Thursday, September 12, 2019
More from the museum
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
From Old Black Mountain
Two places still in business for overnight stays...
The Monte Vista hotel...
A toaster (electric) from the Red Rocker Inn - a prosperous B &B as well as nice family restaurant
Boarding Houses that aren't still in business
Artifact from Monte Vista Hotel
Thanks to Swannanoa Valley History Museum for sharing these artifacts!
A toaster (electric) from the Red Rocker Inn - a prosperous B &B as well as nice family restaurant
Thanks to Swannanoa Valley History Museum for sharing these artifacts!
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Bucky Fuller
Just look at all those triangles! This is one of the designs in the gallery that was an extension of the presentation last weekend at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
A friend and I attended the Sunday night performance, and it was a really wonderful experience. - Another talented one-man show! And David Novak had the Buckminster Fuller persona down pat.
And then he even had memorized a whole 2-1/2 hour show(with 15 min. intermission)! I loved it, and wondered that he is going to be performing it in Poland this next week. I can't imagine being able to discuss these concepts in another language...but apparently he can! The author of the play was D. W. Jacobs, and it's been performed more than 1,000 times since he wrote in in 2000.
My first experience with R. Buckminster Fuller was reading his book "Operating Manuel for Spaceship Earth" back in the 60s-70s...as well as many iterations of the Whole Earth Catalog. He was very popular with the counter-culture, and I was thrilled in 1971 to join a UU Church in Tampa FL that was housed in a geodesic dome. I also saw the domes in the New York Worlds Fair and Expo 67 in Montreal. Then Disney World had opened in Orlando with Epcot.
 |
| David Novak as R. Buckminster Fuller giving a lecture/performance at BMCA |
Anyway, I also remember driving my camper van with some friends from Tallahassee to Altanta GA to hear Bucky Fuller speak in person, probably in 1977-78. We camped in the van after the lecture, which might have been in the Fox Theatre. It was amazing to hear him talk quickly in much the same long drawn-out sentences, with no words less than 3 syllables, and often modifying something that had been mentioned in several sentences prior, but it mostly made sense. When did he catch a breath?
I just looked quickly at his biography, because I was pretty sure he was related to an early UU/transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller. Yes, she was his great aunt but they never met, because she died about 50 years before his birth. And I learned in the bio that Bucky Fuller was the world president of MENSA from 74-83.
But back to the performance...and the great exhibit in the gallery at BMCA last week. We quickly looked at the exhibit during the intermission. It included some panels and artifacts from the Museum of Black Mountain College (Asheville, NC). The college is where Bucky first put his idea of the geodesic dome into models...and finally a working one.
Monday, September 9, 2019
"Stable"
Not where the horses are kept.
Just the prognosis for my bronchiectasis. I had a recent chest CT scan, and did the spirometer breathing test. And talked with the lung doctor about my chronic "productive" coughing. And where do I go from here? Not much hope of any remission of this disease. And the difficulty getting phlegm out of my lungs will continue to leave me susceptible to infections. So the Dr. even gave me a prescription for antibiotics as a "have on hand" for when and if I get another fever related to catching something or another.
That's a good idea, antibiotics that I carry around with me. Not that I plan to use them, but you know, I usually get sick on a weekend.
And apparently he trusts me to use them wisely.
I am now being given bi-annual appointments. And my general practitioner sees me almost monthly. Yay for medicare giving me reduced price appointments with them. I have a reasonably priced drug insurance as well, so I may spend a good chunk of my earned income, Social Security, on medical care, but I'm ok with it for now.
Sitting here on a bale of hay in the stable.
Just the prognosis for my bronchiectasis. I had a recent chest CT scan, and did the spirometer breathing test. And talked with the lung doctor about my chronic "productive" coughing. And where do I go from here? Not much hope of any remission of this disease. And the difficulty getting phlegm out of my lungs will continue to leave me susceptible to infections. So the Dr. even gave me a prescription for antibiotics as a "have on hand" for when and if I get another fever related to catching something or another.
That's a good idea, antibiotics that I carry around with me. Not that I plan to use them, but you know, I usually get sick on a weekend.
And apparently he trusts me to use them wisely.
I am now being given bi-annual appointments. And my general practitioner sees me almost monthly. Yay for medicare giving me reduced price appointments with them. I have a reasonably priced drug insurance as well, so I may spend a good chunk of my earned income, Social Security, on medical care, but I'm ok with it for now.
