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
Oct8
Author Archives: beth
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
Oct1
not whistler’s mother.
*This work, which is a depiction of a fireworks display in London’s Cremorne Gardens, is probably Whistler’s most infamous painting. It was the central issue of a libel suit that involved the art critic John Ruskin and the artist. Ruskin had publicly slandered the work by making the statement, “I have seen, and heard, much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Whistler won the libel suit; however, he was awarded only the token damages of one farthing. This is one of Whistler’s many “Nocturnes,” which are characterized by a moody atmosphere, a subtle palette, and overall tonalist qualities.
—
“there is only one way to avoid criticism, do nothing, be nothing, say nothing.”
-aristotle
—
*art: James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket,
1875, oil on panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.
Sep30
in it.
with the return of the school year
comes the return of our outdoor adventure days.
—
“we could have never loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.”
-george eliot
Sep29
scribbles, scraps, and scrawls.
anyone who works with me, is related to me, or friends with me
knows i love writing my ideas/notes/lists
on any random found piece of paper
all makes perfect sense to me
interesting to look back at later
when out of context and a bit of time has gone by.
—
“but those who cannot write, and those who can, all rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble to a man.”
-alexander pope
—
note: (photo above is an “S” page ( S is for: scribbles, scraps and scrawls)
from a work-in progress – my memoir,
done in a large-format, alphabet book style,
using a bajillion collage pieces cut from everywhere – the best way i know to tell my story.)
I didn't have my glasses on.... 