Words
Posted on July 5th, 2010 by Anne
“…before we speak, we can choose silence and then look honestly at what the urge to speak is telling us about ourselves.”
—Norvene Vest, No Moment Too Small, 1994
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Intense color
Posted on June 5th, 2010 by Anne
These are poppies on the campus of Stanford University but they are also powerful memory triggers. When I walked up on this field, I gasped remembering the fields and roadsides of France wheres splotches of bright red sprang up from the most surprising places…looking at them was like looking at joy.
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A messsage?
Posted on June 2nd, 2010 by Anne
Compelling
Posted on June 1st, 2010 by Anne
The New Guinea Sculpture Garden at Stanford University, created by ten master carvers from the Middle Sepik River Region of Papua New Guinea in the summer of 1994. “The project is not an attempt to recreate a traditional New Guinea environment but, according to Mason [the project director], ‘an opportunity to experiment with and reinterpret New Guinea aesthetic perspectives within the new context of a Western public art space.’ ” Read more here.
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Stretching beyond what is comfortable
Posted on May 31st, 2010 by Anne
The first of the season
Posted on May 14th, 2010 by Anne
Words
Posted on May 13th, 2010 by Anne
“When we were young, we were told that poetry is about voice, about finding a voice and speaking with this voice, but the older I get I think it’s not about voice, it’s about listening and the art of listening, listening with attention. I don’t just mean with the ear; bringing the quality of attention to the world. The writers I like best are those who attend.”
–Kathleen Jamie, Scottish poet born on this date in 1962
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New kid on the block
Posted on May 11th, 2010 by Anne
This flowering cherry tree was planted just yesterday. The cottonwood stump looming in the background was cut down on 12 February. Wouldn’t it be a little intimidating to stand next to that reminder of greatness? Doesn’t it seem like a harbinger of doom? Fortunately, they plan to remove the stump soon.
I continue to mourn the loss of that big tree and feel sad for the displaced birds and squirrels. How long will it take for the leaves of that flowering cherry to rustle in the breeze and sing me back to sleep when I awaken in the night?
Still, it’s a welcome addition to the ‘hood…now GROW!
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Words
Posted on May 10th, 2010 by Anne
More from The Healing of America by T.R. Reid (p.87):
Everyone in Japan is required to sign up with a health insurance plan. This is a “personal mandate,” an issue that became controversial during the 2008 presidential election in the United States. Every nation that relies on health insurance has that requirement (except the USA), and in Japan the mandate is not controversial at all. “It’s considered an element of personal responsibility, that you insure yourself against health care costs,” Dr. Ikegami (the country’s best-known health care economist) told me [T.R. Reid]. “And who can be against personal responsibility?”
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Does it snow every day?
Posted on May 7th, 2010 by Anne
It certainly seems so. Under these buckets are three pepper plants and one tomato that my enthusiastic neighbor bought and planted in our little garden space. Alas, the pepper leaves have all dropped off leaving only bare stalks to bear this cold and the top leaves of the tomato have blackened like a face with frostbite. I fear we will have to start again, but I feel responsible for these fragile beings while they still stand.
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