Sitting here on a bale of hay in the stable.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Autumn is coming, but if you can't wait...
I loved seeing this early predictor of fall colors.
Don't know if a vimeo video will work here or not...so Here's the link.
Again, thanks to another blogger who shared it...macro photos of leaves changing color.
Don't know if a vimeo video will work here or not...so Here's the link.
Again, thanks to another blogger who shared it...macro photos of leaves changing color.
"There is video from Vimeo that uses slow motion to show how deciduous trees change their colors. The photographer tells us:
Thanks Ronni Bennet”This is a macro time-lapse short film containing roughly 6000 pictures of leaves from 10 common Midwestern deciduous trees.“My name is Owen Reiser. I am a 19 year old biology student and self-taught photographer with an appreciation for the smallest things in nature.”
Friday, September 6, 2019
Reading another blog
Daily I check her blogs...her posts range from stories, to reminders to ground with the land we live on, to political rants.
Today...(yesterday for when you read this) she posted this.
Here's the link to her blog in full. Makes you think. Makes me mad.
Incidentally, she's an attorney.
Today...(yesterday for when you read this) she posted this.
...threats of terrorism — “I’m not living without guns; it’s just that simple. The AR-15 is by far the most popular gun in America, by far. . . . If you’re talking about taking people’s guns from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence.” "If you pass gun safety laws there will be a Civil War." "If my opponent wins, my followers should shoot her." — are illegal. It’s still illegal terrorism if you say that some third person will commit the violence It’s still illegal terrorism if the threat is conditional (we’ll shoot you and declare Civil War if you pass those laws). As long as you have the intent to cause fear (and, really, what else is the point of these statements), it’s illegal terrorism.
Here's the link to her blog in full. Makes you think. Makes me mad.
Incidentally, she's an attorney.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
They're so little!
Oh, the reason I sat down to write this, was my realization (it has taken quite a while) that very few of my friends are bloggers...so whenever I post a blog post onto FB, then my friends can see some of it. They may never click over to blogger, but they can see the first photo.
These days most people are looking at a phone screen, rather than a computer. And I have yet to find a good app for phones that shows blogs. (If you have, please let me know.) Anyway, my friends don't have access to blogs from their phones!
I am not going to quit blogging...and I certainly have a nice group of blogging friends who comment frequently (thank you so much) so I don't feel like I'm sending things out into completely empty space. But when I get 25 or so likes, as well as a couple of comments over on FB, compared to 2-4 comments here, it does make one think twice.
Gorgeous colors
All week we've been talking about hurricane Dorian, watching it's slow progression, the weather-people looking for that tiny window of real disaster that makes a byte of glory that will be re-run a million times. Unfortunately there are also the poor inhabitants of the Bahamas who felt the disaster...and they will be recovering for many weeks to come...maybe years.
I feel fortunate that this storm didn't come our way. The coast of North Carolina is due to be hit later today, maybe tonight. Our first responders are going there to see if they can help.
As summer winds down (say wind like winding up or down a handle) the pool had its last day of fun on Labor Day. It makes no difference in my life. No, that's not true. I'm grateful to be able to find a parking place at lunchtime since families aren't going to the pool at Lakeview Center.
I had my birthday the week before Labor Day, and my youngest son had his yesterday. He was a bit disappointed that his 40th didn't have a big party. I can understand his feeling. My 75 went by without much fan fare. Our family came together for my 70th. And this year marked 2 people's 80th birthdays. That's quite enough.
OK, those are my thoughts this morning. I wish you a happy day...in all the choices of what kind of day to have, that seems best.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
A fortieth birthday
This is one of the big ones in life for most people. My son, Tai Rogers is celebrating his 40th year today. I've posted about him before, so won't go through it all over. But here are the links, so you can see the photos that I've kept on my external hard drive, as well as here on blogger In 2013. And in 2014.
Some of the older links no long are active. Tai received his M.F.A. in ceramics at Indiana University, taught for a year, then spent a couple of years as the manager of the metals and woodworking lab at Indiana University. He and Kendra moved back to Colorado a couple of years ago, and he now is working with high school students near Mesa Verde park, to help them graduate and go on to college.
I wish him well as he moves into a more settled part of his life, both in career and maybe soon in housing. I know he and Kendra are looking for a permanent home these days.
