Thank you to the wren, the berries and the air

New wren tile
Hand drawing in glaze pencil Handmade tile
Glazed to cone 6.

Thank you to the wren, the berries and the air.

Understated wonder. Nature amazes and inspires me always. For many of us this is so. A kindred spirit said it well, in this quote by Annie Dillard. She was writing of the qualities of what I call the gift of Life on Earth.

 "The creation is not a study, a roughed-in sketch; it is supremely, meticulously created....Even on the perfectly ordinary and clearly visible level, creation carries on with an intricacy unfathomable and apparently uncalled for."
~ Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek

"...apparently uncalled for."  That quality of unasked for brilliance- beauty- whispers to me of Love.

Yes,
Love is here.

The Incremental Spring, A Truthtelling & Celebration

BIRD IN WILLOWS BY ZOLA DE FIRMIAN

 

How long I'd waited... I'd long since given up. They were promised to produce huge coral-gold blooms, the tulip bulbs that I bought from the children when they rode up my lane on their bikes late last year. They were fundraising for our little rural, tiny school, Manchester Elementary. It's a startling thing for anyone to come up this drive, it is so very quiet here... except for the coyotes and my husband's weed-eater.(Feeling just now like I live in an immense garden of green: it's park-like from his sheering and the rains. SO much rain.)

The bulbs-  I was delinquent- they'd sprouted in the bag. Bad, bad, bad... Winter well begun, past equinox they sat quietly beginning, despite adversity and no soil. At last we planted them, with a bit of guilt for my neglect of those promised beauties.

Then, the wait. Soon, one- just a single one- came up. Waiting hopefully, then not so hopefully, weeks later. Then sadly- happy/sad- I gave a little touch of thanks to the single blade when I at last knew only the one had made it. I actually envisioned myself heroically stewarding the one beauty into a full bed years hence of many tulips... assuaging quilt. This, when it was only a sprout 1.5" tall.

This weekend- weeks later- gasp! 5 more fingerlings of mahogany green leaves. THANKS AND PRAISE for rains and wonders.

I got a blog today about our penchant for having things happen quickly. It's from Mark Silver's great ezine called "Business Heart" from Mark Silver at Heart of Business.  I'll share a bit it with you today:

"... (from Mark's article, Countering the Quick-Fix Culture:)

"Two Reason You Can Tell The Truth

There are two reasons you don't have to lie to your clients or give up. One is psychological, one is spiritual.
While it's true that the quick-fix is one psychological draw, another draw is that human beings love a challenge. If you can challenge someone to take on an adventure, many people will respond.

One of the more popular events in Portland is the Worst Day of the Year Ride. Sponsored by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, it's a bicycle ride in February, in the middle of Portland's coldest and rainiest month.
Thousands of people have a fantastic time turning out for this mess. Although the challenge you're presenting may not be as fun, you can still connect with someone's sense of adventure, or willingness to take on a challenge.

And the second reason?

Truth Resonates

I was telling a participant in our Heart of Money class, in response to a question of hers, "I wish I could tell you something different, but it takes 18 months to three years of focus on business development to move a business truly into momentum. You can spin your wheels denying it, or you can focus for that time and see yourself in a truly different place two to three years from now."
Her response, "I don't want to hear what you're telling me, but when I hear you say it, I know it's true."
Speaking the truth, with both strength and compassion, has a powerful resonance to it.

..."

HAPPY SPRING to all my friends.

Remembering to Love our World, watering the seeds

MY FRIEND TRIPLE EAR. PHOTO BY LARAIN MATHESON

Project Greenheart: remembering to love our world:
            Telling the stories and Watering the seeds. 

Project Greenheart 
is an invitation and reminder that remembering to love our world is easy...

By simple acts of attention to Earth's beauty,
By telling our stories,
By watering the seeds of caring for the planet, in simple ways...

   The simplest act, from peeling an orange,
    to  pausing to really notice a child's smile, can reawaken
    and bring one home, to the reality of the gift of life on
    Planet Earth. To share this noticing, spreads awareness.

    It's simple acts that matter, sharing simple things that
    move you: As central as the air we breathe, these things we
    so easily forget, have power. This can bring us home
    again. And can help us walk the earth with real respect.

It's alchemy, simplicity. 

          WHAT YOU CAN DO, is share these rich experiences.

Here's an invitation to tell your story to others via Project Greenheart:

• A memory- Do you have a brief story from when your heart first opened wide to the beauty and your love of nature? Was something important instilled in you?
  
• A childhood memory of doing something close to the natural world that stays with you, or of another child...
  
• A link to such a story from somewhere else.
  
• A link that connects us with each others' acts of love for planet earth.
• Some way you've found to share with others, especially children, to create moments that bring you home again to the Beauty that is Earth.

        
It's alchemy... simplicity.

So, here's the invitation:

      Contact Project Greenheart

Kismet, Co-Creation, Alchemy, and Luck

MAGIC BLUE FISH copyright 2010

 

 

 

 

HANDCARVED TILE BY  ZOLA DE FIRMIAN, FINE ART CERAMICS

Aren't fish magical? I define Magic or Alchemy as Life in Action. Take awe- when I consider fish- or plants- with any reflection- how they draw in from course mixtures of stone and soil, one perfect exact blend of what they need through those roots. So carefully attuned. By leaf and root they absorb pure light, water, molecules to bring forth substance and energy for growth of their green leaves and cells. This is a mystery, and magical to me. All beings who walk this Earth depend on this for life, for energy. How may we, or the plant, take credit?

