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Showing posts from 2012

Theme Thursday: Rebirth

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The theme this week for Theme Thursday is Rebirth. As in reinventing oneself. Coming to a place of acceptance  and moving on to a new phase of life. "Fresh Talent" - created on Polyvore.com by MeriMagic (Meri Arnett-Kremian) Giving up those limiting beliefs and dancing with possibility.

52 Photos Project: All Is Calm

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52 Photos Project All is calm along the Nile.

Pssst

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Best wishes from my home to yours!

December 24

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Be safe and warm and know that you are loved.

My World Monday: Newtown

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My heart aches for the families who lost their hearts their bright lights their hope for the future their shining ones in Newtown. My heart aches for the children in Newtown and elsewhere that were robbed too young of their innocence of their trust that the world is a safe place that school is a place for learning and friends and buzz about Christmas. I feel so impotent. Yes, I signed the e-card for Newton, but words are like dust  at a time like this. Nothing that can assuage the grief of those who have had lives torn to shreds by the evil actions of one who chose to cast such a long shadow  of hate and rage. I dealt with the assault on my compassionate heart, my mother love and instincts to protect,  to make things right, in the only way I could under circumstances where no one has the power to make things right. I created. All weekend. Obsessively. Chose to minimize my exposure to the horror, because

Playing Along

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For Weekend Reflection and For Shadow Shot Sunday (thank goodness for phone cams and spontaneous shots)

Sepia Saturday: Vinnie Ream

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Lavinia Ellen Ream was born on September 25, 1847 in a log cabin in Madison, Wisconsin to Robert and Lavinia (McDonald) Ream. Robert was a surveyor and civil servant in the Wisconsin Territory.  The Reams also operated a stage coach stop -- Madison's first hotel --  in their home. Guests slept on the floor. Young Lavinia, known as Vinnie, was a young woman of great promise. She attended college in Columbia, Missouri where her innate artistic ability blossomed. In 1861, her family moved to Washington, D.C. Vinnie became one of the first "women" (she was a mere 14-year old when she was hired)  to obtain employment  with the federal government. She worked as a clerk in the dead letter office of the postal service beginning in 1862.  Her employment there continued until 1866.    That's impressive in itself. But it was just a foreshadowing of her greatness. In 1866, at age 18, she became the first woman

A Virgin a Day: Day Twelve

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I think that Mother Mary as an older woman was an activist for justice a crusader for peace didn't take no for an answer when only a yes would do ate spoons full of pomegranate seeds danced in the moonlight wove flowers in her hair and slathered honey into wounds she was a healer midwife a teacher and not altogether tame she was a woman with fire in her belly. A woman for all times. A woman for our time. A Virgin a Day

A Virgin a Day: Day Eleven

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We seek her wisdom, ask for guidance in matters mundane and monumental. Our Lady, what should I do? we ask, like those seeking guidance from the Oracle at Delphi. Sometimes her answer comes in the words of a song, in a resonant phrase in book, in the insightful advice of a friend. Sometimes it's just a sense of knowing a sense of the rightness of a course of conduct that hadn't been apparent before. She waits until we seek her help then pats her lap and beckons us settle in for some mothering. She smooths back our hair and rubs our forehead in little circles until our eyelids grow heavy and then she whispers just what we need to  know. A Virgin a Day

A Virgin a Day: Day Ten

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Our Lady of Shape Shifting (MeriMagic on Polyvore) Oh mistress of shapeshifting, you come to us in many guises. . . as a lady in white floating above an oak tree in the fields of Portugal, with messages to shepherd children. as an image on a highway sign in Sunnyside in eastern Washington,  not once, but twice. as a statue weeping blood at a Vietnamese Catholic Church  in Sacramento, California. People see you in the browning of a grilled cheese sandwich, in the hues of a plate glass window. You told the young Bernadette to dig and when she had done so, you filled the void with healing waters.  Even now, over a century and a half later, pilgrims flock to Lourdes, seeking miracles of their own. I don't seek your appearance in an oil spot on a garage floor, though you may well choose to do that for the mechanic who needs a reminder of the ineffable nature of faith. . . Instead, I seek your company

A Virgin a Day: Day Nine

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Our Lady of the Linoleum Forest - created on Polyvore by MeriMagic One of the things that makes Our Lady so approachable is her humanity. She was a mother, laboring through natural childbirth,  raising children,  watching at least one of them  die before her. She followed the dictates of her husband, even if it meant riding a donkey to his village of origin to be enumerated in a census when she was near her date of confinement. Though she is exalted by those who wove her mythology  (scant as it is) into the texts that became scripture as an extraordinary woman, a woman above all others, what those who seek her blessings see is her humanity. She is, and was, one of us. While we know little of her life  beyond the bare facts recited, we are assured that --  in the 2000 plus years since her death-- she has worked countless miracles. How can that be, if she is one of us? Each of us is a spark of the divine, capable of

A Virgin a Day: Day Eight

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Our Lady of the Arts - polyvore.com/merimagic Mary, the Blessed Virgin in Christian tradition, surely must be considered  Our Lady of the Arts. She has inspired frescoes on walls in ancient churches,  innumerable sculptures, gold-leafed religious icons galore. She speaks to us without words, heart to heart, bidding us to bore down to our essence and share it freely with the world. A Virgin a Day p.s Please visit Meri's Musings to see today's tribute to John Lennon. He died on this date in 1980.

