 A Chromatic Typewriter: For Re-Writing HistoryMore loveliness from Making it Lovely. This is a conceptual art piece by Tyree Callahan. So dreamy. Image compilation by Making It Lovely. Art and Image by Tyree Callahan. The Kool-Aid Wino, and other storiesThese short stories are continually luminous to me, and when I read them -- or when I breathed them in and out later, after they'd become a part of me -- I was so pleased to be in a world where they had appeared. They warm up the place considerably. The ... Heck yeah, CaitlinI see I have some catching up to do. I'm only halfway through Caitlin Moran's "How to Be a Woman," which is HILarious and brilliant, and LITERALLY made me want to stand up on the chair at Elwood Thompson's one fine morning and shout out "I AM A FEMINIST!" just ... SoapI wash my glass in Palmolive dish soap in the kitchen at work and it very sweetly catapults me back 28 years to where my babies are babies and I am washing dishes very sweetly in the kitchen in upstate New York. Any moment one of them might come around ... Collect storiesWhen someone speaks to you, let everything slow down, and listen very closely. This is how you will get a glimpse of someone's true spirit, and maybe share a little of yours with them. You can practice this at first with people you already really like, and then as you ... Tap hereTap here to begin writing, someone whispered, and she realized it had already begun. It had started somewhere after her telephone call with a friend from her early life, from when she was some inconsequential, flimsy thing unrecognizable to her now and it had fluttered, birdlike, when she began her ... Everyday Adventures in Beingness: Some IdeasHere are some things that might be fun. Or might not. You decide. Research memory. Or Joseph Campbell. Or the workings of the brain. Or the Shakers, or Diane Arbus, or Walker Evans. Wallpaper the bathroom with Bazooka bubblegum comics. Plan a weird ass party. Make yourself some paper mache birds and let them ... Camper DreamIn the dream last night, the tri-level where I once lived was collapsing, much like -- you know -- the memories give way in the film "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." At the ceiling on the ground level, you could see the floor above beginning to disintegrate, and ... Treat. Yo. Self.You know I have a Parks & Rec obsession, right? (It's my Pleasantville.) Anyway, here is one of the many, many reasons why: Climbing the TorIt is early, early in the morning. It doesn't feel like it's late at night. I woke at 2 a.m. and I love that sometimes. The stillness. The poetry of middle of the night thoughts. Would I love it as much if every night some wakefulness awakened me, and my ... On Grocery StoresTo me, the true test of an excellent grocery store is this: if you walked in smiling (and I hope you were), were you smiling when you came out? If you’re all frustrated when you come out then conjure up a lovely grocery store to go to. It will very likely ... ChoicesI am at Silver Diner for the first time, having a delightful Saturday morning. I've helped my Dad shovel two truckloads of mulch and, after my Belgian waffles, Amish eggs and nitrate-free bacon, I am going over to lounge around with my beautiful sister and talk of anything/everything. A lovely young ... LatelyFor many years, whenever I've sat down and asked myself something along the lines of: "What does your divine right life look like?", something in me would flash back a vision of gorgeous walls of jars. Jars filled with beautiful food and lots and lots of dried herbs. Lovely colors. ... PurpleOh my goodness I am so in love with the lady in the truckstop where I just went in for ice and beef jerky. She has purple eyeshadow and pink lipstick and dark moviestar hair, staring off into the desert when I opened the glass door. This is going in the ... World Exploded Into Love All Around MeAnd now, I sit, with my hand on my heart, full of love for Bob Dylan, that wondrous, mighty seer who has decided the time has come for the story of the Titanic TO BE SUNG. Christomighty, and amen, brother. You are, for sure, the fiddler I want fiddling whilst ... Wyoming, furtherThe land flattens out, stretches further. Yarrow grows at the roadside. Treeless, here where you'd have to go so deep for water. Scattered cattle ranches, the continental divide. Ethereal, butter-colored place. It was always about the danceYou know that, don't you, Scott Hastings? Maybe the Ballroom Dancing Federation