Summer Solstice early evening light / Wildwood, NJ
This was the summer day when the ocean wind whipped around and around and around, changing directions every few minutes; from the east, from the south; one minute cold, the next minute warm; change was literally, in the air.
Our Lady in blue by the sea / Wildwood, NJ
“Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. To see reality — not as we expect it to be but as it is — is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is, in just this sense, love. This is not just the way things ought to be. Most of the time it is not the way we want things to be. It is the way things are. And not for one instant do I believe that it is by accident that it is the way things are. That would be quite an accident.”
~ Frederick Buechner
A warmish February morning lets curtains bask in the sun / Feb. 2011
This was the day of being grateful for the visual delight of contrasts; the persistent snow, the angled sun, and the blue shadows form the perfect backdrop for the colorful fabric.
* contrastere (Italian), "stand out against"
Detail from a tile, Aldie Mansion / Doylestown, PA / July 2010
This was the day of rejoicing in the power of the repeated prayer — whispered over and over and over during thousands of days and nights — to watch over the loved-one.
A collection of shells hanging on a front door / Beach Haven / June 2010
This was the day of blue skies and blue doors and blue eyes and windy walks and street sounds and meals eaten outside that worked to refresh and renew.
This was the gray, rainy day that cried out for color.
“I am a wistful troubadour
Beneath high heaven's wall,
Watching for my Lady
Till from her casement tall,
Like a shaft of sunlight,
She lets her fair glance fall.”
~ an excerpt from Festival by Sr. Mary Philip, C.S.C.
“There are many ancient stories of knitting, and there are even some that tell of knitting as a magic charm — spells that can be wrought in the stitches of sweaters, blankets, and socks for purposes known only to the knitter.”
~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in At Knit's End
“Assuming I am a pleasant companion
with rhythm and a voice
and I depart
my hands having been
placed upon your
walls,
my fingerprints
upon your glass.
I simply leave this mark of blue
blue print.”~ Blue Print by New Jersey poet Yictove (former host of the New York City Knitting Factory Series; his given name was Eugene Melvin Turk; his adopted name "Yictove" means "He will write")
Dear Readers: I hope I have been a pleasant companion this past year as I struggle to find my rhythm and voice. Thank you for stopping to place your hands and eyes upon my wall. With love and wishes for delightful new rhythms in the new year, Jelisava
“Life batters and shapes us in all sorts of ways before it's done, but those original selves which we were born with and which I believe we continue in some measure to be, no matter what, are selves which still echo with the holiness of their origin. I believe that what Genesis suggests is that this original self, with the print of God's thumb still upon it, is the most essential part of who we are and is buried deep in all of us as a source of wisdom and strength and healing which we can draw upon or, with our terrible freedom, not draw upon as we choose. I think that among other things all real art comes from that deepest self — painting, writing, music, dance, all of it that in some way nourishes the spirit and enriches the understanding. I think that our truest prayers that can rise out of the lives of unbelievers as well as believers whether they recognize prayers or not. And I think that from there also come our best dreams and our times of gladdest playing and taking it easy and all those moments when we find ourselves being better or stronger or braver or wiser than we are.”
~ Frederick Buechner (and thanks to Mitza for giving me this bit of wisdom to read)
