Loose Leaf Notes

1. “We are all a thread in the talent tapestry. A snapshot in the cosmic, collective collage.” ― Michele Jennae

2. That’s face painting artist Sally Edelman at Wasena Park in Roanoke working on an art piece that was created collectively for the 540 Culture Fest. 

4. Nothing is more powerful than love.

5. Here’s my favorite Thanksgiving dinner blessing, taught to me by a young boy in the Virgin Islands when Joe and I were there in 1988: We love our bread. We love our butter. But most of all we love each other.

6. Our Ameraucana chicken is the employee of the month. She’s the only one of our eight hens who is still laying during the shortened days.

7. In honor of my son Josh Copus’s last 16 Hands Studio Tour after 12 years, I posted an album of pictures on Facebook that I took from over the years, in no particular order and primarily from when his stop was at our cabin, his childhood home. See HERE. And HERE is my category sidebar Asheville Potter Son with posts that have followed Josh’s adventures since 2005.

8. Here’s what Josh posted: “I’ll be doing the @16.hands studio tour for the last time as a member of the group this Thanksgiving weekend. Come on out Friday and Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 12-5. I’ll be showing with my friend @sarahmccarthypottery… It’s been a great honor to be a part of this group for so many years. When I was asked to join in 2009, it was one of the most validating experiences in my very young career. Having grown up in Floyd, many of the original members of 16 Hands were maternal and paternal figures in my life already from childhood. Shoot, Rick Hensley was my little league baseball coach! The original members of 16 Hands are some of my closest mentors and I will be forever grateful for their positive influence on my life and career. Over the years, our group has changed and grown. Now more young people are a part of it, leading it in new directions and into new territory. The group is in good hands and it’s time for me to step away. It’s time for me to focus more on all my different pursuits here in Marshall, which are a lot to handle. It’s been time for a while, but it can he hard to say goodbye to something you love… I love the life Emily and I have built together here in Marshall and it’s time to give everything I have to it. Thanks to everyone for being a part of it all. It’s been a good run!

9. THIS story from the Stoop by Gregory Hartzler on hunger for solitude and survival is moving and funny. We met Gregory when Josh was in Baltimore with his mobile brick factory promoting community at, back when Gregory called his urban cabin a museum house.

10. “You have the magic cup. No one else chose it,” said the host. My eyes widened when I saw the cup and saucer with a gold design. But there was more. Look.

11. Tea Oracle: A wise woman’s wilderness / at the bottom of a cup / rises like a lost continent / that foretells the last sip / It grins like a rainbow / from a black scrying mirror / Across my sunbathed reflection / it bends to the future.

12. What does the drone know? For good or bad, we’ve come a long way from flying paper airplanes like we did back in the day. Check it out HERE.

13. I didn’t put THIS there.

____________Thirteen Thursday