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Showing posts from December, 2010
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This photo album was my last creative output before Christmas. It was a commission, for which I am most grateful, and the last in a series of have-to projects that, along with the rest of the seasonal duties and festivities, left me a bit, well, uncreative. I'm sure it's still in there somewhere, beneath layers of exhaustion, though a break is certainly much needed and will hopefully be restorative. I haven't cleaned up the mess. Yet. The entire house is oddly rearranged with clutter and goodies amid the decorations; there are two teenagers upstairs that don't know it yet, but today we are going to restore order. Then comes the cleaning and organizing in my studio. A fresh start... yes. I believe that is what we are granted every day, but especially when looking toward a new year. I haven't made a list of resolutions but when I do, they will be very different from those of years past. Whatever this day finds you creating, clearing, renewing, I hope it is calm, mindf

The Ice before Christmas

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I just deleted 30 emails... aside from the swap group I belong to, a few blogs I follow and one from Alice's dance studio, they were all offers I could not refuse. Free shipping... only four more days.... last chance... save 50%... final clearance. Last Sunday's snow storm was followed by an ice storm and my kids spent a day and a half at what was to be their finals - and fun - last week before winter break. I had my projects lined up and my plan in place for each day... wait, like John Lennon said, life is what happens when we're making other plans? To infuse a bit of holiday spirit, Alice and I baked cookies yesterday afternoon while dancing around the kitchen to Harry Connick, Jr.'s Christmas CD. Squishing the too-sticky dough through her fingers between pirouettes and kicks she felt like a little kid again. We had fun. But her dance class was canceled and by early evening she was not happy. She wants to DO something. I empathize. What is this called...

'Tis the Season

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No matter how many times I tell myself it won't happen, it does. By early December I've savored three Thanksgiving dinners, celebrated my son's birthday, decorated my parents' house for Christmas and, Sunday night, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a party at a fabulous restaurant - photographer and all. I have lost most all of my (prednisone) weight and I'm in good spirits but the auto-immune situation plants the brick wall in my path. And here I sit, more blessed than so many, yet... the shopping, decorating, unfinished art projects that I can't post and who wants to hear a lot of whining anyway? This advent, Dr. Woody Berry, our Senior Pastor, is centering his messages around being still... listening, no, listening deeper. So, after spending an entire day without checking one item off my list, I silence the noise, the chatter and stories I tell myself whether or not I mean to*... and what is it that I hear? The peace of knowing that I am loved,