What shall a mother say when a son turns 40? Something different? Something more monumental than an ordinary wish for a birthday? I'm afraid I don't know. I'm looking to use some poetry to send him.
Each person is an incredibly sophisticated, subtle, and open-ended work of art.
We live at the heart of our own intimacy, yet we are strangers to its endless nature.
Each of us needs to travel inwards from the surface
constraints and visit the wild places within us and answer the question: Who are you?
Who are you behind your role?
Who are you behind your words?
Who are you when you are alone with yourself?
Who are you before you slip back safely behind the mask and the name by which you are known during the day?
We live at the heart of our own intimacy, yet we are strangers to its endless nature.
Each of us needs to travel inwards from the surface
constraints and visit the wild places within us and answer the question: Who are you?
Who are you behind your role?
Who are you behind your words?
Who are you when you are alone with yourself?
Who are you before you slip back safely behind the mask and the name by which you are known during the day?
If you can awaken the eternal beauty and light of your soul
you will break through the prison of certainty and bring light wherever you go.
you will break through the prison of certainty and bring light wherever you go.
John O'Donohue
From: Eternal Echoes
From: Eternal Echoes
Monday, September 2, 2019
Local Food vs. Free food-bank markets
Another worth while series of films...Here. They are short, and expressions of beauty.
Planet Local: A Film Series about the Beautiful Local Food Movement That's Changing the Way We Grow Food
As my friends who shop the local markets say, the Tailgate Market with fresh organic food is expensive.
But some of us chose the organic locally grown food, making our health a higher priority than cost.
We find the free food markets, provided by the area's food-bank, may be less fresh, and most certainly aren't organic...but the price is right. We can eat most meals in a week from the bounty which is available at little or no cost to us...most of us are seniors living on our own, by the way.
We find the free food markets, provided by the area's food-bank, may be less fresh, and most certainly aren't organic...but the price is right. We can eat most meals in a week from the bounty which is available at little or no cost to us...most of us are seniors living on our own, by the way.
Tonight I sautéed some free onion in canola oil, threw in a chopped clove of purchased Mexican garlic, boiled a free potato and a free yam, chopped the 6 free mushrooms, diced the potatoes and stir fried it all together. The most expensive part of the meal was the dash of white wine I tossed in at the last minute. And I've got leftovers! I'll add the free spinach and an egg the next time I fix it. I admit, sometimes the spinach has gone bad by the time I cook, which I don't do every day. I love using the microwave and toaster oven. I think for me, the thing that keeps me from cooking daily is the clean-up of pots and pans.
EcoBuddhism and today
This came through FB...it's a link to an article about NOW, by Joanna Macy *from 2016.
I have a friend who is an Eco-Chaplin, who introduced me to her teacher, Joanna Macy's work. I only know a little about it, and am in awe.
I have a friend who is an Eco-Chaplin, who introduced me to her teacher, Joanna Macy's work. I only know a little about it, and am in awe.
Joanna Macy on How to Prepare Internally for WHATEVER Comes Next
“Yes, it looks bleak. But you are still alive now. You are alive with all the others, in this present moment. And because the truth is speaking in the work, it unlocks the heart. And there’s such a feeling and experience of adventure. It’s like a trumpet call to a great adventure. In all great adventures there comes a time when the little band of heroes feels totally outnumbered and bleak, like Frodo in Lord of the Rings or Pilgrim in Pilgrim’s Progress. You learn to say ‘It looks bleak. Big deal, it looks bleak.’”
Sunday, September 1, 2019
September song
Such lovely weather. But that's not all that's good in my life right now.
I spent Sunday afternoon sitting on the desk greeting people who visited the Red House Art Gallery. The weather might have been the reason there weren't that many visitors. And they whizzed through so fast, it was as if they had looked for a specific thing and not found it.
The other gratefulness I'm feeling is that my health is being pretty good. I'm taking naps as needed, and eating pretty well. I've got a chest c.t. scan this week, keeping track of my lungs for my pulmonologist. Bronchiectasis - needing to cough to clear mucus frequently. If the coughing weren't so noisy I could go where people are more often. As it is, at least once a day when I'm out, I have to remind people that I'm not catching, it's a chronic cough.
So I'm patting myself on my back for having slowly, and with lots of breaks, been able to walk to the lookout on top of Mt. Mitchell last Thurs. Yay me.
