purple delight

 
 
 

sunshine

 
 
 

Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.
- Heinrich Heine

Micah tried the black bean burrito I gave him. His brother wanted a bite, and asked what he was eating. Micah replied "It's a blueberry burrito". Cute.

3 days {inspiration}

 

 

{Chimayo, NM}




THREE DAYS TO SEE

What would you look at if you had just three days of sight? Helen Keller, blind and deaf from infancy, gives her answer in this remarkable essay.

“I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight, silence would teach him the joys of sound.

Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I asked a friend, who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied.

How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after the winter’s sleep. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.

At time my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight. And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say for just three days.

On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and companionship have made my life worth living. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “window of the soul,” the eye. I can only “see” through my fingertips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces.

For instance, can you describe accurately the faces of five different friends? As an experiment, I have questioned husbands about the colour of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. I should like to see the books which have been read to me, and which have revealed to me the deepest channels of human life. In the afternoon I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature. And I should pray for the glory of a colourful sunset. That night, I should not be able to sleep.

On my second day, I should like to see the pageant of man’s progress, and I should go to the museums. I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. The evening of my second day I should spend at a theatre or at the movies.

The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, new revelations of beauty. Today this third day, I shall spend in the workaday world, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life.

Atmidnight permanent night would close on me again. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen.

I am sure that if you faced the fate of blindness you would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw will become dear to you. Your eyes will touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at least, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty, which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.”

By Helen Keller


...brilliant reminders

breezy

 
 

 
 

The wind was constant and warm. Although we hiked for 2 hours, there was no chance for a drop of sweat to form, as the breeze carried away any possible thought of perspiring. This morning I am not sore for the walking, rather I hurt from the sun kissing my arms just a little too long...
 

Spring cleaning comes naturally to me. It's a physical and mental experience, clearing away and making room for that which is fresh and new. I felt the need to delve into some theraputic cleaning last night, organizing and sorting that which I had not looked into for some time. I became so completely engrossed in my endeavors, that I did not notice the time passing and never ended up watching the movie I had intended on completing my day with. Instead, I laughed out loud, and ended up crying too. I became delightfully surprised when I found 200.00 in my stationary box that I had forgotten about.
Ahh... now I am ready for April to begin.

these days

 

(near Taos, New Mexico)

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
- Harrison Ford

green bananas

 

Spring will be here in just under two hours ;)







The elderly lady at the store looked over at me as we stared in dismay at the bunches of green bananas. Not a yellow one in sight. I joked, "Well I hope I am craving a banana in a few weeks!" She laughed and said an old man once told her to never buy green bananas! It took me a moment to understand, then she picked up the cluster of green bananas and with a wink placed them in her cart.....

Quote I heard and wrote down :
"Sometimes it's not until a storm comes that things get unearthed, we get to see what's underneath, but in time as we replant ourselves we will be thankful; because like the roots of a tree, it is what lies beneath that allows us to grow. "

Feb 08

Spring is : glorious lilacs 






My not so little brother (one of them) is getting married next weekend.
He's really happy and has known his fiance for some time now...
It will be nice to go to California for the wedding and see all
of my family. My brother who's been living in the Dominican is going to be there
with his wife and 2 children. I have never met them before -- she finally got her visa after 5 years.

I bought a cord of firewood the other day. The man said he would
deliver it and stack it for me --which I was grateful for. That
is until I got to my house 20 minutes after he did, and saw
him in the process of stacking the firewood at my neighbors!
I thought how happy they would've been to find out someone
bought them a nice cord of pinon) He apologized profusely
and proceeded to load it back into his truck and bring it
to the correct house.....
I decided to go venturing for some extra firewood around my
area in the deep dark backwoods and got myself some cactus needles too-- Made me
think about acupuncture-- wondered if that's how it was discovered?
An adventurer in the desert, walks into
some cactus needles, and subsequently his ailments miraculously disappear over
the next few days??

my brother the adventurer, the photographer

{as written by my brother, Warren, from the Dominican, pictured.}Some excerpts from his journal he sent...

8/18/2007 9:38:31 PM
Just got back from the colmado(super little store). There is a huricane hitting the island. There is no electricity.
Everything is soo dark.
I think I am going to read a bit, and hit the sack, or shall I say, the floor.
Wow. I just noticed that there was a scorpion. It was only about 4.5 feet from my bed. I sleep on the floor with a thin foam pad. Yikes. What a scare. That was a bit disconcerting that an insect like that was in my room. I killed it.

