Small Ginkgo Works

Today I created several small works using some of the (many) ginkgo leaves that a dear friend gifted to me this past autumn. These are works in process. I'm not sure what they'll become, whether they'll evolve into larger pieces, singularly or in combination. Those inspirations will come to me, I'm sure, in whispers from Mama Gaia and Mama Muse, when I return to the studio to continue this particular journey.

In any event, that's what I made today and that's what I'm posting for "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday." 

Incidentally, I'm very pleased with how these are coming out.

Peace.

ChookHead

Today I captured a good-enough photo of a journal entry I created ten days ago for January's Mix it Monthly Challenge. You might want to click over to the challenge to check out the other entries. It's great fun! In any event, I've dubbed this image "ChookHead."

So, yeah. That's what I made today.

Peace.

Gelli Creations

Last month I broke down and purchased a Gelli plate and I have to admit that playing with the seemingly infinite possibilities has been quite addictive. I mean, what you see here is just a wee sampling of what I've made manifest using the Gelli plate.

Today I'll be making my way to the studio to play with some other pages I've made that will be stitched together to become little journals. Yeah. That's what I'm making today. 

And hey! ~ If you're interested in seeing more Gelli creations, click over to Carolyn Dube's "A Colorful Journey to see more inspirations!

Peace.

Time to Art Journal

Next week I'll be teaching two journal-making workshops at my sweet little studio at Whiting Mills in Winsted, Connecticut, and I'm excited about them! We'll be learning a super-simple method of bookbinding to create our very own handmade journals. I have Effy Wild to thank for teaching me this method, and I'm so grateful to her for it. I've been rather addicted to the process since I learned it and use only my own handmade journals for my art journaling. I'm creating some others for writing and for sketching too. It's such a joy!

On my shelves you'll discover handmade journals created by others, as well as my old moleskins that I started with many years ago. I almost always have a journal with me, no matter where I am or where I go. Journals are just another bit of holistic Goodness in my Medicine bag. Know what I mean?

But it's art journaling that is my dedicated daily practice. I fill journal after journal with color, texture, symbols, forms, words, feeling, heart, and play! Again, Good Medicine.

As the pages fill, the journals line up on the shelves like loving sentries, colorful faeries, divine guides. And they are those things, and more.

So if you're anywhere near the northwest hills of Connecticut I'll hope you'll join us to learn this wonderful skill on either Thursday evening, January 9 or Sunday afternoon, January 12! 

As for now, I have a fire to tend, heArt journaling to do, and who knows what else? 

Peace.

Sweet Deals

Merry first day of our shared calendar! Today turned into a kitchen day. Among other hearth tasks, I roasted one of my Long Island Cheese squashes. It's such a delicious garden gift. I used a generous quart in a farm-n-garden casserole that's in the oven as I type, and I'll have another four quarts to freeze. Sweet deal, that.

I finally made a batch of Bliss Balls, or Balls of Bliss, as I'm prone to call them. They're a delicious winter Medicine that was shared by herbalist, Guid Masé at an autumn Connecticut Herb Association event. I used a modified recipe from a dear friend and fellow herbalist, Kim, which I, in turn, modified further. Not much, really. I didn't have maple syrup, so I used some of my own homemade black currant syrup. The only other change I made was to toss in a spoonful of roasted Maca root. These are so flippin' good. Three a day will support me and keep my immune system toned and tuned up through the rest of the cold-n-flu season. Sweet deal that.

Yeah. That's what I made today. Sweet deal.

A Proclamation of Power

Every day is a beautiful day, challenges, sunshine, joys, dark clouds and all.
Every day offers new beginnings and fresh starts.

I am reminded every "new year" just how detached we are - collectively, socially - from the Ever Present Now. So many folks hand over their Power to some arbitrary Man-Made linear measure of time, and I can't help but wonder why? This is not a judgement, it's an observation. And it's an opportunity.

If you're one of the fine folk who put stock in this calendar flip, I invite you to treat every single day of your life with the same Passion for clean slates, fresh starts and new beginnings as you do for this January first thing. I'm confident that you'll notice shift in your life, an empowering shift. Come on, give it a go.

