The new thing: hand lettering. Novice stage, for sure, but oh so fun and the way it came to be I want to give voice to. The end of summer left me feeling tired and un-inspired. On the way to Tay/Kate's for donuts on Labor Day morning I asked Trev to pray for "a new thing", feeling an itch for a spark of something unknown. We're eating donuts and I see some framed hand-lettered words on their hutch and thought, "I love that. I could do that". And then we're leaving and Tay is talking about an online class he's taking and he was so excited . . . and so it all clicked and the minute we got home I went online to look for hand lettering classes and poof there was one happening in a few weeks. Register. Wait the few weeks. Go to the class - beautiful setting (candles, tunes, wine, materials), a mother/daughter duo adopted me at their table, I felt clumsy and then more confident and then realized I just need to enjoy the process and practice. So practicing I am and it's brought a lightness to the days. Grateful. Oh and -
Backing up, my friend Katy is an artist and master of words and has been encouraging me to "just do it" (write more). She gave me a book The Art of the Handwritten Note. Delightful, and fit this season's puzzle perfectly.
Recent Readings (well, not too recent now, this has been in process since summer) . . .
Twice in one week: writings on process cheese!
From Cork Dork (Bianca Bosker)
". . . I know, I know: it's made with chemicals, and "cheese" is more a euphemism. But the mouthfeel is fantastic, it's the perfect smidge of saltiness to complement eggs . . . "
From Supper of the Lamb (Father Capon)
From Devotion (Dani Shapiro)
"Of course it's not possible to to take in every minute. It's hard to take in even a single minute"
"This was the way it had always been for me: all or nothing, I realized, invariably led to nothing"
"Even this, my son calling me Mommy - felt bittersweet. When would I be demoted to just plain mom? . . . I knew better, of course. I knew that trying to capture time - to hold on to anything at all - was not only useless, but a terrible waste. This moment was holy precisely because there was no other"
"I think of it as the edge of melancholy - at the same way I am easily cheered - in the best of times, untroubled times are the palace walls that protect our childhoods and allow us to move into our adult lives with confidence. And then we begin to understand how fragile life is. Is there some way I can do this life with my eyes open and my heart open and still love it . . . change is inevitable, change is happening right at this very minute"?
From Cork Dork (Bianca Bosker)
"Attaching a name to an odor makes the aroma more emotionally charged - it nails down the memory"
"Every person has the capacity to find and savor the soul that lives in wine - and in other sensory experiences, if you know to look for it . . . it begins with paying attention."
"Learning to cultivate (taste and smell) engages every part of us that elevates our reactions, endows our lives with meaning, and makes us human"
From The Mothers (Brit Bennett)
"A daughter grows older and draws nearer to her mother, until she gradually overlaps her like a sewing pattern . . ."
"'What does it feel like, being pregnant? . . . . It's strange, your body isn't your's anymore. And sometimes it's scary because I'll never be just me again. And sometimes it's nice because it's more than that' . . . inside of her was a whole new person which was as miraculous as it was terrifying. Who would you be when you weren't just you anymore?"
Random: last year I read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - in one week in two different books, that book was referenced. Always makes me laugh. Oh reading.
From 11/22/63 (foray into Stephen King)
"Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief . . . but brevity makes sweetness, doesn't it? Yes, I think so. Because when the time is gone, you can never get it back." (this is parenting right now, all the sweet moments!)
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