doesn't have any new moves. And you're bored with the old ones. Aren't you, Scott? Wouldn't you rather dance your own dance now? Wherever your feet want to go? Where is it, this true home of yours?Your true home is where you live in your heart. The place where you are connected to love and the way it moves through the world, permeating everything, beaming out from toll booth ladies, impatient clerks, flat tires, cows mooing, people who interrupt you, redwood trees, sun setting on the ... Airstreams are beautifulThey just seem to match out here, something glimmering back the color of everything as it drives through, just a little more saturated, just a little more certain of its light. The RoadThere is something about a road trip, with its vast changing panoramas of field, sky, city, flowers, truck wheels, with its swooping birds and deep possibilities, that lets me hold life a little looser, more delicately, giving it room to breathe. SunsetSunset Boulevard to the water, then up the coast to Santa Barbara as the sun moves spectacularly from our sight. Image by Corie Crowley, Coriedoesmyhair.com. What if?What if no job or house or car or ideal weight or ideal husband is what is going to make you shine? What if there’s a bucket of magic in your secret heart and everything you witness stands transfixed, watching you, awaiting that moment when you smile and start flinging that sparkle everywhere. What if everything simply ... StoriesI have things to tell you, you know. It won't take long. Or it may take a hundred years. And I will be listening, because you have things to say, too. We have stories to put together like bubbles, bumping lazily into each other, fusing, popping, suddenly boundaryless, suddenly all ... Ordinary LifeA quote from Jan Frazier, "When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening" --What do I want for myself? I want to learn how to pare from my consciousness all that is not gratitude. I want to cease praying for anything I do not already have, but pray ...![Kenny in that Grand Canyon [video]](http://www.thebeautythatiseverywhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kenny-grand-canyon-singing-150x150.jpg) Kenny in that Grand Canyon [video]Here is a video of Kenny Crowley, beauty-walker, singer-songwriter, son of mine, singing his anthem to the Grand Canyon and to all of earth. Last summer he retrofitted his pickup truck so it would be a camper/home on wheels and did a big loop during July and August. He left ... Believe meSome friends of mine started a writing group around the beginning of the last decade, and this is how I first met them. I am so deeply grateful that I did, as they are the loveliest people and writers: Leah, and Nathan, and Melanie. And RaasaLeela, who was in ... Stranger than FictionDo you ever feel as though your life is being narrated? Or as though you may want to turn to Dustin Hoffman for metaphysical advice? Then this little gem of a movie is one of your new best friends. The luminous beings that appear in this movie are: Will Farrell, ... The sinking of a shipI love when I wake up in the morning with finger waves in my hair, as though I've been to a night salon, where my straight hair has been pampered and has run wild into curls. I love when my Titanic of a story has hit its iceburg. And it has. ... Yesterday On the RiverMy darling son Kenny was in town this weekend and we went to the James River, by way of what's known in these parts as Texas Beach. You depart ordinary reality slowly, via a path from a park near Maymont which seems initially rather, well, ordinary. This is, ... GoodwaterKenny told me once when he was little that he'd been drinking godwater from flowers. Goodwater/Godwater. Same/same. Being GratefulI've started to notice that there is something about being grateful that seems to change my way of being in the world. And it seems to me to be another aspect of this notion of having a choice. I can find something or someone to be grateful for. Even if it's ... Magic Wands are RegularI love moving my car to a new spot every two hours. Because it means a small adventure, regularly scheduled. What will it be? Today it is a trip to the yoga studio to check it out and pick up a schedule, a little pink card I can hold in ... Dance is a very powerful drug"Dance is a very powerful drug, Mr. Keane. If embraced judiciously, it can exorcise demons, access deep seated emotions and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed. But, one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is