Tag: earth art

for yourself and your posterity

January 31, 2014 / jeanne / 2 Comments

Stone8

when you write from life
you sometimes hit pockets of dark

Stone7

and just when you don’t think you can take any more,
you hit pockets of sparkle

Stone5

it is not linear, writing from life.
oh sure, you can start with your earliest memory,
but before you know it,
you’re writing about something that happened just yesterday.

Fragments

there are memory fragments

Cracks

and there are rifts and crevices
in the ole’ memory bank.

Stonecomplete

yet through it all,
writing your life
recording your stories
capturing your memories
is a rich and colorful experience,
just like your life.
and in the end,
you have something that will be treasured
treasured, i tell you
for generations to come.

[ :: ]

Maybe you’re ready to write your autobiography?
As a lifelong personal historian, Jeanne Hewell-Chambers
knows how to navigate through the treasure map
that is your life.
And hey,
even if you don’t become a Keepsake Writer,
(but I sure do hope you will)
promise you’ll carve out some time to capture and preserve
stories from yourself and your family.
You’re the only one who can, you know.

A Different Way to Look at the Heavens

August 6, 2013 / jeanne / 0 Comments

Pari7

Today was a play day with Stacy, a cousin who I love more like a brother, if you want to know the truth. We went to PARI (Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute), a delightfully marvelous, accessible, educational facility tucked away in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. We ran our hands along a tire that once stood between the earth and one of the space shuttles, and when we saw the ridiculously thin tread, Stace said “No wonder the shuttle needed a parachute to stop it.” We looked at satellites, one adorned with a smiley face painted on during the mid 1960s just to say to the Russians “We see you.” (The Russians, we were told, stamped out dirty words in the snow by way of response.) We marveled at the variety of meteorites on display and laughed out loud at the hallway lined with spectacular photos of the moon, an event our granddaddy died believing was television hoakery.

John the Tour Guide showed us all sorts of computers, one of which that’s tracking the earth’s drifting and shifting magnetic something-or-other. It kinda’ alarmed me, really, so I asked him about the implications of that change, and I don’t know if he understood my question or not, but I know for certain that I didn’t understand his answer. John in the Control Booth told us about watching quasars and blips and sounds that are so far away, it makes my head hurt to think about it. (Next time I’m going to ask him if he’s looking into our past or into our future.)

Then they gave us a map, circled some spots they thought we might enjoy, and bid us farewell. We went straightaway to the new Observation Deck where the view was quieting and the quiet was deafening. “Though I don’t know exactly how,” Stacy said as we were leaving, “my life will be better for having been here.”

To which I said simply: Amen.

Pari1

Pari2

Pari5

Pari3

today rocked – from start to finish, it rocked

March 10, 2012 / jeanne / 14 Comments

It was a sunny spring day atop the mountain,
the sky too blue,
the breeze too gentle,
the temperature too temperate
to stay inside doing paperwork.

So we didn’t.

With no particular plan,
we hit the road,
and before long,
we found ourselves
submersed in history
all kinds of history,
some older than ancient . . .

If walls could talk,
imagine the stories
the graffiti-laden walls of the old jail
located in downtown Franklin, NC could tell.

Jail2

Jail1

Jail8

Jail9

Geologists say that rocks remember.
Of course they can,
so just imagine the stories these rocks,
part of The Gem & Mineral Society of Franklin, NC amazing collection
(located in the aforementioned old jail)
could tell:

Rock1

Rock2

Rock4

Crystals grew inside rock like arithmetic flowers.
They lengthened and spread,
added plane to plane in an awed
and perfect obedience
to an absolute geometry
that even stones –
maybe only the stones –
understood.
~ Annie Dillard

Rock5

Rock6

Rock10

Eggs have no business dancing with stones. ~ Italian proverb

Fluorescent3

Fluorescent2

Then we came home and went to walk where we spied these rocks:

Longfalls

Oldwall

Mossyrock

If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song. ~ Carl Perkins

Falls1

Study how water flows in a valley stream,
smoothly and freely between the rocks.
Also learn from holy books and wise people.
Everything –
even mountains, rivers, plants and trees –
should be your teacher.
~ Morihei Ueshiba

I tell you what, Sugar:
at this end of a day like this,
there is only one thing to say:
Amen.