Laundry Line Divine

Blackberry picking is dangerous.
I scratched my legs today diving in to a haven for the fattest, finest dangling black treasures. I agree with my friend Pearl that dropping one from your already too full fist is like loosing a jewel. That is why we eat so many while picking. Those jewels are never lost. Those interior spots are like sacred holy places to me, cloistered from the hubbub of life on the edge of the berry patch, those inside places call me further in to the bracken.

It is a hot night, not feeling like stirring the jam pot til morning.
Maybe I will freeze this latest batch of berries.

Do you have altars around your house? Nature tables? Shrines?
This stands for a call for entries of photographs or scanned images sent to me of the altars you have around your home or your outdoor space…I am thinking of the little bowl I have for the fairies by my tomato patch, set under a steel Kokopelli sculpture, all in view of the kitchen sink.

Kitchen counter altars. Desk altars. Where you go to pray. Where you stop for sustenance. Some locale in your home that holds a sense of reverence and desire through the objects you place there. These places call us to pause, to hold our desires or prayers or loved ones in our most loving awareness. All this time my Mom has been in the nursing home, I keep pulling out her letters or photos or things she gave me to set on one of my altars, just to keep me in mind of her wholeness. She may be diminishing to Alzheimer’s but my memory of her is alive with detail and joy. My friends who ascribe to the art of Feng Shui have altars all over their homes. My Catholic friends have shrines in their yards with the Blessed Virgin in pretty gardens, sometimes in the bath tub.

I consider the bath tub a sacred spot in my home.

I invite you to share with us here on the Laundry Line a view of your altar or sacred space. Describe it in words or images. I will create a post here on the Line by next Thursday August 5.
Submissions may be sent to laundrylinedivine@gmail.com by Wednesday August 4.

“As I go down to the river to pray…”

All my love, Suzi

Our 3 year collaboration sings on in to this glorious summer.

I am having a doooooozie day of re-entry here. The weather could not be more beautiful- warm, breezy- “a perfect laundry day”- as my Mom used to say. This is why Ben and I hung a load of sheets out earlier.

I am wading through family details, filing forms and all those things that seemed so unnecessary in June.

I am eating blueberries I picked last night on Cone Hill in Richmond, MA.

Life is good. I just had to swing on to the Line for a Pleasure Embellishment then get back to washing my face and getting out of my exercise clothes. I started on this project 5 and a half hours ago. Then the phone rang.

I keep thinking about Michigan and swimming in the Lake. I love to swim. That is all you ever need to know about me. I love to swim.

Of course I keep thinking about Louie too.

What bouys me in the swirl of Motheroverloaddateswashpeoplecallingmynamehaven’twashedmyfaceyet…
is having a Good Mail Day. I have them frequently here in Great Barrington, because I have devoted mail artists in my life like Karen- my “Fe-Mail” collaborator and our pal, Bonnie who just made my day on Saturday when I returned from our trip to a postcard from her.

Karen’s card gives me a mantra for today.
“Authenticity is a daily practice”
Motherhood is a daily practice. Being authentic in this job means some days I don’t wash my face til 4pm and I eat blueberries while on the phone with the insurance company.

Happy Summer Day you all. Party where you are.

Love, Suz

Collage-a-Day in Menominee on the Bay complete with tape transfer. I love my traveling art kit.

Falling in love:

Hanging around here:

Making art with my sisters:

And on the airplane today:

With what I ripped from the airline magazine and a few bits I'd picked up today.

I will indulge you with details later.
So much good to digest.
It is great to be home.
Hot.
Our angel tree fell while we were gone.
Falcon Ridge tomorrow.
And our 17th wedding anniversary.
Honk if you were there in Warwick, NY on that hot grand day.

Love, S

Daily Happinesses Day 6 July 17, 2010 Ben is 16 today.

1. Blackberries and my short boyfriend offering me his selection.
2. Picking so many king berries, which is the one at the front of the cluster, first ripe and so delicious.

3. Waking tired and committing to tenderness all day.
4. Putting my feet up to write.
5. The savory turn of a teen-ager going from grumpy to gleaming.
6. Ben looking at his tiny book.
7. Listening to my girl on the radio.

8. Watermelon on a 100% humidity afternoon in a hot field.
9. The floral arrangement Lydi brought over.

10. Knowing all day that 16 years ago my life changed.
11. Ben’s driving improving.
12. Seth tall and sweet, inhaling pancakes.
13. That rainbow, faint but promising.

14. My tall friend Lisa from Antigua and the light of pride as she introduced her granddaughter.
15. You reading these happinesses all week and noticing yours.

I send you summer love, the kind that relieves you after the storm passes, but provides a density of light like what we saw tonight in the majesty of clouds on the horizon- flashes of illumined pinks, peaches and yellow- all against that stirring dark gray.

Love, Suzi

Daily Happinesses Day Five:

1. Waking knowing I am collaboration with the Divine all day.
2. Posting brags to my circles.
3. Having a really busy day with pockets of unexpected ease time.
4. Hanging wash on the line on a sunny day. Really people, it is one of my truest pleasures.
5. Making this book for Ben which is perfect just the way it is.

This started as a flip book, but to do it right I would have had to start last year. And I am not so good at that kind of planning. Especially in July.

