H/T John White and the American Friends Service Committee (“the Quakers”)
January 2008
Things I wish I would find in my mailbox today:
*a chinchilla
*a tin of vanilla velamints
*black lace
*a skeleton key
*a brown paper parcel tied up with string
*wildflowers
*jordan almonds
*a gift certificate for a massage
*something sparkly
*a good mix CD
What do you wish was in your mailbox?
Note: this idea came from a random blogpost recently that I can’t track down now. I’ll add the H/T when I figure out its origin…
Though I am often thrilled by the latest technologies, I am an old-fashioned girl at heart. An example is my sewing machine: a 1942 Singer. It works like a charm despite being older than my mother.
Every once in awhile I think it might be cool to have a programmable computerized sewing machine. The kind that practically sews for you. But I quickly abandon that idea as I remember the dependability and beauty of my Singer.
It’s all I need.
:)
My friend TanyaSue crafts beautiful jewelry. This weekend I photographed a few of her creations. And it was a joy to play with backdrops and lighting and angles (if you click on the photo you can see more of her pieces on my flickr site)
Though I embrace simplicity, I am enchanted by the simple beauty of items like crystals and beads. So pretty.
I’ve had this image in my mind for days. You know when you were a kid when you’d get those cheap woven tubes as party favors–the ones where you put a finger in each end and pull and then your fingers were stuck. But if you pushed your fingers together then you could pull them out?
Those toys are on my mind because I keep imagining time like one of those tubes. I no longer feel as though time is a measured, even march of the clock hands. Rather, time tends to expand and contract given the various pressures on my life. For example, it still hasn’t sunk in that the holidays are done and over with. Christmas break just flew by, all of my goals and intentions fading in the swirl of busy-ness. Likewise, this month is one day after another of full ‘to-do’ lists, of places to be, of many social obligations.
But I am not complaining that time is flying too fast.
What I am saying is how hard it is to keep track of reality when things are busy. I feel a bit like my life is pulled between the two fingers of time, stretched thin. In that tension I tend to focus on what is most pressing, moving from one task to another, methodically meeting deadlines. Time going so fast that last month and yesterday seem equally distant–my mind having difficulty parsing time accurately. So say someone asks what I did last weekend, I’m likely to reply with what I did a month ago, not realizing the difference.
Even though I’m in the middle of a time warp, I continue blogging in fits and spurts. After some intense hours of academic writing or meetings or whatever, I spend a few moments spewing out a few thoughts on the page. It’s a bubble of space where time stands still. I am present. Just me and my keyboard. Not ever sure if it’s been an hour or a minute.
If a woman does not keep pace with her companions,
perhaps it is because she hears a different drummer.
Let her step to the music which she hears,
however measured or far away.
~ adapted from Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust.”
~Rabindranath Tagore
When we moved into our new home we found a lovely lime tree just off the side of our back porch. CatGirl made a superb key lime pie from the fruit and we’ve using them in various recipes and beverages. The limes were uncharacteristically tasty and sweet.
Lo and behold, when I was snapping pics on the back porch today I looked up to the tippity top branches of the tree and discovered…lemons. So I guess it’s a lemon tree. Yum!