I love September. It used to mean (way back maybe in the 60s) going back to school. Nowadays it happens in August everywhere. But rejoining the scholastic community has always been exciting and rejuvenating for me. I'm still taking Spanish, though it's not quite as hard as it could be, not having a teacher but just a bunch of seniors trying to enjoy what they can learn, while many times we can't remember even English words! Well, now that's become more important, in case I ever find myself helping shelter someone who ICE is looking for. So now I want to be able to say a few important things. But I know some members of the Spanish class would want ICE to arrest illegal immigrants, so I won't be practicing those sentences in class!
There was one summer that I quit my job and spent 3 months traveling and camping with my oldest 2 sons over 10,000 miles. A lot of driving for me (at age 32). But other than that, I haven't had "summer off" or "summer vacations." I would work through summers. And when I retired...well, I have vacation time every day, but I volunteer almost every day.
Goodness this has gone on and on!
I spent Sunday afternoon sitting on the desk greeting people who visited the Red House Art Gallery. The weather might have been the reason there weren't that many visitors. And they whizzed through so fast, it was as if they had looked for a specific thing and not found it.
The other gratefulness I'm feeling is that my health is being pretty good. I'm taking naps as needed, and eating pretty well. I've got a chest c.t. scan this week, keeping track of my lungs for my pulmonologist. Bronchiectasis - needing to cough to clear mucus frequently. If the coughing weren't so noisy I could go where people are more often. As it is, at least once a day when I'm out, I have to remind people that I'm not catching, it's a chronic cough.
So I'm patting myself on my back for having slowly, and with lots of breaks, been able to walk to the lookout on top of Mt. Mitchell last Thurs. Yay me.
I love September. It used to mean (way back maybe in the 60s) going back to school. Nowadays it happens in August everywhere. But rejoining the scholastic community has always been exciting and rejuvenating for me. I'm still taking Spanish, though it's not quite as hard as it could be, not having a teacher but just a bunch of seniors trying to enjoy what they can learn, while many times we can't remember even English words! Well, now that's become more important, in case I ever find myself helping shelter someone who ICE is looking for. So now I want to be able to say a few important things. But I know some members of the Spanish class would want ICE to arrest illegal immigrants, so I won't be practicing those sentences in class!
There was one summer that I quit my job and spent 3 months traveling and camping with my oldest 2 sons over 10,000 miles. A lot of driving for me (at age 32). But other than that, I haven't had "summer off" or "summer vacations." I would work through summers. And when I retired...well, I have vacation time every day, but I volunteer almost every day.
Goodness this has gone on and on!
Friday, August 30, 2019
Having friendly fun
Monday, August 26, 2019
I'll be seeing you...
over on "Living in Black Mountain," almost every day this week.
And soon at my "Three Family Trees."
But the time I usually use here is being given to another pursuit this week.
A visitor.
I hope the mint takes...it's in new dirt and had lots of roots. The little guy is there for encouragement.
There's the orchid in it's new home.
And the end of August means lots of these black seeds on the Four O'Clocks.
The front porch...we're not allowed to plant anything in that terrible mulched area. Ugh. It's full of poisons anyway.
And soon at my "Three Family Trees."
But the time I usually use here is being given to another pursuit this week.
A visitor.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
What's with high of 68 degrees?
It's still only August 25, and went down into the 50s last night. Today when I left for church I went back inside to get a wrap...just a piece of fabric that became my shawl. Yesterday (well a week ago) it had covered an altar. And then it was in the high 80s each day. Other places in the US were sweltering, and this just a few weeks after Europe suffered a terrible heat wave.
So to have damp cool days suddenly is strange, though due to a cold front that slipped south, so sayeth the weather guy. I just decided the middle of August had been the peak of summer.
And now the last week of August begins with fall weather. I wonder if/how long it will last. Weather people say...this is going to continue till Tues, and by Wed. we'll get up to80 78 again. But the nights will still be in the 50s! Amazing.
OK, enough talk about the weather. I'm hostessing a friend from Florida this week. So we'll be traveling around doing some touristy stuff...and I'll probably share some photos here, there or yon.
I'm looking forward to seeing things around me with her new eyes.
So to have damp cool days suddenly is strange, though due to a cold front that slipped south, so sayeth the weather guy. I just decided the middle of August had been the peak of summer.
