Will you draw me an atlas of the clouds?

These are inspired by my watching Cloud Atlas.  Rie Cramer is an artist from Holland during the Golden Age of fairytale who illustrated many of Grimm's stories. I am in awe this evening.  Blessings, mysteries, and light from Amy to you.

Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.

“Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow? Only Sonmi the east an' the west an' the compass an' the atlas, yay, only the atlas o' clouds.”

 

“Belief, like fear or love, is a force to be understood as we understand the theory of relativity and principals of uncertainty. Phenomena that determine the course of our lives. Yesterday, my life was headed in one direction. Today, it is headed in another. Yesterday, I believe I would never have done what I did today. These forces that often remake time and space, that can shape and alter who we
imagine ourselves to be, begin long before we are born and continue after we perish. Our lives and our choices, like quantum trajectories, are understood moment to moment. That each point of intersection, each encounter, suggest a new potential direction. Proposition, I have fallen in love with Luisa Rey. Is this possible? I just met her and yet, I feel like something important has happened to me.”

 

“…and there, in the background, the sky’s sediment had sunk to a place where all the woe of the words ‘I am’ dissolved into blue peace.
He said it, ‘The ocean.”’

These quotes above are from Cloud Atlas.

"I am in love with this life," she said.  "There are thousands of moments." (Quote by Amy Sperry Faldet)

What is beauty? Can we know?

"Some things will never change.  Some things will always be the same.  Lean down your ear upon the earth, and listen. 
The voice of forest water in the night, a woman's laughter in the dark,

the clean, hard rattle of raked gravel, the cricketing stitch of midday in hot meadows, the delicate web of children's voices in bright air---

these things

will

never change.

 

The glitter of sunlight on roughened water, the glory of the stars, the innocence of morning, the smell of the sea in harbors, the feathery blur  and smoky buddings of young boughs, and something there that comes and goes and never can be captured,

the thorn of spring,

 

the sharp and tongueless cry---

these

will always

be

the same.

All things belonging to the earth will never change--- the leaf, the blade, the flower, the wind that cries

and

sleeps

and

wakes

again,

 

the trees whose stiff arms clash and tremble in the dark, and the dust of lovers long since buried in the earth---

all things proceeding from the earth to seasons, all things that lapse and change and come again upon the earth--- these things will always be the same, for they come up from the earth that lasts forever.
                                                                                   Only the earth endures, but it endures
forever."
~Thomas Wolfe
Above I ask, "What is beauty?"
Some would say some of my photography is eerie, some might ask, "Why dying flowers?" or say, "What a scary cat!!!!"  Did you know she was just taking a luxurious yawn?  If you had seen her before and after you would have seen serenity?  What some see as daunting, scary, others can see the sublime.  I want the velvet dark to enfold me at times and I want the white of a lit room and a gasping tulip, to inspire me.  Both have beauty to me.

I turn into the night”

by Amy Sperry Faldet

 

 

I turn into the night like a velvet cloak/ behind a moonbeam that is the curtain of my reprieve./ I must disappear some for the day's senses are so crisp and clear and I need/ the embrace of solitude's solace./ There a lullaby's kiss is waiting.

Where others see the ruin of a thing, its deficiencies, I see its story, its value, even, its potential

without that being requisite.

The glitter of sunlight, diamonds on the water, will not show unless there is turbulence, a roughness that leaps above the norm.  To me that is art.

To me that is beauty.

These things I look for and find.

Embrace the light and dark

of

all.

Photos and drawings by Amy Sperry Faldet

 

 

I love the way a climb feels, slow, mounting, open to the possibility at the summit.  I never see this painting without thinking of falling, though, which I also adore.  It reminds me of a waterfall.  I see other things, of course, as well.  I am reading Georgia O'Keefe's love letters again to Alfred Stieglitz.  I find them mesmerizing like I get when climbing.  My Far Away One is a bit of divinity on a sunny day.  Love the climb and fall.

Every once in a while I check out gypsygirlsguide.com about a woman’s look at her creative spirit, her journey through life, and how it feels to leave old ideas for new.  In 2010, I read the words, “The Best Thing was to Simply Begin,” in Artful Blogging.  Those words are my morning mantra.  The best thing is to simply begin.  Just think of what could be. I feel those words when I step.  I feel them when I smile.  I feel them when I let the wind wind through my fingers as they burn a little from the snow I wanted to touch the moment before.  I have been asked so often, “How are you so happy?  People are not always kind, yet, you don’t mind.”  Depending on the person, how much they know about my past, what I can sense they really want to discuss, my answers vary.   It is perceived that I don’t mind.  That is not the case.  A favorite song comes to mind as they ask…  The Past, The Love, The Memory by A Skylit Drive… and then, I think, there are thousands of moments.  The Best Thing is to Simply Begin.  I do mind when people are unkind.  I do feel it.  Maybe not like others do I have noticed.  But, I feel it.  I know those of you who really know me, though, know I feel so many other things that sometimes when others are condescending or exclusive or mean, it registers very small.  They seem small and my reaction is barely noticeable. 

Can I tell you what the difference is for me?  By living each moment as a fresh experience, I put no pressure on the next one or a past one to make me feel happy.

Anyone familiar with Great Expectations will be able to visualize the horrible scene of the Wedding Feast.  It is rotten with disappointment.  I ask you, would you invite that feeling of decay, of waste, into your heart on purpose?

