This video about 500 years of women in art is gorgeous. You won’t regret watching it. Now I just wish there was a similar vid about 500 years of female artists.
May 2007
Longing is like the Seed
That wrestles in the Ground,
Believing if it intercede
It shall at length be found.
The Hour, and the Clime —
Each Circumstance unknown,
What Constancy must be achieved
Before it see the Sun!
~Emily Dickinson
When we lived in Utah, Memorial Day was a day to deliver flowers to cemeteries. Now it’s just another 3-day weekend to enjoy with the family and to celebrate birthdays (wow, I know so many people born within a few days of me!).
Can I just say how lovely it is to have time to relax, to read, to get caught up on things? Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening with my sister and her posse. So fun (and can I say how many myriad ways I am dreaming of spending my new HomeDepot giftcard??)! Today we’ll do garden time and hang out with some more friends at an afternoon birthday potluck.
This flower is a ‘volunteer’ in my garden–perhaps growing from some seeds that a friend shared with us 3 or 4 years ago. Now there’s a big cluster of them growing in the center of my flower garden. Just lovely.
This afternoon our family attended a party at the home of some folks that I met while traveling in China two years ago What fun to see them and many of our other traveling companions again! They have a gorgeous garden, primarily composed of unknown plants that T dug up for other folks’ gardens (with their permission, of course). He readily dug up a funky yellow flower and a cactus-y type plant that he’s nicknamed ‘the pickle’ for me. I can’t wait to get them in the ground in my own garden. And I love that every time I see them I will think of my good friends from China. :)
You people are all so kind!
So this morning I slept in, then lounged around in bed chatting with my little sister on the phone (her birthday was yesterday so we had a lot of birthday talkin’ to do). So I am just now opening my computer. What fun to open my laptop and see John’s hack appear on my screen! What a sweetheart. :)
So now I will get a bit of work done (read: tidy the house a bit) as I am contemplating what kind of birthday goodies I want to make to share with some friends tonite. I’m tempted to try Sara’s cake recipe, but I’ve also got a bit of a hankering for fresh strawberry pie…
Yesterday I watched Dark Days as I was doing housework and eating lunch.* Wow. It’s about a group of homeless folks who made their homes in an abandoned subway tunnel under the streets of Manhattan. They had running water, electricity and well-built homes made of scavenged materials. There were drugs, rats, and some interpersonal tensions. But the ingenuity and perseverance of these folks is quite admirable. My favorite parts were watching them cook: making cornbread and meatballs and all manner of ‘normal’ foods in their tiny kitchens. Amazing. And somewhat reminiscent of the frontier era. Oh, and the cinematography was quite unique as everything was shot in the dark underground using ‘night vision’ cameras.
Here’s the trailer for your enjoyment (note: the music in the movie itself is a bit more subtle):
*Hat tip to John for netflixing this gem.
Today is Aunt Suz’s Birthday. She just got a spankin’ new job as a librarian for Utah State. Woohoo Susan! This video clip is dedicated you to [Note: perhaps Pete the dog can pinch hit for you in the wild animal department as needed].
Note: tomorrow is someone else’s birthday. She is getting something that’s purple and something that’s yellow (at least that’s what she thinks she’s getting….)
Recently I sat down with a dozen or so of my LDS friends and spoke with them about my desire to affiliate with Quakerism. I talked about my deconversion from Mormonism and the joys I feel when worshiping with Friends. As I spoke about Quaker beliefs, practices, and values, one of my friends questioned whether The Religious Society of Friends could really be labeled a ‘religion’ because it doesn’t have any concrete beliefs about the afterlife.
I found this post from Friend Heather to be a nice response to the question of whether Quakerism is a religion. I particularly like these paragraphs:
I don’t worry too much about whether others call what we do a religion. What does the name matter? If we earnestly try to turn our hearts to God, to sit together in waiting worship, and to follow the promptings of the Light revealed to us, then it doesn’t matter what we’re called.
I thought of the many other times and places where I feel the sense of worship: around trees, in meditation, at concerts, in acts of service, walking, dancing, in the presence of the ocean, listening to a child, making love with my husband, experiencing sudden natural beauty, doing mundane chores, knitting, sharing a cup of tea with a friend. I am reminded that it’s all sacred, that God is everywhere, and that all I need to do is open my heart and be where I am, right now.
What do you think? Do names matter? I suspect that most LDS would say that they do. Mormons hold the belief that the name of their church was divinely revealed and that each word in its name has significance. I’m not sure that Quakers give such importance to such words. I do know that they call themselves a ‘religious society’ rather than a ‘religion’ to distance themselves from the hierarchical trappings of most religions (and certainly those contemporary to the founding of Quakerism).
I’ve discussed before how labels matter to me because they are about creating self-identity. But I’m not sure if it’s important to me whether Quakerism is a ‘religion’ per se. It just feels right to me and for me. And perhaps that’s all that matters?
Picture: closeup photo of a dragonfly–green body with translucent wings–perched on the deep green leaf of a clematis vine.
This little guy greeted me this afternoon by perching on my rapidly-growing clematis vine. If you click on the image it’ll take you thru to the flickr page. Click on the “All Sizes” link above the photo and you’ll get to enjoy him in greater detail. If you look at him at the largest possible size you can see the fuzzy little hairs that emerge from around the area where his wings connect to his body. Amazing. Who knew that dragonflies were so complex and fascinating?