And now the last week of August begins with fall weather. I wonder if/how long it will last. Weather people say...this is going to continue till Tues, and by Wed. we'll get up to
OK, enough talk about the weather. I'm hostessing a friend from Florida this week. So we'll be traveling around doing some touristy stuff...and I'll probably share some photos here, there or yon.
I'm looking forward to seeing things around me with her new eyes.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Women training on the job
Training on the job!
When the man in the floral shirt had a first baby (well, his wife did) he passed out cigars to all the draftspersons.
I'm on the far left, not smoking the smelly thing, but holding it for the picture.
The other woman in the photo with long hair, had just graduated with a degree in Architecture from one of the Florida universities. I had had 3 years of liberal arts college and 2 children and a divorce by that time. Little did I realize I'd be going to the U of FL myself in another 8 years myself!
The drafting room of an architectural and engineering firm had mainly men working in it. Stephanie got her position by getting a degree. How did I get mine?
A year after my divorce I was a secretary in a cable TV firm...which in 1971 meant that cables were just being run between phone poles for the first time in Tampa. There were some electrical engineers who worked on drafting tables, and I was sitting at an IBM Selectric typewriter, wanting to find a way up in my career, which seemed destined to include typing. Then I decided to apply for an apprenticeship for an electrical engineering draftsman at another firm. I got the job...after all, I knew the symbols, could draw (I had been an art major) and looked pretty good sitting on a drafting stool. I kid you not. I'm positive my legs were part of the package. (Sorry ladies, I was not totally liberated yet!)
After a few months of this, I decided if I could apprentice for the electrical draftsperson, why not an architectural one? So I did, and went to another company and got that job. I did it for a few months, then wanted a better position, which is how I ended up 3 years at the firm seen in the photo. I moved up while working there, by starting to draw plans for landscape design and for interior finishes. The firm only worked on commercial projects, like banks, post offices, and schools. Some government contracts required landscape designs...which were easy enough to draw. I used a book about plants that would grow in Florida. I knew very little otherwise. I was told it didn't matter, because the contractors would replace my design with whatever they had on hand anyway. And the firm I worked for got a drawing that looked almost as good as one a real landscape architect would have made...much cheaper with me! (Sorry professional landscapers!)
And for interior finishes, I used all the samples that were sent for flooring, and Formica finishes for bathrooms, and floor tiles, and paint samples and carpet samples, to build little dioramas, so we could show a bank (for instance) what a color scheme for the bathrooms might look like. My favorite was doing a board room for the top floor of a 36 floor building that still stands in Tampa. When it was built it was the tallest building. I never found out if they used my presentation choices or not. It didn't really matter. I got a business card with my name on it saying Architectural Interior Designer. We also got a contract to renovate the Tampa stadium and locker rooms...so I again had some interior choices put together for it. That stadium got demolished and a bigger one built years ago. (Sorry to the professional interior designers!)
Then I quit. I wanted to take a summer off with my 2 boys and travel in my camper van (my only means of transportation). I had proved I could do many things, and had a gas credit card...so we traveled all over the country camping, and then we settled in another city. I started as a temp secretary first...then worked my way up in different jobs.
I didn't return to drafting. But one of my temp jobs was at the new school of architecture in that city. I unfortunately couldn't consider becoming a student yet because there were course requirements that would mean "pulling an all-nighter" and I knew as a single mom I wouldn't be able to do that.
So that's how I ended up as an apprentice that became a draftsperson that became an Architectural Interior Designer. I felt a bit bad because people were going to college learning all kinds of things to be interior designers, or they worked in antique or furniture stores so they knew all kinds of things about furnishings. I could do finishes for board rooms, post offices, schools, hospitals, and bathrooms!
I guess I learned that the college degrees that I got prepared people for more than just a skilled trade. That was many years after I'd worked for them. In the meantime I also knew that training on the job (apprenticeships) are excellent ways for intelligent people to accomplish a lot.
Our Sepia Saturday prompt this week shows a young woman working on a car (with nice clean hands and even a bracelet!) But come on over to see what else this might inspire others to post. And you are welcome to join the crowd too!
I'm on the far left, not smoking the smelly thing, but holding it for the picture.
The other woman in the photo with long hair, had just graduated with a degree in Architecture from one of the Florida universities. I had had 3 years of liberal arts college and 2 children and a divorce by that time. Little did I realize I'd be going to the U of FL myself in another 8 years myself!
