Laundry Line Divine

Walk to the well.
Turn as the earth and the moon turn,
circling what they love.

Whatever circles come from the center.

Rumi

There is a tumble of information flowing through me right now.
And, in the event of an emergency, please know, right now, that I love you coming to visit the Laundry Line. I am thrilled for all your support that is helping me birth my first book, “Laundry Line Divine: A Wild Soul Book for Mothers” and the ‘Out of the Mouths of Babes’ blog series and event.
I am not planning on dying any time soon, but it is important to me that you readers all know how vital you have become to my momentum. Not that I need you to write or create, but knowing you are out there improves my diction.

FeMail for KA-S 2008 by Suzi Banks Baum

This weekend, JNB and I visited the Norman Rockwell Museum, which is only about 20 minutes from my desk. Our friend Laurie Norton Moffat is the Museum Director. The museum houses the work of one of the wonders of the Berkshires, Norman Rockwell and also hosts a steady flow of intriguing exhibits highlighting illustration art and the people who make it.

this is part of a diorama the Reys created in visualizing a book.

This season NRM features “Curious George Saves the Day” which originated at The Jewish Museum in New York City. I am a huge fan of Curious George, having had those stories read to me, reading them to my little sister and to the kids I babysat, then lately, say in the last 17 years reading them and often quoting those passages to my kids for whom the ‘Man in the Yellow Hat’ and George himself stand for a certain kindness and rambunctiousness that is particular to that sweet faced monkey. Plus, we all share a fondness for bicycles, travel and paper hats.

I heard of this exhibit on my area NPR station, WAMC, where Joe Donohue hosts a daily interview show called The Roundtable. Joe is the best interviewer I have ever heard. Ever. I don’t know when he sleeps because he talks to his guests with such confidence about their work, having read or seen their creations. His personal experience and curiosity sets the guests at ease. So many of Joe’s guests say at some point in the interview, “Thanks Joe, great question, I never thought of that”. When I heard Joe talking to the curators of this exhibit, the story of the Rey’s life as it is reflected in the stories of Curious George and their other books fascinated me. I will tell you more about Joe another time, but if you’d like to hear him at his best, this interview of Michael Feinstein is quintessential Joe.

The exhibit of the work of H.A. and Margret Rey included personal papers, the few of which survived their swift immigration from Europe right ahead of the Nazi invasion of Paris in 1940. The paintings, illustration plates and photographs tell a story of great courage and enormous levity at a time where people like the Rey’s where loosing their lives, their livelihood and family members. I won’t tell you the whole story, because you must see the exhibit or see this timeline about their escape online here.

Something Joe said struck me. He reflected that though the stories and art of Curious George don’t tell the saga of the Reys fleeing Europe, their art stood as an antidote for what they were going through. Art does that. You may not actually depict the storms of your soul, but by expressing yourself, the passion of your inner life gains balance and equanimity or in the very least, your art work stands as a placeholder for your sense of self while all other aspects of your being are washed overboard by life events.

I love the handmade stamp Rey used over his signature.

I know most of you aren’t in a place to see this exhibit. But, you are near a bookstore, library or your own bookshelf, where that curious monkey is cooling his heels until you flip open the pages to see his lively and engaging antics. When you look at the pages knowing that the creators narrowly escaped Paris by bicycle and were assured exit visas by virtue of the illustrations and text they carried with them to prove they had gainful employment, you will realize that every work of art carries the heart and soul of it’s creator, no matter how cheerful or merry it appears.

During the next months here on the Laundry Line, we will be talking more and more about creativity.

Sending you splendid hours,
S

There is some kiss we want

There is some kiss we want
with our whole lives,
the touch of Spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl
to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild Darling!
At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.
Close the language-door
and open the love window.
The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

I wish you a beautiful week.
The first week of Advent.
The week leading up to Alchemy Initiative’s Handmade Holiday Festival for me and FeMail.
A week that welcomes the Moon back in to the night sky.
Looking at you,
Love,
S

Today in the Berkshires the sky is pouring.
I heard from my friend in Amsterdam that the sky is pouring there also, or rather, the sky was pouring earlier today.

We had a very dry summer. That meant few mosquitoes, brilliant tomatoes, not many slugs and a lot of hauling the hose around.

Now, my quinces are still hanging on to the branches of our tree, waiting for a frost so I can pick them. If you gently pull one close to sniff it’s heady fragrance you feel the weight of summer in it’s fuzzy orb with the potential of this harvest.

Such high hopes for so small a fruit, about the size of a fist.

I walked today in spite of the rain.

Alone up on Baldwin Hill with my camera and thoughts, I came to the iconic Elm of Baldwin Hill.

There are others in our town, like this one on the fire road (which in this moment I question if it is an elm…beautiful tree all the same)

but the Baldwin Hill Elm above the tiny airport is quite renowned.

Today is a quiet day, no soccer games, just popcorn and hot cider while homework gets done.

I am thinking of Ben, likely in bed over in Munich. I hope he is in bed. Our German family is keeping close track of him as he navigates reading Orwell’s 1984 in German.

Rumi today:

Hoping to be more Alive

You are an ocean in a drop of dew,
all the universes in a thin sack of blood.

What are these pleasures then,
these joys, these worlds
that you keep reaching for,
hoping they will make you more alive?

Hmmm. All these universes in a thin sack of blood.
That is me. Keeping warm and hoping to be more alive.

Blessings on this quiet day to you,
Love, S

You can see I am mad about spirals. Yesterday in the garden, I investigated these with my 5 year old partner. We found all sorts of fiddleheads, pink ones, white ones and rather gritty looking ones.

Just like life, eh? Gritty and pink. As the days have passed since our discussion of “Who Does She Think She Is?” on Saturday evening, I cannot stop the constant question of measuring success in my day. Capturing these fiddleheads with my pal does not win me any awards or fees, but certainly fills my heart with joy. I hope you all will pitch in to this discussion of what makes success, for women and men in life. There is a tenderness and integrity in giving the gifts we are blessed to embody.

For the past 3 days I have been sewing.

Now, you could holler across the cyber waves at me and say, “Suzi- what else do you do? Sew? Make hats? For teenagers?” Fair enough. One day I am leading a workshop with Karen on the Daily-Ness of Art. One day I am lounging around thinking about that workshop. The next day I am kneeling in a sea of horsehair, organza and velvet while ruminating over how to make a 22 inch circle fit on a 22 inch lumpy noggin. Just this morning I completed the 6th hat and delivered them to the dress rehearsal of my son’s high school production of “St. Joan”. If you live in the Berkshires, you could come see it- for more than the hats. Teenagers doing Shaw is worth the ticket.

But, yes. I sew. I know how to make hats. I am fascinated with knots, thread and needles. I love to cut things in to shapes. It follows I guess, rather obviously, but worth noting, that I live the Daily-Ness of Art simply by being the parent I am. Does this measure up to success? By my measuring tape, I think it does.

Tomorrow I will be baking Sweet Amandine’s almond cookies. Until then, look at all the ways you measure success and keep me posted. Look for the whorling ferns and notice the next hat you see.

With all my love and a little bit of Rumi- Suz

Let yourself be silently drawn
by the stronger pull of what you really love.