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