murmursandmeanders - Tumblr blog

[murmursandmeanders]

And now - if,... (reflecting on Summer 2020 to Spring 2021)

And now I am enriched by my own company. In the grappling, in the making, in the unfolding... in the processing. In work and in play.  If I am to share time with someone (a friend, a housemate, a partner, a family member...) it has to enrich that time alone.

I am only interested in doing this where there is mutuality.

I will not make myself something different for anyone else. I will only be extraordinarily, openly myself as I live, learn and grow. 

I will also listen and care deeply. 

Curiosity to know the people in my life will overwhelm any insecurity. It is a privilege to learn from them. 

(It goes without saying: I am interested in getting to know people as they are. I am not interested in changing them. This is especially important to remember when someone has a remarkably different perspective or viewpoint than I do.) 

Aloneness is a practice that has served me so well. As I begin to share my time, returning to that aloneness feels essential. It offers stability and groundedness to all other aspects of my life. It (this self nurturing) enables me to appreciate the sweetness of other aspects of life (partnerships, jobs, friendships) better - with more perspective, faith, calmness and confidence. 

So many more thoughts... I’m excited to put them here, and maybe organize them. Sending love into the great abyss/web/constellation-of-screens-and-their-people that is this platform. 

[murmursandmeanders]

Joan Snyder, Tracking the Angels, 1993-90, oil, acrylic, and silk on linen, 57″ x 66″

I’m not sure why, but today I love this painting. 

[murmursandmeanders]

* ~ i n s p i r i n g ~ *

made two whole zines the other day (this is #1)

[murmursandmeanders]

sometimes i am this song (a bob d original)

[murmursandmeanders]

earth to hands to water to hands to fire to hands 

[murmursandmeanders]

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it, if it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers as we sat lisping to ourselves on the grass, the same hips and haws on the autumn hedgerows, the same redbreasts that we used to call ‘God’s birds’ because they did no harm to the precious crops. What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known and loved because it is known?

The Mill and the floss – George Eliot

I used to fantasize about the unknown, the great beautiful mystery of it. Now I am also appreciating the peaceful love of the known. (Any “known” -- the trolley car, the lover’s hand, the shrub I pass everyday, the childhood friend -- is both familiar and infinite.) Thank goodness for the consistency of familiarity, that sweet sweet monotony. These “knowns” too are such gracious hosts to unforced discovery and slow revelations. Still there’s the simplicity of gratitude for all of it, exactly as it is: “where everything is known and loved because it is known.” Love over time. 

[take two - same same but diff]

I used to fantasize about the unknown, the great beautiful mystery of it. Now I am also appreciating the peaceful, infinite love of the known or familiar. Thank goodness for the consistency of the familiar. That sweet sweet monotony. Familiarity (in relationships, commutes, gardens) is such a gracious host to unforced discovery and slow revelations. Also the simplicity of gratitude for all of it, exactly as it is: “where everything is known and loved because it is known.” Love over time. 

[murmursandmeanders]

remembering my childhood garden, chicago summer backyard

touching these bleeding hearts gently with my fingers - tender curious fond careful

today finding this tender curiosity in the garden of myself 

what does it mean to move pleasurably purely from internal instinct unprompted by another being or external source

receiving this intuition and nurturing it without expectation of what it should look like or feel like

(on cultivating ones own ecstasy)

Bleeding Heart, 1932, Georgia O'Keeffe

[murmursandmeanders]

via www.kruufm.com

[murmursandmeanders]

Reflecting on

how to find and cultivate inner peace and in an unpredictable partnership.

how to live confidently with vision and love.

on feeling, looking at those feelings, and communicating.

on the courage of understanding self care in a big and exciting way, that creates stability and inspires creation and ripples out to the ones I love. On honesty and growth.

[murmursandmeanders]

Meet illustrator Nikki McClure

“The thing with the knife to me is it's really fluid it's almost like a dance. . . It finds the easiest pathway through the paper I can kind of try to fine-tune it.”

[murmursandmeanders]

“I am sure I chase my demons while I’m painting, and Léo do the same while he’s dancing.“ - Inès Longevial

[murmursandmeanders]

Love letter from Johnny Cash to his wife June Carter, undated

[murmursandmeanders]

via www.americanelf.com

[murmursandmeanders]

jennilee marigomen

happiness is a chilly beach, a sweater to hug, and a dog to luuv

[murmursandmeanders]

station skeleton

[murmursandmeanders]

If you’re looking, here’s where I’ll be