Hoarfrost on Oregon Grape Leaves
(photograph by Dennis Frates)
WEDNESDAY
A restorative session of therapeutic yoga
A gift for someone special
(purchased on the way home at Salvation Army Thrift)
(purchased on the way home at Salvation Army Thrift)
THURSDAY
Reading glasses
(one pair free after cataract surgery at State University of New York)
(one pair free after cataract surgery at State University of New York)
Then stopped by the Holiday market in Bryant Park
'Tis the season to get jolly
(working on it)
(Gertrude Stein looks a little sad too)
"It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
"It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
A huge skating rink has risen in a tent beyond
(free if you have your own skates)
FRIDAY and SATURDAY
Worked on my Holiday card production
+
Wrapping for post packages to friends afar
SUNDAY
Wrapping for post packages to friends afar
SUNDAY
Celebrated friend Wendy
Her birthday party
MONDAY
The new world is reflected on the old world
(Painting for sale at Housing Works on East 23rd St)
Evening at The Creative Center
(Writing with my regular group using the Amherst Method)
One of the prompts was from Haruki Murakami:
"Inside our heads--at least that's where I
imagine it--there's a little room where we store these memories. A room
like stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our
heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust
things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in
the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own
private library."
I wrote:
On my shelves--skates and skating eights around the rink, that parakeet surprise, the sand in my shoes and the smell of the ocean, the taste of salt water taffy, endless cloud shapes becoming animals, the animals who curled into nooks and crannies of my life. All there/here in the folds of my brain just a synapse away--a spark ignites a reference--like the phone ringing, like the sting of a bee might just be the key to open that vault and bring the whole catalog out for review. Suddenly it's 1969; a door opens into a room suffused with the scent of Patchouli.
TUESDAY
I wrote:
On my shelves--skates and skating eights around the rink, that parakeet surprise, the sand in my shoes and the smell of the ocean, the taste of salt water taffy, endless cloud shapes becoming animals, the animals who curled into nooks and crannies of my life. All there/here in the folds of my brain just a synapse away--a spark ignites a reference--like the phone ringing, like the sting of a bee might just be the key to open that vault and bring the whole catalog out for review. Suddenly it's 1969; a door opens into a room suffused with the scent of Patchouli.
TUESDAY
Memorial Gathering
Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village
The art of deceased friend Judith Kalina on display
(We wrote together at 'The Moving Pen" for several years)
She was also a member of the Zen center
I sat with them Wednesday
Her photograph is center on the altar
THURSDAY
Yearly Comprehensive Physical
Aids Month is on display at Betances Family Practice
(the clinic that has attended my health care for decades)
This woman is 99 years old, she was shouting in Spanish while her care giver sat nearby fully engaged on her own cell phone.
TODAY
Started working on the Sun disk again
GIFTS
My dear Florida friend sent love, a travel mug
and glasses that turn the view sunny 
Mr and Mrs Crows Holiday card arrived from Australia
CURRENT READING
Lanterns and Lances by James Thurber
(on loan from a friends library)
A collection of 24 essays which begins with "How To Get Through the Day" chiefly advocating avoidance of the news, doorbells, phone rings and the mail till after lunch, through "Hark the Herald Tribune, Times, and All the Other Angels Sing"
+
An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
(on loan from the Public Library)
"One of the best historical novels I've read this year. As he writes in his author's note, Mr. Morpurgo was inspired by not only historical facts, but by his admiration for the animals he calls 'the noblest and wisest, and most sensitive of all creatures.' This is a story of kindness and love woven into the travesties of war."
*
The Inspiration Story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7966994.stm
~*~