The drafting room of an architectural and engineering firm had mainly men working in it. Stephanie got her position by getting a degree. How did I get mine?
A year after my divorce I was a secretary in a cable TV firm...which in 1971 meant that cables were just being run between phone poles for the first time in Tampa. There were some electrical engineers who worked on drafting tables, and I was sitting at an IBM Selectric typewriter, wanting to find a way up in my career, which seemed destined to include typing. Then I decided to apply for an apprenticeship for an electrical engineering draftsman at another firm. I got the job...after all, I knew the symbols, could draw (I had been an art major) and looked pretty good sitting on a drafting stool. I kid you not. I'm positive my legs were part of the package. (Sorry ladies, I was not totally liberated yet!)
After a few months of this, I decided if I could apprentice for the electrical draftsperson, why not an architectural one? So I did, and went to another company and got that job. I did it for a few months, then wanted a better position, which is how I ended up 3 years at the firm seen in the photo. I moved up while working there, by starting to draw plans for landscape design and for interior finishes. The firm only worked on commercial projects, like banks, post offices, and schools. Some government contracts required landscape designs...which were easy enough to draw. I used a book about plants that would grow in Florida. I knew very little otherwise. I was told it didn't matter, because the contractors would replace my design with whatever they had on hand anyway. And the firm I worked for got a drawing that looked almost as good as one a real landscape architect would have made...much cheaper with me! (Sorry professional landscapers!)
And for interior finishes, I used all the samples that were sent for flooring, and Formica finishes for bathrooms, and floor tiles, and paint samples and carpet samples, to build little dioramas, so we could show a bank (for instance) what a color scheme for the bathrooms might look like. My favorite was doing a board room for the top floor of a 36 floor building that still stands in Tampa. When it was built it was the tallest building. I never found out if they used my presentation choices or not. It didn't really matter. I got a business card with my name on it saying Architectural Interior Designer. We also got a contract to renovate the Tampa stadium and locker rooms...so I again had some interior choices put together for it. That stadium got demolished and a bigger one built years ago. (Sorry to the professional interior designers!)
Then I quit. I wanted to take a summer off with my 2 boys and travel in my camper van (my only means of transportation). I had proved I could do many things, and had a gas credit card...so we traveled all over the country camping, and then we settled in another city. I started as a temp secretary first...then worked my way up in different jobs.
I didn't return to drafting. But one of my temp jobs was at the new school of architecture in that city. I unfortunately couldn't consider becoming a student yet because there were course requirements that would mean "pulling an all-nighter" and I knew as a single mom I wouldn't be able to do that.
So that's how I ended up as an apprentice that became a draftsperson that became an Architectural Interior Designer. I felt a bit bad because people were going to college learning all kinds of things to be interior designers, or they worked in antique or furniture stores so they knew all kinds of things about furnishings. I could do finishes for board rooms, post offices, schools, hospitals, and bathrooms!
I guess I learned that the college degrees that I got prepared people for more than just a skilled trade. That was many years after I'd worked for them. In the meantime I also knew that training on the job (apprenticeships) are excellent ways for intelligent people to accomplish a lot.
Our Sepia Saturday prompt this week shows a young woman working on a car (with nice clean hands and even a bracelet!) But come on over to see what else this might inspire others to post. And you are welcome to join the crowd too!
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Another milestone
So here I am, celebrating my 77th today.
Fortunately I've got things scheduled which haven't a thing to do with my birthday. That is because I don't want to have a party...too stressful. I recently was invited to a play, and was all ready to go, then did my breathing treatment and found myself getting dizzy. That was a first. But after feeling like I might fall off my chair, I called my friend and canceled our "date." I hope that doesn't happen again (dizzy.)
On my birthday, I'm going on a tour of the home of a famous Asheville writer, Thomas Wolfe. It's a guided tour, so should be educational. And yes, I'll take some photos to share here somewhere (probably under "Living in Black Mountain.")
And to mark this milestone along my path of life, I need a poem that speaks to me.
You don’t need candles,
only the small slim flame in yourself,
the unrevealed passion
that drives you to rise on winter mornings
remembering summer nights.
You don’t need incense,
only the lingering fragrance
of the life that has gone before,
stew cooking on an open fire,
the good stars, the clean breeze,
the warmth of animals breathing in the dark.
You don’t need a cauldron,
only your woman’s body,
where so many of men’s fine ideas
are translated into life.
