Learning to Love You More

Lavender and Sedum

How does one both live and have time to  blog about it? I'm already at least a week behind. Part of it is remembering to take pictures...when I saw these vibrating complimentary colors out my kitchen window, I had to run out and take a picture, then saw more and more.

I'm on a roll of looking at my surroundings close up. Maybe it's part of Learning to Accept Aging and Accept that Possibilities are no longer limitless. They never were limitless, of course, but when we're young, denial seems a lot easier, and we dream of all that we will do Some Day...AND Change the World!

Thyme and sedum

 I don't mean to sound old and depressingly resigned...although sometimes I do feel that way...more Wisely Accepting. There does 
need to be some kind of happy medium between
longing to return to my "home" in VT and 
embracing all that is beautiful about the Northwest, where I am now. A woman in Penny's this afternoon was explaining to the clerk how she and her husband had stayed married (looks like successfully) for 30 years...by being accepting of each other, and by taking a breather before being critical. I can't quite remember how that conversation arose from her being happy about buying a blouse for $1.72, but her husband stood there smiling through it all.

Phallic Hens and Chicks

Instead of getting restless and pining for what I don't have, why not celebrate what I do have...these pictures from my own back yard, for instance. 

instead of the 26 acres that two of us struggled to keep up in NY, I have 100' x 100'...and with the house in the middle, I can know every bit of what I have and each individual rock I chose from the local beaches.

Lavender, Greymarsh Farm

 Be thankful for what I have, the bounties all around me, instead of yearning for some unknown. Last weekend was the annual Lavender Festival, and although it rained much of the time, there were crowds of people enjoying the surroundings that I have access to daily...why spend the $$$ to travel to France, when I have this.

Lynne Armstrong with some of her paintings

The Sequim Art Studio Tour, my friend, Lynne Armstrong, Mary Franchini (one of the first Artists I met here) in Susan Gansert Shaw's barn on Silberhorn Road...Artists find each other, and huddle together for warmth, support, and understanding.






I've been looking closely at the details of my surroundings, learning to Love where I am.

Repeating pattern of grains

The base of a lamp post in Seattle

 

 

 

I see sculptural similarities

Being close to family is a BIG reason 
to be happy where I am.  Last weekend
it was the Abboriginal Art show at Seattle
Art Museum, and lunch at TASTE with 
a good selection of the family.

Me and Doug

 

Hugh, Serene, Amal

ART and FOOD bring us together...SO Nice to be from a family where we all enjoy being together!

Connie, Hugh, Serene

Connie, Hugh, and I are going to 
Ashland, OR, this fall for the Shakespeare Festival...I've always wanted to go, and Connie got us cheap tickets for 5 plays, plus they know all the good bakeries... and maybe I'll get to see Justine Blank, buddingly famous author and former book group member, who now lives in Ashland.  I've been here long enough to have good friends move away.






The scale on the West Coast is so Large, I've hardly been anywhere in the seven years I've been here. I was Always traveling around the Northeast, but different modes for different times. When I talked with Barbara and Cindy at the Lavender Festival I was SO happy I'm not doing craft shows any more...different kinds of focus for different times of life?

Seattle Ferry Terminal Wall

Cryptic timeless message on the ferry terminal wall, as I headed home. The Art part of me continues Aware and Evolving. Maybe that's a lesson of aging...to become more focused and go deeper, to Appreciate what is closer, instead of yearning for something far away and maybe out of reach.

Donkey Tail Euphorbia

These weird ground covers would never grow in VT...and through benign neglect and judicious introduction, they are taking over my yard. Plants and stones, hardy enough to survive rainy winters and dry cool summers, infinite sculptural shapes and inspiration for endless painting and sculpture. While the rest of the country is sweltering, I enjoy my own perfect climate for Creativity.

Harbor View after a hard day's work

AND my soul has always sought solace in the salt water.

Life is Good. I am Happy Here.