SEPTEMBER

Inspiration

A dear friend is at home recuperating from a stroke. Most of her functions have returned, but her vision is still impeded. Reports from friends at her site say she is in Great Spirits. In fact she just posted a dancing self with cat painted despite the impediment and it's quite Brilliant!
(She sent this wonderful one as a gift months ago)

~*~

I love Calendars

Wildlife

 

Landscapes

 And I have another for National Parks. Though I note events, remind myself of several art projects in process and plan out my days, I'm actually only 'organized' on paper. Chance rules.

~*~

Funerals
Both were Live Streamed
John McCain with moving testimony from his daughter and I watched all five hours of the star studded Aretha Farewell.

(from a favorite blogger)
"400 pipes indoors ! A version of this was played at a memorial service in DC yesterday and will be played at a funeral in Annapolis later today. Angus wonders why the music of a poor tiny country on the outer fringes of Europe should have become near universally synonymous with solemn ritual."


https://youtu.be/Swvr_AjS73E?t=69 
~*~

Morning

Walkabout

First xerox shop, then post office to buy stamps and mail bill payments and some packages.

*

Changing the Window at Opera Thrift Shop

Chance meeting with friend Wendy Daly and we continue on to Little India together:

"Curry in a Hurry"

Indian Spices

 Storm

~*~

Sunday Morning

Long phone conversation from Canada with Wendy Golden Levitt. She's  been recovering from serious operation since March and is much better. Making plans for the future. I'm happy.
~*~

Labor Day Monday

It's not over yet.
Another four day heatwave begins.
Kids in New York go back to School.
Neighbors return above. 
And below me someone new will be moving in.
Vacationers repopulate the Island.
The beat goes on. 

~*~

Meditation Practice

*

 See A Small Sample
https://tricycle.org/magazine/zen-master-raven-stories/
Review and Price
http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/zen-master-raven/praise
~*~

REVISITING INSPIRATION

(First published in May of 2016, this touching 'Mother' story returns to warm my heart once more)

The Thread Stone

Mother Metaphor

On Mothers day, a girl who reads our blogs wrote to Wendy Golden Levitt about what we mean to her.  It was a very fond, wonderful and tender letter about her life and feelings, and made me weep.  In one part, she told about collecting Mothers:

"i will collect many mothers. michelle, grace and you are my second and third and fourth mothers. i love this a lot. collecting mothers. i arrange what each of you mothers got in a soft bag  where i keep my special things. i put a flat rock from the lake with a different coloured thread around it. and i write down black for my real mother, orange is grace. yellow is michelle. blue is wendy. like that."

Inspired, I made this stone--giving Wendy three different blues because she shared the story, and I kept the birth mother black at the center, then yellow for me and orange for Grace Forest.  I saw as I was wrapping the thread that some strands had drifted, which gave me the idea of braiding them all together!

Now We Are One

~*~

May we be happy.

May we be free from suffering.

May our hearts be easy no matter what comes to us in life.

~*~

ROUNDUP

Activism post is in process, but there's too much material.  I have to rephotograph and coordinate the text so this instead for now: What I saw this past week

 ~*~

Monday

A gift from Dee Mallon (see link)

the touch of it so variable...

just lovely-Made my day.

~*~

Tuesday
Another gorgeous day begins

breaks warm and mild...

Signs of Spring abound.

I had lunch at home with dark music
and this is a found window!

 ~*~

Wednesday

Throwback to the Past

Me and Harriet Springer first met while I was at Theater school, and she was a painter. I remember her studio in Pittsburgh for the slanting floors and long windows, and in New York City the friendship continued. This was taken in my apartment by a professional photographer, Robbie McKeever.  We were 27 0r 28 I think. We shared a lot of laughs and tears, gossip, meals, wardrobes, one boyfriend (not at the same time), gin rummy games and scrabble, booze and cinnamon toast. She's been gone from the planet quite awhile now. I posted this at Face book Thursday.

My dear Florida friend makes this amazing art out of carefully cut paper discards and this is one just arrived...

