What’s your history…. where are you from… what’s your family… I feel so conflicted. I’m Irish and Scottish and British and German and Swedish. I’m a direct descendent of Sadie Hawkins but much closer are the immigrants, John & Mary, the Wolfes, the farmers and the bakers, the soldiers and the ladies in waiting. What…
Author: hearthie
Chrysalis Time
Chrysalis Time is a time of transformation. It’s the process of letting yourself go all gooey and insubstantial, the process of letting go of the things you have known about yourself. It’s a time to say, “I don’t know” and “I used to, but maybe not” and “let’s see”. In chrysalis time, our work consists…
Bridges In the Mist
It was 3am. I was exhausted. Of the past 24 hours, I’d slept perhaps three. I hadn’t eaten anything that day, and barely allowed any water. I’d spent 12 hours in active labor and then had surgery. They’d just brought me my son back – having insisted on taking him away so I could rest….
Wilderness
Once upon a time in the Wild, Wild West… we had wilderness. That was the West’s calling card. Empty spaces, rough edges, and Mother Nature red of tooth and claw. All of the majesty, all of the intensity, all of the desolation. In the heart of every true Westerner lies the scratchy disinclination to do…
Creating Beauty
Creating beauty requires love, skill, and craftsmanship. Displaying beauty well requires a good eye, appreciation, and adequate raw materials. Copying beauty without keeping its essence requires none of the above. What is beauty? Half my library is devoted to this discussion. We all know beauty when we see it, but pinning it down is problematic….
Beauty vs. Making a Statement
There is a very excellent house in my neighborhood. This house sits on a corner lot between two busy-ish streets. Many a house in such a setting goes for privacy, quiet. But not this house, oh no. The house is yellow, with purple trim – and the picket fence around the house is purple too….
Two Dimensional Strangers
Modernity, and life in an urban (or even suburban) context offers a world full of strangers – two dimensional beings, known and categorized in seconds. It is said that you have only seven seconds to make a first impression. So too do all the humans you see around you – seven seconds. How could they…
Soma
In Brave New World, soma is the government supplied drug that numbs and offers blissful escape from any unpleasantness, whether great or small. Modernity has built up her offerings until it is nearly impossible to avoid dusting oneself with our own versions of soma. One starts with the obvious – the internet. But it is…
Spaces
Spaces in our lives create aeration, room in the soil around us for growth, for us to send roots in all directions, not just one. The roots stabilize us, but without the space, we only grow a taproot. The tiny sideways roots hold us together, stabilize us as a whole, and make the soil itself…