Breathe

 

This evening past the moment of sky-blue-pink...into the deep dark of the later hours...cloth and thread under the touch of my moving fingers...poke, pull, pat...the words rise from faint lettering and become braille for meditation.

The needle slides quickly, easily through the home-dyed cloth, a tiny tug and the threads join it...each stitch is welcomed and held in the pucker of the joining together, the collaboration between needle, thread, cloth and my hands. 

Well-worn, familiar words come to life...there is no rush, there is only stitch and time, texture and breath...

An email from a dear friend held the gem below, held just what I needed to hear. May I suggest you grab some cloth or fiber or a small totem...grab some tea or coffee and settle in to read and be moved.

She wrote: I read this on Facebook and thought it was beautiful:

"Something extraordinary happened at LAX today. (Writing this on the plane.) I was at the gate, waiting to get on my plane to Portland. Flights to two different cities were boarding on either side of the Portland flight. A toddler who looked to be 18 or so months old was having a total meltdown, running between the seats, kicking and screaming, then lying on the ground, refusing to board the plane (which was not going to Portland). His young mom, who was clearly pregnant and traveling alone with her son, became completely overwhelmed. She couldn't pick him up because he was so upset. He kept running away from her, then lying down on the ground, kicking and screaming again. The mother finally sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands, with her kid next to her still having a meltdown, and started crying. Then, this gorgeous thing (I'm crying just writing this) ... The women in the terminal -- there must have been six or seven of us -- not women who knew each other, approached and surrounded her and the little boy. We knelt down and formed a circle around them. I sang 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' to the little boy. One woman had an orange that she peeled, one woman had a little toy in her bag that she let the toddler play with, another woman gave the mom a bottle of water. Someone else helped the mom get the kid's sippy cup out of her bag and give it to him. It was so gorgeous. There was no discussion and no one knew anyone else, but we were able to calm them both down, and she got her child on the plane. Only women approached. After they went through the door, we all went back to our separate seats and didn't talk about it. We were strangers, gathering to solve something. It occurred to me that a circle of women, with a mission, can save the world. I will never forget that moment."                               Author - Beth Bornstein Dunnington

Here is the author's LINK

What transports you?

May you dash outside when the sky calls to you

May you lose yourself in the sensory moment

May you whisper stories of your own

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2024 

#goodenough

Remembering and Searching

Quotes from book posted back HERE

Stitch Meditation Scrolls

LINK
 

I came across this video and it brought back memories of wanting to try this. Don't know that I ever will, but I remember so many years back when I first saw this scroll idea (not this specific video, but the idea generally), it looked like so much fun to create. I can't recall what the cloths were wound on, but I thought of using driftwood, since I had so much of it at the time. I've since given it all away. The piece I sent off to Jude and family was a particular favorite, as it was so soft and smooth.  It would have worked well for this idea. I suppose I could stitch now, find a holder later. Not sure that I will, but as I type...I see Marti's beautiful earth dyed cloths unrolling in front of me. Little bits of location, ceremony and memory.

☟

I awoke with an old story in my head. A story from many, many years ago. A personal story.

I was in a local Bed, Bath and Beyond store, looking at the giant, very tall wall of picture frames. I noticed a frame, which had been on a lower shelf (about 3 feet off the ground) had slipped from behind the retaining wire strung across the shelf and was resting on the floor in the aisle. I picked it up and returned it to its spot. As I did so, I heard a faint sound. I took a tiny step back to crane my head back and look for the source of the sound. At that moment, I saw a large 18X22 inch frame falling from the ceiling height shelf - straight towards me! I took another quick step backward, hunching my shoulders in anticipated self-protection. Instantly, the large frame flew down and the corner hit me on my forehead, at the hairline. Profanities may have enthusiastically leapt from my lips. I was left with actual whiplash, a headache and a dent in my forehead to this day. There was no blood and the frame did not even break!! I guess my head slowed it down enough! The store manager took a statement and let me drive away! I wonder why I awoke to this old memory today?

☞

Two unity bags now complete. I finished the second one (the one with the white strap) today while doing laundry. J. and I found an old bracelet with its string deteriorating, so I cut the beads off and put them aside. The color in the pic makes it hard to tell, but they are a dark brown and cream and will go nicely with these bags. I may add them to the strap of the one on the loom now or maybe weave them in? We'll see. At any rate, I'm enjoying these colors and the utter diversity of the shades.

