Mo Chuisle

So, five winners outta 6--not bad, even if I do say so myself! If I had thought in a million years "The Aviator" would not get either Best Picture or Best Director, I would have been 6 for 6. Poor Scorsese. I really did want him to win Best Director since after 6 nominations now he hasn't won the gold man. Where is the justice in that! But, to be truthful, other than that soft spot in my heart, I'm very glad it was Baby. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" (unless it's Clint Eastwood, of course!).

"Mo chuisle" literally means "my pulse." 'A Chuisle mo Chroí' = 'Pulse of my Heart', is a term of endearment, meaning "darling."

So, Clint, you got your Baby...your Darling! AARP will be so proud!!

And the Oscar Goes To...

Since I'm not always one to put my neck on the line when it comes to predictions, I'm going to throw failure-caution to the wind (who, me?) and give my Oscar votes for tonight. I'll be at Amy's watching the entire show from beginning to end, wishing Donica in Germany could join us.

I've seen all the movies except 3 in the following major categories:

BEST PICTURE: I was most In Soul with "Finding Neverland" but predict "Million Dollar Baby" will win, in spite of it's controversial ending. The everyday-person poll from the NY Times (us-uns) predicts "The Aviator." I hope they're wrong.

BEST DIRECTOR: Since "Aviator" was still such a good movie, I predict Martin Scorsese, especially since he's never nabbed an Oscar, after 5 other nominations. He deserves it; Clint Eastwood has already won it. And there are those times when the Best Director is different from the Best Picture. So let the glory be shared again.

BEST ACTOR: Hands down, I predict and prefer Jamie Foxx in "Ray." Anyone who can totally "get" a person's personality and mannerisms, without you noticing, deserves the prize. Besides, he's already won all the other Best Actor awards for this movie, so it wouldn't make sense to not get the Oscar! Not that the other nominees weren't good (they were nominated!).

BEST ACTRESS: This is where I can't be totally fair because I haven't yet seen Catalina Sandino Moreno in "Maria Full of Grace" or Imelda Staunton in "Vera Drake." Of the other 3, I predict and prefer Hilary Swank. In real life, she's so self-effacing. How unusual for an actor/actress today! She was so gracious when she beat out Annette Bening in 2000. I loved Bening in "Being Julia" but Hilary has my vote. I am saddened to hear, however that Bening's sister-in-law, with whom she was close, has just died of cancer after a 2-year battle.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hands down again, I hope it's Morgan Freeman in "Million $ Baby." I liked Thomas Haden Church in "Sideways" but Morgan, like Scorsese, should have won an Oscar years ago. It's time!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: I haven't yet seen Laura Linney in "Kinsey," but of the other 4 movies, I'd vote for Cate Blanchett in "Aviator." I loved her characterization of Katharine Hepburn and, while she's won many awards, she's never won an Oscar. She deserves one! I really liked Sophie Okonedo in "Hotel Rwanda" and Virginia Madsen in "Sideways," but think they could both get a few more movies under their belt before they win.

There you have it. Now, may we have the envelope, please!

It's Now or Never

When I contracted polio in 1954 at age 9, the year before Dr. Salk's vaccine was invented, I had minimal side-effects and no negative memories. In fact, if anything, I had good memories: the girl down the hall (who went to the iron lung every day) had a toy guitar with a hand crank that played music. Next thing I knew, I had one (from Grandpa Bennett, I think). In high school, I was exempt from gym because of the unknown side-effects at that time...and, too bad, because I could have whipped them all! I do remember going every year to have my legs measured; and I remember the not-so-good drama of holding still for the spinal taps. But all in all, I was one of the lucky ones, with no paralysis.



The good news after the 1955 vaccine, we thought, was that poliomyelitis was totally eradicated from the earth. Sadly, it's now endemic in 6 countries: Nigeria (786), India (135), Pakistan (53), Niger (25), Afghanistan (4), and Egypt (1). And now I see from today's paper that Ethiopia has just had its first case in 4 years.

The thing is, polio can be prevented by an oral vaccine if we can get it to everyone! “By reaching children cut off from the eradication effort by insecurity and the threat of violence, African leaders have a real opportunity to halt polio’s advance,” said Dr. Ezio Murzi, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. "If we succeed in polio eradication, we can certainly move ahead for the other diseases like HIV/ AIDS."

One more reason for world peace. May God help us all!

Test Your Stress Level

Just for the halibut, go to this Latest Works site and test your stress level. Supposedly the pictures "are used to test the level of stress a person can handle. The slower the pictures move, the better your ability of handling stress. Alleged criminals see them spinning around madly while seniors and kids see them still."