ever to reap its ... Loving KindnessSend love into your body -- your heart, your cheekbones, your belly. Know that you are love in human form. Beam out love to everyone you have ever met. This kind of love you will beam needs nothing back; it needs nothing more than to make its way from your heart ... What happens if the power goes out?Just pose the question to yourself, whether or not there's an impending weather event. What happens? Have you got excellent flashlights, fondue pots, Viewmaster sets and drawers full of good candles? Gallons of clean water, Sterno, batteries? It’s a comforting thing to have provisions. But still more comforting to know ... Take Polaroids of Your TV ScreenTake Polaroids of your tv screen while Lucas dances, black eyes, black hair, black turtleneck, lanky Lucas, while he dances, no tripod, no vertical hold, no pause, just you leaning sweet into Lucas. Make 1,000 copies on photo glossy, staple gun each glossy to a telephone pole every mile from ... Little PortalsSometimes I want to give you everything. Yes, you, reading this now. I sit in the morning darkened by the rain, listening to the tea pot work up to a whistle, making precise Morse code clicks on my iPad keyboard as I type this. I have just read this morning's ... Station WagonsJust came across this gorgeous post called "Station Wagon Living" on English Muse. Makes me real happy. Here's a photo of my little sister sitting in front of one of the many station wagons of our childhoods. We would, like every American family, load them up in the summer with coolers ... Angels in plain sightImagine that everywhere you go, there are angels in plain sight. Your waiter, for example. Here is what happened to me one day several years back when I sat in one of my favorite coffee shops, writing, brainstorming, considering what my next move in life would be. I looked up from ... Being Tree-likeYou may not seem to be doing anything much in the way of production, like clocking work hours or acquiring goods, or writing Pulitzer Prize winning books. Imagine, though, that there are qualities in you that are very tree-like. You stand with roots deep in the ground, soaking up water, ... RoadI am on a road trip to the mountains, feeling completely dogless. Where the hell is Eli Crowley. The car is packed with gear and coolers, heading west. He is supposed to be in the back, wind fluttering his feathers, meeting my eyes in the rear view, lighting up every ... Let the Mystery Be - Iris Dement (VIDEO)I could listen to this forever. "Everybody is wondering what and where they all came from. Everybody's worrying where they're going to go when the whole thing's done. No one knows for certain, so if it's all the same to me, I think I'll just let the mystery be." The Mother of LanguageI was gradually coming to have a mysterious and shuddery reverence for this girl; nowadays whenever she pulled out from the station and got her train fairly started on one of those horizonless transcontinental sentences of hers, it was borne in upon me that I was standing in the awful ... |
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 Photograph by http://www.derekolsonphotography.com/ Patty Griffin’s singing me up to the mountain as I head to Asheville for the holy days. Ahhhh, beauty. I am beaming you love from the deepest part of my heart. Merry everything and everywhere. Xoxo
Good idea. #survivaltactic. How is it I had forgotten about breathing? Taking in oxygen. Even when I have worked fourteen straight days and am doing little beyond working very hard, eating and sleeping. Or especially then. I can still breathe in and out. I can still take in oxygen and be present to what I am doing. I can choose this response over a stress response which says, hurry, hurry, hurry: Must do the 10,000 things. Perhaps all of this hurry is a construct of my own making. Hmmm? December seems to always have some hurry to it. Even as I jettison the Christmas decorating, the feast-planning, the over-extending. Even as I plan to simply get myself in the car and drive to the mountains in honor of the season, to a place where I can take in light, take in air. I think what really happens in December is that the world expands. The light catapults us back to ourselves. And our dear little ego, the little notes in our pockets, starts writing us frantic to-do lists so that maybe we will think we ARE the notes in our pockets. Maybe we will forget we are the whole wide world.
