Soon
March 21, 2012 at 4:46 pm | Posted in art, blogging, country life, faith, family, inspiration, knitting, Life, photography, shopping, women | 6 CommentsTags: art, country living, culture, family, farm, friends, home, inspiration, knitting, Life, photography, thoughts, women
To my regular readers … I have been away for quite some time, as you have seen. The year got off to a bit of a bumpy start, and then I needed to take some time off and clear my mind. Wanted to be sure that as I move forward I do so with a clear vision of the path before me in mind, rather than just continuing to do what I was doing before out of assumption that I my course was still correct. Refreshed, I am here for you today ready to rock and roll.
On with Today’s Blog …
On my Facebook page yesterday I shared a photo of the first day of spring on our farm; quite a lovely day. It felt great to be walking around, feeling the warmth of sunshine on my back and shoulders, my face…hearing the voices of hundreds and hundreds of birds, the peeping of peepers…seeing the river out front glistening brightly under open sunshine with a beautiful flow of water easing its way along downstream.
During my nearly 3-month long break from blog writing, I have been exercising my creativity in a variety of ways. Something I don’t have much time for at this point in my life is fiction writing, although that is the writing I move love to engage in. It used to be that I had to be prepared to “catch” my fiction as it poured forth from my mind, otherwise it would dissolve into the ether. Often I found myself concocting a story during the middle of the night as I lay awake in bed, needing to get some sleep. The clarity of those thoughts, the exact wording that flowed out of me so eloquently were gone nearly as quickly as they appeared.
As I have attended to some non-writing, non-business matters over the past three months, I have had quite a lot of time to reflect on various things and what has happened is that one story out of a few I have been loosely thinking of over the past few years, began materializing. The five central characters began to step forward in my mind and tell me more about themselves, their thoughts, and struggles. The setting has taken shape, the plot line has formed itself up … and I am retaining it all even though I have written little of it down.
Over the course of the past ten years, my writing process has evolved into a routine of living life, thinking of whatever my current writing project is (for clients or for my blog), retaining the ideas in my mind then writing them down later when I can I get some quiet time to myself. The discipline of writing that way over a period of years has now segued into the process I now discover I can use to write my fiction stories. This wonderful new thing of not losing the ideas that have formed so clearly in my mind is very liberating. It will still take time to do the business of writing the entire story in typewritten words as opposed to thoughts of words, but I feel a deep a great sense of creative satisfaction at the development of this story in my mind.
I have also been needle felting, and this little fellow is one result of that creativity. He is a pretty goofy looking rabbit, but sweet and someone I know who has tiny hands enjoys playing with him very much. A number of readers over time have asked if I will publish and sell instructions for making needle felting items and I have decided I would like to do that (in addition to publishing more knitting patterns). I am finishing up one more bunny rabbit and when he is finished I will start preparing written instructions for needle felting in general, then get into the specifics of how to make the characters I have designed.
I am also working on a series of paintings (some watercolor, some oil) depicting various scenes and settings along our river; currently I am working on swans but I have some beautiful photos I have shot of turtles sunbathing on fallen logs, heron about to pounce into the water while fishing, and other lovely river scenes I plan to paint. As the paintings are finished, I will share them here with you.
My son continues to create his beautiful prints, maps, and photography. He and my husband and I have made plans for some prints and maps related to New York history, and as we get those items ready for the public I will let you know.
In closing for today, I will share a few more photos reflecting some of what I have done and seen over the past few months.
See you here again soon.
Warmly,
~firefly
Our world of many faiths
December 22, 2011 at 5:53 pm | Posted in Christmas, faith, family, Holidays, inspiration, knitting, Life, love, women | 7 CommentsTags: culture, faith, family, farm life, friends, friendship, inspiration, Life, love, relationships, spirituality, thoughts, women
There is a tradition of faith and religion, the seeking of an understanding of the nature of God and our relationship to whoever or whatever God is going back at least 10,000 years on our planet. During those 10,000 years many faiths have emerged helping people find their way to a connection with God from many different viewpoints. Each has validity, each has value.
With so many different faiths the world over, the concept of any one being the one and only true faith is peculiar to me. It doesn’t make any sense if you think about it. However, it does make sense that one faith is the one true faith for one particular person … at a time. Each individual person who wishes to understand the nature of God and what his or her relationship is to God needs a path to follow to get there. For George, it is religion A and that is the one true faith for George. For Natalie, it is religion C and that is the one true faith for Natalie. Michael, on the other hand, finds that religion H works for him, so that is the one true faith for Michael. George, Natalie, and Michael are all on the right path … each has found the one true path of faith that works for him or her.
They should all wave to each other and say, “Hey, way to go! Isn’t this amazing!”
Wouldn’t it make sense that if God exists and has anything to do with the affairs of mankind, that there would be some wisdom coming from that source to provide mankind with many different paths to follow in reaching the God connection.
I believe it would have to be so. We are so different, one to another. We have different cultures, different life experiences, differences in our spiritual nature, and so forth. There would have to be many different paths leading to God. The most fundamentally important thing is seeking God and gaining a closer connection to whoever or whatever God is for you, not which path you use to do so.
