exercises

One of the things I appreciate most about this new season in my life (being part of the work a day world, instead of the student life) is that I am better about routines and rituals. These daily moments bring me great joy and satisfaction. Taking care of my body and my soul brings me more pleasure now that taking care of my brain is only one part of the process. Graduate studies emphasized the brain. Now, I am feeling a bit more whole and it is largely due to some newly incorporated daily exercises or practices.

In the morning, before departing for work, I have taken to journeying through elements of Ignatian Spirituality. For now, I am using the Suscipe prayer that reads:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

This centering practice reminds me every day that I am whole. It also reminds me that I have enough. That love and grace are enough. I like to be online, to find one more amazingly handcrafted item that I would like to add to my collection. But the truth is, that in and of itself is not fulfilling my larger need to be content.

After the prayer and meditation, I'll move on to 10 minutes of yoga or pilates. And then my day unfolds into more mundane tasks like packing my lunch or finding my always misplaced glasses. Later in the day, when the stress of life starts to pile up, I've found "That is enough for me" gently nudging me along.

Another life-giving reflection is the Prayer for Generosity also by St. Ignatius of Loyola:

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

May your day be centered and true. May you find joy in what is enough. May you find yourself giving without counting the cost.

sing me a song

Um yeah, I'm going to see her, tomorrow. Rockin' the streets of my own neighborhood will be national recording artist Kimya Dawson who was recently featured on the Juno soundtrack. Recommend the movie. Recommend the music. Dawson's songs are both whimsical and childlike, fresh and wonderful.

The concert is a benefit for the Albany Free School, which as it happens, I pass every day on my walk down Elm Street to work. I'm not a stalker, but I do love to watch the kids and parents amble up the steps to the school. I can only imagine the creative adventures the small ones find inside. Oh, and remember how I mentioned boarded up!? Well, the concert is going to be held in that space, very cool.

super saturday

Saturday was so grand! I got up bright and early, hit up the hardware store for some essentials, grabbed a coffee, and got to work. Planted my precious organic herb seeds out on the back deck/porch--without a jacket! Warm(er) weather does me good. After planting all those little buggers, I cleaned the apartment top to bottom and hung a few more pictures around the space. Didn't manage to get in any sewing, but I did take a long walk to enjoy the sun and made a collage. In addition, I made some serious progress on a paper for a conference in June. This weekend made all my other Saturdays look like weaklings.









I cheated just a bit on the seedlings by also purchasing two narcissus plants on crack. Or, at least they look that way considering that they have grown nearly 2 inches since Saturday. Immediate gratification as contrasted with the delayed gratification of the seeds. This photo shows one of the bulb planters on Saturday. I'm going to keep taking photos all week to document the growth...also giving me some internal satisfaction that life does grow and change beyond the reality we know now.

friday feature : : first fridays

First Fridays are everywhere now and Albany is no exception. Tonight's event promises some strong showings. Some of which I saw on my way to work this morning. Every day I pass by an old church that is being retrofitted to contain an arts center--the Grand Street Arts Center to be specific. The interior of the space still needs work, so in the meantime they have a show on display outside called boarded up!

The boards were all designed by local artists and rotate on the first of the month. Here is a new set that I passed this morning...camera phone being less than desirable, yet still a worthy capture.









I really like the map format for 1st Fridays here. Maybe more cities will take this approach.

fabric find

Fabric is one of those things that you can never have too much of. Ok, maybe too much for your space, but not too much in an over-the-top, oh-my-gosh, who-could-use-this? way.

My sister-in-law recently introduced me to a magical store in Fairport, NY called Crafts Bits and Pieces. It is unlikely that you will be won over by their website. However, the contents of this village shop are a madcap collection of cast offs: knitting needles, yarn for hooked rugs, embroidery hoops, buttons, beads, pipe cleaners, baskets, scrapbooking supplies, and yes, FABRIC! Tiny pieces and larger pieces. All priced at about 50 cents a yard. Yes, 50 cents. The scraps are carefully measured, tagged, and bound with yarn to make hundreds of small bundles arranged by color and weight: cotton, wool, etc. You can't unbind these bundles in the store so you are never quite sure what the patterns might be.

Hence, my fabric find. Saturday, when I was in Rochester, I visited the shop with J and we piled our baskets full of pieces. Some future projects came to mind, but largely it is a treasure hunt to unpack when you get home. I snagged a muted purple and mauve patterned bundle that was just the weight I was looking for, not quite broadcloth, but more substantial than your basic cotton.

When I got home, I unwrapped the said bundles only to find that the mauve wave pattern was a yard and a half of vintage MARIMEKKO! From 1967! You can see in the blurry photos the design and date stamp. Here is an exhibit posting that shows the pattern in full, only in different colorways--its the wavy pattern in the second photo and in the last. Called Albatrossi, the pattern was discussed in greater detail in a design journal here.







Stay tuned for Albatrossi's next iteration in the 540B collection.

trash raider

I love to rescue items from the trash heap. That pile of belongings out by your garbage can the night before they pick it up--I might be going through it on my evening walk. I have successfully raided chairs, shelves, knick knacks, books, magazines, and more. And I'm proud of it.

Sunday I pulled a chair out of a dumpster in Little Falls, NY. Hardwood frame. Musty vinyl seat. Sturdy construction. From my fabric stash I pulled out a coveted piece of Amy Butler design that I had been saving for something. It found its match.









The back still needs some work, but I'm in an R&D phase trying to determine the best approach. Then a nice coat of shine to the wood and a throw pillow and it will be all set.

early spring

It can be difficult here to determine when spring has arrived. Today it is nearly 60--wet, warm, and rainy. Tomorrow the temperature is expected to be 45. Fickle, turbulent spring.

Yet also, as Rilke reminds us, Spring is soft, new, and growing.

EARLY SPRING

Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,

hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees.

Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming
RAINER MARIA RILKE