And you?? (BTW, you may not get the effect from this page, so please click on the website and go to the bottom of the page. How do people think this stuff up!)

The Somerville Gates

This is hysterical! In a playful spoof of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Gates project in Central Park, 50-year old Geoff Hargadon, from Somerville, MA, has created his own art project of a 13-part series of 3 ½-inch orange gates throughout his house. One estimate is that his site has by now received nearly 3 million hits as it's been forwarded around the world.

Today at 3 p.m. The Somerville Gates will be unveiled at Somerville City Hall by Mayor Joseph Curtatone. "After that, the thirteen gates will then be recycled through a donation to museums and colleges that have expressed an interest in giving them a permanent home. [Only one of them will be for sale: it will take place at the MassArt auction this April 2, and will benefit MassArt.] In spite of popular demand, there will be no eBay auction this time around. "

If you can't take a joke (go bury you head in the sand)!

Jumping Off the Cliff

Before I went to sleep last night, I asked the Universe to talk to me while I slept. I needed to gather bones after being terminated yesterday and to figure out how to put them together before singing them to life.

Ask and you shall receive! At 5:30 this morning, I awoke from a vivid dream, got up immediately and wrote in my journal till 8a. How cathartic!

The dream in a nutshell: Donica and I were in a car (she was driving) following a guy hang-gliding on a mini hot-air-type balloon. It was made out of a network of macramed ropes that somehow held its form without cloth or the hot-air fire. No basket either; just handles to hang onto. We were following him because the balloon was actually mine, given to me as a loaner, and I was getting ready to go pay for it. I was so excited because I knew he would be landing soon. When he landed in the field off the side of the road, I ran enthusiastically to gather up the "deflated" ropes at his feet. As I was leaving him, I told him that if he wanted one, he could get a good deal at the store because the salesman had said they had thousands of them that they were trying to get rid of. Then immediately I was at Devil's Lake in Wisconsin (where we took the kids often while living there) and told someone (Bill, I think) that I could hardly wait to take a running leap off one of the cliffs with my balloon. I knew it would be scary but I wanted the thrill of the air grabbing hold of the balloon. I trusted it. And then I woke up.

Alright then. I don't claim to be a dream analyst but this is what I pieced together:

• "To dream that you are hang gliding, symbolizes freedom in your personal life. It also represents trust and believing in destiny."
• "To see or dream that you are in a hot air balloon, suggests that it is time to overcome your depression. The dream may be a metaphor indicating that you are losing your ground or your foothold on some situation/problem. Alternatively, it represents the process of individuation and your quest to fulfill some spiritual needs."
• "To see ropes in your dream, represents some connection or a way to tie/hold things together. "
• "To dream that you are paying for something, indicates the price you pay for your decisions and actions."
• "To dream that you are jumping, indicates that you need to take a risk and go for it. You will find progress toward your goals."

It's very clear to me that instead of terrifying me, being terminated has set me on the edge of something very exciting. I DO feel free, liberated, and ready for the "risk" of being jobless. I don't like the way it happened, but even that represents trust and a belief in destiny.

And the willingness to pay for not listening to my intuitive Soul-Voice!

Intuition: Soul-Voice

Today I was fired! It's a long story, not very complicated at all and, as someone said, totally unnecessary. But that's not what this post is about. It's about Intuition.

This morning (before work and before I was fired), I knew I would be writing a post tonight on Intuition and how the inner spirit within us is the soul's voice of reason, knowing and consciousness. I've been in on several conversations about intuition lately (not my own) and "coincidentally" read about it today from where I last left off in WWRWTW (see 1/29 posts). So I knew I wanted to write about it.

What I didn't know was that it was going to be about ME and how I should have been listening to my own "soul-voice" ( Clarisa Pinkola Estes' words). When I down-sized myself at work a month ago, because of all the stress, I could have resigned then and there but listened instead to "oughts" in my head. If I had listened inwardly, to my soul-voice, I would have resigned (and would not have been fired today!).

"Rather than defining intuition as some unreasoned faulty quirk, it is defined as truly the soul-voice speaking. Intuition senses the directions to go in for the most benefit, it is self-preserving, has a grasp of underlying motive and intention, it chooses what will cause the least amount of fragmenting in the psyche....

"Like the wolf, intuition has claws that pry things open and pin things down, it has eyes that can see through the shields of persona, it has ears that hear beyond the range of mundane human hearing."