I watched her do one once and was amazed at both her precision and patience

Spent some lovely off time with friend Wendy escaping current news and disturbed energy.  These are her shoes.

~*~

Notes to Self

While perusing the past I found this recipe

It's my next kitchen project

The end of a long time neighbor's apartment

He's gone but still fighting in the courts

Three days (Wednesday Thursday and Friday) to totally demolish his space!  It was disturbing as noise, and a reminder too that none of us are indispensable and what used to be community is only real estate now.

 ~*~

Thursday
Zen Practice for the second time this week.
The conch on the alter this past week and how glad I am for the practice and for this wonderful community of caring beings

***
Walking home slow

It's been warm and beautiful still.  This "Sculpture" - Madison Square Park Conservancy and renowned American sculptor Martin Puryear today opened Big Bling, a major sculpture to be on view through April 2nd, 2017. The temporary outdoor work, the thirty-third public art exhibition mounted by Mad. Sq. Art, the free contemporary art program of Madison Square Park Conservancy, is a multi-tier wood structure wrapped in fine chain-link fence. A gold-leafed shackle is anchored near the top of the structure. At forty feet high, Big Bling achieves colossal scale and elicits a range of readings, stimulating diverse and profound interpretations of its meaning.

***
This is a large wall made of tiles in a window 
49 East 21st Street
 Daltile, an industry-leading brand of ceramic, porcelain, glass, metal, and natural stone tile products, unveiled a newly-renovated design studio in the heart of Manhattan. The remodeled 3,700-square-foot studio space, featuring both Daltile and sister brand, Marazzi, products, was designed by designers for designers as a collaborative workspace.

~*~

Friday
I did taxes with Margarita, my old Union friend over on the West side.  This is her daughter's friend Charles, and Lucie their dog who has fallen in love with him.

 Then I traveled down Seventh Avenue to 10th Street
the glorious weather continues...

Attended a free reading at NYU Creative Writing program by Hettie Jones (see link) and here she is signing her latest book "Love H" for a delighted fan.

 Walking back home I noted this:
An all night participatory art event at the Salmagundi club. Only in New York.

 At 14th Street on Third Avenue I had a chat with "Brandy"
She ran away from home at 15 because her parents were drug addicts.  She's been on the streets and loosely associated with other street kids for about eight years.  She married another street kid and they've been together six years. They take showers at a homeless program on the lower e side but don't go into the shelter system because none will take cats or let her and her husband stay together.  When they beg they separate but stay close to each others location and they sell little things they glean from garbage.  They had an apartment for a year in Staten Island but "roommates loused it up" for them so they were evicted.  She gets jobs sometimes but they don't last.  Both cats look and feel very healthy.  They even have little tents for them and toys and food.  They sleep in a safe street space somewhere on the lower East side and the cats join them in their sleeping bags.  What happens to her in the future--to her husband and the  beloved cats?

I hope next time we meet I have something to offer in the way of an organization or some where that she might go to change her situation if she's willing.
 ~*~

Saturday
Chores got done.
The sun went away.
Thunder rolled over and it rained.
Wendy Golden Levitt shared a beautiful story and her Gigong Practice:

https://youtu.be/3K-0JpiJu-o

I'm content.
~*~

LINKS

Dee Mallon
https://deemallon.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/losing-things-and-finding-them/

Hettie Jones

Here she reads at the 7th Annual Charles Olson Lecture at the Cape Ann Museum. In addition to talking about Olson she reads from her new book, "Love, H: The Letters of Helene Dorn and Hettie Jones"

https://youtu.be/azn-0sYf-4Q

LET IT RIP

The storm swirling around Manhattan all day today just delivered thunder!

Let it rip I say, let it clear the air, wash the streets and soften all hard hearts.

~*~

It's been a difficult week in my own heart, but light poured in early this afternoon when the wonderful Wendy Golden Levitt placed a phone call to me.  We talked for over an hour, and I can hardly express the depth of my gratitude for her time and wisdom.

https://youtu.be/3kb6MlHNrnk

 ~*~

Sometime an astute ear and clear heart can actually change the weather!

still hoping for more rain at sundown