celebrating Dave
birthday boy turns ninety-nine
today we eat out
“The party will be next year
when I turn one hundred.”
(munch that last word to = five syllables :)
cacti obsession
my current plant collection
one happy greenhouse
where the music plays daily
uplifting spirits and spines
joan💝 04.01.26
With a hot cup of coffee and a sleeping pet by his side, in his fuzzy bathrobe -
it couldn't get much better now could it?
We (being Hubby and Self and Four-Paws) have been hunkered down the past week or so, meandering out only to pick up milk and a few extras and the prescription which made the trip mandatory.
We're better but it has felt so good not going and doing and busying that I am adopting this lifestyle for the foreseeable future.
However, today I am going to wash the Casita trailer and truck, still hooked up for the camping trip we cancelled due to illness.
Tomorrow we take the truck/trailer for the distribution bar installation that we totally paid for ($500+) and forgot that we had ordered them. I am anticipating that they will be a challenge to hook up, but learning independence is my mantra in my octogenarian decade.
Blessing:
What I like about nature:
May you find God’s spirit among the rustling trees, inhaling moving air on a slightly windy day as you sit in solitude in a small quiet space.
What my creativity does for me:
May you be provided an outlet for your personal creative journey as you seek to express delight and disarray within the textures of life, the colors of emotions, the flow of experience and the finality of completion.
What two wishes do you have for the world:
May you live in this moment working with others as you would have them interact with you.
What would you like to be surrounded by:
May you be surrounded by simplicity, meaningful relationships, vibrant activity - all interrupted with doses of serenity.
What would you like to hear from somebody else:
May you know that you are created in His image and you are complete just as you are.
* * * *
Give your definition of creative bliss:
Creative bliss is unadulterated contentment from the creation of mud pies to styling paper doll clothes to the published book to the gallery-hung art piece to the woven textures hung over your bathroom door. It all emits satisfaction. Creativeness is the movement to blissfulness within each artist’s soul as she begins again.
Joan Connor
03.28.2026
Happy Ides of March, everyone (unless you’re Julius Caesar). For those of you who are not doomed Roman emperors, mid-March should hold no terrors — especially because it means that National/Global Poetry Writing Month is almost upon us. As it turns out, writing a poem every day for a month is far less intimidating than a bunch of fairweather friends armed with daggers! Learning to dance on the knife’s edge of verse is a wondrous kind of fun — and the mortality rate is refreshingly low.
All that silliness aside, we’ll be back in the three days leading up to April. In the meantime, why not spend some time exploring The Poetry Archive? This non-profit is dedicated to preserving recordings of poets reading their work, and they have nearly 2,000 recordings freely available online.
Happy listening!
I am also posting this blog on the NaPoWriMo site. I intend to post poems that I write during April on the blog.
In the meantime I am working on writing Tiny Haibun in a Call of the Page class with Alan and Karen.
(The above is a delightful little book I checked out of the library. It can be purchased on Thriftbooks for $6.39.)
Maybe it's because my flowering plants haven't flourished.
Maybe it's because I like to learn new stuff.
Maybe it's because I think cacti and succulents are almost indestructible. (I am sure they are not!)
Maybe it's because no one else I know is a cactus guru.
So here I go................
I have purchased numerous cacti and am about to figure out exactly what I have.
I purchased "rare tiny cacti" from Walmart and a couple larger healthy looking cacti from Lowes this past week.
The greenhouse is calling this early morning. By the time I get to it the sun will be up, if it's coming up, and I will be using the plant identifier on the phone to zero in on what I purchased.
Focusing on cacti makes sense to me. You water less, you worry less, you take from their strengths and resilience. Of course some have spines and gloves need to be worn. You have to be careful with some folks too.
I did purchase special soil, first online, not a big bag. Now I have a large bag from Lowes.
It's a foray into the Land of Happy Cactus! It's a foray into one more learning experience.
Come with me. Let's see where this venture takes us.
Maybe I will even produce some blooms!
I just ordered the above book from Amazon. Wanting to know more about poetry in the Bible, the following review excerpt makes the book quite desirable:
Prose seeks to lock down ideas with logic and clarity so there is no wiggle room. Poetry, by contrast, is all about wiggle room.
