Loose Leaf Notes

1. My porch is a winter bird sanctuary.

2. Today I walked down / another long driveway / was stopped by an ice puddle / A Narnia window / A fairy godmother’s oracle / too small to skate on

3. I stood my ground / on the spiraled path / born of contrast / and the art of opposites / that rippled out / and froze in place/ It restored my faith / in a graceful truth / A hardened view / destined to melt / A slip of fate / made beautiful – Read Lost and Found in its entirety HERE.

4. My ice puddle finally melted but I’m not taking it personal and not before I took a picture of it.

5. Speaking of fairytales:  Growing up in a working-class family, the literature available to me was How Now Brown Cow and the stories of Hans Christian Anderson. All summer long I tested the meter of language with jump rope and bouncing ball songs. My mostly Irish father spouted nursery rhymes, both traditional and made up. Ours was an oral tradition of reciting and singing out loud. As a girl I always held out hope that I would hear the nightingale’s song in the woods. Whenever I went out walking, I had the urge to drop bread crumbs to mark the way. Rhymes like Hey Diddle Diddle the cat and the Fiddle fostered an early love of sound and world play. Fairytales and nursery rhymes also gave me access into an inner life. They provided a context of meaning for the unexplained mysteries. Themes played out in fairytales – fate, survival, temptation, loss, courage, fear, and perseverance – are all the ingredients that make for good storytelling. Stories mirror life and give insight into the underpinnings of it.

6. “As the pandemic enters its third year, some of America’s COVID-era shopping habits — including strong demand for tequila and sweatpants — are here to stay. Google Trends and the Schema Design analyze the products Americans have Googled since 2020. Items with a lasting increase in search interest help fill in the details of what our “new normal” looks like.” More HERE.

7. I like to birdwatch in the spring and when it’s snowing.

8. “One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.” Einstein

9. The above makes me think of my new poetry book, Objects are Closer Than They Appear.  As we age, we begin to embody our ancestors … I’m my father’s homebody and my mother’s skeptic / floating through days like a ghost squeaking floorboards…  They are closer than they appear, and I feel closer to them as I sense the reality of my own leaving approaching.” More HERE.

10. I was taking pictures of the latest show at the Floyd Center for the Arts and when I got home and looked at them, I saw how THIS picture literally grabbed me.

11. “People organize their brains through conversation. If they don’t have anyone to tell their story to, they lose their minds. Like hoarders, they cannot unclutter themselves. The input of the community is required for the integrity of the individual psyche. To put it another way: it takes a village to build a mind.” -Jordan Peterson – Twelve Rules for Life

12. On the other hand: “Solitude is one of the most precious things in the human spirit. It is different from loneliness. When you are lonely, you become acutely conscious of your own separation. Solitude can be a homecoming to your own deepest belonging. One of the lovely things about us as individuals is the incommensurable in us. In each person, there is a point of absolute nonconnection with everything else and with everyone. This is fascinating and frightening. It means that we cannot continue to seek outside ourselves for things we need from within. The blessings for which we hunger are not to be found in other places or people. These gifts can only be given to you by yourself. They are at home at the hearth of your soul.” John O’Donahue

13. What’s the world coming to? I gave two family members CDs for Christmas and they gave them back because they have nothing to play them on. I couldn’t find any photo albums in Walmart or Michaels Arts and Crafts stores (because no one develops phone photos), most catalogs don’t list what their clothes are made of anymore because polyester is nothing to brag about and I couldn’t find a complimentary calendar at any store or bank for the first time since I can remember.

______________Thirteen Thursday