You don’t need a wand, hazelwood or oak,
only to follow the subtle and impish
leafy green fellow
who beckons you into the forest,
the one who goes dancing
and playing his flute
through imperial trees.
And you don’t need the salt of earth.
You will taste that soon enough.
These things are the trappings,
the tortoise shell, the wolf skin, the blazoned shield.
It’s what’s inside, the star of becoming.
With that ablaze, you have everything you need
to conjure up new worlds.
Dolores Stewart, from The Nature of Things
Fortunately I've got things scheduled which haven't a thing to do with my birthday. That is because I don't want to have a party...too stressful. I recently was invited to a play, and was all ready to go, then did my breathing treatment and found myself getting dizzy. That was a first. But after feeling like I might fall off my chair, I called my friend and canceled our "date." I hope that doesn't happen again (dizzy.)
On my birthday, I'm going on a tour of the home of a famous Asheville writer, Thomas Wolfe. It's a guided tour, so should be educational. And yes, I'll take some photos to share here somewhere (probably under "Living in Black Mountain.")
And to mark this milestone along my path of life, I need a poem that speaks to me.
You don’t need candles,
only the small slim flame in yourself,
the unrevealed passion
that drives you to rise on winter mornings
remembering summer nights.
only the lingering fragrance
of the life that has gone before,
stew cooking on an open fire,
the good stars, the clean breeze,
the warmth of animals breathing in the dark.
only your woman’s body,
where so many of men’s fine ideas
are translated into life.
only to follow the subtle and impish
leafy green fellow
who beckons you into the forest,
the one who goes dancing
and playing his flute
through imperial trees.
You will taste that soon enough.
the tortoise shell, the wolf skin, the blazoned shield.
It’s what’s inside, the star of becoming.
With that ablaze, you have everything you need
to conjure up new worlds.
Dolores Stewart, from The Nature of Things
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
volunteer appreciation
I have noticed how much of our town's growth depends not upon corporate finaces trickling down....but upon the backs of our volunteers (either retired people or those who can afford to give their time and energies to charitable organizations.)
And what is the return these folks get from their dedication?
Smiling faces who receive food from Bounty and Soul, and Food Connection. Gathering with other like minded people and getting to know new friends in their volunteer work. Education is certainly a bonus from my being a docent at the Swanannoa Valley History Museum. I wish I could remember half of what I hear about! And giving back to the areas that feel like blessings in my life, which is what my volunteer time at the Clay Studio of Black Mountain Center for the Arts provides for me.
The lunch program runs on volunteers who prepare and clean up, who serve the lunches which are catered by a local restaurant in Asheville under a Council on Aging program. The Black Mountain Recreation and Parks has a few paid employees who organize things, including trips around the area.
I know our church also runs on the backs, hands and feet of volunteers. As a new editor for a monthly magazine for that organization, I want to feature the volunteers who don't get as much recognition as I think they should. Others feel the same way, and hopefully will write articles for me, which I'll then add to this newsy e-zine.
But I'm also aware of many time having joined a committee, or worked to share a new creative idea, which over time doesn't seem to work as well as my original intention, and then I've just done the job that is maybe menial but I can do it. And then eventually I've "burned out."
I think appreciation is a lame way to avoid that. There is little feedback to let volunteers know that they are doing well, or maybe need to change their approach so that their work will be more (what?) It should be enjoyable for them, and fruitful for their particular job, and efficient in that they won't make more work for others, and appreciated by those they serve of course.
If you volunteer somewhere, how do you know that you're doing it well? How do you feel committed and invigorated in the doing? Seriously. Comment below, because I want to know.
And what is the return these folks get from their dedication?
Smiling faces who receive food from Bounty and Soul, and Food Connection. Gathering with other like minded people and getting to know new friends in their volunteer work. Education is certainly a bonus from my being a docent at the Swanannoa Valley History Museum. I wish I could remember half of what I hear about! And giving back to the areas that feel like blessings in my life, which is what my volunteer time at the Clay Studio of Black Mountain Center for the Arts provides for me.
The lunch program runs on volunteers who prepare and clean up, who serve the lunches which are catered by a local restaurant in Asheville under a Council on Aging program. The Black Mountain Recreation and Parks has a few paid employees who organize things, including trips around the area.
