Better than soap!

I sit alone in a room with an instrument and fill the space with the sound of myself. My efforts, my fumbling, my history, my hopes manifest in a wading pool of sound.  I make music with others and our sounds mingle and interact, crash together and combine to become an ocean of sound that we float in together.  

Researchers say that when we sleep our brain is bathed in a special rejunvenating fluid.  I am certain that when we make music our beings are bathed in special revitalizing sound waves.  The song ends, the living water rushes out of the room and we are left  feeling freshly bathed, pleasantly vulnerable, and eager for the next wave of sound.

When I am Queen

When I am Queen I will wear ridiculous beautiful hats to all public events.  I will invite people to add bits and pieces to my hats if they feel so inspired.

When I am Queen I will read every letter people write to me and then I will fold all the letters into peace cranes and hang them from the light posts of the world. 

When I am Queen I will ask strangers for dinner on thursdays and again on sundays if its a good week.

When I am Queen I will shine on everyone, unless I am feeling introverted, in which case I will stay at home and work in my studio. 

When I am Queen I will practice asking questions and listening to the answers. 

When I am Queen I will prepare fanciful tasty snacks for my daughters and stick love notes in their lunch boxes. 

When I am Queen I will lay awake at night dreaming up things to say that will make people laugh.  Actually, I will spend all of my mondays coming up with funny stuff.  Laughter is powerful medicine!

Meet pigeon

Pigeon is NOT a stellar shopper.  She tends to get distracted by all the packaging and she doesn't much care for that NEW smell.  She is out hunting for a small gift for a friend.  One labrynthine store isle leads to another and now she finds herself deep in the gag gift section at Hirons.  Pigeon is convinced she cannot live without the ice tray that freezes little anatomically correct hearts.  She's gone and eaten an entire tin of pickle bandaids (she couldn't help herself), and she's somehow left her car keys inside one of the many fanny packs she tried on earlier.  All is not lost!  Pigeon is settled on a Freida Cahlo magnet set for her friend, and since it is a clear cool November afternoon out there, she will walk home.  Pigeon is also NOT a stellar flyer.

Things that make me go mmmm!

This morning on the walk to school, my youngest was providing me with a list of things that make her feel happy.  When our dog curls up exactly in the middle of his pillow, watching someone throw a pot on a wheel, when the condiments in the fridge door happen to line up according to height...  The list goes on, but each of her ideas came at me as a small sparkling epiphany.  I feel joy for those mundane and random bits of eye candy too!  I love staring at rows of things.  I love collections and patterns.  Order in the chaos, math out of madness, an over developed sense of aesthetics, call it what you will,  I love sharing tendencies with my children.

Like a chicken with it's head cut off...

Despite the graphic imagery of this expression, or perhaps because of it, I find this idiom really relatable.  With to much on my plate I tend to run in aimless frantic circles and engage in small unsatisfying fragments of larger tasks.  My thoughts blur into senseless strings of words, shrill mantras that sing at me through the day and awaken me at 2 am.  It takes purposeful stern self guidance, me holding my own hand and patting myself repeatedly on my own shoulder to sew my head back on and focus on my feet.  I struggle to take small deliberate steps with my eyes on a distant horizon instead of the whirling minutiae I am wading through.

buddha's shoes

In Kamakura we a visited a great bronze Buddha (Daibutsu in Japan) nearly 14 meters tall.  The Buddha was built in 1252.  He was originally constructed inside a temple but the wooden structure was washed away in a tsunami, leaving Buddha out in the elements.  The size of the statue is astounding.  The age of this massive artwork was unfathomable.  It was one of the most beautiful human made things I think I've ever seen, but what made me cry and laugh and feel a little connected to the ancient giant figure were the gigantic pair of woven sandals waiting for him in the small building to his left.  When no one is looking I imagine he slips them on to stroll the hills behind him.

manholes across japan

Japan was awash in tiny detail work that seemed solely directed at beautifying spaces.  Curved and decorated roof lines, hanging lanterns and flags void of advertisement, patiently sculpted trees, elaborate public signage, and (my personal favorite) gorgeous manhole covers.  Here are a few beauties.