Terri Windling's Blog, page 239

How to Build a Good Life

"I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it."   - Maya Angelou

View from the Studio

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."  - Anais Nin

Remembering

 

Today, it is ten years since my mother died, in eastern Pennyslvania. When she lost her battle with lung cancer, she was not much older than I am now -- for she'd been just a teenager when I came tumbling, unexpected and fatherless, into the world.

Today, it is also ten years (and nine days) since the World Trade Center came down in New York, ash blanketing streets I'd often walked when I lived and worked in the city.

Tomorrow will be ten years from the day that I hurriedly traveled home from Europe in time for my mother's funeral. At London's Heathrow Airport, the numb shock I felt at my mother's death was mirrored in every face around me, for most of the world was also in shock as the Twin Towers lay in ruins. The airport was thick with soldiers and fear as international flight schedules slowly resumed. My New-York-bound flight was half empty of course (who in their right mind would want to fly then?), the passengers eerily silent, sitting fearful and white-knuckled all across the Atlantic. A bomb scare diverted the plane to Canada, but I made my way back to New York and then on to Pennsylvania, to a small, private death in a country that had bigger things to think about and to mourn.

Thus today, not September 11th, is the day of remembering for me. Tomorrow I'll go back to books and art, to walking in the woods and loving the land and dealing with some difficult things that are on my plate right now.... But today is for remembering. For forgiveness of the past. For gratitude for the present.

My mother was not an easy woman. Our relationship was not an easy one. But I deeply value the gifts she gave me: a love of beauty, the ability to cope with change, and a capacity for working hard. Today is a day of remembering a quiet young girl named Patricia Ann, who had a baby much, much too young. And did the best she could, in a hard situation. This beautiful poem is for her, with compassion, and with love:

"Flare" by Mary Oliver.

As Oliver says: "A lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of this world...."

Tune for a Monday Morning

Today: "That Man," a song and animation from the great Dutch jazz & swing vocalist Caro Emerald. (A live performance of the same song can be seen here.) It goes out to my amazing husband, in honor of our 3rd wedding anniversary latter this week.

Look out world, the John Barleycorn boys are back!

Having wasted no time in shaking the dust of inter-galactic travels off their feet, they're already back to work on the JB graphic novel in the studio next door to mine. . . and today is the debut of the re-designed JB blog, so do meander over and have a look.

(And now, of course, I'm wondering what kind of present they've brought back for me...?)

 

 

More recommended reading:

I've often described the Devon village I live in as a town full of artists...but it's also well known, here in the West Country, for its strong and lively "green" community, supporting organic farming, permaculture, the slow food/local food movements, recycling, composting, eco-building, and other sustainability issues. 

A few weeks ago, the Guardian newspaper ran an article  on "Chagfood,"the Chagford Community Agriculture project run by young local farmers (inspired by the Levellers and the Diggers), with the help of Samson, a four-year old Welsh cob/Dartmoor pony cross.

"Chagford is about as lovely a village as you could ever hope to find," writes  journalist Carole Cadwalladr. "It's almost absurdly picturesque with its ancient stone buildings and village green bounded by fields and streams and the wild, dark hills of Dartmoor looming overhead. It's hard to imagine how it could be any lovelier. And then Samson comes clip-clopping down the road pulling a cart loaded with freshly picked organic produce. Honestly. It's so ridiculously bucolic that I expect Miss Marple to come flying around the corner on a bicycle."

Later in the article she notes: "My suspicion was that Samson's real purpose was to give the project a rural cute factor, but this was before I met Ed [Hames] and realised that this isn't some whimsical hobby, it's part of a greater philosophical framework. He's a boyish 29 years old, and might not look like much of a revolutionary, hanging out, growing cabbage and onions in a field in Devon, but he's a proper ideologue. On the one hand, Chagfood is about providing local, sustainable, seasonable produce, but it's also part of his wider mission: extending land rights for all."

Read the whole article (here) for an interesting glimpse at another side of our village. Related links: the Chagfood website & blog, The Chagford Hub, Proper Job, The Land Magazine, and the Reclaim the Fields organization. Also, check out the video of Samson above (from Banyak Films). He is awfully cute, and I always love seeing him heading up to town with his cart full of flowers and veggies....