"We feed the deep intuitive self by listening to it and acting upon its advice. It is a personage in its own right...it is like the muscles in the body. If a muscle is not used, eventually it withers. Intuition is exactly like that: without food, without employment, it atrophies...."

Soul-Voice. Intuition. Listen, Ginnie, and now go back to the desert to gather the bones... and sing over them.

What Europe Wants

An article on Winning Back Europe's Heart was in the NY Times yesterday. It caught my eye because Donica left yesterday for her long 3-1/2 month stint in Germany. She'll come back after a month for a week here in her stateside office before we go back together for the duration. You can't be in Germany/Europe without questioning how we Americans are viewed these days of political unrest.

So I read with great interest each of the following 8 responses:

1. Austria: Start No new wars.
2. Ireland: Give more for AIDS and poverty in Africa (this from Bono!).
3. Slovakia: Be true to your convictions.
4. England: Be concerned about the rogue dollar.
5. Germany: Create a UN seat for Europe as a whole entity.
6. Italy: Address the European Union as "all for one."
7. France: Renovate NATO for everyone.
8. Switzerland: Listen to the European street people.

Today in Brussels President Bush is expected "to make clear that the United States welcomes the drive toward European unity and views the 25-member European Union, with an economy roughly equal to that of the United States, as a partner, not a rival."

"But it will take a lot of hard work to undo the damage of these [past] four years. Banquets and speeches about shared histories are good, but Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, China, Africa and a host of other places need joint attention." Because the US is already overly-stretched militarily in Iraq, the Europeans "believe they have a window to advocate the "soft power" they favor in resolving conflicts."

Wouldn't THAT be nice!

Annual Soul Fix

Every February during Black History Month, Donica and I go to hear Sweet Honey in the Rock, a Grammy Award-winning, African-American, female, a cappella ensemble that's been around for 30+ years as a voice for justice and truth in the world. "Six African American women [plus a sign interpreter] join their powerful voices, along with hand percussion instruments, to create a blend of lyrics, movement and narrative that variously relate history, point the finger at injustice, encourage activism, and sing the praises of love. The music speaks out against oppression and exploitation of every kind."

"From Psalm 81:16 comes the promise to a people of being fed by honey out of the rock. Honey – an ancient substance, sweet and nurturing. Rock – an elemental strength, enduring the winds of time.... Sweet Honey invites her audiences to open their minds and hearts and think about who we are and what we do to one another and to our fellow creatures on this planet. "

Last night we got the added bonus of celebrating our Atlanta mayor, Shirley Franklin, the 2005 recipient of the Torchbearer award for The Fund For Southern Communities, the group benefiting from this concert. WOW! Two for the price of one.

Each time I hear this incredibly gifted group, I get a Soul Fix that jump-starts the rest of my year--visually, audibly and kinesthetically.

Earth's Collective Consciousness

As a rule of thumb, I open 95% of all junk mail just for the halibut. I routinely rip up stuff that might get into the hands of identity thieves, being the good, paranoid citizen Clark Howard wants me to be. As a bonus, I'm sometimes surprised by cute stickers that I add to my collection for a rainy day with Nicholas.

The other day was not the first time I've received Richard Gere's letter on the plight of Chinese-occupied Tibet being pushed to cultural oblivion. But it was the first time I really paid attention to the enclosed Tibetan flag decal.

Without going into all the symbolism, it was the 3-sided yellow border that grabbed me. It "represents the flourishing of the Buddha's teachings. The side without a border represents Tibet's openness to non-Buddhist thought."

Can you imagine what would happen in our world if every nation, religion, cult or person had one "border" open for the thoughts, opinions, proclivities, diversities and practices of others! Ruth and I were chatting the other day about what the world will look like 200 years from now. She said there'd probably be only one religion/church and we'd all worship together in common communion and brother/sisterhood. And I said, Is that not what the Age of Aquarius is all about!

"Harmony and understanding,
Sympathy and trust abounding.
No more falsehoods or derision,
Golden living, dreams of vision.
Mystic crystal revelations,
And the mind's true liberation.
Aquarius! Aquarius!"

Happification

I admit it. I'm in love. I'm in love with Christo and Jeanne-Claude. I'm in love with their Gates. I'm in love with the color Saffron. I'm in love with art and it's power to overwhelm and heal the soul.

Just when I thought I'd never post anything else about The Gates, our Atlanta Journal Constitution had a great article in yesterday's paper with a link to a link to a link of this great photo of the artists. It looks like their "farewell pose" for when this present project ends after 16 days. So farewell, indeed, as they go on to their next project, Over the River.

