Loose Leaf Notes

1. I had a screw loose while on a dinner date Saturday night, meaning that a literal screw came loose and fell out of my glasses.

2. Reading at the pool: “We are looking not for perfection in our partner but for a mutual exploration of imperfections.” –From Three Marriages by David Whyte

3. Only in Floyd: Church worship in rocking chairs. See HERE.

4. Heard on Fresh Air: “Raising children is an act of love as well as an act of fiction in which the characters slowly free themselves from the supposed author.” – Author David Gilbert

5. Line from the movie we watched over the weekend: “Feelings are like children. You don’t want them driving the car but you don’t want to stuff them in the trunk either.”

6. The mural in the photo above was taken during a recent trip to theTaubman Museum of Art in Roanoke and was created by Jennifer D. Anderson, a professor of art at Hollins University. The website description of the work says, “The mural presents the tenacious relationship between the natural and man-made environment as the mural itself functions as a “wall paper” with a pattern similar to those found in the formal dining rooms of Victorian homes.”

7. When I was 19, I wallpapered my bedroom with purple tissue paper from the Boston boutique I worked in. I cut-out Yellow submarine figures and pasted them around, but I didn’t go to Woodstock. See Why HERE.

8. Writing/blogging is another outlet for creativity and can be dangerous just like any art is, but hitting the nerve is what makes the most compelling art and honesty is key. Every poem or post is an aspect of the whole where the darkness and light can ebb and flow. We put it out to see it from a new perspective. ~ Comment to a friend who just started a blog and was questioning the danger of blogging/sharing one’s the inner life.

9. There was a lost chance to paint the Floyd water tower pink and make a poetic statement about a “Pink Floyd” when the iconic lead-painted landmark recently came down with a boom. See it fall HERE. 

10. Some busy bees make hives with flower petals. See their works of art HERE.

11. I could paper my walls with poems about the moon. The latest is called Commitment and goes: A bright white heart / on night’s dark sleeve / a faithful moon / proves its constancy.

12. My inclination toward introversion is a strong trait that’s tempered by my love of fun and new adventure. But for every two hours I’m out, I need about four at home to recover. In the end it’s my curiosity about people and my urge to communicate that bridges the gap between the wallflower in me and the social butterfly just waiting to fly solo again. –More from Public Speaking Phobia to Town Crier, a 2008 blog post HERE. 

13. “Words are things, I’m convinced. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, in your clothes, and finally, into you. We must be careful about the words we use.” ―Maya Angelou

__________Thirteen Thursday