balancing act

There I was looking for something else and what I found was this sub-optimal photo of one of my old paintings. It's long gone so I don't have the opportunity of retaking the picture with my nice digital camera but it's enough to get the idea I was trying to express.

Once again, we dance with untamed beasts under a threatening sky.. a familiar situation for most of us. The important thing to remember is that the meaning is the dance of life itself. Our aptitudes differ but our admiration for one another's proficiency, in whatever roles suit us, nurtures our humanity.

virtual regards

In the past six weeks three fine bloggers nominated me for virtual awards and each time I was delighted and very surprised. All three are passionately committed to pursuing their ideal of making the real world a better place for all of us now and for those who show up on the planet in the future.

So what I thought I'd do this time is to give a virtual award back to each along with a brief review of why each of them deserves an award far more than me. Here goes:


The first one to arrive was from the lovely Border Explorer back in September. BE and her husband, Mr. BE, spend half the year in Iowa and the other half on the border between Texas and Mexico and in both places they are on the front lines of the fight for human rights. I'm sure they could be living in far greater physical comfort but they have chosen to devote themselves to the well being of migrant workers and their families.


BE uses whatever spare time she can gather to keep us informed about the plight of people forgotten by the media in this country and for this reason I award her the virtual 'Purity of Spirit' necklace.





















A few weeks later I received an award from Divajood who lives in LA and works in the travel industry. She very bravely struck out on her own in spite of the economic downturn recently rather than work for an employer who didn't appreciate her talents and skill. In the midst of all the turmoil she's also campaigned as the kind of president many of us on the far left of center would like to see running this country. Her granddaughter, also known as the Secretary of Strawberries, has a very clear and distinct point of view.



Diva's political and creative writing skills win her the virtual 'Tornado of Change' necklace.



















Just a few days ago I got a note from










the tres charmante La Belette Rouge to let me know she'd nominated Adventures Ink for a blog award. LBR and I haven't done mutual visits for months but naturally I went over to see what she and He Weasel have been up to since their move from Austin, TX to Valencia CA. LBR writes and writes very well about everything that catches her interest and she's interested in every waking moment. Her flights of fancy are a joy to read as she whisks you away to worlds where people live lives she dreams of living then drops you back to the strange earth we know where real people make magic happen.





LBR gets the virtual 'Passion for Fashion' necklace.

















You all have my fondest regards and hopes all our best dreams come true.

reciprocity

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain? He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning:

"There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The hen clucked, scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me and I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house." The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse then turned to the cow who said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake, whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife on her bare toe.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital, but she returned home with a burning fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them all, in thanks for their sympathy, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; and died an agonizing death. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered, to provide enough meat for them all.


The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember - when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another, and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
Remember, too: each of us is a vital thread in another person's tapestry... and our lives are woven together for a reason.
Fighting against evil, blow for blow, we lose... because thus, we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion.
The best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good.
The only thing wrong with the game of life is, we are forced to keep playing... until we lose.

"Greed is fear in action."


I found this at a blog I'd never visited before called paws and reflect .

autumn equinox

Going outside or just plain looking out the window lately when it's time to get ready for work it's become pretty obvious winter is on the way. Christmas too. That means it's time to paint a couple of new scarves because I need a new one to wear and who knows who might need a present to brighten their life some very dark and cold day? The blue one here is the one just finished. I think I got bored half way through but it's okay. The words on the bottom say, 'Caution, slippery when wet'. I told you I got bored and that's what happens.


So I've decided to start another whose progress I'll post just in case anybody was curious about how one gets done. It's a 10' long piece of silk that's 18" wide pinned at the middle in a 22" x 24" stretcher frame. I've worked on really big stretchers but the problem with that is having to set the whole thing up on the floor with drop cloths. It's a killer for the back and knees.

I've mixed the silk dyes in the shades I liked and then added a thickener to stop the color running. You may notice the section is wet and I'm sitting here now waiting for it to dry before adding the next part. It's a slow process but I have time and with luck the result should be interesting.

I read an appropriate quote this weekend about the situation in general:
'Armageddon was yesterday. Today we have a problem.'