I know our church also runs on the backs, hands and feet of volunteers. As a new editor for a monthly magazine for that organization, I want to feature the volunteers who don't get as much recognition as I think they should. Others feel the same way, and hopefully will write articles for me, which I'll then add to this newsy e-zine.
But I'm also aware of many time having joined a committee, or worked to share a new creative idea, which over time doesn't seem to work as well as my original intention, and then I've just done the job that is maybe menial but I can do it. And then eventually I've "burned out."
I think appreciation is a lame way to avoid that. There is little feedback to let volunteers know that they are doing well, or maybe need to change their approach so that their work will be more (what?) It should be enjoyable for them, and fruitful for their particular job, and efficient in that they won't make more work for others, and appreciated by those they serve of course.
If you volunteer somewhere, how do you know that you're doing it well? How do you feel committed and invigorated in the doing? Seriously. Comment below, because I want to know.
Friday, August 16, 2019
When you think you've got things under control...
My car problem this week!
Friday was to start with car work on the air conditioner. Every day while I've driven around with windows open and the heat of August, I have said to myself "It won't be long until Friday when you'll again have air conditioning."
But when I got to the repair place, the part hadn't arrived yet, so he wouldn't be working on it till after one/ So I canceled my friend coming to pick me up, and having coffee with her. Instead I drove to the new doughnut place and got some sinfully delicious thing...and came home to coffee that was already made.
Then I went to yoga and lunch, driving in my hot car, then I rushed off to the repair place again. A friend from yoga came to pick me up and took me home. Then sit and wait, while everything I think I should go do, I'm unable to because I have no car. I'm so used to that (my only means of transportation.) There is a van/bus service, but I'm too independent, wanting to go when I want, where I want. I may sometime start using it.
But today I worked at home, took a nap, and later the woman who had planned to take me home in the morning texted me again. I asked her whether she might be interested in taking me back to the car place around 4:30-5. She said yes.
As we were talking, I got a funny phone call from "unknown number." Which I answered, thinking it might be the car place. How do I know what they call clients from? I usually am calling them.Well, nobody was there, just dead air. So I called the car place, and the man said, "I'm just working up your ticket. "I asked if he'd just called me, and he said, "Not yet." I said "I got this funny call, and nobody was there. You sure you weren't just thinking about me and somehow you mentally sent a phone call?"
He laughed. "Not that powerful." And then he crunched the numbers. And then he told me and it was actually lower than the estimate had been. How many times does that happen?
I peeled off all the $20 bills that had been in my sock drawer (not really) (from the ATM) and when I got done, I told him to use the credit/debit card for the rest. They gave me my key, and I drove home loving my car, taking to it (its name is Grey Hawk.) And the a.c. worked just fine.
Friday was to start with car work on the air conditioner. Every day while I've driven around with windows open and the heat of August, I have said to myself "It won't be long until Friday when you'll again have air conditioning."
But when I got to the repair place, the part hadn't arrived yet, so he wouldn't be working on it till after one/ So I canceled my friend coming to pick me up, and having coffee with her. Instead I drove to the new doughnut place and got some sinfully delicious thing...and came home to coffee that was already made.
Then I went to yoga and lunch, driving in my hot car, then I rushed off to the repair place again. A friend from yoga came to pick me up and took me home. Then sit and wait, while everything I think I should go do, I'm unable to because I have no car. I'm so used to that (my only means of transportation.) There is a van/bus service, but I'm too independent, wanting to go when I want, where I want. I may sometime start using it.
But today I worked at home, took a nap, and later the woman who had planned to take me home in the morning texted me again. I asked her whether she might be interested in taking me back to the car place around 4:30-5. She said yes.
As we were talking, I got a funny phone call from "unknown number." Which I answered, thinking it might be the car place. How do I know what they call clients from? I usually am calling them.Well, nobody was there, just dead air. So I called the car place, and the man said, "I'm just working up your ticket. "I asked if he'd just called me, and he said, "Not yet." I said "I got this funny call, and nobody was there. You sure you weren't just thinking about me and somehow you mentally sent a phone call?"
He laughed. "Not that powerful." And then he crunched the numbers. And then he told me and it was actually lower than the estimate had been. How many times does that happen?
I peeled off all the $20 bills that had been in my sock drawer (not really) (from the ATM) and when I got done, I told him to use the credit/debit card for the rest. They gave me my key, and I drove home loving my car, taking to it (its name is Grey Hawk.) And the a.c. worked just fine.
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