A friend's post on fb reminded me of this forgotten poem (thank you) :

promise keeper / new robe

On the day it shifted, that day
when she broke ground
clawing & writhing up
through the long last six feet of cold earth
knowing in the last five inches
radiance spoken to fingertips
through warmth in soil
not the visible light, but in the quickness
of the grub and beetle living there
in the scent of new yearning white
turning green at the sun's borderland

Spit out the ash
and put off the brown and the gray
the fact of your life sets every Holy Book ablaze
we will wipe your brow
we will wash your feet
clothe you in the visible spectrum
and new black velvet shoes
from where all glorious blossoms come

on the arc of production (centering and metamorphosis):

"And though shapes change, though each moment dies into the next, though no thing is being made to last, something is happening. Each moment bears life forward. It is as if the form that grows within our acts sheds each successive moment like a skin; it is as if the inner form which grows as a being within us is brought to maturity through the successive deaths of its material stages....Experiences of centering and of personal metamorphosis grow within the craft.

"Both of these experiences answer man's hunger for freedom - a state of being in which man's relatedness to life is unobstructed. Unobstructed either by concepts or by fear or by ignorance or by deformity."

Death, taxes, and the places call. (or the downbeat, your choice)

Due to my sense of what can realistically be done in a day being seriously eroded by giant flashing clouds of instant information, I'm having an internet fast from now until March 20th. I will be checking e-mail messages once a day for work, studio, and appointment purposes but I won't be lingering or messaging - if you need to contact me, shoot me an e-mail or ring me.

thanks!

This old but good recipe passed on to me by a lovely coworker some years ago:

1 cup chopped fresh ginger
3 heaping tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cloves
3 heaping tsp green cardamom pods
2-3 teabags black tea or equivalent loose tea in an infuser
9 whole sticks cinnamon
1 whole dried red chile (a small one like they put in Kung Pao chicken- this is optional)
1 gallon water

Bring water to a rolling boil in large covered pot. Turn off heat under pot, put all ingredients into water and re-cover. After 2-3 minutes, fish out the red pepper. Steep remaining mixture for 1-2 hours. I usually leave it until it's pretty much cooled off completely. Strain out the spices and ginger chunks. Refrigerate, re-heat as needed.

Amounts of ingredients are approximate- adjust proportions of ingredients to your taste. This chai is fairly hot. I recommend sipping a very small cup of it with a little half&half or soy milk added. Add sugar or honey if you like. I like it unsweetened. if you haven't had it before, do not be surprised if it makes you sweat. If I feel like I may be getting a cold, or if folks at work are coming down with something I usually sip 3-4 demitasse sized cups throughout the day.

Make a pot and take it to work!

Courtesy of my pal Sue

Goats on The Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshoni River in Cody, WY

Update- I've been informed that these goats are actually on a dam somewhere in Italy! Bummer. I was thinking of visiting Wyoming just to see if they hang out on the dam allt he time.

Cast iron welcome goat in Twayn's studio.

item #1: food you grew yourself tastes good, but food grown by a friend and given to you tastes even better

item #2: My mousing finger is numb. I have only 2 more pages (lists) of image files to go through, organize, and tweak. Then sixteen years of sketchbooks/magical journals to go through and mark pages for scanning. I'm really only going to pull good stuff from the last 5 years or so for backgrounds, icons, etc. But of course I have to look through the whole stack because I might, you know, miss something. Gimp my graphics-editing minion, thank you for not misbehaving so far.

item #3: treatment for numb mousing finger- taking a break and watching an episode the BBC's most recent version of the Sherlock Holmes series plus frozen juice popsicle. Pretty good, both of 'em.