Spirit Cloth

Getting Through

Comments are off here now. While I focus on things to be done. I saw 2 robins this morning. What if season is a kind of breakthrough?

you sleep, you wake up...

And the Older said...

You stand.

You breath, let it move through.

You go.

Sometimes just to see.

Don't be discouraged.

Absorb the magic of days.

It rained, it snowed, the plow guy didn't show, 7 degrees, it froze, no unfreeze in sight, the only way out is to slide. Or fly.

Winter Going

Just a shadowy beginning to a winter's day. A winter self. Worn thin from a sad world. As it sometimes happens.  

Snow over ice. Won't be above freezing for a while. The blues are settling in.

But then thin, always the opportunity, to become like a window. Or to lift off in the wind.

 

Path Way

We are in the middle of a new storm. Still dark here and I don't even want to imagine the snow and rain mix. The yuckiest kind of weather to try to get around in. So I am not going anywhere.

I took this picture  Yesterday. That's a new path winding through the woods. Won't be visible when winter is over.

When we moved here, I brought my attitude with me. My neighbors (the couple is about my son's age) live right on the road below us. About 1/2 acre, 2 teenagers, and an ATV.  Not long after being here, I noticed them walking through "my yard". The 5 acres between them and the next neighborhood over. I kindly let them know how I felt about that. Everyday the youngest kid, 11, rides his ATV in circles around their house . For hours. While I think to myself, I hate those things.

Right after the holidays, while retrieving the mail at the bottom of the hill. I saw them on their deck. I called out. We talked from our own sides over a stone wall.  It was a long talk. Too long for here, I cannot type that much.

I asked about things. I learned about them. The things we have in common and the things we don't. I suddenly said...something I never would have said before... "what if Nicholas could use his ATV to make a path? I said maybe we could all walk through the woods more easily. Maybe he could use the path once in a while to ride through to see his friends over the hill.  Faces lit up. She asked if I wanted to know more about the hiking trails just beyond the hill.

The culture is different here. But people are people. If you try to understand.

I let a lot of things go with the turn of the year. I think that might become more apparent.

So many works I create are about path. Maybe they all are.

 

before coffee

Winter's Sun

Yesterday. There she was.

The pond with no name. Miss Pond I have been calling her. I don't know her well enough yet. We can only see her when the leaves have fallen and the light reflects in the morning.

What is it about Winter's light?

There was a lot of considering.

Yesterday's self developed In Sympathy with a Winter's Sun. Thinking, the triangle at the bottom...a mountain...might be a new symbol. The mountain...as a challenge. She rises above it like a winter's sun rises above a cold hard truth. And these, the thoughts today, of vibrating outward, being a source of warmth, which in itself might encourage growth, growth itself being a form of the same, reaching out, and then, how enlightenment grows from darkness, and how you can never have too many eyes. Suddenly the mountain here became a kind of negative space, like poof, it's not a mountain at all and there are new eyes and suddenly she can see she has simply grown sky legs. Did the Winter Sun just whisper, yes, be lighter?

She is not done.

There were family gatherings but we were not part of them. I had thought of Pizza but there was light fasting and gratefulness and a bit of winter garden prep, a roaring fire and good sleep. 

Today it is raining, soon to turn bitterly cold with a chance of snow. I hope so. Winter Sun on snow brings great light-ness.

The Thinning

Last Night, the setting sun set the distant mountain on fire. 

We can see further now. Many leaves have fallen. I even caught a glimpse of the roadside pond below. I used to call it a lake, but it is small, and it has no official name. So pond I guess. I should give her a name.

I taped the small cloth to the window this morning.

The cloth I now call Singing Woman. I examined the thin spots, how perfect they seem. I wonder which parts of me would let the light through? Do I need to work on that?

This kind of thing results from managing layers. Some don't like that word but for me it is about maintaining balance. Nature does it so well. I used to manage a design department. At one point 11 people. Balance ain't easy. People. Like a layered cloth, lightness was always a challenge. But a beautiful thing. Like  a thing and then not so much of a thing at the same time. Fluid. And I said to myself this morning... Natural Order includes chaos. I wrote that down to remind myself. 

So, I have been stitching. Without a lot of saying. Very slowly. Expressing the standing. Even while feeling knocked down. Or so it seems. Some days.  

Let It Be Thin

Everything Is So Fragile.

I named this that. Awhile back.

Form is temporary...

Direct link to audio if you see no player above.

x

I don't know why this one is so difficult to photograph, just elusive in some sort of way. Perhaps I see something that cannot be seen outside a dream. The thing that remains in between.

The X emerged, I don't think I have talked about that symbol much. I have been gathering thoughts for a while. It is a combination of conflicting thoughts having to do with the unknown, crossing over, and placekeeping.  Not to be confused with the cross (which is here too.).  But my words seem inadequate this morning and I need some time ...

Anyway, this one is complete in the context of the day. Pinned to a bit of Sanity. The Heart of Season.  And the thread that runs through it. 

This is an old drawing that is very much at the root of my thread theory. 

Very old, like 60s.

I love it more today.

I will use it to pull me through to some new form of understanding. 

 

Managing Edges

I suppose I have composed one of my selves.

Made the base cloth a bit longer because I felt the need for more space.

An old print overdyed with indigo. Ripped to size.

I cut along the side of the print so I might slide the patchwork into the base cloth. Integrate the two. For Oneness. Of course, I could have slit the base cloth and woven her right in... like I did here. (...how long I have been at this One-Ness thing)

To stabilize the cut and place, I added a strip of very light cloth to the other side. A little longer at the top end so I could fold it over and hug the top edge. Probably I will add fringe to the bottom. For continuing. Now for some glue-stitching.

A Path-Work, long cloth. Needed.

Are all paths the same? Who knows?