Pictures!

Some pictures of my new apartment! It actually looks somewhat neater now - I've put away a lot of stuff.

Poetry Day

A most appropriate poem to pass the time while I'm busy unpacking!

no leaders, please

invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
don't swim in the same slough.
invent yourself and then reinvent yourself
and
stay out of the clutches of mediocrity.

invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
change your tone and shape so often that they can
never
categorize you.

reinvigorate yourself and
accept what is
but only on the terms that you have invented
and reinvented.

be self-taught.

and reinvent your life because you must;
it is your life and
its history
and the present
belong only to
you.

~Charles Bukowski

Moving Day!

I'm moving today! I think I've packed everything, I'm a little worried that I'm going to find a hidden closet full of stuff. I did manage to get rid of a lot of magazines, fabric and some books. I think I still have too much but I can go through things slowly as I unpack and hopefully get rid of more.

My cats are very nervous with all the packing and people looking at the house. I had originally planned to take them up with me today but I've decided it will be easier to wait a couple of days. That way I can get things a little organized and put all their stuff in place. Hopefully that will make the transition easier for them. The bad thing is it's a 1-1/2 hr drive to Sacramento. I think they are going to be very unhappy.

Anyway I guess I'd better get some sleep - it's going to be a long day!

Musical Monday

Today is my sister Cindy's birthday so I thought this was appropriate! When we were kids my parents had a record with this song on it. I don't know if it was Shane Fenton singing or not (actually I don't know who he was!).

Silent Sunday

Bead Journal Project

I've been participating in the Bead Journal Project for the last year. This is a year long commitment to making a beaded project each month. It's been a lot of fun and I feel very proud of myself for finishing (I tend to procrastinate a lot!). My 12 projects now have a home in the Bead Journal Member's Gallery! Take a look and if you're inspired to start beading, sign-up for the 2010 project which begins in January.

My projects were all based on poems and each one I finished was my favorite at the time. Looking back, I think that my Venus figure is the one I like best:



It's based on a portion of the poem Transcendental Etude by Adrienne Rich:

But there come times –perhaps this is one of them—

when we have to take ourselves more seriously or die;

when we have to pull back from the incantations,

rhythms we’ve moved to thoughtlessly,

and disenthrall ourselves, bestow

ourselves to silence, or a severer listening, cleansed

of oratory, formulas, choruses, laments, static

crowding the wires. We cut the wires,

find ourselves in free-fall, as if

our true home were the undimensional

solitudes, the rift

in the Great Nebula.

No one who survives to speak

new language, has avoided this:

the cutting-away of an old force that held her

rooted to an old ground

the pitch of utter loneliness

where she herself and all creation

seem equally dispersed, weightless, her being a cry

to which no echo comes or can ever come.

I like it best for a lot of reasons. I've been trying to lose weight (with varying degrees of success) for quite a while and one thing the Venus figure symbolizes for me is how important it is to accept myself right now and be happy with myself. It's also important to work to change, to pull back from the incantations, rhythms we’ve moved to thoughtlessly. It's hard work though and often that pitch of utter loneliness gets to me. That's when I feel like everything I've done so far to change is pointless and all I'm doing is making another mistake. But I'm not and I'm going to keep working on change and things will work out!

Poetry Day

What it costs

Now it costs to say
I will survive, now when
my words coat my clenched
teeth with blood, now
when I have been yanked
off love like a diver
whose hose is cut.
I push against
the dizzying onslaught
of heavy dark water.
Up or down? While
the heart kicks
like a strangled rabbit
and the lungs buckle
like poor balloons:
I will survive.

I will lift the leaden
coffin lid of the surface
and thrust my face
into the air.
I will feel the sun’s
rough tongue on my face.
Then I’ll start swimming
toward the coast
that must somewhere
blur the horizon
with wheeling birds.

Marge Piercy