There are some days.

You know, those days when every word is a struggle, the light fades before you can change lenses, and the brush and canvas are not even on speaking terms.

Those days.

On those days I can get to wondering what the point is.

So I thought I’d share this quote with you because it really resonated with me. It is going up on my studio wall where it will remind me to keep perspective when I’m having one of those days. Maybe you’ll find it a bit inspiring too, or at least interesting.

I think this is something we grasp intuitively, but perhaps rarely think about.  And I think it is really beautifully put.

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“…if someone asks ‘To what purpose should we help one another, make life easier for each other, make beautiful music or have inspired thoughts?’ he would have to be told: ‘If you don’t feel it, no-one can explain it to you.’ Without this primary feeling we are nothing…”

Albert Einstein 1919

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Wishing you an inspired and beautiful day

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As some of you know, I’ve been pretty invisible here on The Pedestrian Crossing for the past 6 - 9 months.

Some of you told me you figured that was because I’d become enamored with Twitter and had decided to spend all my on-line time there.

While I indeed find Twitter an excellent place to write, read, and connect - Twitter isn’t why I haven’t been here.

I am fortunate to have a lovely creek bordering one side of my property. In 2008 I was delighted to learn that the creek was to be part of a 2009 project to remove barriers to migrating salmon. All I needed to do was give permission for the work to proceed.

There were of course many discussions with the Natural Resource Department about what land areas would be impacted and how the work would get done.

In the course of these discussions the opportunity arose for me to photograph the project at all 17 of its sites, which I most wholeheartedly pursued.

Over the next weeks & months I’ll do a series of posts about different aspects of this wonderful project.

I’ll share some of my project photos with you, I’ll include some of the things I’ve learned, and I’ll tell you a bit about the wonderful people I met. It would be great if you would let me know any questions you have, or if you are interested in any aspect of the work that I don’t seem to be covering. I’ll do my best to find & pass on the info you’re after.

For today, I’d like to share a video with you. It is about 11 minutes long, and was done by a local documentary film company to help the natural resource folks continue to obtain funding for this important work.

Speaking of funding, I want to tell you something I think is very important.

This work was funded almost entirely by grants from various organizations and by reparation monies from utility companies that placed hydroelectric dams on the big rivers in this area of Washington state.

The lion’s share of the $$ did not come out of taxpayer pockets, and it did not come from loans that must be repaid.

To my way of thinking, in these times of astronomical deficits and taxpayer funded bailouts it is important to highlight and encourage projects that benefit the planet, provide plentiful good-wage jobs, and do not increase our burden of debt. I believe this kind of watershed and habitat restoration work is important for the planet, the people on it, and our economies. I will continue to seek opportunities to contribute in any ways that I can.

Enjoy the video, I think it makes a nice introduction to the topic.

Oh, and I should mention that I appear in this video in a couple of places, in case you’re interested

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Chelan County Salmon Restoration from Howell at the Moon Productions on Vimeo.

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I had some best laid plans for a blog post tonight, and you know how that goes.

I’ve done a new image inspired by a friend’s poem and I was going to post both. But, of course, my WP file uploader is having a lie down and won’t upload my image file.

So, I thought I’d share this instead - in some inexplicable way, it fits my mood tonight.  I hope to be back soon with the fore mentioned post.

’till then -

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Funny, the things you miss.

Things that don’t even seem to be in one’s recall, but somewhere in the archives of our feelings they sit there—waiting for us to notice.

I was cleaning out a storage space in my studio last week and happened upon a couple of framed prints. They were two of my first fully digital creations, and the first two pieces I had tried my hand at framing. In the years since, different prints of both pieces have been framed more professionally (again by me, after getting some framing education), in a style suitable for gallery showing.

The show pieces were well received and those that didn’t sell came home and adorned my walls. They looked fine and I didn’t think much more about it. In the ensuing years, some more of the pieces were sold, one was loaned and the walls developed bare spaces that I noticed now and again. But I was busy.