All the same, to honor this shared calendar-space in our collective community I wish you a wonderful 2014! Whatever that means to you.

Peace.

A Revisit to Uncontaminatable Essence

Yesterday marked a blog anniversary for me. It was on December 29, 2004 that my opening entry was posted and all I can really say is tempus fugit. I read my entry from 9 years ago today and laughed. 

Rather than ruminate about it here, I thought I'd take a shortcut and simply post it … 

Uncontaminatable Essence

"I am an enthusiastic Visionary with an uncontaminatable essence."~ Gaynor Linnecor

A precious friend shared these glorious words with me today and once I got past the physical challenge of pronouncing "uncontaminatable" out loud - I laughed out loud!

I laughed for two reasons.

One reason was the shear humor at hearing my own voice spitting and stumbling over what seemed an utterly unpronounceable word. Once I surrendered to simply speaking the word as I understood it and not trying to pronounce it as written, it was simple. I laughed again. Why do we make things so difficult for ourselves?

The other reason I laughed is the serendipity of the quote. In my quest for simple approaches to healing and wellness I have started (expanded, really) to experiment with making my own fermented foods, by simply working with the itsy-bitsy airborne fungi and bacteria that share my home and kitchen with me (and you with yours!). It is sad that we live in a world where simply hearing the words "bacteria and fungi" evoke thoughts of "enemy!"and "Contaminant!" Where product after product bombards us with antibacterial this and antibacterial that. A world that is pasturized and homogenized to death. 

Fear not contamination.

In my play and education with fermented foods I have learned and remembered that those little "germs" that cause fermentation have given us mighty gifts throughout our history. Not the least being simple survival! And wine! Those "contaminants" work magick for us - by preserving nutrients, creating new ones and transforming others into more digestible foods! Those pesky "contaminants" actually work to transform and remove toxins from foods!

Ahhh, how can I fear contamination when it comes to me as such a miracle as this? These contaminants are my friends. They are my newfound midwives and nurses, showing me old ways to do new things . . . showing me how unnecessary, wasteful and potentially detrimental arbitrary killing of them is . . . showing me wisdom practiced and handed down from the ancients that is life-sustaining - in both metaphor and practical application! Showing me, that pasteurization is not in the interest of my personal health and wellness, but rather that of an larger profit-oriented energy and that homogenization defies the mystery of Nature - of life itself - by only offering a consistent product time after time. That’’s just dull, and dulling - not words I associate with wellness.

So, I say - Make friends with your enemies! Learn from your contaminants! It certainly makes things simpler (less difficult). In doing so, you open yourself to becoming an uncontaminatable essence!

It’s silly, isn’t it? The simple practice of fermentation has reminded me that, from a holistic perspective, our enemies are usually our allies. So, yes - "I am an enthusiastic Visionary with an uncontaminatable essence" and you can be too! 


As I reread this I thought to myself, some things change, and some things don't. And I laughed again. As for now … I think I'll go ferment something. 

That's what I made today. Peace.

Deep Heart Connection

For those of you out there that go in for the "holiday" madness, may I wish you a wonderful holiday season (better late than never), a merry christmas, happy new year and all that jazz.

Me? I'm simply grateful that daylight is back in the race and, as much as I revel in the darkness, I offer the shrinking nights my blessings as I welcome with arms spread wide the waxing light of day. I revel in the Mystery of these cycles.

Over these next couple-few days, while so many folks are distracted with entertaining, consuming and (if they're plugged in at all) relaxing, restoring and renewing, I'll be leveraging this time of community preoccupation to unplug from the world, from my head, to connect deeply with my heart and follow it without the usual external activities, plans, schedules and assorted disruptions. I may even take a holiday from ::gasp:: heART journaling (though, that's bloody unlikely). I may pull out the fabric "yarn" I prepared last summer, lounge on the couch watch movies and crochet. I may pull down that almost-finished-quilt to see if I saved fabric to complete the binding. I may review my journals seeking potential poetry to edit and refine. I may do all of these things. I may do none of them. I may do something else all together.

But whatever I do, I wish me well … as I wish the same for you. Whatever you do, enjoy it Deeply.

Peace.