For anyone wondering..

 

 

I haven't stopped designing and making things nobody needs. I do it both to amuse myself and to surprise myself. Their construction involves much puzzle solving on the way from original idea to finished piece. 

I've always had small spaces in which to work so that condition makes it necessary to concoct modest physical items as well as the necessity to paint in watercolours and draw with ink. It's not a bad thing to have external limits although I've sometimes yearned for more space. Space and time to see how else I might surprise myself. 

Meanwhile, I have hand painted silks and an extensive collection of beads and old buttons. I wonder what I'll make next?

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.
– Mark Twain

💫💖💫

Crow Concurs

 “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi 

💖 

coyote makes the seasons

in the beginning, there were no seasons, and the world was the same every day. one day, coyote grew tired of this, and he created summer and winter. as time passed, summer and winter grew to love each other. they wished to be with each other, but had no place to meet. they went to coyote and told him these things. and so coyote built them a lodge where they could be together. he built it in the most beautiful place he knew, far from everything else. then coyote told them what he’d done, and they were happy.

a few days later, coyote saw summer. “coyote, you must help me and winter,” said summer. “we have tried to find the lodge you have built for us, but it is so well hidden that we cannot find our way.” she told coyote “you must make us a path.” coyote said he would. he asked summer how the path should be. “it should be as winter’s way is,” summer answered. “it should be still, and warm, and golden, and full of deep thoughts and memories. such a path will remind me of winter, and i will not lose my way.” “i will do it,” said coyote, and he went and made such a path.

time passed. then one day, coyote saw winter. “coyote,” said winter, “you must help me. i have tried to follow the path you have made to the lodge, but i keep getting lost. you must change the path, and make it as summer’s way is. it must be fresh, and bright, and green, and carefree and full of laughter. a path like this will remind me of summer, and i will not get lost.” “very well, i will make the path this way,” said coyote.

when coyote was by himself, he thought “i cannot make just one path to the lodge that will please these two.” and so coyote made a new path as winter had described. these two paths were fall and spring. “now each has its own way to find the lodge and each other,” said coyote, and summer and winter were pleased.


- by numb
in appreciation of 'Giving Birth to Thunder: Sleeping With His Daughter'
Native American 'coyote' stories collected by Barry Lopez

***

Numb has been very ill these past months. He's much better now 

and just in time for Spring. Life is good.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

 

 “What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,

And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it, And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward . . . . and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

Has any one supposed it lucky to be born?
I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.

I pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe . . . . and am not contained between my hat and boots […]

I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself; They do not know how immortal, but I know.” 

for: Tom - the Enchanted Forest

💖

The Hummingbird (and extras)

 So small and fair;
A sun-dyed dew-drop born with wings.
'Neath Cuphea's coral cup it swings,
And to the winded flower clings
As if grown there.

~ Ira Billman

Some things are good in this world - like capturing a picture of this most ephemeral of birds. I was most pleased :)

Some things are evil in this world - the words of Major General Smedley Butler ring as true today as they did in 1935 when his famous speech was first published. It begins:

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.


As George Carlin said:

'I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so fuckin' heroic.'

 

 

Be well. Keep smiling

💖

The Return of Baby Days for Cousin Faith

 

Baby Days

Baby Days was drawn over the course of three years during the 1990s. By the time a dozen drawings were complete I started to write the story that had been driving the process. Now 20 years later I still like what it has to say and so, apparently, do a few friends. Since it's unlikely to see publication in any format other than this one I hope you'll enjoy it as it is. 

Thank you for coming by.
Susan 2013 now again 2024

We wonder how we came here

We wonder why we're born

In dreaming slept an answer

That woke one Summer morn

A voice is softly calling

Unheard by grownup ears

It whispers love and kindness

Yet never speaks of tears

It calls us all together

And sings a haunting song

A journey must be taken

We haven't very long

The plans are made in secret

In babbling baby talk

The journey is a long one

It's much too far to walk

We need some true companions

To help us in our flight

We travel into darkness

That comes with every night

We gather under starlit skies

(For children have no fear)

The magic time has come at last

To speed away from here

We fly into the morning light

From every distant land

To meet out there a mystery

Perhaps to understand

Even dragons have their children

Who also ought to learn

The world is made for singing

As through the stars we turn

It's time to travel home now

As morning comes to earth

The light of love rekindles

With every baby's birth

Baby days, sweet baby days

We've all been there you know

Hearts are filled with sweet delight

As children learn and grow

We hold them for a moment

As their childhood slips away

We only catch brief glimpses

Of wondrous baby days.

♡

At the end of 2023

 

 

                                                    Best wishes to all for the coming new year
                                                    What’s in store is anybody's guess
                                                    We hope for the best
                                                    And prepare for the unexpected…
   
                                                    Breathe deep and remember:

                                                    In this moment there is nothing to fear.

                                                                            💖

Christmas in Jerusalem 1921

 

 

When three Abrahamic religions lived in peace.

Christmas was cancelled in Bethlehem in 2023.

 💖

 

 

Crow here. It's been nearly a year since the night I agreed to help the old fellow from the north with some deliveries on Christmas Eve. Quite frankly the dear gentleman was at his wits end, knowing as he did that so many poor children needed gifts and food that night and much more besides. He did what he could as he always does. My task was the much less arduous one (or so I thought) of taking presents to the children of the rich. As you well know there are far fewer of them, such a tiny number of good rich children, in fact, that I was quite confident of being home well before midnight.

At twilight several of his more experienced reindeer arrived pulling a spare Santa sled and off we tootled into winter's darkening sky. Our first stop at a gated community provided my first inkling that this job might not be quite the doddle I'd imagined it would be. As I slipped down the chimney I'd been happy to see the glint of festive lights in the the hall and the living room, but when I stepped across the grate I discovered they weren't holiday decorations at all but motion detectors. Suddenly sirens sounded, steel barriers dropped down to cover the windows and three snarling dogs rushed into the room where I'd just begun to open my sack. I barely made it back up the chimney with my trousers intact.

Having never been one to renege on an obligation I set off with a will to the next mansion on my list. The living room there was a grand space filled with art and fine furniture but once again, just as I set foot on the floor, before I could begin opening my bag, alarms sounded, a spotlight lit my person and a nasty smelling fog filled the room with blue smoke. Coughing and choking I scrambled back up that chimney too.

As I'd had no success at the gated community I decided instead that we'd try for a country house on the list. Knowing nothing about private security systems that employ infrared cameras that read thermal heat signatures, nor about radar detectors - both of which can detect anything larger than a mouse up to five miles away - the reindeer and I were surprised when portals in the roof opened and out popped a brace of cannons. Although we attempted to signal our good intentions by ringing sleigh bells and singing carols, we were forced to turn away when the heavy artillery opened fire.

We made our sad way back to Santa's workshop in dread of his disappointment. How surprised we were by his merry laughter as he commended us for our attempts and said, 'Don't worry boys, next year I'll let them fight it out with the Amazon drones'.
 

Peace to All!

Back to Nature

 

 

An afternoon at the park found us looking at a baby owl just learning to fly.

He's big but still has baby fluff.

Then there was the eagle who enjoys standing on the world's tallest totem pole..

Let's hope they meet as friends.. and so may all of us.

Happy Springtime ☀️ ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ☀️