But don't go there yet, Ginnie. Remember about Soul IN THE MIDDLE, and not flitting ahead before you're done with the NOW....

So, I like that "Home Depot doesn't own this color anymore." I like "the economic windfall New York is enjoying." I like that "Christo's work has spawned offspring. A Los Angeles group organizing "10,000 Kites," also this spring, will float said kites on both sides of the wall separating Israel and the West Bank as part of a program to foster peace and understanding." I like its "happification."

BTW, everything you'd ever want to know about The Gates is answered in this FAQ. And I will NOT NOT NOT promise no other posts on them!

Origami Mathematics

For Christmas 2003, I received a 2004 page-a-day Origami calendar ( thanks, Amy!). Pretty quickly I stopped trying to make every new critter possible and simply concentrated on the Crane. I loved its simple beauty and complicated-enough design. The set of 365 perfect squares was of lovely patterned, pastel papers in yellows, blues, pinks, purples, aquas and greens. My "plan" (which I'm still working on) materialized into making 300+ cranes that will eventually form a mobile to be hung somewhere. Call that my art version of The Gates!

You can imagine my delight today when I read an article about "Dr. Demaine, an assistant professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [who] is the leading theoretician in the emerging field of origami mathematics, the formal study of what can be done with a folded sheet of paper.... He is applying insights he has gleaned from his studies of wrinkling and crinkling and hinging to questions in architecture, robotics and molecular biology."

I'll stick to my cranes, of course, but WOW! Who'd have ever thunk the art of folding paper could have this "shape of things to come!"

Soul Prints

In an IM chat with Ruth this morning she alerted me to a book she knew I'd appreciate: Soul Prints: Your Path to Fulfillment, by Rabbi Marc Gafni. This is what he says:

"We all have a box, and in that box is our stuff, it's our things, and it's not our degrees and it's not our status, and it's not our job and it's not our piety, and it's not our religiosity, and it's none of our credits in the world.

It's our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our pathologies, our unique silliness, it's the stuff that we are. That's the stuff that I wanna call with you, not our finger print, but our soul print.

We have a soul print. And "the inability to share my soul print with another human being is the definition of loneliness." That's what loneliness means. My soul print is the DNA of my soul. My soul print is the unique swirls and curves that make up my infinite specialness and uniqueness. Right, that box that I carry around with me, that's who I am in the world."

What is your soul print? “It is the frequency of divine light refracted through the prism of your uniqueness,” teaches Gafni. “It is the song only you can sing, the singular instrument of your destiny.”

Thanks, Ruth, for knowing.

Interactive Gates

Okay, okay. So I really AM a glutton for this project. Since I can't be there in real life, this interactive feature in the NY Times is the next best thing to being there.

Click on 'The Gates:' An Appraisal under the Multimedia section of this NY Times' article and see/hear Michael Kimmelman's assessment of this incredible Gates project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

BTW, for those who belly-ache about the art or the $20M extravagance (can you imagine a $20M movie star like Brad Pitt using his money for something like this?), it doesn't hurt that NY City will be raking in an estimated $80M for this 16-day extravagance! Kinda silences the critics?

"Look at the Light. Look, look."

After its conception 26 years ago by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the 7,500 Gates were indeed unfurled yesterday in all their shimmering glory in Central Park: "more than 1 million square feet of vinyl and 5,300 tons of steel, arrayed along 23 miles of footpaths throughout the park at a cost (borne exclusively by the artists) of $20 million. "

Some are conflicted about this seemingly extravagant expenditure of money that could have been used in "more humanitarian" ways in NY City. Ah, yes. Always and forever the mystery of art midst decay, beauty from the ashes, light in the darkness. There's no answer, of course. God is just that way, always saying "Let there be light" when we least expect (or want?) it. And being extravagant when the poor are always with us.

16 days of Light, after which we'll say "Once upon a time there were The Gates." The time is now. Let's enjoy it while we have it.

The Gatekeepers

Today is the opening of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Gates" in Central Park, NY: art made up of 7,500 gates with saffron-colored fabric panels sprawled over 23 miles of trail in an 843-acre park. This husband-wife team covered Paris' Pont Neuf bridge with fabric in 1985. Ruth, can you imagine THAT--your bridge wrapped in 454,178 square feet of woven polyamide fabric!

Adding to this incredible trivia, both artists were born on June 13, 1935, he in Bulgaria, she in Morocco, exactly 10 years to the day earlier than my birth! They met in Paris in 1958, the year Donica was born. And just look at her red hair!