All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed for a grown-up result on November 5th. We need a governing body willing to help solve the problems. Maybe Michelle Obama would like a nice scarf to wear when she and Barack stroll down Pennsylvania Ave. to the Quickie Mart come January.

adventure time

I'm not bothered about writing these reminiscences in any kind of correct time line but this one follows the last simply because it allows me to introduce the years we spent living in Vancouver. There are any number of real stories about that and hopefully they'll show up here with not so long a wait in between.

Meanwhile, I'll try to keep in mind a quote by the Buddha:

'Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.'

it's all about meme

My friend divajood ,the most worthy of current presidential candidates, tagged me with a meme today. I'm a bit nervous about letting people know how boring I really am so with a little help from worth1000 I decided to let you all in on my secret life:






1. is clothes shop. Sarah Palin not only shoots the bears from helicopters but she's such an all round chunk of feminine talent, she chews the skins to soften them up and stitched up a fine outfit for the Inauguration we hope we'll never witness. I'll shop wherever she doesn't.


















2. furniture shop. Very useful and cheap items for making greedy bankers, brokers and ceo's welcome in your home. They're all the Rage now but the shop went out of business when they couldn't renew their loans.










3. sweets. I agree with Jood that chocolate is a food group. These guys make the best 'enhanced' brownies I've ever tasted.








4. city. I like cities with an interesting cultural mix where the infrastructure isn't currently collapsing. Most of these are no longer in the US.




















5. drink. Any old fountain of youth will do for now. In the meantime, tea.










6. music. Anything that will sooth the savage beast.










7. tv series. Haven't watched the damn thing in a long time but the last favorite was the 'Simpson's'. Old favorites were 'I Love Lucy' and 'Fawlty Towers'. Crack me up. Who does that remind you of?












8. film. I learned long ago there are many more really bad movies than good ones so I decided to make the most of the situation and love both kinds. I hate MOR ones.















9. workout. I enjoy it all but I've learned to know my limits.



















10. pastries. More chocolate - any shape or size. Lemon meringue pie is good too.
















11. coffee. Only first thing in the morning but it has to be strong and smooth.. the way I prefer a few special things.







Please forgive me for not retagging. Jood. Most of the folks who meme have likely been hit by now.

moonlight reprise

A few years ago I read a book by Yann Martel called 'The Life of Pi' . It's a story about an Indian boy alone in a lifeboat after the ship that was carrying him and his family to a new life in Canada sinks into the Pacific. When an old friend (perhaps acquaintance is a more fitting description) clambers aboard Pi greets him saying, 'Jesus, Mary, Muhammed and Vishnu, how good to see you Richard Parker!'





The religious faiths are scrambled throughout the book but we forgive Pi for his confusion about what in particular to believe about theology. There are bits of all of them that appeal to his sense of wonder and the fact that Richard Parker is a 450 pound Bengal tiger is just another example of how marvelous is the world.

The two of them are adrift for weeks of uneasy but mutually respectful companionship bringing together the extremes of existence on earth - the animal and the divine. In an interview Martel described having an abiding feeling that our entire planet is like a lifeboat drifting across a cosmic Pacific.

It's something worth considering. I have a feeling seeing the world anew is the only important thing. Soon it will be another full moon but what we see isn't the real moon but it's reflection in the mind's eye.

(No, this isn't Pi but then I painted the picture a while back.)

littlebigplanethopping

They changed the name from bailout to something else, made it a couple of hundred pages long and sold it to the Senate along with some pork. So what's new? Now the banks take your money and offer it back to you at interest but you have no collateral so can't borrow anyway. Even if you could get something you have no place to put it since now you've set up house in that storage unit where you kept stuff to sell on ebay.

We have a white trash former beauty queen, former sports announcer, former mayor of a town with a population smaller than the bleacher section of the former Yankee Stadium actually being taken seriously by what was formerly the serious news media as a real candidate for what formerly was the serious job of being Vice President of the formerly great United States of America.

It's a mess.

The past few days we've been playing the beta test version of the soon to be released LittleBigPlanet. Well, I've played a bit but I am not the most coordinated sack girl in the world. It's fun to try and more fun to watch numb who's very good with the buttons and knobs.





Grab your fun where you can, kids!