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8/13/2007 5:49:07 PM
Wow. What a day. I went to Ocoa this morning, and had some work to do on a website. Ran into a few errors. Had to set permissions on the database to allow it to work. Well, coming back, I was on a motorcycle, and the guy decided to take the old road to Rodedero. We made it about 2/3 of the way up the mountain and his motor siezed up. I felt bad for him and paid, and then went on my way up the hill. The motor probably siezed up because it was only 50cc and the hill was steep and I had my computer, groceries, and my 200 pounds(my body weight). Add that all up with another man, and the poor little motor just couldn't do it.

Poor guy.

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7/24/2007 11:54:48 PM
Holy macarolli. Man, I just got freaked out! I was in bed and I was hearing stuff in my room. I wasn't really sure what it was, but like 2 minutes ago, while I was in my bed, something touched my hand. At first I thought it was an insect. As I reached for my flashlight, a rat jumped up at my face and ran off. I actually felt it's feet on my forehead! Geeze. Well, that was wierd.

I am not really scared of rats and such, but to be in bed in the middle of the night and have one
touch you can really shake you up.

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7/18/2007 9:58:59 PM
Well, I went to Ocoa today on my bicycle. The back tire went flat 2 times. It appeared that the tube lost structural integrity. What an adventure. The hardest part about getting a flat tire back to operating condition is finding a working air pump(In the Dominican Republic).








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roses at the Dixon apple farm
So I found a good reason to have text.  Laryngitis.  Funny,  I hadn’t thought about my voice so much in, well, awhile.  One of those things you don’t realize how important it is until it’s gone.  And whispering makes it worse.  And working in the cold in a bathrobe at 1 in the morning cause it’s a movie set, and darnit, that’s just what you have to in the name of film.  My sister who’s visiting was following me to my new place, and missed the turnoff.  I noticed, and sure enough she calls asking where to go and she’s worried because she’s about to get on the highway  etc etc. All I could say was a feeble ’eek’ and gasp and squeak.   Fortunately, she spoke squeak and  found her way to the correct turnoff.  That’s when I knew she was really my sister.....
I called my friend LC and asked for her input to fill a blank wall in my new place.  I said the painting needed to be about 2’ high by 4-6’ wide.  She’s a fantabulous artist and is full of brilliant ideas. I’ve been wanting to learn how to paint with  oils (watercolor is my typical medium)   so she suggested bringing a canvas over while we do lunch and we’ll  be inspired and start painting.  She asked if I like the smell of the oil paints-- that that is part of the fun of oil painting. Really??  I laugh-- out loud- and ask if they smell anything like the markers they’ve been using in my class lately because those are  STRONG. Nope, it’s different she said.   Surely there’s something to the Van Gogh and Picasos I’m thinking...   So will let you know how the painting goes.  I have high hopes.

June- August

This is where I was on Sunday- the water was pristine and calm. The air was refreshing. Got to watch osprey dive from great heights to capture the oblivious fish. Their precision is amazing. The area is up in Mt. Shasta, California, and the lake is called Castle Lake. *********************************************************************************** My uncle and I were talking about life, (as I love talking about and over analyzing), and I told him about a recent experience I had where I made a decision contrary to how I really felt. In fact I changed my mind twice and went against my 'gut feelings'. He said that just as a fetus has it's head up against stomach, so our gut also is able to feel. We talked about why many times we make decisions that go against our intuition... 

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 I'm reading an interesting book of facts; Did you know that the Egyptians called the apricot the egg of the sun? or that orchid seeds are so small that it would take 30,000 to weigh as much as a grain of wheat?

peaches

Camera in hand, I set out for something to photograph and ended up saving a life, I think. A bird’s life, but a life still. To protect the peaches on the tree of what appeared to be a recently abandoned lot, someone had put netting over much of the tree. A small bird had found his way in, eager for a taste of the fresh peaches, instead of the half eaten ant infested ones on the ground, and looked like he had been trying for some time to find a way out...He looked exhausted and hot, feathers ruffled. I couldn't find an opening, so I made a small one and pulled him to freedom. He flew away in a somewhat chaotic, struggling manner, but away still. One of the peaches met a fate that could have been the birds... But hey, I got 3 peaches to take with me which smelled oh so delicious, reminding me of the early morning farmer's market back in California.