Saturday, October 22, 2011

More Tree Love

It's the high season of tree love for me, so I thought I'd belatedly share some pages from a fantastic Tree Journal workshop I participated in this summer with Orly Avineri, a wonderful artist, teacher and friend whom I love deeply.
















Also, this beautiful poem:


WOODS
I wish to grow dumber,
to slip deep into woods that grow blinder
with each step I take,
until the fingers let go of their numbers
and the hands are finally ignorant as paws. 
Unable to count the petals,
I will not know who loves me,
who loves me not.
Nothing to remember, 
nothing to forgive, 
I will stumble into the juice of the berry, the shag of bark,
I will be dense and happy as fur. 
-Noelle Oxenhandler


Thursday, October 13, 2011

On my birthday


On this, my birthday, I celebrate the cycles of life. Like the concentric circles on a tree, my aging creates a pattern unique to me, a mosaic of lines, pictures, patterns, words, people, places, memories. I am happy to be alive and healthy, awake and present to the swirl of life in me and around me, blessed with a roof over my head, tall old trees all around me, people and animals I love, art and writing that inspires me, study and learning that feeds me. I am alive and here today with all my heart, and I am grateful.