Malidoma Somé, a Dagara tribesman of Burkina Faso, says "The gay person is looked at primarily as a "gatekeeper"...Any person who is at this link between this world and the other world experiences a state of vibrational consciousness which is far higher and far different from the one that a normal person would experience. This is what makes a gay person gay...You decide that you will be a gatekeeper before you are born. So when you arrive here, you begin to vibrate in a way that Elders can detect as meaning that you are connected with a gateway somewhere....What keeps a village together is a handful of "gays and lesbians", as they call them in the modern world....They come from the Otherworld, and they keep the gates to the Otherworld. Because, if the gates are shut, this is when earth, Mother earth, will shake. Because it has no more reason to be alive. It will shake itself and we will be in deep trouble."

Today I would like to be a gatekeeper of one of the 7,500 gates in Central Park. Then I would like to walk through all of them to find their meaning.

A Gemini Two-Spirit

Astrologically speaking, I was born a Gemini: the Twins. That means they're two of me! Donica sometimes will ask, "Which one of you is speaking right now, the one right here in front of me or the one up there [as she points to the ceiling where I'm bouncing off the walls]!" HA. Some Gemini's are the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde variety, with two opposing personalities (I once worked with someone like that!). Since I've never been accused of such, I assess myself as the Gemini who is always doing more than one thing at a time (hence, bouncing off the walls).

Sexuality speaking, I was born a Two-Spirit, according to Native American tradition. Those who are gay are believed to have the spirit of both a male and female combined in one body and therefore are believed to be better suited as the spiritual leaders, healers and teachers of their tribes. "The two-spirited person was very important and very honored. They are looked at as a messenger from Spirit, the wise ones, the seers of things unseen. Their gift of having two spirits allowed them to see, feel and understand things that others could not. They were healers, the medicine men/women, the keepers of wisdom and of spiritual understandings."

If there are two of me (Twins), does that mean I'm a Four-Spirit! (HA) I hope not. But I do ponder being wistful about Shaman's Vision (2/9 post). They say you choose your next life....

Till We Have Faces

Click on this picture to make it larger and then see if you can find the 11 human faces. I love stuff like this!

It reminds me of my favorite novel/fiction in the world: Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis, a re-telling of the Greek myth about Cupid and Psyche, with a twist. "Nowhere in Lewis' works is the soul explored better...."

Lewis himself proclaimed this to be his best work, in spite of the fact that he wrote it from a woman's point of view. Of it he says, "I was with book, as a woman is with child." It was a book incubating in him most of his life. Themes of family, love, hate, jealousy, possessiveness, selfishness, sacrifice, suffering--what more could you ask for!

It's one of those books I try to read once every five years, and it's that time again, I see!

Soul Retrieval

This Mark Hopkins bronze, Shaman's Vision, sits on our fireplace mantel. I've been studying it of late and ponder my wistfulness.

Shamanic medicine is a tradition dating back 25,000 years. A shaman is the ritual leader, herbalist, and mediator between the community and the spirit world, receiving power to heal the physical and reveal the spiritual for his people. Through the eyes of his soul appear visions of things to come. To the land of spirits he journeys and is given the knowledge that will guide his people.

One of the primary services performed by the shaman is soul retrieval, to recover and restore a person's vital essence that was stolen or lost by physical or emotional illness, as well as misfortune. Soul retrievals are intended to retrieve the soul parts that were lost, each piece having its own characteristic that, once reintegrated, enhances one's capacities in that area.

Back to collecting bones again! Yesterday I colored a Native American mandala with an accompanying quote from a female shaman. Hmmm....

Unbearable Love

Remember the Ungame from the '70s?! When Dad and Mom visited us in California, we'd play it and learn all kinds of things about each other. That's when I found out, for instance, that Billy Graham was my dad's hero and who he'd want to invite to his birthday party.

I'd invite Walela to my party, in full Cherokee regalia. Walela is the Cherokee word for hummingbird, the inspiration for this family trio of Rita Coolidge, her sister Priscilla Coolidge, and Priscilla's daughter, Laura Satterfield.

In those moments when I want to die-and-go-to-heaven, I reach for Unbearable Love, their second album. Midst our incredible world-wide dysfunction (for lack of a better word!), "God Save Us From Ourselves" is well worth the hear (scroll down to the album and click on the musical-note icon after the title)..."for we know not what we do."

