thelmasmith

The Mothers – No More Tears

Make some time and take some time to watch this YouTube introduction to a film in progress. The complete documentary will be called A Trail of Thread.

The haunting music in the film clip is called Water in the Desert.

I live in the Sonoran Desert. I know many of the immigrants. I learned long ago that I cared little what language was spoken as I saw good people who worked hard for a living and loved and disciplined their children.

Maybe I’ll be a better role model about posting to blogs on a regular basis. I’m off to a week long birthday party. House sitters and puddy tat caregivers and mail collectors have all been arranged. My house will be more inhabited than when I’m at home.

I’m taking my camera and my laptop. Here’s hoping that I remember to take photos of the interesting things I see.

Last week I missed an albizia tree in full bloom. It was in a truckstop of all places. It’s a tree that grows happily in both the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. Here’s an image borrowed from Google to show you what I missed.

I’m off on a red eye flight this evening, cheap woman that I am. I like to leave some pocket money. If I find a nice gallery or a used book store I really need to be prepared.

Remember, the other week I told you that I had read Art Is a Way of Knowing? It was particularly challenging for me. The minute I was done I took Women Who Run With the Wolves off the shelf.

I have finished reading the book by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D. The hotlink will take you to one of the 225,000 Google references on Dr. Estés. The book was originally published in 1992. The image and copyright quotes used here are under the fair use for educational purposes clause of the copyright law. I encourage you to find a used copy of the book.

Remember the day I posted about Baba Yaga? She is probably the most pantheistic archetype spoken about in this book. I guess I know her because she is someone I know. It’s not a typo; just a contradiction in terms. Here are some of the quotations that have been important enough for me to note inside the fly cover.

“It is true, I will not lie to you; it is easier to throw away the light and go to sleep. It is true, It is hard to hold the skull-light out before us sometimes. For with it, we see all sides of ourselves and others, both the disfigured and the divine and all conditions in between.”

“. . . . we throw a burst of fire into the darkness of psyche so we can see what we’re doing . . . what we’re truly doing, not what we wish to think we’re doing.”

“Ignorance s not knowing anything and being attracted to the good. Innocence if knowing everything, and still being attracted to the good.”

“Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.”  © Bruce Mau Design

I’ve finally finished reading Art is a Way of Knowing by Pat B. Allen. It was published in and copyright 1995 by Shambhala Publications. IBSN 1-57062-078-4 No doubt you can find it second hand.  The cover image is provided here under the fair use for education clause of the copyright law.

It is a book for reading but more importantly I find that it is a book that should be a book for doing.  It is in five parts.  The first three parts are  designed for you to  actually do the exercises as you read.   I found them very challenging.  That probably comes from growing up in a very non standard family.

I will be reading it a second time.  However at the end of the first reading it has prompted me to take the first edition of Women Who Run With the Wolves off the bookshelf.  I find, looking just inside the end papers that my penciled notes stop at page 152.  I think this time I ought to read the whole book.  Fifteen years is enough seasoning.  It’s time.