If God is love, it could not possibly make any sense at all that conflict, hatred, or war would lead any one of us, some of us, or all of us to a closer relationship with God. That part of the equation must come from somewhere else, and leads to erroneous illogical conclusions that don’t add up.
I’m right, you’re wrong, my God is the one true God, my faith is the one true faith. No — we are each right, our Gods are God, our faiths are faith, our love is love. We are all united in love and faith, regardless of the tradition of knowledge or ritual that gets us there.
I have a dream of a community church of all faiths where people from all over a community from any faith within that community could gather together for the purpose of sharing faith and love, learning more about what unites us in our religions, and celebrating together our gaining of a closer connection to God. You know, if we brought our faiths closer together in friendship and trust we would inevitably grow closer to God all of us together.
That makes sense to me.
One of my favorite Christmas memories is from quite a few years back in Los Angeles when my children were still fairly young. It was a particularly challenging Christmas for me as a single mother. My car was broken, I was out of work, and out of money for the most part. Determined to create Christmas magic, my children and I made Christmas gifts for family members using materials we had on hand for the most part.
I had some red velvet fabric I used to sew Santa outfits and Santa “bags” for a couple of little teddy bears. My son made two cube shaped boxes with lids out of a decorative paper and lined them with some gold-leaf we had on hand in our art supplies. The boxes looked very magical, and we put them inside the red velvet Santa bags that went with the teddy bears. We gave one of the Santa bears and bag with the magic box inside to my parents and the other to one of my older brothers and his family.
I painted watercolor portraits of several nieces and nephews for others in the family, and was up painting the last one on Christmas Eve. While I was painting I watched a televised Midnight Mass. I had never attended a Mass of any kind, and didn’t know what to expect. It was beautiful. Ministers from a wide variety of religions spoke for several minutes each. They all gave a holiday message based on their respective theologies but all had a common theme: love.
Sometimes I think the real reason behind all of the hardship I was experiencing at that time was so that I would be up late painting on Christmas Eve and therefore watching television to help myself stay awake and thereby see that particular show…it was an important part of my own spiritual path.
This holiday season I am thinking of you, whoever you may be and whatever your faith may be. I am sending to you my thoughts of love, my prayers of hope and peace. I am longing to feel a deeper connection with God by reaching out and touching your hand (in spirit) and expressing my gratitude to you for your part in the worldwide search for God along many different paths shining many, many different lights toward truth.
Love,
firefly
About wishing you a Merry Christmas
December 20, 2011 at 6:16 pm | Posted in Christmas, faith, family, Holidays, inspiration, Life, love, women | 14 CommentsTags: culture, faith, family, friends, friendship, inspiration, Life, love, relationships, spirituality, thoughts
The other day I stopped in at our favorite local apple grower’s roadside store to buy a few pounds of apples and some fresh pressed apple cider. After paying, the lady at the counter said, “Have a nice Christmas,” and I could see a little look of doubt in her eyes as if she wondered if it was okay to say “Christmas” to me. I smiled and said, “Merry Christmas!” She relaxed, smiled and said, “Merry Christmas! It is so hard to tell what to do say these days.”
In response I said, “Let’s not have our communication stifled by such negative considerations. Wishing people a Merry Christmas is a kind, good-natured thing to do.”
That is how I feel about it.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, because wishing you a Merry Christmas is to wish you a season of love and kindness. That is how I mean it. I do not mean to wish Christianity on you, and in saying it I am not saying I am a Christian. The fact is, you don’t know what my faith is (unless you are my immediate family) I don’t discuss it because that is my personal business, not yours. Just as your faith is your personal business, not mine.
But whether I am Christian or not, I wish a Merry Christmas to all of the people of the world.
To attempt to stifle people from wishing one another a Merry Christmas is to stifle well wishing and thoughts of love. Why do that, when love is what the world needs.
Yes, Christmas is particular within the Christian religion is a celebration of the birth of Jesus.
But people of any faith or no faith could enjoy a sense of the celebration of brotherly love for the good of mankind and acknowledge a heightened sense of love during this season was inspired by some guy named Jesus who lived back about 2,000 years ago — regardless what the significance of that guy is. Whether he was a prophet, the son of God, God himself, or just some guy … he said some cool stuff and the coolest thing he said was, “Hey guys, you really should stop all the hating and do some loving instead.”
And there was something very convincing about the way he said it, because his words impacted the way much of mankind has lived and regarded one another positively in a huge way and that impact has lasted for more than 2,000 years.
So, I say to you, Merry Christmas. I say this because I wish you well, I wish you love and a sense of peace. I wish these things for you and those you touch and those you love. I wish these things on you and yours today, and for this season, and I hope those feelings will last for as much of the coming year as you can possibly carry it on. I don’t know you personally, perhaps … but I wish you love.
That is all it is, and even if you take a stance of being offended by my wishes of a Merry Christmas to you and yours, I love you any way and wish you love and peace any way. I respect your beliefs, whatever they may be. And, I wish you love.
So, Merry Christmas!
Love,
firefly
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