So. Lately. I have been harvesting the herbs and the flowers in the garden and hanging them up to dry. Then, a couple of weeks later, they go in beautiful jars so I can make medicinal teas with them. Here’s what I’ve dried so far: pink roses, spearmint, yarrow, echinacea flowers, dill, lemon balm, tarragon, marigolds, St. John’s Wort, chrysanthemums, rosemary, lavender, bronze fennel, savory and milk thistle seeds. And I’m learning from my garden and the different plants about what they need, and how I might do things differently next year. And I am keeping seeds. Probably, I will crack open Behaving As If the God in All Things Mattered once again, and read it for a fifth or sixth time with a deeper understanding. (That’s how it often is with wondrous books, yes?) The Martha Stewart organic cucumber seeds have produced a bumper crop of cucumbers which have wanted to take over the garden. Next year, I will let them. This year, I have tried to leave room for the yellow squash, the winter squash, and the zucchini — every morning, going out and guiding the cucumbers vines back to its trellis. But now the cucumber is too crowded and can’t feed enough water to its roots. But it’s given me lots of cucumbers and from them, for the first time ever, I’m making pickles. The fermented kind — which I learned about from WildFermentation.com. (Do you know how thrilling it is to find that you need grape leaves for a recipe and be able to walk out into your own yard and harvest them?) The pickles are fermenting away and should be ready to eat in a few weeks. The other fermenting that’s going on at my house is a batch of Kombucha. I grew the mother scoby following these instructions from BonzaiAphrodite.com, which took a few weeks. And now the first batch from that mother is fermenting on the counter in the laundry room alongside a couple of big old jars of pickles. Lovely! The next thing I want to try is making my own vinegar, and then from that making herbed vinegars. And I start to wonder, just how easy might it be to make SOAP? And how about doing some sprouting? I seriously need to start buying those Foxfire books, one at a time. It seems I am becoming a suburban homesteader. And I wonder if this is where we’re all going: we seem to be preparing for some sort of geological event or financial breakdown, or both. And in the preparations, in the taking back of self-sufficiency, in the seeking of knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation on how to grow food, how to dry it and preserve it, how to keep seeds, we are finding something more. The planet will evolve. And when we connect with the love and support that comes at us from every direction, we will, too. So, here’s what happened with the cleanse. I suppose it’s still happening. The first week, which was the elimination diet week, where you don’t eat sugar, dairy, corn, eggs, red meat, wheat or nightshades, felt a bit…fragile…, and I seemed to want a lot of rest. The juices and the clean food, along with the fact that I wasn’t eating foods that were apparently inducing an allergic response, were doing their magic. According to the book, after the first week, you move into eating a liquid breakfast, regular (clean) lunch and liquid dinner, eating the same foods you were eating during elimination week. I decided to stay with what I was doing, since I was already eating a liquid breakfast and it was all seeming pretty manageable. So that’s what I did, and I’m not sure when it was exactly that I realized I felt better. And I mean, better than I can ever remember feeling. I had Martha-Stuart-like levels of energy and suddenly a great deal of compassion for people who wake at 3:00 a.m. and start to design the labels for their new spice jar system. It has taken a bit of practice to manage it all. But I can see that this is a new way of life. It requires a bit of planning because it is not so easy to go out to eat anymore as most restaurants menu items in this [part of the] country seem to offer a choice between wheat or corn, plus dairy. Oy. When I eat something like that, just to be sociable, I can feel the Debbie Downer plunge that happens in my body. Thus, the menu planning. Thus, the search for others who are eating this way. If you are thinking about doing this cleanse, I would read through the whole book and take notes, download the free forms they have on the site, make sure you understand it all. I spent about a week planning and gathering the ingredients. The one thing I may have missed is the fact that you are taking in and putting out a lot of water and your electrolytes can become imbalanced. So maybe have some fresh coconuts on hand so you can crack one open and drink the water to restore them if you feel weak. (And you know this isn’t medical advice, right? It’s the other kind of advice, I suppose.) So that’s about it. Except just a couple of pieces of the other kind of advice: eat food. Real food.
There are twelve books in the series and though I’ve mainly switched over to ebooks at this point since I love reading on my iPad, these are special. I think I should like the whole set. Thanks, Katie! Here are the first six books:
I love MountainRoseHerbs.com for essential oils of all varieties, along with their teas and tinctures. To me, everything this company does feels worshipful.
I kept the Blenko vase. I bought it with my last hundred dollars once when I was traveling back from a trip. Blenko glass is hand-blown in West Virginia and it’s gob-smackingly beautiful to me. When I saw this particular vase I nearly swooned so I took it worshipfully in both hands to the cash register and plunked my dollars down.  So here I sit, with my Blenko vase and all of my other beloved and functional objects, and I find myself being very selective in everything I now acquire. I am very taken with the idea of utilitarian objects that nest, such as these Anchor Hocking Fire-king mixing bowls. Yummy. |
    
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