A Virgin a Day: Day Seven

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"Our Lady of the Natural and Unnatural World" - created on Polyvore.com/merimagic I call her  "Our Lady of the Natural and Unnatural World." She is omnipresent, all-seeing, all-knowing. She is in the song of the birds, the preternatural stillness before the tornado, the glow on the margin of the horizon as the sun rises or sets with the turn of the earth. She is in every molecule of our bodies, in every grain of our spirits. We are breathing air that she once  inhaled and exhaled in her mortal state. She dreams clouds, showers in the rain. Her heart bursts, leaking joy, when we laugh. So laugh long and often. Our Lady has known enough sadness. you breathe miracles into being, Mary mine unloose the sacred A Virgin a Day Haiku My Heart

A Virgin a Day: Day Six

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"Our Lady of Perpetual Woes" - created on Polyvore/MeriMagic I call her "Our Lady of Perpetual Woes." I'm sure you know her. She's the friend, the colleague, the cousin who makes a career of complaining about all the things that are wrong in her life. She sees the cup as half full. . .  or less. Any attempts you make to help her alter her perspective are rebuffed. She doesn't want to make a shift. She is the shadow of Our Lady, the part of her that wanted to lie down and quit when her burdens felt crushing. Only, unlike the Divine Mother, Our Lady of Perpetual Woes  chooses to suck on lemons instead of making lemonade. Sometimes, the only way to keep their darkness from seeping into your aura is to minimize contact or cut ties all together. We can't mother the whole world. A Virgin a Day

A Virgin a Day: Day Five

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"Our Lady of Indigenous Peoples" created by MeriMagic on Polyvore When I think of Our Lady, I think of hope. Of compassion. Of miracles manifesting in unlikely places. Her image appears in many guises: on a grilled cheese sandwich, in colors of a plate glass window, Any place that people are moved  to look with their hearts. When I think of Mary, I think of all the indigenous peoples, converted to Catholicism by missionaries (and not always willingly), who found in the Divine Mother a source of comfort, a connection to the fertile earth, to birth and death, to the connective force that women represent. When I contemplate this image of Our Lady, I imagine her meditating. . . gathering strength to support all those who lean on her because she seems more approachable than God. I suspect that she is creating a blueprint in her mind of a world at peace, where there is enough for all, where Earth is cherished an

A Virgin a Day: Day Four

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"Our Lady of Fortune's Arrows"  So often,it seems like we're targets for fortune's arrows. Things happen that are outside our control, no matter how much we try to keep our lives  measured and fully predictable. Hurricanes roar ashore and wash away homes and all the ephemera  that makes up the collage of our lives. Lovers betray us and make us wonder how much of our relationship was mere fiction. Miscarriages, stillbirths, debilitating or even fatal illness, job losses or financial reversals, deaths of people we love. . .  we are not in control of  everything We can only choose  how we react to it. Will we, like the Holy Mother, look "what is" in the face and find the strength to move forward, perhaps with a heavy heart but full of resolve? Will we face down tyranny, abuse,  and ignorance with a heart of love  and the conviction that if not us, then who? Will we move throu

A Virgin a Day: Day Three

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"Visions of the Virgin" created on Polyvore - it won 1st place in the Collagists' Rollage contest.  She is portrayed as a willing vessel for the Christ child, a bearer of other children who stories seem to have been forgotten, a dutiful wife, a woman who somehow finds the strength to stand witness for her beloved son in his final hours and then to tend to his body in a burial ritual. She is the approachable face of God. The mother, the sister, the friend that we can converse with. The listening ear. A spark of the feminine divine whose role it is to balance the concept of a hierarchical, warlike, tribal god and bring balance to notions of the sacred. She is the sacred within. Our piece of the Divine Feminine. A Virgin a Day

A Virgin a Day: Day Two

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A contemporary, modern-art look at  Mary, Queen of Heaven. A Virgin a Day: Mornings with Mary

A Virgin a Day: Day One

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My dear friend Rebecca hosts a special collaborative event the first twelve days of December, culminating with the Feast of the Virgin on December 12. This year, I'm planning to focus on non-traditional,  self-created Virgins, as well as the more sedate, expected (expectant?) ones. I'll start on the conventional side and get more challenging from there. Please visit her site and enjoy all the collaborative posts.

Polyvore Personal:Wake Up

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My World Monday: Photo Shoot

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My son and daughter-in-law, their 4 year old, Daisy the dog, and the newest member of their family came to visit this weekend. Katie wanted some artsy photos of Oliver and she’d saved some poses she liked from Pinterest. Oliver slept pretty much through the whole ordeal. 

Weekend Reflection: Gondola

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For this Weekend Reflection , I give you a sliver of Venice. Thanks for visiting!

Theme Thursday: Together

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Theme Thursday ’s theme this week is together. That opens a lot of territory, but I threw a dart and here’s where it landed on my photography map. Chickens and eggs. Which brings me to turkeys (poor things. . . .) Give thanks you're not one of them on this American Holiday.