the dream catcher

marilyn

Our dear friend Marilyn made her departure from this earth during the amazing lightening storm we had the other night.

That's what I would like to think anyway.

While she wasn't a flashy person, somehow I think she would have wanted to leave with some excitement, sound, light, movement and lots of great energy!  Now that was her style.

She was a paper making instructor extra-ordinare, a mentor and a friend. The truth is she was more than these things to so many people, that words fail under such frail drecirptions.

Her powerhouse energy, globetrotting life, lighthearted paper making mania, walking the planet legs, early rising queen-of-the-day and artful presence in everyway, will be missed by more than most auditoriums can hold.

I am grateful that Marilyn and Pam's "treewhispers""treewhispers" creation will live on in her memory, and that so many folks from around the world got to see the beauty of it first hand during the recent international calligraphy conference. As a matter of fact, I believe that Pam installed the show on Marilyn's bday.

Perhaps this too, was secretly orchestrated by Marilyn and all of her powerful vibes.

I hope she knew, or could somehow feel the energy, of how much it moved all who experienced the installation.

Thank you Marilyn Sward. For sharing your life. For sharing your time. For sharing your talents and energy with so many of us during this short trip together, called life.
We are forever blessed.

peace.
linda

believe

sometimes it's about praying and believing with all your heart that those prayers are heard.
if you are reading this please send some prayers out to jessie,
she could use every sweet prayer,
every quiet prayer,
every big prayer,
even just a little one,
or a rambling one,
we'll even take a rushed prayer,
but best of all would be your thoughtful prayer...
please, any you can offer up.

and then just believe in the prayers power.
thank you.
linda

saying goodbye

it is hard for me to believe that it has been one month (just one day before celebrating her 43rd Anniversary to uncle Bob) since my Auntie passed away.

i can feel her spirit so present in the holidays. she loved a party.
loved being social, actually i think she may have even invented
her own version of
socialbility.

god i miss her.

she is on my mind and i thought perhaps i'd share my thoughts from the chapel that day we had to say goodbye.

In Honor of Aunt Joanie
March 5, 1934 - November 5, 2007

The other night at the funeral home when asked by the deacon if we had anything to say about Auntie, I couldn’t gather the nerve or the composure to add my comments about our Auntie. But today, here at the Chapel, I was hoping to share some thoughts about Aunt Joanie – she deserves that from us.

The gift of a story, of a laugh, of a quote or a word of encouragement was something she was never short on delivering to any of us. So indeed today, of all days, it would be nice to extol her gifts for just a few minutes…she’s earned that place in all our hearts.

While my comments, my accolades, may be spoken by me here, they are the voice of each of us. For haven’t we all seen or felt her gift of gab melt away a bad day. Her baked goods arriving as a needed “hello,” or “congratulations”, or an “I’m thinking of you gesture” she did them all…but certainly those baked goods were a sure way to make a stranger into a new friend for life. She had a way around the kitchen our Auntie.

Couldn’t each of us 24 cousins remember movie nights with Uncle Bob and Aunt Joanie, in our pj’s, big bowls of buttered popcorn, Herbie the Love Bug, old black & white home movies, Mary Poppins. Or trips to Marshall Fields, or a cruise zig-zagging from side to side across a deserted street in her Red Camero – that never failed to get a giggle from us in the back seat!

Pizza – P I Z Z A ! need I say more?

These are memories we have tucked away forever. They are there for each of us to call upon, as we need to – too help bring a smile to our face – or a lump to our throat. She will be with us whenever we need her – just as she was when she was here.

Because of her today there are families celebrating in homes she found them, there are couples celebrating married life and children, her work as a Yenta was never done. Perhaps now, as Katie, Maribeth and I have talked about…maybe we’ll have better luck now that Auntie is in cahoots with Grandpa & Grandma.

But in the end, what she never failed to deliver with every baked good, with every family gathering, with every birthday, every visit, or every photo she took…
Was a huge helping of LOVE.

She was never stingy with her Love.

We were truly blessed with the abundance of that...

I pray that feeling of Love; her love surrounds each of us, but especially Uncle Bob everyday. For She loved nothing more than taking care of us.

We will miss her more than words can say.

Written with love –
by her Godchild and niece
Linda Barrett

investigating the everyday

sometimes i think i would make a great detective.

as a matter of fact, i have even put this on my list of other life career choices.
you know that game you play with people when you're wanting to learn more about each other?
where you ask each other "what would you be if you weren't a...?"
for me, my present career was one of those answers..." a bookbinder."
but, as time passes i think it's good practice to add a few new identities to the list...
so hmmm...
a detective, would be one of those added answers.

i happen to love investinging the little things around me;
one such opportunity to explore visually came with a short trip
to lakeside, michigan. i went to share the weekend with two friends and colleagues
who got married at a cozy inn.

not only was the setting beautiful, but experiencing the loving vows they exchanged
was the perfect antidote to a few stressful months of retail pressure.

every detective needs a new local to provide the mystery of experiencing everyday wonders
in a whole new light.

here are a few of the visual clues a new place brought me...
more acurately how the surroundings created a new way of "seeing" the everyday around me.

a stray leaf hidden under wet sand.

the color of fallen leaves layered along wet earth and stones on the perfect well worn path.

the way sand gathers at the shore in amazing layers.

tall swaying beach grasses growing along the inner shore, resembling soft flowing hair.

the color red standing out on an overcast day.

it's not so much that they led me to a solve a mystery, it was the searching out of the visual clues which made the seeing a thrill.

such earthy investigation.

the next time you take a short or long trip- away from home-

see if you can find those not so hidden
threads of little ordinary things around you...

they might just lead you back to your true self,
and what a wonderful mystery to solve.

happy investigating!

from the sleuth of little things,
linda

a second chance

thinking about our own headlines here at home.
my aunt was in icu, teetering on making her own departure from this world into the next.
so glad she came back to our side.
back to us.

watching the gripping breaths of those you love can feel like a lifetime.
wondering if stroking their hot forehead is more soothing for you than them.
cherishing their waking glance.
their wonderful smile.
the lilt of a laugh that could send you to utopia in an instance.
praying for the second chance to say 'I love you"
relishing the glide of your fingers over theirs and the tiny grip that says "i'm so grateful for you..."
all without words.

thank you grandpa & grandma for sending auntie back for awhile.
i could almost feel you both in the room.

blessed.
linda

magic clouds

at about the age of four, i got to take my first plane ride.
i can still remember sitting on my grandfather's lap looking out the window of a plane and believing in my perfect childhood innocence that clouds looked able to hold people.
they were magic, fairy-like, dreamy. i mean...just look at them!

this romantic view of clouds never left me and throughout my childhood i used to fantasize about walking on clouds.
laying on clouds, floating anywhere my little freckle faced head could dream up wanting to go, like a magic carpet, clouds were my vehicle for traveling the realm of my imagination.
my bare-feet gently but steadily hopping back and forth from pillow to pillow of white godly creations.

to be honest, i don't know that i've ever mentioned it out loud before, so i don't know if this is a common dream.
but it wouldn't surprise me. to this day those cumulus and nimbus balloon creations called clouds - still baffle and amaze me.

having a photographic background, they are the thing that gives proportion to those wide open spaces in the heavens.
making the unfathomable reach of sky become manageable, interesting and dimensional in a way that solid perfect blue skies can't compare.

those billowing white puffs actually changing and growing before your very eyes, truly are a thing of magic, beyond even a scientific understanding.
doing what they want whenever they choose...no controlling them.
tiny droplets of water buddied up with another trillion other droplets just floating on...what exactly?
really...how does air actually keep all those droplets afloat?

like i said, a thing of magic.

the indians had it right, such beauty, power and grace is worth dancing for! and certainly worth painting, photographing and laying on a cool lawn making them into the things you dream of walking on.

see you on a cloud sometime soon,
linda

be a sunflower...

i so love being bathed with sunlight.

the heat beating done, making me heavy with the weight of seeds and oil.

birds, butterflies, bees, they all find me tantilizing, oh the joy of it all,
being the center attention.

the sun singing with her rays pushing energy through my petals,

delighting in my own ambient glow that eminiates the perfect shade of yellow.

summer is my home.

my weathery, hairy, waxy stem amazes all by supporting my shy drouping head,

although, i am protected from the heat by a ruffled collar of perfect green.

i wish everyone could see what i see from up hear above the vegetables and dirt...

because it is so wonderful to be a sunflower!

natalie goldberg, author of "writing down the bones"
offers some great advice to any writer...
"Forget youself. Disappear into everything you look at--a street, a glass of water,
a cornfield. Everything you feel, become totally that feeling, burn all of yourself with it."
i've had my copy since 1986 and it still delivers information for awakening my senses to writing
again, and again.

go ahead...be anything you want to be this summer?

signed,
the sunflower

some days are intended to be LaZy daze!

it was foggy at 520am when i landed at ohare this morning.
by 630am i had arrived home to walk my squiggley dog, by then it was a perfect sunrise calm with a warm breeze.
by 930am the heavens were considering rain, while i considered a nap
by 1130am indeed the weather had made up its mind to rain...a soft gentle but consistent rain...and i had easily committed to a nap!
by 130pm rain was replaced by a bold sun, warm, bright, inviting, without a drop of rain in sight. i made my way onto the deck for a good sit in my comfy wicker chairs.
i fought off napping, by eating a peanut buter n jelly samich! ahhh life is good.
by 230pm wrigley my dog, begged for another walk...i agreed and inhaled the sweet smell of damp grass.
by 430pm dark clouds moved in again, rumbles and grumbles of thunder pulsed overhead..then the rain revisited...this time hard and dense.

seems a good time to say, welcome June...it is afterall the perfect LaZy Day.

or is it a weary "red-eye" travelers DaZe?

landed, but perhaps as confused as the weather is today.
enjoying the randomness of it all.
linda

Sweet Olivia

remembering the stories of fairies we shared...the kind little girls believe in...the kind i told her i believed in...we became fast friends. forever. the physical world is more hollow with out your smile, your breathtaking face, your girlie secrets and childlike giggle, your charm and intelligence beyond years, your understanding of GOD, which always left us speechless.
your beautiful soul- energy vibrates all around me- everyday.
francie-b paws at your presence even still.
oh how i miss you sweet olivia.
with love, such love,
always, my angel...linda

remembering cody dawg

there is something wonderful about the way animals can both give and receive love freely.
i must admit over the course of my life i have become less open, perhaps less generous, and i know i have my doubts about unconditional love.
i have become guarded with my expressions of self, love and what i hope for from life.
i feel somewhat weary of people, wondering what it is that keeps them beside me or sends them running.

but animals show me the best view of openness, play, generosity, and true relaxation.
in particular a few fine dogs have provided me ample illustrations of unconditional love.
they wag their tails when their happy, they sleep when tired, they play when they meet other dogs and delight in the attention and affection we give them.
no wondering, no language, no long explanations. they seem to be able to say exactly what they need in the most direct ways possible.
i hope to learn as much before i die.
in all regards, cody was one fine animal. smart, gentle, playful, loving and relaxed.
she showed patience towards wrilgley's rambutios puppy nature and her never-ending energy.

wrigley had a fine mentor.

it is never easy to say goodbye to a living being. pets are no exception. cody left us in the nite and i hope she finds her little paws in a better place. a friend promises me there is a dawg paradise!
for me, i will keep the memory of her spirit nestled deep in my heart - helping to remind me to stay open, be patient, play often, sleep hard and remember that unconditional love is possible.

wrigley will miss her. the boys; josh, trevor, & bob will miss her. lisa and marty will miss her. i will miss her.
we loved that codydawg.

linda