wishful Wednesday

"To see that your life is a story while you're in the middle of living it
may be a help to living it well."
~ Ursula LeGuin

Today, the sky was clear and full of wind, all the puddles turned to layered ice, and the dried samaras on the maple etched a pattern across the sky...

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Today I finished reading Wildwood. I have not yet decided if I liked it or not as a story; shall need further thought on what meta-information is conveyed, which affects my feelings about story quite a bit. I did like the illustrations, assorted line drawings and silhouettes with a scattering of color plates, which seemed both contemporary and as if they would age well.

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Today's post in The Archdruid Report I found very interesting. The idea that the unexpected paradigm of our time is that "we have somehow gotten stuck, all seven billion of us, inside the pages of a pulp fantasy novel" is something that I shall be mulling over, with further re-reading of his essay. Since I've not a current transit-friendly handwork project, there is a lot of time for cogitation whilst going back and forth to work.

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Today, the first beads for the talisman necklace were left here for me. Aren't they spiffy? The cat head is from my friend L, and the other two beads were made by her partner C. There are awards and tokens given for many reasons; this will be a necklace of valor and love. I have heard from a number of my beloved friends that beads are on the way here, and have, as well, various beads and baubles that have been gifted to me over time, that seem suitable to include in such a project.

I am, in truth, quite materialistic, not in the condemnatory sense, but rather in the orientation that cherishes the material world... I wrote about it in 2008:

I think that being "materialistic" is actually not such a bad thing. If it is possible to cherish the beauty of the world, both the living world and the made world, without being attached to it. This includes, for me, doing all I can to care for, make thoughtful choices, and live lightly on the planet. When I was in school I really struggled to justify my desire to live as a person who makes things, often luxury things, in a world that is already stuffed to bursting with things. But a thingmaker is what and who I am, that is the flavor of being I was born as; even as a tiny child that was what I did...

"Let the beauty you love be what you do.
There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth."
~ Rumi

To have a tangible object to use as a focus will be of great help to me, and to help create it will be a way of both honoring and deepening the bonds between all of our circles. This seems something that I can do to prepare myself; I know that like Innana descending into the Underworld I am being asked to surrender much, that was the image that came to me while waiting for my surgery in November. That I must make my peace with uncertainty is both the challenge and the opportunity that awaits me.

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^-.-^\___}}
dog is restless, ears up
and watching the door
T-minus 9 days