Category: Blog (Page 89 of 101)

News of The 70273 Project with a side of Jeanne’s Barefoot Heart

A Month With My Mother, Day 4

October 9, 2010 / jeanne / 1 Comment

today i’m pondering a big ole’ question:

why on earth didn’t somebody tell me that my mouth was having trouble keeping up with my words? good lord. that’s kinda’ like having lipstick on your teeth or leaving the bathroom with your skirt tucked up in your panties. well, hopefully, it’s fixed now. which is why day 3 is going up on day 4.

i had a lot to learn.

and buy. . .

~~~
i’m still doing the old perfect protest.

A Month With My Mother, Day 2

October 6, 2010 / jeanne / 6 Comments

before we begin: if you hear the television in the background, that’s my mother watching the news. if you find it distracting, go close your door.

~~~
i think it’s fairly obvious how well i’ve taken to brene brown’s perfect protest.

A Month With My Mother, Day 1

October 5, 2010 / jeanne / 16 Comments

~~~

this is my splash into brene brown’s perfect protest.

the nighttime visitor

September 28, 2010 / jeanne / 15 Comments

it is late. dark. i am driving his truck, a vehicle that wraps itself up around me, making me feel small, making it hard for me to see where i am going. i start up the hill, and there is something right in front of me on the driveway. not a limb blown down during today’s rain, but an owl.

the owl is not threatened by the truck, has no pressing obligations.

the owl slowly turns to face me and remains standing there for several minutes, long enough to make sure i see it clearly. then it makes another quarter turn, stretches out its wings and flies its massive body into the woods to my right.

i am immediately calmed, confident, sure that seeing this substantial, gorgeous animal at this particular time, in the midst of several distressing situations, is no accident.

i hear the familiar voices. voices that are ever-ready to assure me that seeing this owl is not by design, but merely a random act of nature. “you read way too much into everything,” they tell me again.

then i ask Her: “what say you?” and without a moment’s hesitation She answers “you know why the owl was there.”

that’s all she says. she doesn’t scoff or scold. she answers swiftly and succinctly, her voice clear and confident. i’ve called on her several times over the past few weeks, and she never hesitates, never needs to think about how to answer. it’s as though she’s been there all along, ready. waiting.

finding the true grain

September 23, 2010 / jeanne / 7 Comments

there is something so wonderfully satisfying about ripping fabric.

did you know that’s what you do to find the true grain of cloth?

stitches, strips & softly frayed edges

September 22, 2010 / jeanne / 23 Comments

in and out,

up and down,

over and over.

she wove her strands of life together,

patching hole after hole.

eventually she saw it was more than the threads that gave her strength,

it was in the very act of weaving itself

that she became strong.

~ terri st. cloud ~

~~~

tired of multi-tasking and compartmentalizing,

weary of my worth being defined by how busy i am

and how full my calendar is,

knowing that i learn best when my body,

my entire self is involved,

i sign up for jude hill’s cloth to cloth class,

determined to weave the life i want.

i start with a colorful, hand-painted marbelized fabric.

a fabric that while beautiful, is busy and indecipherable.

i weave in calm, muted, solid colors

providing spaces to exhale and explore,

places with room to just nap and ponder and be.

it’s mounted on a sturdy, textured base.

the frayed, unfinished edges remain unhidden from public consumption now.

the stitches that hold it all together

are not straight or even,

or dainty or fine.

my altar girls are carryin’ on again

September 15, 2010 / jeanne / 11 Comments

creating less and less of me: day 3

August 30, 2010 / jeanne / 7 Comments

“day 237”. “day 464”. “day 729”.

those are things i long to write at the beginning of my daily journal entry – and i want those numbers to represent consecutive days. you see, i’m trying to create less of me. writing a minimum of 1000 words daily so that eventually i’ll spill more and waste fewer words. walking daily to burn calories and create less of the physical me.

i will walk the same route day, adding an extra hill or bend every week, knowing that with each repetition, i will see the same things differently.

i will write in my journal – the one adored with the three graces – each day, knowing that with each entry, i will say more in less words.

that’s just the way it is . . . or so i’m told. now i’m committed to finding out for myself.

today is day 3, and though i promise not to bore you with every single walk, i did want to share some of the amazing things i saw on walk #3:

my path. see that little butterscotch-colored dot a little less than halfway up? that’s my walking mate, phoebe. a welsh corgi who has a funny way of herding.

made me think of my friend julie daley who’s winding up a trip to ireland. a budding dolmen, perhaps?

a late-blooming gardenia.

and this exquisite companion that came along to color my way:

this is what i meant to do today:

August 29, 2010 / jeanne / 8 Comments

after dropping j3 off at the airport last night.

instead, i did this:

and this:

because sometimes it’s just easier to bring order to the chaos of physical space

than to bring order to the chaos of emotional space.

~~~

p.s. i have the best husband: he sifted through the 2532 screwdrivers that had found their way into my space; he decided which ones i might really need/use one day; then he adopted the rest. but most especially, i thank him for leaving my 3 hammers alone.