Laundry Line Divine

Jaq Belcher

Access Point 2012
hand cut paper, 5,071 cuts
42″ x 42″ framed

“The most regretful people on Earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

Mary Oliver

I have quite a mouthful to say about time and being creative.

But, being Friday evening with dinner and all the rest is at bay, I give you this immensely beautiful creation by my friend Jaq Belcher.
Jaq is a paper sculptor. She does things with paper I never imagined.

Here is where you can find her work.

Here is where her work will be exhibited in New York City with an opening on May 10.

And here, on the Laundry Line is where you can be assured that whether a doodle or a paper cut like this, your individual expression is important in the world and worth the time it takes to create.

This is what my friend Lissa Rankin, who posts messages like this one from ‘Your Inner Pilot Light’ on Face book. Lissa is celebrating three years since a major career change and big shift in her life choices. You can see her blog post about the celebration here. Lissa’s ‘Out’ post is here.

Why is it that we so often prioritize work and trivialize creative expression? How long has it been since you’ve written in your journal, pulled out the watercolors, made candles out of beeswax, created jewelry, knitted a sweater, made a scrapbook, or decorated a table with fall leaves? When you create, you give me an opportunity to come out and play. And here’s the secret most don’t understand.When you let me come out and play, your work reflects how awesome I am and it all comes full circle. All work and no play makes me dim my light.

The planet is counting you shining your light. 
Brightly. 
I send you all my love for this coming weekend.
Now, about dinner, 
S

P.S. I retrieved this post from the jumble that happened when I switched servers. This was originally posted on April 27. Whatever we had for dinner must have been good or at least passable. Tonight we are having these beans from my dear Janet. They have become my Monday meal. I must tell you a funny story about Jonathan and those very beans. xo S

Just when I thought I could not wait for the snaggles to be worked out on this site, I waited a little longer.
And, here, on a Saturday morning, the day of the Super Moon, on Cinco de Mayo, on the day of the night when I get to dance with my Moon Sisters to the fine music of Sam Lardner, at this moment with my daughter’s music pounding out lyrics about being saved tonight and everything’s going to be okay, Ben is sitting at the proctored SAT test for four hours.
Everything takes it’s own time.

Including the Moon.
Stand close to her tonight wherever you are.
Wake up and let the moonlight keep your night thoughts company.

Looking forward to a week of new posts and restoring those lost in the shuffle last week, like the one about the Brooklyn Art Library or about Jaq Belcher.

Adios mi amigos,
S

Summertime lays warm hands on chilly wrists, calling me out side for a few hours in the middle of the day.

I find it so hard to be inside these days.

All I can think about is Mary Oliver and the moment she steps out on to her stoop every morning.

Morning glory.

This work is by my friend Jaq Belcher.

It is her birthday today.

I have begun a new page on Laundry Line Divine.

It is called “Do One New Thing Every Day”.

I post what I do and invite you to post yours. I will add your “One Things” to the list as we go along.

I dare you to try it. Sit in a different seat. Take a different route home.

Bend down to pick something up. There may be a secret message there for you under that red leaf.

See you around the Line,

S

A certain minor light may still
Leap incandescent

Out of kitchen table or chair
As if a celestial burning took
Possession of the most obtuse objects now and then—

- Sylvia Plath

Considering this light and burning today.
Writing hours set aside.
Steady contemplation of the events 10 years ago today and everyday since then.
How has your life changed since 9.11.01?

Mine? A deeper burn, a celestial ravaging of dross in to gold.
My simple ordinary life turned extraordinary because of gratitude.
The enlivening forces of pleasure, joy and connection.
And the steady stream of grace that comes in loving.

I am loving this day, this breath, the people I am with, this Planet, the air, the green before me tinged with gold.
I am loving the gift of expression that has been mine since birth.

Let today be a consideration of, as Mary Oliver asks, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

You make a difference.
Thank you for this gift.
With all my love,
S

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver