Just because

"... what is real but compassion as we move from birth to death ..."

(Greg Brown, lyrics from "Rexroth's Daughter")

*

"... So many things that we never will undo
I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too ...

... But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free
I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me ..."

(Bob Dylan, lyrics from "Mississippi")

*

"... Alive I awoke ..."

(Patti Smith, lyrics from "Dead to the World")

Meditation: My left mind is my right mind and my right mind is my left mind / On the Noble Eightfold Path is Right Mindfulness / And then there's the hummingbird by the river

 

(a Getty image)

To understand the hummingbird reference, read this:

The dreams and creativity of our young people / Rain has never been more welcome / Alive Alive-O / Against all odds / Three generations / "... the sapling was glowing."/ People Have The Power

"Children's Art Walk Children’s Art Walk is a cherished Bellingham tradition. This year even with everything we are currently enduring in the world we could not bring ourselves to call it off. We are excited to present our first-ever virtual Kid’s Art Walk tour. Once again we partnered with Cedar Tree and Samish Woods Montessori’s and had their 4th through 6th graders pick the most imaginative dream in their dream journals to inspire their creations. All of these works will be showcased on our website during May along with stories to describe their work. We found local and regional artists to pair up with each student and reinterpret their work in their own medium. In total this show features over 100 artists between the students and the working artists to create a dreamy and eclectic overview of work." (MAKE.SHIFT May Art Walk: Kids Art Walk - Beyond My Wildest Dreams)

Yesterday morning

This morning after the first debate

Nearly 50 years ago I bought a pair of glasses, inspired by John Lennon, and then never wore them but have kept them all these years.  A few weeks ago, I took them to my optician and asked if she could put new lenses in them.  I am wearing them now.  They help me to see well enough to draw

 (-:

(I lied about my weight.  I had an eating disorder.  120-125 pounds was my goal weight.   I actually weighed a "healthy" 135 pounds that I achieved by restrictive dieting and found impossible to maintain.  I was 5'7" tall, but my goal weight was based on thinking I was 5'6" tall and wanting to be at the lowest "healthy" weight possible.  I was bulimic and anorexic, binging and throwing up, constantly on a diet, obsessed with restricting my caloric intake and compulsively exercising from age 10 to age 37.  This 1971 photo was taken just before my life took a dark turn.  The 13 years that followed were a mostly a nightmare I thought would never end.  This month marks 33 years since I learned that it is possible to be free of compulsive overeating and endless dieting.  I am  within a few ounces of what is considered "overweight," but it is a truly healthy weight for my current 5'6" (loss of height due to normal aging).  I don't diet.  I don't worry about my weight anymore.  I don't have a scale in my home.  The only reason I know what I weigh is that I was weighed in a doctor's office a few weeks ago.  In my opinion, the charts for "normal weight" are inaccurate.  I would still be at a healthy weight for me if I were to gain 10 pounds.  In order to be at the low end of what is considered "healthy" for my height, I would have to starve myself.)

Patti loves Fred:

Thank you to beth coyote for posting this.  I can't resist posting it here, too.  Together, Patti and Fred wrote this beautiful song in 1988:

Tomorrow will be my 71st birthday.  Patti Smith will be 74 years old in December.  My only nephew will be 27 years old in January 2021.  My grandnephew will be 6 years old in May 2021.   

*

Ava Johnson 

She/her

Glowing Sapling

Inspired by Zander

Embroidery 

*

By Zander:

I was surrounded by vines, leaves, and trees.  The trees were beautiful:  Oak and maple, at least 200 years old.  But in the middle of the clearing was a tiny, tiny sapling and, strangely enough, the sapling was glowing.

*

People Have The Power

December Dream of Dublin / Alive-Alive O

When I woke up this morning, I realized that I had been dreaming that I was in Dublin.

"In Dublin's fair city ... Alive-Alive O!"

The crescent moon and Venus have been extraordinarily beautiful before dawn in the last few days.  The days have been cold and clear as can be.

Patti Smith and Joan Baez (a few days ago in Germany and in 2016 in Sweden)

What We Are Made Of / To Each One's Own, It's All Unknown / Dead To The World (Alive Alive-O)

News from our neighborhood:

Orca mother carrying her calf who died

Thich Nhat Hanh

When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made of entirely non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual existence. When we see the nature of inter-being, barriers between ourselves and others are dissolved, and peace, love, and understanding are possible. Whenever there is understanding, compassion is born.

Source: Living Buddha, Living Christ

(quote from Daily Dig, August 2, 2018)

Sulubika - Flute Ernie Provencher - Bass Noel Okimoto - Drums

If dogs run free, then why not we
Across the swooping plain?
My ears hear a symphony
Of two mules, trains and rain
The best is always yet to come
That's what they explain to me
Just do your thing, you'll be king
If dogs run free

If dogs run free, why not me
Across the swamp of time?
My mind weaves a symphony
And tapestry of rhyme
Oh, winds which rush my tale to thee
So it may flow and be
To each his own, it's all unknown
If dogs run free

If dogs run free, then what must be
Must be, and that is all
True love can make a blade of grass
Stand up straight and tall
In harmony with the cosmic sea
True love needs no company
It can cure the soul, it can make it whole
If dogs run free

(Bob Dylan, 1970)

... dead to the world alive I awoke alive I awoke alive alive I awoke alive I awoke alive I awoke alive I awoke I awoke alive I awoke alive alive-o alive alive-o

I'm still thinking about what robin andrea, wrote about her first eight years of life:

Another memory that I can never forget is the time a neighbor who lived in the apartment building above that candy store drew some crosses on the sidewalk. Being Jewish, I hadn't ever really seen or noticed such a thing before. I asked her what it was. She told me the story as best a seven-year old could tell a five-year old what a cross was and who Jesus was. I was devastated. I had to go home and lay down in bed. I had never heard such a thing in my life, someone nailed to a cross. It was then I realized that humans could be more horrible to each other than I had ever imagined. I never forgot.

And I remembered the worlds of an elderly Jewish woman friend of mine who remarked that, given some of the experiences during her lifetime, she didn't have to be a Christian to be moved by the story of the life and death of Jesus.

Alive Alive-O / Dead To The World, Alive I Awoke

Three Trees / Alive Alive-O/ First Love

Listen to this mystical song:



“No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”
(Albert Einstein)

WALK AT DAWN AT THE COASTSIDE

(1 hour and 15 minutes, 4:30 to 5:45 a.m., drawn using Appleworks6 "Painting" program, while listening to "Chants of India," which plays for approximately 1 hour and is a work of love by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, as well as listening for the last fifteen minutes to "Dead To The World, by Patti Smith)

(Click on drawing for better image)

"Of course you will say that I ought to be practical and try to paint the way they want me to paint. Well, I'll tell you a secret. I have tried and I have tried very hard, but I can't do it. I just can't do it! And that is why I'm just a little crazy." (Rembrandt Van Rijn 1606-69)

Imaginary Relationship (1984)

“The easiest kind of relationship is with ten thousand people, the hardest is with one.” (Joan Baez) 

This drawing may have originated from photographs of singer/songwriters, Patti Smith and Bob Dylan, but I can't say for sure because the result wasn't a likeness of either Patti Smith or Bob Dylan. Like Patti Smith and countless people from my generation, my creativity was sparked and sustained by listening to Bob Dylan. Joan Baez, who appeared and spoke about Bob Dylan in Martin Scorsese's film, "No Direction Home," said something to the effect that many people are not in any way moved by Bob Dylan's words and music, but those who are moved feel moved in a way that goes very very deep. 

All of my drawings in the current series were created using photographs as starting points. "Woman Listening," from a few days ago, was a composite of the singer/songwriter, Bob Dylan; the artist, Georgia O'Keeffe; and the writer, Alice Walker.I frequently used photographs of Bob Dylan as starting points for making images of women. It is interesting to me that a woman, Cate Blanchett, is playing the part of a young Bob Dylan in the new film, "I'm Not There," and that Joan Baez, dressed and made up to look like Bob Dylan, performed with Bob Dylan in 1976 during the Rolling Thunder tour. I had a dream once that Bob Dylan and Woody Allen were the same person.