Little-Lambs-Eat-Ivy

When Nicholas (4-1/2) has a sleepover with G'ma and Donica, he knows that when he wakes up in the morning he can come get in bed with us. This morning, he walked in with Lamby under one arm and FiFi the dog under the other. A Kodak moment!

Kohl's Cares for Kids program sells adorable, plush-soft, stuffed animals whose proceeds benefit designated local children's hospitals. At $5 a pop, you can hardly NOT buy them. Today, on a Kohl's shopping spree, Nicholas chose the cow and the cat to add to his menagerie of frog, iguana, shamu-whale, beaver, moose, shaggy dog, and lamb.

A-kid'll-eat-ivy-too, wouldn't you!

Cheyenne Madonna and Papoose

This Bridge Building print hangs on our bedroom wall next to a life-sized papoose we bought while on our Alaska cruise in 1999. I worked with Cheyenne native-americans for 3 summers in a row at the University of Oklahoma while in training with Wycliffe Bible Translators in the '60s. I can still mouth the words of simple greetings like nitonidamOHta (phonetically spelled with the voiceless syllable OH = "how are you?").

I also still see the aged, wizened faces of women patiently repeating simple phrases while doing their intricate beadwork.

If ever there was a Madonna before whom I would light a candle, it would be this young Cheyenne woman, mentored by the Wisdom of the Ages. Can you imagine Jesus swaddled as a papoose (or a "papoo," as the sales lady called him in her broken English)!

Learning the Song

What is it about Native-American art and culture?! I've decided one of my past lives was lived as a Cherokee since they migrated to the Southeast from the Great Lakes Region. Isn't THAT interesting!

Anyway, I gave this Carol Grigg print to Donica a few years back when she was teaching me the songs I missed while growing up in a preacher's home. Learning the Song is what it's all about. The Song and the Dance of what we call LIFE.

Salinas and John

Salinas, CA lays claim not only to John Cerney's plywood art but to John Steinbeck who was born there in 1902 and graduated from high school in 1919. And it's home to the National Steinbeck Center. He was an American novelist, story writer, playwright, and essayist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 and is perhaps best remembered for The Grapes of Wrath (1939), a novel widely considered to be a 20th-century classic.

And the USPS created a stamp for him in 1979! Which brings me to stamp collecting and first-day covers (FDCs) of US stamps. One of my most fun collections, in clip frames, is of FDCs related to anything that is meaningful to me, like Steinbeck, the Woody Wagon, Biltmore House, Acadia Nat'l Park, Man of the Mountain, Norman Rockwell, Columbia University, Dartmouth, fly fishing, Jim Thorpe, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the Gutenberg Bible, Crayolas, pharmacy, USS Constitution, Jonas Salk, polio eradication, Gone With the Wind, the box turtle, gray wolf, etc.

Don't even get me started on the wall of world-wide stamps on meaningful FDCs!

Outstanding In His Field

When I saw this in the NY Times today, I just about jumped out of my chair. We have seen John Cerney's art when visiting with Mom in Salinas, CA, (before she moved to Atlanta).

"Out of the fertile fields of the Salinas Valley, the giant figures loom: 18-foot-high plywood workers harvest iceberg lettuce. An irrigator, his boot on a shovel, surveys the land. A farmer crouches nearby, his hand cupping the loamy soil. Women in headscarves thin just-budding crops. The creases in their shirts, their bodily expressions, even with their backs turned, these figures are so lifelike that their appearance startles passers-by, which is what their creator, the artist John Cerney, intends. "

Man! Can you imagine how fun (= soulful) this is for HIM, let alone us!

Them Bones Gonna Walk Around

Ezekiel, too, gathered bones in the desert but it was our African-American brothers and sisters who sang the song over them in this Spiritual:

Ezekiel cried them dry bones.

Now hear the word of the Lord

Ezekiel connected them dry bones.

Now hear the word of the Lord.

Your toe bone connected to your foot bone.

Your foot bone connected to your ankle bone.

Your ankle bone connected to your leg bone.

Your leg bone connected to your thigh bone.

Your thigh bone connected to your hip bone.

Your hip bone connected to your back bone.

Your back bone connected to your shoulder bone.

Your shoulder bone connected to your neck bone.

Your neck bone connected to your head bone.

Now hear the word of the Lord.

Them bones gonna walk around.

Now hear the word of the Lord.

Sometimes someone else sings with us over the bones we collect when we do our Soulwork, as when Jesus healed the paralytic man because of the faith of his four friends. It's like them bones are gonna walk around even if we have little faith, no matter what!