6. My girl making floral bouquets for the party tonight and our guests bedrooms.
7. A new bar of soap.
8. Baking cobbler for Ben’s birthday cake.
9. Having people around the table for cobbler who have celebrated with us since Ben was 2 years old- Lydi, Will and Bob- what gifts of friends you are.
10. Curfew at 11.
11. Ben calling me.
12. The eve of his birthday and him surrounded by new kids and his best friend Seth and his sister. And us.
13. Getting mail from my angel step-sister Jeanene. One of the many blessings of my Mom marrying my step-Dad is growing a new sister.
14. Jeanene’s collage.

This is made with photos by my wonderful step-sister, Jeanene.

15. Aunt Benita’s note.

There really is a circus in my attic. Or maybe the better part of the contents of Circus Smirkus, who perform here tomorrow and Sunday.
They are a great bunch of teen circus artists. We see them every year and now our school is hosting them for a fund raiser. Check out the circus on the web at www.circussmirkus.org.

Sending you large fans blowing cool cucumber breezes your way,
S

Daily Happinesses Day Four

1. The prospect of picking with Janet.
2. Dancing with JNB at the Pulse and not arguing about the toilet functioning (or not).
3. Dancing with other men at the Pulse and getting the hang of the East Coast Lindy, almost.
4. Plums.
5. Apricots.
6. The way the scent of the preserved chutney waltzes around the house.
7. How I can hear my neighbor’s radio on their back porch gliding over the lawn.
8. Getting over my cranky ass mood. Whew.
9. Cheese. Fresh mozzarella with peach salsa, especially.
10. Having a phone conversation in the basement where it was cool and very very quiet except for the water heater.

I am deep in to creating something special for our son who turns 16 this Saturday. Seems to be a watershed waltz for us all.
First he is this:

Ben and me in Hillsdale it in the winter. Can you tell?

Then he is this:

Whew. No wonder I was cranky today.
Strong winds of change blowing in.
See you in the blackberries, S

waves of tomato pleasure

Daily Happinesses Day Three:

1. Juice of a white peach running down my arm while leaning over the sink to eat it.
2. My abs.
3. My girl and her new haircut.
4. A full summer day and no tourist traffic because I know the backroads.
5. Blueberries on salad with cucumbers and homemade dressing.

6. Clouds over Mount Greylock.
7. My trusty Fe-Mail Sister Karen and how quickly we fall in to conversation the moment we get in the car.

8. A FB note from our German exchange student signed “Your German Son”.
9. My own son bursting the seams of 15 years of age.
10. How different I looked when he was a tiny mite.
Okay, I must go on a bit.
11. The bear in our backyard going away.
12. Feeling the tug of heartstrings in friendship.
13. Having a family meeting when I am overwhelmed.
14. Now, cool breeze.
15. Peach apricot chutney cooling on the stove.
16. Fe-Mail moving towards a fall exhibit and events.

What daily happiness, big and small…and the center is my heart…this tender heart. How about you? Any twangs of the utter joy and grief of living? Peach juice and all?

Love to each of you readers,
Thank you so much for stopping in at the Laundry Line,
S

Tuesday:

1. Waking up with a quiet house to write and sketch.

Rumi and the River in my sketchbook.

6. White peaches from Loveapple are in now.
7. Picking red currants with CBB.
8. Rain.
9. Dinner with KAS and our families.
10. This new addition to the Toast Archive:

Bonus Daily Happiness for Kathy Drue from your Playmate:

I just read this as I was waiting for my scanner to work. It is from a yoga magazine from which I tore this quote to use in a collage that is here on my desk:

Reflections of Inner Joy
If you make a habit of this practice, you’ll probably notice how it begins to refine your perceptions, so that over time you find yourself experiencing the life around you with much greater pleasure.

How perfect is that?
Daily Happinesses day two.
How about you?

With affection and red currants, S

Ten for Today, being Monday:

1. Yoga at TriYoga with Martha and the breeze I caught in shoulderstand.
2. My sweet pal S and her warm voice on the phone.
3. Swimming with the kids and JB in the Green River this afternoon.
4. Diving off Whale Rock over and over again.
5. Cherries.
6. Peaches.
7. Swimming with my short boyfriend on my back.
8. The cool air at the library and checking out all the heavy books.
9. Barbara Kingsolver’s Lacuna. Amazing.
10. Fireflies. How can I ever capture them on paper? Did you know in Victorian times, women wiped them on their eyelids for fancy eyeshadow?
11. This squash vine. Can you believe how exquisite it is? Planted by 6th graders.

Winslow Eliot keeps me in Daily Happinesses.
I am going to post some every day this week.
How about you?
What made you happy today?

Love, S

This week has been one glorious moment after another. Monday, we swam in the river and hummed Carole King songs all day with James Taylor harmonies. Tuesday, I prepared a piece from Laundry Line Divine: A Wild Soul Book for Women to read at Deb Koffman’s ‘words out loud’ evening in her Artspace.

Janet read the peice titled “The Gooseberry Fool” over lunch after blueberry picking. That evening I presented it in a long 5 minute reading. I survived and the audience was kind. Then Wednesday, Karen and I ventured up to North Adams to meet with some great women to discuss flying our “Fe-Mail” event up that way in the fall. We paused in Kidspace at MassMoca to take in the Food Art.

Today is my artwork day and the moment to post our Playdate art. We accepted the challenge to illustrate Rumi’s lines from “The Self We Share”.

“Look fish, you are already in the ocean.
Just swimming there makes you friends with glory.”

The art that was submitted is beyond as my pal Janine likes to say. Here it is. Thank you to Andrea Schroeder, Jaq Belcher, and Karen Arp-Sandel, my playmates! What fun!

Want to play next time?
Love, S