Poetry is all about “glimpsing” something — say, the kingdom of God — without constraining it by rules and tenets, without defining it. Poetry is about open-ended ideas and images that are there to be “explored.”
Prose tries to build a room and determine every item inside that room.
Poetry stands out in the open — whether in a desert or a city or in a jungle — and is awash with a great deal of thoughts, emotions, sensations, some of which are to be expected but others, such as a bird suddenly flying past at eye level, are unsettling, maybe in a pleasurable way but maybe a distressing way.
I am quite sure that this book will entail focusing, quiet meditation and prayer. All these are qualities of action that I seek.
* * * * *
When my husband retrieved the mail from our Hunt, TX "mail van" the other day, the post office dude said something about "no books today." I had no idea he was paying that much attention or perhaps, I do order many books! Then my husband told him of our losses, including all the books I had owned. I guess I am slowly regaining a library of joy and imagination. As Dolly Parton has created her Imagination Library for children, I too am in the process of such a creation.
https://imaginationlibrary.com/
|
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN What a Great Quote! I agree! So many miracles occur each day as i ponder and plunder through work and play. today my miracles will be the dishwasher the coffee maker the slow cooker the weaving loom's magic mechanics the greenhouse holding its emerging little seeds the cacti that i am trying to find just the right sunlight to nourish the remarkable birds that i feed the birdseed that is new to me and to the doves, the redwing blackbirds, the goldfinches, the cardinals, the sparrows, the black-capped chickadees so many miracles and i am just beginning my day. blessings to all creation! |
I keep returning to thoughts about color!
This is undoubtedly due to a prompt from Jill Badonsky's "Creativity is my O2" class.
https://themuseisin.com/workshops-trainings
Here's the prompt from Jill:
"Spot a Color That Refuses to be Ignored
Find a color that pops: in clothing, packaging, a reflection, a tiny detail.
• Writing: List five metaphors for that color that have nothing to do with color (e.g., “This
red is a decision I haven’t made yet”).• Art: Make a quick abstract patch of that color, then add two supporting colors that make
it feel even more itself. Title the little patch with a verb, like “Leaping” or
“Remembering.
Isn't that a wonderful prompt? I am going to weave through the prompt and see what emerges on the loom.
I will choose a color that blends with the weaving that is now on my Saori loom.
Or I could just begin a new weaving on a lap loom, but I think the Saori is calling me today.
"toodle doo and I will report back"
I did this once before and thought I had learned my lesson!
I do believe that I spend too many hours on the internet now that I am signed up for six classes. Each class is internet-centered. Here is my current status:
1) beadisciple: This is the class on various religions using Protero's book, God is Not One, which is excellent. However, the class includes watching several videos and of course, interacting on a group site.
2) Abbey of the Arts: This class is integrating spirituality into daily practices following Christine Valter's book, The Artist's Rule. I have access to this class following the prescribed twelve weeks so can review and "catch-up" later.
3) Call of the Page: This class involves submitting tanka, waiting one week for the crtitique, taking another week to submit more tanka. There are three submissions total. This class is not daily, but requires thought throughout the week - good thoughts on what to write.
4) Creativity is My O2: Jill Badonsky's pricey class with a zoom for two hours each week. I enjoy this class but don't feel it is worth the hundreds of $$$ I spent. Think again, Joan, before you sign up!!
5) Coming...Chelsey Clammer's class on Editing: Coming next week. Her classes are currently my favorite writing classes and I am a returning student. She wants to help me publish. I am dragging my feet because submitting for publishing is time-consuming.
6) Alison Wearing's Memoir Writing class: I find this class to be relaxing. The modules will be available following the class. I am already behind, but check in (on the internet of course) to see what is evolving. I applied for a scholarship and received the $200 deduction from the $500 total fee. It is a good class so far.
And what will I do with all my time once these classes are finished?
I shall weave. I shall practice harp. I shall spend time outside with my new camera and my new bicycle.
I shall be a bit more hesitant regarding how I spend my $$$ and which classes deserve my energies.
In the meantime, I must tend to my memoir writing class for a few moments this early morning.
5-7-5-7-7-syllabic tanka celebrating Dave birthday boy turns ninety-nine today we eat out “The party will be next year when I turn one hundr...