So, when I found those aging, less than perfect, dusty examples of my work I was delighted. I sure wasn’t too busy to dust them off and go park them on the naked picture hooks still punctuating my balding walls.

It was nice to see them out in the light again, but that wasn’t what really stuck me. It was the sound that pulled me up short and resonated a warm chord in my heart. I had completely forgotten how they sound.

The ‘gallery’ style framings I had done were glazed with standard window glass. But in my first framings, I had used a type of acrylic glazing.

And acrylic glazing flexes a lot more than glass as the environment around it changes. And when it flexes, it can make a wonderful light percussive sound, a bit similar to the sound a clock pendulum makes.

The sound is not metered of course, but it is not really random either. As the day warms and cools, sunlight filters in and moves on, or the rain falls saturating the air the acrylic glazing responds with a tick here and a tock there.

The sounds of these two images are soothing, reassuring, and delightful to me. The sounds remind me of the earliest days of my career move to full time art & writing, they remind me of furniture and pets that used to be, and they make me smile as I recall trying to figure out where those sounds were coming from when I first hung the pieces.

Mostly though, the sound of each print reminds to pay attention.

Reminds me that surprising things can come from very unexpected sources, and the sounds remind me of my history—which somehow fills me with a sense of wonder and joy about my today. I can’t explain that last bit, but I am endlessly grateful for the gift.

Today is the only today that I get and anything that helps me pay attention to it is nothing short of manna from heaven.

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May you have a wonderful today - each and every day.

~

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Sometimes, I do not want to write what I am supposed to be writing. Not for lack of inspiration, or passion, or even words.

I should be doing the final edits on a stack of mostly done poems. There are about 40 in the stack currently, and new poems go into the queue every week, so I really do need to get caught up. Which is what I really should be doing right now. But obviously, I’m not.

For the record, I really enjoy the revision & editing process, hair-pulling though it can be.

I love to see a poem find its full expression. I love to take the raw writing and craft it into a smooth shape, glaze it just so. I love those inevitable moments when the writing circumvents me entirely and at last draws from my keyboard what it was trying to say all along—I love the reminder that sometimes, I just need to get out of the way and let it happen.

But, there are times (like now) that I don’t want to craft anything. I just want to write about a moment.

The return of the barn swallows daubing new mud on the winter wear of their nests, the rise of the creek with its fast waters and river otter undulating along the bank, the delight of reading books of poems and letters by E. Bishop over breakfast.

My tremendous joy at having breakfast and doing this reading cat-like in my favorite chair, moved strategically into the sun in front of the window where I can glance up now and then to watch the creek flow by. How the warm sun somehow fits perfectly with the warmth I’m finding in Bishop’s poems and letters.

These are incredible things. Moments that reveal the perfection of all things. I am endlessly, deeply, grateful for them. And I just wanted to acknowledge the gift that they are, write a little bit, and share them with you.

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The Pedestrian Crossing will be on hiatus for a little bit while Kayt catches up with some off-line stuff.

I’ll leave you with a quote I’ve been contemplating for a few days since I read it. Maybe you’ll find it interesting as well.

“…Even if only 2% of those assigned to perform military service should announce their refusal to fight…governments would be powerless, they would not dare send such a large number of people to jail.”

Albert Einstein

from his speech at the
New History Society
December 14th, 1930

I had known that Einstein grew increasingly more steadfast in his pacifism over his lifetime, but I was previously not aware of how outspoken he was about resistance to military service.

I find this quote, and what it advocates, to be very thought provoking. It has stuck in my mind since I read it a couple of days ago and, I don’t know if I agree or disagree with the recommendation. There seem to be valid points on all sides of the issue, and I think it certainly merits further reflection and consideration—especially as we find ourselves in very volatile times, much as was the case when Einstein delivered this speech.

Book recommendation: Einstein - His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson does an incredible job of making complex topics understandable, and the writing is just excellent in this comprehensive book. It is a very engaging read on all levels.

I’ll be back to regular posting soon.  for everyone ’till then!

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