On another weaving note: I had made an extra 'peach' Medicine Bag, when I made those a few months back. I saved it aside all of this time - not quite knowing what to do with it. Today in the laundry room, a neighbor was very interested in the weaving I was doing. In the course of the conversation, she told me of her sister in the Philippines who is one year out from cancer. Peach represents her cancer, so I offered the peach Medicine Bag to her. She gratefully accepted and will mail it on to her sister. In return, she brought me 2 avocados. 🥑  🥑  A nice trade. 

As I close this post, I leave you with utter and exuberant joy, which I search for daily. I'll keep this one in mind when I deal with my car tomorrow.

LINK

May your troubles fall away

May joy find you

May feel okay enough with both

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2024

5 Things Friday - Lunch-Break

 

*In no particular order...

5 Things Friday: Things to do on your lunch-break

LINK

🌸

1. Talk to friends & family & co-workers (call or in person)

2. Create (stitch, weave, draw, write, photography)

3. Play Solitaire 

4. Read

5. Listen to music or radio programs

In the past, Walk would be on this list too. But, these days it is more like Nap instead!

Additionally, Eat is the unspoken 'of course' on the list...but it's these other things that fill me up in a way a packed lunch could never do.

May your breaks replenish you, engage you, fill you

May you look forward, enjoy and look back with fondness

May you give yourself what you need 

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2022

What's Up??

That's what I keep asking,

"What's up with me?"

I have a few projects that I want to (need to, in my eyes) get done. Two are started, sort of, and there is time for the third (a new Christmas stocking). But, I just keep procrastinating.

I dug out some vintage canning jars "hats" to use in the repairing/updating of Raggedy Ann (who you met recently). Her little pantaloons have new elastic in the waist. Silly her has them on inside out, as I check them for fit :) I then did one of the leg openings, but it didn't work well so I took it right back out. I've been problem solving a better way to make it work and think I've done that, yet my hand is needle-less! I've got two let hole and two sleeve openings to get done.

If I say all of this here, will it push me forward? Let's hope!

Next onto the quilt block, barely in process. I've had some cloth pulled out to make a quilt block for that covid memorial quilt I've mentioned before. I keep considering ideas, moving the pieces around...I even got excited with one of the ideas and ripped a strip. My biggest idea is some weaving, maybe a heart and of course her name and birth/death dates. The white is the size it will be, 8X8 and it may be used for the heart (with name) as well. It has texture. 

But, I just can't get going further. 

Perhaps I need to make myself some deadlines here.

I love this finger paint fabric so much...but you all know that!

Okay, well, that's all I've got. Me trying to get pushy with me and putting that here.

 

May you  complete your self imposed tasks

May you  enjoy the actual doing of it

May you discover other things that need doing along the way

xo

 Photographs by NAE ©2021

Stitching to Existance

ENOUGH

Good Trouble

hope

I stitched a bit of 'hope' onto the word cloth.

The photos came out dark, but that's okay,

that's how it's felt

I like how Deb's thread has both light and dark.

I chose the yellow-blue, looking for sunshine,

for hope

I like how it held a bit of darkness too

It wouldn't be realistic if it didn't

The 'e' trails of, sparking some sort of something down the line

H~O~P~E~~~~

I was going to say more about this and how things are,

but it seems rather unimportant,

really

 I truly feel as if this space has become a

record for one,

not the conversation it was.

My waves of wondering continue

Until the next post, or until whenever we meet again...

May you search for

May you find

May you hang onto hope

xo

Photographs by NAE ©2020

Something Old & Something New

↔

In reading blogs, emails, and having phone chats,

I see how we are all in a similar place

or in some place or another.

These are challenging days for many.

I think my ways of dealing with stressful times

 haven't changed all that much.

Making~getting out~reading & learning~cleaning out clutter

With that in mind, here are little somethings I've been doing.

↔

I'm still cleaning out, 

which feels like it has been a forever of getting rid of things. 

This stuff is old and although it is from my childhood,

many of the same issues are happening now.

I'm looking at old stuff with new eyes.

This has given me things to ponder and 

wrapped me in the traumas of these days. 

I've had to fight for hope when I see these same difficult

situations arise again and again for years.

 Little me in Sr. Nursery School.

I notice in leafing through the annual, 

that all of the teachers are white mostly women, mostly older...

