+ Her Barefoot Heart

Year: 2012 (Page 26 of 29)

simple

Simple1

after spending a day (a day that seemed more like a decade) of paperwork (thus the decade) (and i’m not finished yet, i have hours to go before i sleep), i crave the life of a simple 9-square, though i can’t help but wonder if less paperwork really does equal simple or if it just seems that way because i hate paperwork more and more every month. wait . . . does living the simple life mean doing less of things i despise and more of things i enjoy? could it really be that simple or is that kinda’ like thinking living life on the prairie in a dugout was simple? either way, today’s altar cloth is a simple 9-square. (a.k.a. wishful thinking.)

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a dove is born

Bird1

Talk about living in the realm of unknowing, that’s where I seemed to have pitched my tent today. This piece of my altar cloth started out as the image that appeared as a response to Pablo Nerusda’s poem called An Ode to Ironing:

Poetry is white
it comes dripping out of the water,
it gets wrinkled and piles up.
We have to stretch out the skin of this planet.
We have to iron the sea in its whiteness.
The hands go on and on
and so things are made
the hands make the world every day,
fire units with steel
linen, canvas and calico come back
from combat in the laundry
and from the light a dove is born
purity comes back from the soap suds.

I saw a sky filled with clothes (probably dirty) falling to earth, forming a dove. But somehow in the stitching, my hands created this, and because I have no idea what my hands are trying to tell me, what they wish to convey, I will leave you with this:

Creating art is like dreaming; there are a multitude of layers that can’t be exhausted with just one sitting.

and this:

In creating altars, we fill a personal space with the power of our own intentions and longings. We take seriously the deep desires of our hearts.

both from the pen of Christine Valters Paintner.

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drops

Falls

every drop
is an individual.
and oh my goodness gracious,
just look
at the power
they generate
when they
comes together
without forfeiting,
without giving up,
without yielding,
their own unique
well, dropedness.

tonight, as every night,
and every day,
i celebrate
individuality.
to all who
gather
around common interests
but refuse
to flock.
to all who
travel the
same path,
but refuse
to be herded.
to all
who think
for themselves,
ask questions
(sometimes pointedly),
who aren’t afraid
to sense
and feel . . .
i bow to you
and whisper
“please don’t
ever stop.”

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spirals

Hivestainedglass

Enter (I hope) the long sentence: the collection of clauses that is so many-chambered and lavish and abundant in tones and suggestions, that has so much room for near-contradiction and ambiguity and those places in memory or imagination that can’t be simplified, or put into easy words, that it allows the reader to keep many things in her head and heart at the same time, and to descend, as by a spiral staircase, deeper into herself and those things that won’t be squeezed into an either/or. With each clause, we’re taken further and further from trite conclusions — or that at least is the hope — and away from reductionism, as if the writer were a dentist, saying “Open wider” so that he can probe the tender, neglected spaces in the reader (though in this case it’s not the mouth that he’s attending to but the mind). ~ Pico Iyer

the amazing thing about committing to (at least) a year’s worth of altars – committing to stay – is that i see altars everywhere, even in long sentences.

POP QUIZ:

Was there a spot in your day when you paused and paid attention to a tender, often-neglected place in your life physical or otherwise)? What led you there? Who or what held the space for you?

That’s what altars do for me: They slow me down, open the way to a deeper, more meaningful engagement with life.

How ’bout you?

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altars all around

Landscapeofcows

People ask me: why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do? The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. —M. F. K. Fisher

Tonight I am hungry for quiet, for stitching, for reading. I seem to be empty of words, but I will tell you that there are some beautiful altars happening out there in the ethers.

On the 365 Altars Facebook page, you should just see the altars Sunny Howe and Karen Sharp are creating every single day. Mesmerizing. Touching. Intriguing. Beautiful.

Then there’s this altar and this altar and this altar and this altar.

and last but not least, there’s this altar and this altar.

Just a small sampling of beauty being created all over the place, one altar at a time.

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maybe

Maybe

from my journal, dated 12/25/11 (but still true):

maybe it’s because i have a tendency to live, think, walk and breathe in metaphors.

maybe it’s because i’m still too invested in pleasing others.

maybe it’s because i don’t have enough degrees.

maybe it’s because i don’t travel enough, don’t cook enough, don’t . . . don’t . . . don’t. . .

maybe it’s because i have far more questions than answers.

maybe it’s because i’m unwilling or distrustful or too egocentric to just take what you tell me as the gospel truth.

i don’t know why,
i only know that
i have a restless soul
that wants to be
listened to deeply
loved wholeheartedly
seen lightly
touched tenderly.
my spirit
begs space to ask
the questions
and patience
to find the answers
understanding
that the answers
might be
more questions
or a painting
or dance
or cloth
or sky
or grass
or weeds
or fire
or rain.

my soul
has an itch
that no amount
of over the counter
analgesic
or prescription
anti-itch
ointment
can soothe.
and the worst part?
the itch moves
and shifts
and enjoys
playing
hide and seek.

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