simple free being…

"Butterflies" by Odilon Redon (1840-1916) French Symbolist Painter & Printmaker

“Butterflies” by Odilon Redon

Soon the child’s clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions.  Simple free being becomes encrusted with the burdensome armor of the ego.  Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn.  The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise.  After that day we become seekers.
~ Peter Matthiessen
(Visionaries: The 20th Century’s 100 Most Important Inspirational Leaders)

out flew the moon…

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illustration by Kay Nielsen

Now, after a while, the Foster-mother had to go on another journey; and, before she went, she forbade the Lassie to go into those two rooms into which she had never been.  She promised to beware; but when she was left alone, she began to think and to wonder what there could be in the second room, and at last she could not help setting the door a little ajar, just to peep in, when – Pop ! out flew the Moon.
~ from The Lassie & Her Godmother
(East of the Sun & West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North)

contradiction and paradox…

“Little Girl in Blue” by Amedeo Modigliani

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself?  If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox.  One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse.  There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.  You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
~ Barry Lopez
(Arctic Dreams)

pertinent questions…

"Ophelia" by Odilon Redon (1840-1916) French Symbolist Painter & Printmaker

“Ophelia” by Odilon Redon

How important are looks and popularity?  How do I care for myself and not be selfish?  How can I be honest and still be loved?  How can I achieve and not threaten others?  How can I be sexual and not a sex object?  How can I be responsive but not responsible for everyone?
~ Mary Pipher
(Reviving Ophelia)

here comes the sun…

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“Child in Sunlight” by Willard Metcalf

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter 
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces 
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting 
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun 
And I say it’s all right 
~ George Harrison
♫ (Here Comes the Sun) ♫ 

Welcome Spring!

but the child is right…

“Jean Drawing” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Children will draw pictures with everything in them … houses and trees and people and animals … and the sun AND the moon.  Grown-up says, “That’s a nice picture, Honey, but you put the moon and the sun in the sky at the same time and that isn’t right.”  But the child is right!  The sun and moon are in the sky at the same time.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
(Buckminster Fuller to Children of Earth)

Blizzard Larry ~ 2.6.78

2.6.78.scan2…Nat’s first encounter with the aftermath of a blizzard…

Snow memories…  Blizzard Charlotte keeps reminding us of Blizzard Larry, which stormed through Connecticut thirty-five years ago on February 6, 1978, when we also got 21 inches of snow.  Our son was two years old at the time, and was already showing signs of the outdoor-loving guy he was to become.

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Yesterday I kept thinking about these pictures and so decided to learn how to use the scanner today.  Nate (we used to call him Nat, but his friends changed his nickname to Nate) moved to Georgia in 2011 and he very much misses New England and snow.  Tim set up a webcam for him so he could watch the blizzard outside our kitchen window on his computer as the storm was in progress.

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…Tim and Nat taking a walk to see what they could see…

While flipping through the photo album I came across this picture of my sister Beverly and the swan she sculpted from a snowfall the year before, in the winter of 1977.

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…Beverly and her lovely swan…