quote:

“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

This is on the back of the nutcracker base. I like the think the winner of the silent auction (who happens to be a mom friend at dance---yay, K.H!) will see these words and smile as I did, for it is yet another one of those beloved quotes that lights a fire in my soul.

Here are some of the nutcrackers at a gallery downtown. There were others that didn't appear until the ball but I get sick with a yucky cold and didn't get to go. I tried so hard to get a photograph without glare but alas, it was not to be. I really love them all, how unique they are, how we were all given the same pieces of wood and came up with such different visions. Go art!

As Though I Had Wings

"I feel my boots trying to leave the ground, I feel my heart pumping hard. I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings." -Mary Oliver

I shared this quote on FB last week and I can't seem to get it out of my mind so I thought I would share here too. Isn't it wonderful? Doesn't it make you feel brave? Me too.

be noble

citra solv-ed image + constellations + a beloved quote + a bit of insomnia

Wednesday Writing Check-In and a Quote

Found the magic 8 ball in our Halloween things. It seemed to be stuck on "YES" that day which was OK with me. I am liking that word these days. Yes to life, yes to creating, to writing, yes to opening up my heart....all those good things.

writing inspiration: I have this printed out and pasted in the front of my writing folder. I think you will like it too. The words are from Isabel Allende, one of my heros.

"For me life becomes real when I write it. What I don't write is erased by the winds of oblivion. I forget a lot, my mind betrays me, I can't recall palces, names, dates or faces, but I never forget a good story...or a significant dream. Writing is a silent introspection, a journey to the dark caverns of memory, moves from revelation to revelation.

I write because I need to remember and overcome. It is from memory and a sense of loss that the passion to create emerges. Every book is an act of love, an offering that I prepare with great care, hoping that it will be well received."--- Isabel Allende

writing check-in: The goal was met! 5,133 new words written on THE PAINTED SPARROW since last Wednesday. Whoo-hooo! I'm super-happy about the progress, I feel good about the new scenes, much better than if I'd used the week to keep revising the words I already have, which is the place I've been with this project for a while now. I do have to admit to spending a good part of two evenings rearranging chapter one again (and again) but I am happy with it now (I think) and have put it away(someone take it from me, please!). Another evening was spent looking at the big picture, writing all the major scenes of the book on post-it notes and placing them in order on a posterboard, then rearranging those too until it felt right. I placed checks on the scenes already written because I'm not writing any of this in order, just as it comes to me. I have stacks of story on legal pads and loose paper and it's quite confusing. The board is helping though, seeing it all laid out like that, a lantern of sorts to light my way. But the highlight of the week was when a new (perfect for now) first sentence came to me out of the blue one morning in that magic time just before the sun comes up. I could just hear the main character, Adele, speaking the words and I got shivers all up my spine. Love when that happens.

OK...more to say but I will save it for the next post. Olivia is calling. It's pumpkin carving time! I'm saying "YES!"

Happy creating!

xoxo

believe

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.
-- Charles F. Kettering

Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things.
-- Joe Paterno

Every time you state what you want or believe, you're the first to hear it. It's a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself.
-- Oprah Winfrey

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
-- Louisa May Alcott

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.
-- Oprah Winfrey

Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.
-- Mark Twain

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.
-- Louisa May Alcott

last night it rained

"In the hour of adversity BE NOT WITHOUT HOPE. Crystal rain falls from black clouds."~ Persian poem

hearts that shimmer and sway

"Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills—
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend."
~Czeslaw Milosz

The August Break 2010

{Echo} Week 19_Blur