(someone in a squirrel costume pretending to be me coming home from the ilbrary/bookstore)
it is national book month after all –
—
“with freedom, flowers, books and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?”
-oscar wilde
Oct11
Monthly Archives: October 2022
Oct10
gichi-gami.
Ojibwe entering the gichi-gami
(artist unknown)
In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day
City of Ann Arbor Land Acknowledgment:
Equity and justice are at the center of our city’s critical principles. In that light, we’d like to take a moment to honor the geographic and historic space we share. We acknowledge that the land the City of Ann Arbor occupies is the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg – (including Odawa, Ojibwe and Boodewadomi) and Wyandot peoples. We further acknowledge that our City stands, like almost all property in the United States, on lands obtained, generally in unconscionable ways, from indigenous peoples. The taking of this land was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. Knowing where we live, work, study, and recreate does not change the past, but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals.
Lake Michigan is named after the Ojibwe word “mishigami” which means “large water” or “large lake.”
Also known as Michigamme/”mishigamaa” meaning “great water“, also etymology for state of Michigan.
The Great Lakes were called “gichi-gami” (from Ojibwe gichi “big, large, great”; gami “water, lake, sea”).
—
“man belongs to the earth, the earth does not belong to man.”
-ojibwe saying
—
credits: project.geo.msu.ed, city of ann arbor, ann arbor public libraries
Oct9
dear evan hansen.
watching this very moving play
at the historic fisher theatre
as a story of people
who have always felt outsiders
unheard, unloved, and unseen
plays out before us
in words, in actions, in music
where the audience sits in total silence
and cries.
—
“Even when the dark comes crashing through,
when you need a friend to carry you and when you are broken on the ground,
you will be found.”
-You Will Be Found, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’.
Oct8
be unprepared.
when an unexpected robot cat rolls up to deliver your dinner and gives you a wink
just smile and wink back.
—
“be unprepared. that’s my motto. let life surprise you.”
-marty rubin
Oct7
october slipped quietly in.
“Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now how comfortable it will be to touch the earth instead of the nothingness of the air and the endless freshets of wind? And don’t you think the trees, especially those with mossy hollows, are beginning to look for the birds that will come – six, a dozen – to sleep inside their bodies? And don’t you hear the goldenrod whispering goodbye, the everlasting being crowned with the first tuffets of snow? The pond stiffens and the white field over which the fox runs so quickly brings out its long blue shadows. The wind wags its many tails. And in the evening the piled firewood shifts a little, longing to be on its way.”
~Mary Oliver, “Song for Autumn”
—
art credit: willowday flower project by gina, stockholm
Oct6
they have made me.
The library in Puebla, Mexico has grown from 5,000 volumes in 1646 to more than 40,000 volumes now,
the majority of which date from before Mexico’s independence and is the oldest in the Americas.
—
“i cannot remember the books i’ve read any more than the meals i have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
-ralph waldo emerson
—
in honor of international book month
Oct5
loose ends.
gargoyle
at loose ends
while waiting to defend the castle.
—
“she wasn’t bored, just restless between adventures. “
-atticus
‘
Oct4
“believe nothing you hear and only one half that you see.” – edgar allan poe
remember when
you heard all those scary stories in the dark?
where you looked in your rearview mirror and saw
the man with the hook/claw/bones in your backseat?
think maybe i should wave this driver over to warn him?
—
“the thing I hate most about skeletons is you can never tell when they’re smiling.”
-stephen blackmoore, american author
Oct3
out of the nest.
stepped out of my comfort zone
and into the woods
in a park i’d never visited
with a group of people i’d never met
to share a scavenger hunt/hike/game night/food/campfire/improv haiku experience
what we had in common was that we all enjoy active social adventures
without knowing how they will go
and sometimes those are the best times of all.
“to be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”
-pema chodron
Oct2
journey.
“If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless.”
“no book is really worth reading at the age of ten
which is not equally – and often far more –
worth reading at the age of 50 and beyond.”
-c.s. lewis
—
credits: author- kate dicamillo, candlewick press
I didn't have my glasses on.... 