bittersweet.
‘juan and amelia’
painted and left behind
and
‘amelia and juan’
painted and now left broken.
—
“the heart will break, but broken live on.”
-lord Byron
Jun26
Tag Archives: heart
Jun9
greenhorn.
one of my favorite teacher gifts ever
a big, colorful, ceramic unicorn
chosen and painted by a student
body painted green, my favorite color
eyes painted yellow, her favorite color
accents painted black, because they look cool
and a unicorn
because it was a gift straight from the heart.
—
p.s. i named it ‘greenhorn’ because it looks like it has magical powers
—
“be a unicorn in a field full of horses.”
-author unknown
May23
change of heart.
A 9-year-old girl’s plea to save a sidewalk slab with a heart-shaped cavity has tugged at the heartstrings of Ann Arbor officials, who have agreed to let it stay. The inspector also spray-painted an X over the R that previously marked the slab for replacement, while writing “Save!” and giving the heart a fresh touch of color.
Where Dahlia left a note along the sidewalk last week making the case for keeping the slab, the city’s inspector on Monday left a response letter complete with the city seal on it. “Thank you for your wonderful letter, and for bringing this to our attention!” it reads. “Your note is very well written, and after further considerations, we feel this sidewalk slab can be saved. We’re so glad you let us know, and that we can save your ‘heart.’”
“Thank you for being so passionate and proactive about your community!” the response letter states. “When you’re old enough, you should consider working for the city to continue making it a great place to live. Sincerely, City Sidewalk Repair Program.”
Dahlia, the daughter of Kelly and Matt, said in her note to the ‘Sidewalk People” last week that she was devastated when she saw the slab was marked for replacement.
“You see, the heart is not just a heart,” she wrote. “Ever since I was little, I said hi to the heart. Don’t you see how much it means to me? Every time I pass the heart, I say hi and it brings me joy.”
Anyone else who wants to say hi to the heart now can find it along the east side of Seventh Street across from Waterworks Park between Murray Court and Washington Street.
—
“kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much.”
-blaise pascal
—
source credit: ryan stanton, mlive, ann arbor news
May22
have a heart.
“Dear Sidewalk People.”
That’s how 9-year-old Dahlia started her handwritten note placed under a rock along a city sidewalk hoping to get the attention of Ann Arbor’s crews slated to replace the slab she holds dear due to a distinctive feature.
This sidewalk has a heart.
“There is a heart in this block, and as me and my mom were walking home from school, we saw that there was an ‘R’ on the block that the heart is on,” reads the girl’s note, placed next to where she made a heart-shaped chalk outline around a small cavity in the slab the city has marked with an R to replace.
“You see, the heart is not just a heart,” wrote Dahlia, “Ever since I was little, I said hi to the heart. Don’t you see how much it means to me? Every time I pass the heart, I say hi and it brings me joy.”
Her father confirmed his daughter indeed says “hi, heart” every time she passes it. When she heard the city was going to replace the slab with the heart, Dahlia said she was devastated and cried.
“So can you please leave it or at least cut around the heart, for me to pick up on my way to school,” she wrote, ending her note by thanking the city’s repair crews for their work to keep sidewalks safe and encouraging them to give her note an extra read so it makes sense.
A spokesperson for the city’s public services unit did not have an immediate response on whether the sidewalk slab could be saved or whether the heart-shaped part could be salvaged for Dahlia to take.
While Dahlia really wanted to keep the heart sidewalk, her father said the family understands the need to fix it so people don’t trip and has talked with her about it.
“We compared it to the Halloween pumpkin she really loved and wanted to keep,” he said. “We told her we could keep it, but we could watch how when a pumpkin dies it helps nature by becoming part of something new.”
In that case, they put the pumpkin in their garden and Dahlia visited it every day and watched it decay, and in the spring she watched as flowers sprung up. She got to see her pumpkin again in the form of flowers.
As for her well-crafted sidewalk note, her father said while only 9, Dahlia is an amazing writer and gives him and his wife daily gems of wisdom worthy of the wisest, aged writers.
“sometimes the people who walk softly make the deepest impressions…”
-nitya prakash
—
source credit: ryan stanton, mlive, ann arbor
Jan12
bueno come il pane.
“buono come il pane.”
this Italian idiom refers to someone who is “as good as bread.”
that is, someone who is caring and loving and a person of the heart.
—
i really, really love this phrase and am definitely going to start using it. such the perfect words.
Oct17
feeling the beat.
on the very next day
after i punched an aggressive clown in a haunted house
and my heartbeat had resumed its normal pace
i found this heart on a sidewalk
made of old gum weathered with time
yet the message was still clear.
—
“i would rather live with a tender heart, because that it the key to feeling the beat of all other hearts.”
-jenny slate
Mar5
heartstrings.
“poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them”
– dennis gabor
—
photo credit: vermont garden journal
Aug2
warmth.
when in london many years ago
i happened upon these two in a park
struck by the natural warmth between them
i took this picture without their knowing
hoping i could somehow capture
the closeness
the easy comfort
between them
in that moment in time
it was simply impossible to do so
but every time i look at this
it makes me feel that warmth again
just for a moment.
—
“there is a certain phase in the life of the aged
when the warmth of the heart seems to increase in direct proportion with the years.”
-john phillips marquand
Jun4
big heart.
today’s walk
brought this discovery
a reminder
that it’s impossible
for a heart to be too big.
—
“one day we will realize that big hearts will bring us more peace than big weapons.”
-anthony douglas
May28
keep the heart touchable.
doing virtual early childhood parent-teacher conferences online
did not feel natural
but i give parents so much credit
some went to elaborate lengths
to find a space and time
where their child wouldn’t find them
so we could openly talk
and share stories
about how their child
touched our hearts this year
we talked to parents
in a closet, in a basement, up in an attic room,
and those who sent their child off on an errand
some waited until their child was asleep at night
but one thing was the same
this was a wonderful group of supportive, think-on-their-feet parents
who kept our connection with their children going
even from a distance
as we all navigated our way through this uncharted territory
and we were so lucky to have them as our teaching and learning partners this year.
—
“in a world where the great technologies enable us to record, replay, cut and paste, zoom in, and delete –
listening is the crucial commitment to keep the heart touchable.”
-mark nepo
—
photo credit: bored panda
I didn't have my glasses on.... 