draft

Origami birds make my spirit soar – together with Sonobe Unit Modular boxes decorated by children from age three on up and myself – because there are challenges to manipulate and to design them.

Just before the March, 2020 pandemic lockdown, Cherry Hill Library let me put up an Art Aware exhibit in the high-ceiling Reference Room.

The glass cases are perfect for inspiring the spirits of library patrons to soar along with the bird flight.

And that will happen again in 2021 when the libraries and the world open up again and the exhibit will still be there.

Not Slipping Into a Cave…

When I don’t see my grandchildren,
even though I miss them,
I won’t slip into a cave like
Puff the Magic Dragon.

Rather I will jump to
Shall We Dance from The King and I.

I will climb the stairs to view
the Xmas tree in my 8th floor apartment
in Manhattan and then go to
Rockefeller Center and converse with
the owl in a broken-down-but-beautiful
2020 Xmas tree.

Through the magic of music, words, images and imagination,
I’ll join my precious FB friends in
appreciating the metaphor of a cell
phone image of an autumn-leafed tree
with hundreds of branches, and,

in isolation, celebrate life,
in spite of Covid19, but,
at the same time,

I will pray that those affected by it,
will recover a.s.a.p. and come home
to a land called Honah Lee.

I have before me an original 6″x 6″ abstract painting by Carole Leslie, sent from Victoria, BC, Canada

What a treasure! Her website and blogs are too. We met on Facebook. She calls herself “introvert.”

I can’t call myself introvert or extravert or anything in between, because I’m all over the place!

I am a lover of mystery though and arriving at conclusions without needing questions to be asked.

Seeing Carole’s original layered, textured, spontaneous work as a miniature of what I imagined…

…a large oil painting, no less than 3’x3′ high and wide, on an immaculate, white wall, in a room overlooking a land or seascape…

…that is what I imagined would give the painting the dignity it deserved – like one of Toshiko Takaezu’s closed forms

commanding the only attention in an otherwise empty room – requiring one to imagine the mystery within…

just absorbing it like the air we breathe and walk and swim in that we can’t live without.

What is before me is the original art work that I first observed in a tiny Facebook post – it’s like the word becoming flesh, except it’s more than flesh.

It’s an abstraction more than just a word. It’s an expression of an inexplicable wave transmitting light, across the miles, in innumerable ways.

Thank you.

March 5th, 2019 – three days before my eightyth birthday,

my friend’s husband, Dan, has an accident.

In just one minute, he goes from active, beloved, high school teacher to inactive, beloved, handicapped quadriplegic.

LIFE SHATTERING!

On April 22nd, 2019, I “throw my back out” lifting a box the wrong way….  It sounds temporary….but

I thought I’d never walk again.

June 8, 2019 – fourteen weeks and 2 days after Dan’s injury and ten weeks and four days after my own injury, I feel connected to real life again – to life like before my own injury.

I begin to see the people of all ages walking down 15th Street in Center City Philadelphia from Magee Rehabilitation Center, where Dan is healing,  – to the Patco Speedline to my Camden home.

And I begin not to feel sorry for myself…

And I begin to see more compassion for others.

That is what  it  takes:  Putting oneself in the shoes of others incapacitated with pain…

And I begin to clearly see “the caregivers” – to Dan and to myself –

There for us in a time of need…

Dan with the magic of his wife and family’s constant touch…

And me with my circle of acquaintances who care –

We are starting to live again – getting used to new restrictions.

Life happens…life resurrects…

And life begins –

Again and again.

Hallelujah!

Camden in winter – a beautiful city for those with eyes to see!

Always the loving faces of children peeking from bundled scarfs going to school, book bags on wheels in tow

Bare tree branches reaching to the sky – magnificent barren design

Fallen leaves eddying, leaping through the streets, blessing what they touch

Windows of rowhouses – like television sets tuned to life’s channels

The clock tower of City Hall a beacon – not symbolizing anything but the passage of time

The peace of the Delaware – with Philadelphia beyond – a testament of forefathers and mothers, beckoning

Strong visage of Camden people peering out the bus panels, every color, age, disposition

The churches on Sundays drawing from the suburbs, catering to the locals

The downtown bustle of business on weekdays – street vendors humanizing industry

The students’ artwork, large and bold, displayed in Pathmark supermarket at the checkout, reminding us of why we live!

February 20, 2019 – It’s a snowy day and I sorted some old boxes of school folders and found this – that  I wrote in Winter, 2005. I still feel the same way about Camden fourteen years later!

I feel close to my friend Evi Schumacher because we’re kindred souls in anthropomorphyzing (is that a word?) life – especially our dogs.

Evi wonders if her dog remembers losing his first home and coming to  hers when he saw her using a walker (hopefully temporarily). He had a worried look on his face. Did his first owner give him up due to health and lack of mobility?

That made me wonder if my 75 pound Great Dane mix has a memory of his beginnings in Southern USA on Christmas Day, 2015.

Thanks to Evi’s sensitivity, I try to attribute memory to my dog because of his behavior – his response – to the word “crate” as in “Get into your crate.” He does it so joyfully. He loves his crate. Did his first foster person instill that joy?

I find my boy completely ignores me if there is any annoyance in my tone of voice asking him to “Come to me.” If my voice drips with “Oh what a good boy…” – he responds immediately. Tone of voice is important to him. Early on, he may have learned that. And, he teaches me to emphasize it – even to the extent of tricking him to come with a nice voice even when I’m displeased with him.  I have to figure out a different way to change bad behavior than with tone of voice…

Thanks Evi, for pushing me to give intelligence to the canine species here-to-fore not considered much.

Be it from a ledge on a rocky mountain top (open link below) or from a 25th floor window of a high rise, the awe, courage and love affair with the unknown is there.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2248938401994293&id=100006344655968

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=354740654873581&id=180202438994071

FB posts tell me about what’s going on in the world. My other sources of news are NPR and the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper on Sundays.

When I post on the Internet, I don’t usually write my opinion, so I’m not chased down the beach like Johnny Depp in the above clip.

I post a lot of FB because I want to share a glimpse at this world we live in and can with a slight touch of my finger on the Android. That alone is a miracle happening, yes!?!

My life’s passion is art awareness – and FB is a vehicle to share with like-minded friends who can “like or not-like” or not respond at all – and just scroll on by.

Just don’t chase me down the beach if you disagree with something.  :-))))