(With thanks to Tigana for alerting me to the article's publication.)

Friday's recommended reading:

I've often described the Devon village I live in as a town full of artists...but it's also well known, in this part of Britain, for its strong and lively "green" community, supporting organic farming, permaculture, the slow food/local food movements, recycling, composting, eco-building, and other sustainability issues. 

A few weeks ago, the Guardian newspaper ran an article  on "Chagfood,"a community-supported agriculture project run by young local farmers (inspired by the Levellers and the Diggers), with the help of Samson, a four-year old Welsh cob/Dartmoor pony cross.

"My suspicion," writes journalist Carole Cadwalladr, "was that Samson's real purpose was to give the project a rural cute factor, but this was before I met Ed [Hames] and realised that this isn't some whimsical hobby, it's part of a greater philosophical framework. He's a boyish 29 years old, and might not look like much of a revolutionary, hanging out, growing cabbage and onions in a field in Devon, but he's a proper ideologue. On the one hand, Chagfood is about providing local, sustainable, seasonable produce, but it's also part of his wider mission: extending land rights for all."

Read the whole article (here) for an interesting glimpse at another side of our village. Related links: the Chagfood website & blog, The Chagford Hub, Proper Job, The Land Magazine, and the Reclaim the Fields organization. Also, check out the video of Samson above. He is awfully cute, and I always love seeing him clip-clop into town with his cart full of veggies....

(With thanks to Tigana for alerting me to the article's publication.)

Dealing with Dragons

"How should we be able to forget those myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love."
  - Rainer Maria Rilka

"Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation."
  - Alan Cohen

On Your Desk

The latest entry in the "On Your Desk" series comes from another member of the world-wide Mythic Arts circle: Brittany Warman. Born in rural northern Virginia, Brittany has lived in Florida; New York; California; Oxford, England and Galway, Ireland; and is now back in Virginia working on her Master's degree in folklore and literature. A fiction writer as well as an aspiring academic, her latest story (a beautiful little tale based on Japanese "kitsune" folklore) can be found in the current issue of Jabberwocky magazine. Several other publications are forthcoming.

"The first picture (above) shows my desk and workspace for all of my projects," she says. "I'm a bit of a packrat and am currently at home while I work on my Master's degree at a nearby university so, while I don't have a great deal of space, I try to make do! I've hung postcards and prints of of art that inspires me on my window curtains, the desk is constantly covered with writing notebooks, and there is of course the necessary cup of tea!"

"The second picture (above) is a close up of my laptop; my wallpaper is one of the amazing 'Lady and the Unicorn' tapestries. You can also see a little print out of one of Su Blackwell's incredible book sculptures, a big cut of crystal, a candle, some fake flowers that remind me of briar roses (inspiration from my favorite fairy tale, 'Sleeping Beauty'), and a great pin of a witch and her cats by Molly Harrison.

"The third picture (below) is my slumbering muse :)."

"Fairy/faerie tales, myths, and folktales are my passions and are almost always the chief inspirations behind the creative and academic work that I do. I am particularly fascinated by retellings, both writing them myself and researching them, faerie and witch lore, folklore and feminist theory, and conceptions of magic and spirituality."

To learn more about Brittany and her work, please visit www.brittanywarman.com.

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All readers of this blog are welcome to contribute to the "On Your Desk" series. You'll find more information (and the address where you should send your photo) in the first post of the series, and you can view the full series here.

An Anniversary

Today is the day, two years ago, when we brought little 8-week-old Tilly home from the farm in Tiverton where she was born. We'd driven to the farm intending to choose a pup (probably male) from a lively litter of eight -- but she was the one who chose us instead, with a quiet determination that was startling in its clarity. Then she sat calm as a Buddha on my stepdaughter's lap during the long drive home through the winding Devon lanes, with nary a fuss or backwards look. Planting herself firmly at the center of our family. Where she has been ever since.

Howard & Tilly, Sept. 13, 2009

Howard, Victoria, & Tilly on her first anniversary, September 2010

Tilly & me, September 2011 (photo by Howard)

"I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better."   - George Bird Evans

"My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog already thinks I am."   - Anon.