Ancient alchemical thought aimed to transmute base matter- lead, into the most precious, gold. (Do the Leprechauns learn this?) The Chinese, during this "year of the Dragon" consider those born in those years, hence, lucky. Then, there's the "luck of the Irish." Mysteries abound, and I, for one, still wonder what brought what opportunity whose way. I feel very fortunate, even blessed, maybe lucky, too...It's intriguing to speculate, but I can't say "I" invited it all in, 'good' or bad' or take responsibility for all I encounter.

Then, what or who is this "I? (I'll stop there ;~}

Sufi thought distinguishes between fate and destiny (Kismet.) To my humble, limited understanding, it's Fate when we find ourselves where we land- (perhaps we brought ourselves to a brink and then call it an accident.) It's Kismet, when we are in the flow~ when Life's Purpose for us, God's way~ is allowed to open up and direct the flow of our world. So, is it Kismet when salmon travel to their birthplace and spawn successfully, and Fate when mudslides and floods slam us due to destructive human activities? Not so simple.

Still, I love this quote from an old poem: "No wind can blow my barque astray, nor change the course of destiny." I do believe in destiny, after all. Sometimes, some things are startling in their obviously 'directed' appearance in your life's path. Like my studio "ally," the old jackrabbit who appeared when I first made a song / a call for allies and support for my new venture in clay: There he's stayed, through the seasons, now with torn ear, still coming to sit near me, often enough, when I work. "Triple Ear's" WILD, mind you.

I consider Alchemy as Life in Action. By this I mean the flowers and fruit borne by a plant, our energies streaming forth in co-creation, our very beings: We're made of stardust! ALL of it, the vast Life Force, this Wild Intelligence, is engaged in the God-like act of creating from simplest energies and matter, Life, and Beauty. IT IS ALL GOLD, AND ALL OF IT IS GOD'S. Ceramics = sheer alchemy.

ALCHEMY: And we, when we engage willingly, with openness, might be blessed to find this flow will bring forth gold of our one unique ilk- The expression of our gifts. That's Kismet.

Draw to yourselves, like the humble, trustingly open root hairs of a plant, exactly what you need and DISCOVER: What's given and brought in will always serve Life's Force in Creation. This is me and this is you, the salmon and the hare. The Joy.

The Real Deal- What Art Lovers NEED to know, 101

If you value culture, beauty, listen up! Significant and true...especially for artists. This is something to let speak for itself, and it is WORTH checking out. (This might even change your life, if you're a creative.)

Typographic excellence by David Shiyang Liu.

Ira Glass on Creativity, via David Liu

Smoking radiance, Intrepid mouse

Exotic flavors, life on the edge... after a week away, our 'temporarily-housed-outdoors' washer welcomed us to the delight of not one, but two, two mice in one! gently floating in their grave. The marine burial (of sorts) was inside the old Maytag, which happened not too long ago to have flooded our beautiful new home with bamboo floors. Hence, it was outdoors when it rained during our camping journey to Santa Barbara. It's always a bit of a challenge to come home from a journey- this was a tad more than I'd planned.

Needless to say, I'm ready for a new washer. It's free now of the mice, the pine needles, and the dust... but still outside. I love field mice, in the field. Not sleeping in my car. Not scampering over the raw, unfired delicate porcelain pieces in my studio. Not their hints that they've been there, either (little less-than-love-notes). I've developed a better mousetrap, btw... for anyone interested.

I have a mouse totem made in porcelain, from the Year of the Mouse. I decided not to fight them, but welcome them- outside. Nice idea. This is the Year of the Dragon, and I hope they scare away the mice.

Smoking radiance: Yesterday was planned-for glaze preparation day outside my studio. Halcyon days, weather to die for- spring, light gleaming on the sea, almost too hot on the south-facing deck. I was blissed... sponging dust off the bisqued pieces, mixing up my glazes, looking at my color tiles, choosing, feeling into blends. Then, the smoke came. Billowing, black, grey... overflowing the land from the neighbors. I heard them laughing, chainsaws going intermittently, happy in the sun. 'Permissible burn days' are important here, where pines grow like beanstalks: sstewarding the land entails keeping deadwood cleared.

But the smoke!  It made me nauseous and heachachy after a while. End to my glazing, yesterday.. Today, doing laundry and the colors call again... I'm ready.

A memory lingers of one amazing thing: Yesterday afternoon late, the sunbeams would have been invisible for the bright light. But the obscuring smoke actually let the radiance in- a beautiful set of rays, long lines of sunlight and smoke, shining through the trees. Obscuring the sheer radiance allowed one to really see the light. Thanks.

What's in a Color? (the real connection)

World without culture is the world gone grey. Life without art feels drab- drab, DRAB! Who hasn't walked into one of those spaces built with pure 'function' in mind? ("BORING, sucks-the-life-right-out-of you, get me out of here, asap, I can't breathe..." you think.)

Honestly, we need beauty like we need food. Look around this planet: we come from the most breathtaking, stunning place of beauty.

Earth is what we're born for. We NEED birdsong, sunsets, to breathe in sunshine. That is Life.

Now, here's the real connection: Birds create birdsong. Humans create culture. Space where Life happens. Heart friendly homes- artful spaces. Culture. Art brings us home to ourselves as children of Earth's beauty. The beautiful creative act connects humans to life, just like the breath of sunshine.

So, remember, YOU deserve to value art, to value beauty. Go ahead, immerse yourself: in Color, Nature, Art. Beauty matters. Culture counts.