 ...except for the "dietition" and the "jewel of a cook"

1964

↔

When George Floyd was killed, this word kept coming to mind.

I was not alone.

Many had this thought.

IT IS ENOUGH!

Soon enough (ha), this word was applying to more and more...

and less and less.

Enough!

I had this cloth in mind, 

but I couldn't find it in my piles of cloth for so long.

I had dyed this years ago, which you can see at the link below.

https://pomegranatetrail.blogspot.com/2015/02/topanga-hike.html

I first began the heartbeat back then too,

back when my half-sister contacted me for the first time.

But, there it sat, until now.

I added the word and continued the hearbeat, until it flatlined. 

I intentionally used all 6 strands of the black floss.

Loud & firm 

↔

↔

Today we went for a drive.

It was wonderful to get out of the house and into the world.

We went to a nearby canyon, his old stomping grounds.

As we started out, 

it looked so brown, dry and charred from the most recent fire. 

 Toothpick trees from a fire we can no longer even name.

Deeper into the canyon, a campsite with a teeny creek
Things growing green and beautiful

Giant leaves, deep blue sky and white hillside
Yucca, dying off and the canyon 
A bit of beauty everywhere we look 

↔

 

My senior year in high school, included the continuation of 'busing' and

a 'race riot'. I had lots of friends that rode the bus in to school and I was already gone for the day when the fighting took place. Afterwards there were lots of conversations

and a 'rap group' was formed to promote communication and 

help ease the racial tensions. 

A mural was begun. 

↔

So, here we are,

full circle in a sense.

So much comes down to communication.

So I'll leave you with this little ditty,

which Jr. High me thought it was pretty darn funny

My you find ways to move 'round the circle

May you reach out if needed

Reach in when needed

and continue circling 'round

xo 

 

Photographs by NAE ©2020

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children

     

I awoke with this song in my head the other day
Or is it, I thought of it while trying to sleep?

I think that is how this post, this time will feel
Full of contradictions
Highs and Lows

Even for me, an introvert who loves being home...
yet the lack of freedom in leaving home weighs heavy

Even for me, a lover of sleeping in
(even if I wish that not to be so)
Days and Nights ~ confused

Blessings of home to be in
Curses of Mr Upstairs who keeps me awake all night
Unkind thoughts I should keep to myself

Another baby entered the world this week

Another one expected soon

This old baby quilt, circa 1900's,

I was told once upon a time

Purchased in Bishop, CA 1980 for $15.00

used for both of my babies

a lifetime ago

a lifetime ago

Excited by the idea of large cloth with Jude and everyone, 

I pulled this out, laying it out on our full-sized bed,

(to give an idea of the size of it),

hoping the fold wrinkles will ease a bit

Much of the color gone

spots worn almost clean through

My thoughts of 'mending' quickly overtaken by 

insecurities of low creativity and lower technique

How to make this useful,

while trying to ignore the fear of ruining it?

My imagination trickles in, 

a few sparse ideas...

with no idea on how to actually execute them

Because that is the crux of imposter syndrome

Fears of good enough

Just look at that beautiful stitching in perfect little squares!

I could never match it

What to do?

How to move through the layers?

Move through the feelings?

One of my thoughts, perhaps a beginning,

is to add a new binding on top of the existing one

There are many spots where the edge is worn through

I have an old favorite super soft flannel skirt that may make a nice border,
although the lined print somewhat concerns me
I would not attempt to line things up perfectly

In my head I see Liz's precise stitches,

Jude's beasts wandering over the squares

A stack of Saskia's dog and birds in one corner

And a house from Dee somewhere too

I see a heart from Deb in WA

and some wild stitching from Deb, using her gorgeous threads 

Along with all of that,

I see water, a small boat, stars and a dream from Hazel

I see nature dyed glory from Marti side-by-side

with face and human form stitched by Grace

And of course a moon from Mo 

And a second one from Glennis

 I see a story!

How I would love to send this off in the mail...

round robin style, 

so many hands could make much love!

I know that often the best way out, is through...
that I should just begin
It is just hard
these days

 Super soft flannel of my old skirt

Me at 19 years
This skirt, equally soft pull-over shirt and Frye boots!
Ha

 Shhh...he's sleeping!

May you things to do
Memories to hold 
And friendships that sustain you
xo

Photographs by NAE ©2020