No?

Neither do I.

Living with disappointment, keeping and tending that, is decay.

The Best Thing is to Simply Begin…

Each day

Each breath

Each kiss

Each laugh

Each taste

Each feel

Each journey

Each moment

(Painting by Amy Sperry Faldet)

 

As if it is as fresh as a new love, a new book, a new perspective. It doesn’t mean I forget, in fact, those who know me know I can recall too much.  It is not that I don’t mind.  There are just too many things to experience to let those little prickers stay long in my heart.  Thousands of moments of possibility.

 

I don’t get to visit blogs like I would like right now, but, in January of 2012, Alessandra Cave from gypsygirlsguide.com wrote to her readers what would be your dream trip? 

Of course, since I have not yet travelled like I have hoped,

 it stirred the imagination. 

 

Of course, I would love to visit the Bibliotheque designed by Henri Labouste in Paris. 

 

I would love to have a Pip picnic in some dappled corner of Amsterdam.

 

 

An ice cream in Brugge would be ideal. 

Reading next to a waterfall in Wales is a wish.

Taking a nap in the woods on a crisp early Summer afternoon.

 

Or find where Walt Kuhn painted this...

 

 

I know if these things happen, (sigh,) they would be experiences to cherish. 

I think about them all the time.  Yet, this is one thing that I must tell you.  Artists like my friends and those like Alessandra Cave remind me (emphasis on the re-mind) that the most beautiful places can be within. 

 

Others have no place there if you wish.  Let in only those that smile easily, understand you, love you, call you, friend.

See the places of your heart that are light and true, live there every moment that you can and those who are small and hard like little pebbles will have no choice but to roll right back out.   They are ineffective as irritants, then. Do you see?  Let them roll away.  They don't belong in your heart and home.  After they try to steal your light or trample your heart, just move to the next moment for the best thing is to simply begin... again.

(Painting by Amy Sperry Faldet)

 

 

There's Nothing that I Need to Say...

 

Send me back, the feeling's reached the core
Ocean waves sound more like whispers from the shore

See my eyes look back again once before
See my eyes look back again once before

There is ?
There's nothing that I need to say

See my eyes look back again once before
See my eyes look back again once before
Once before

See my eyes look back again once before
See my eyes look back again once before
See my eyes look back again once before
(Once before)
See my eyes look back again once before

Feeling in the core
Feeling in the

Feeling in the core
Feeling's in the core

“When the Feeling’s in the Core”

By Tame Impala

My heart is like the Ocean
as it feverishly yearns for land
a quest for true emotion
held in an embracing hand.
My heart is like the Ocean
At times calm and in tranquility.
Then magnetic with compulsion
Pulled towards its polarity.
My heart is like the Ocean
At the will of a higher power
For love cannot be chosen
But destined as bee to flower
My heart is like the ocean
Obdurate in its devotion.

"My Heart is Like the Ocean"

Wade Harlaine

 

Where does a wave begin?

Is there a requisite pull?

Yes. Yes. I know.

Moon caresses

from the lull.

Luminescent

defined

from the heart.

Luminescence is emission of light by a substance not resulting from heat; it is thus a form of cold body radiation. It can be caused by chemical reactions, electrical energy, subatomic motions, or stress on a crystal.

Light

fills the core

I send it out

in

waves

like

a

song

to

be

heard by those that whisper.

Poetry from my core by Amy

 

 

Winter pie recipe (plus, a twist)

I love winter vegetables! Getting Vitamin C is hard at this time.  Most people don't use turnips or parsnips because they think they are bitter.  This will change your mind forever.  I am a vegetarian, so this is a super healthy comfort food for the cold days of the season. 
I originally made this mix only for a crusty, delicious pie or to put into crescent rolls, but, if you do all this and THEN, also add bread crumbs and some flour like you would to create a meatloaf you could eat these like a burger pattie on a toasted bun or warm, fresh croissant!
Blogger is not letting me load these pics, sooooooo here it is without visuals!!!! sad.

Sautee mushrooms in butter and olive oil, seasoning salt, and garlic.
Peel and cut a turnip, parsnip, carrot, just cut two small red potatoes
Put in large stock pot with vegetable stock (1 can)
Add 1 yellow onion cut in chunks (sm./med.)
Boil 20 min. or until it looks fairly boiled down, but not total mash.
If you want patties and not the mash-like stuff for the pie crust, now is when you add about 1/2 c. or less of the fine bread crumbs and a few pinches of flour, until the consistency of meat.
Add sauteed mushrooms (don't wash skillet if you want to use it for patties, just add more butter to cook them up later).
Put it all in the blender or food processor.  Don't make paste out of it, please.
Add to pie crusts 
For patties,
cook in hot skillet at first to get that golden crisp on some of it and then, lower heat until feels firm, flipping once.
Hope you enjoy!

Simple Abundance and a New Year!

“Her eye, her ear, were tuning forks, burning glasses, which caught the minutest refraction or echo of a thought or feeling… She heard a deeper vibration…” ~Willa Cather

 

This year...

 

Less fear...

 

This year...

 

 

 

Love is always near...

 Count only kindnesses and those things we hold dear...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Ban Breathnach's

Simple Abundance

 

 

Painting and photos by Amy Sperry Faldet

Thank-you Catherine for your light!