Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

~ Vince Lombardi

I sleep with my feet on moss carpets, my branches in the cotton of the clouds.
~ Anais Nin

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all …

~ Emily Dickinson 

Although this blog from the Chicago Files, was posted June 26, the colors danced in me from my head to my toes! 

Come and check out Cher’s blog and see the colors for yourself!

Wordless Wednesday: Sunrise, Lake Michigan – What Do You Think About the Pink?

We all flow from one fountain.
~ John Muir

Tali Weinberg (b.1982) is an American artist based in Champaign, Illinois.Weinberg graduated from both New York University and California College of the Arts.Using sculpture, drawing, and textiles, Weinberg translates climate data into abstracted landscapes and waterscapes.Weinberg combines plant-derived fibers and dyes, petrochemical-derived medical materials, climate data, and abstracted landscape imagery to explore the inextricability of ecological and human health.With series’ names such as Heat Waves, Drainage Studies, Fault Lines, and Fractures and Fissures, Weinberg’s works draw out connections between extraction, rising temperatures, species loss, and the buildup of plastics in our bodies and ecosystems.

Her most recent research focuses on relationships between people and plants and the interconnections between circulatory systems inside and outside the human body—from lungs and arteries to forests and watersheds.

“I employ textile strategies to turn expired plastic medical waste into sculptures that allude to the more-than-human world…and I transform photos I took of trees in a fire-scarred landscape into woven, plant-plastic forms that allude to human anatomy,” the artist shares.“Together, these works trace relationships between extraction and illness, between personal and communal loss, and between corporeal and ecological bodies.”

More of Tali Weinberg’s thought provoking and creative textiles can be found at https://www.taliweinberg.com/.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?

~ Five Man Electrical Band

no….

Born under a bad sign
Been down since I began to crawl
If it wasn’t for bad luck
You know, I wouldn’t have no luck at all

~Albert King

nope….

Suspicious signs
Within your mind
Will make this jinx complete
And now you find
The end of times
When the black cat crossed your feet

~ Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday The 13th)”, Fozzy

who???

Had a strange experience the other day with my alarm clock. Thought maybe some of the above music lyrics would make sense of it all.

But they really don’t.

Going to bed the other night, my hubby looked at our little square alarm clock (that everyone has owned from the beginning of time) and said “Am I drunk? Look at the clock!” Since we both just had chocolate milk, I doubted that was the case. I turned around and looked at the clock on my headboard and it said:

18:88.

We hadn’t had a power outage lately, so I figured it was just stuck. Plugged into the wall, so it wasn’t dying batteries either.

Pushed the clock button. 18:88. Pushed more buttons. 999. Okay. A different button. 666. “Isn’t that the devil’s number?” I asked. No response. My last attempt produced a 999 backwards.

I unplugged the clock  and tossed it in the garbage.

Now. Wackier minds than mine might take those numbers as a “sign.” From whom I haven’t a clue.

But just as there is supposedly signs from the Goddess and God everywhere you look, signs are hard to interpret. Since all interpretation is in your head, it’s easy to make a sign say anything you want.

18:88 interpreted by the Five Man Electrical Band would tilt to the hippy version; long haired hippy freaks dancing to a psychedelic number in the sky. To Albert King, 18:88 is just another depressing number in a long line of depressing numbers. Paraskavedekatriaphobia (the fear of Friday the 13th) as sung by Fozzy (whomever he is) could lead to frozen moments of jinxes and black cats.

Signs can — and are — interpreted by everyone differently. If finding an upside down pineapple on your walk through through the woods means the end of the world to you, you might need to start preparing for it. If your find four peas in a two-pea pod, something big might be in your future. If you find a cardinal feather by your bird feeder your deceased friend may have  been by and left you a note.

You can also choose to see things as they are.

An upside down pineapple.

Four peas in a two-pea pod,

A Cardinal feather.

Don’t spend your life looking for signs to guide you. Note such anomalies, marvel at them, take what you can from them, and keep moving. The world doesn’t slow down just because you’re trying to interpret it’s quirks and droppings.

Sometimes weird numbers on a clock are just that. Weird numbers on a clock.

Getting ready for another running-around weekend — soccer, trap shooting, putting in an alarm system. I will never be one who says retirement is boring.

So to bring you into your own wild weekend, here are 10 cosmic questions for you to ponder at your leisure:

1.  Is what we perceive reality, or is it a construct of our imaginations?
2. Where does matter come from?
3. Are bad people important for the balance of the universe?
4. Why do feet stink and noses run?
5. Why do we call them buildings if buildings are already built?
6. Isn’t the word “queue” just the letter Q followed by four silent letters?
7. Who was the first teacher’s teacher?
8. Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
9. If you had fun while you were wasting time, does it still count as time wasted?

And the biggest, hardest question for last —

10.  Which came first, the fruit called “orange” or the color?

Have a great weekend!

Faeries are seen through the heart, not through the eyes. Remember that faeries inhabit the interior of the earth and the interior of all things, so look, in the first place, in the interior of yourself.
~ Brian Froud

I have to have a talk with Mother Nature. Her timing is atrocious.

Rain, threats of rain, and talk of rain did affect my craft show up north. It’s not the first time that I’ve taken on Mama and come out in second place. But to be honest it was nice being outside (be it under a canopy) for the day, making small talk to friendly craft show wanderers,  breaking even money-wise for my time.

It’s just that Mother Nature has bad timing.

Rain that day, sunny the next. Yesterday it rained all day, cancelling an 8-year-old’s baseball practice, today it’s sunny and cool and beautiful.

Her timing seems to reflect mine most of the time. I’m ready one day, out of sync the next. It’s like I’ve found energy too early or too late to really connect to the world.

The days I have a lot planned inside there’s plans being made for me outside. The days I really want to sleep in I have to get up early,  and the lazy mornings I could catch a few extra Zzzzs I’m wide awake. I have shown up for events on the wrong day and missed others by not checking the calendar.

I think as you get older your inner clock gets more and more out of sync.

How many times a day do you get sidetracked, waylaid, and misdirected without intention? I have to laugh — for me it’s more than I care to admit.

I might have to schedule a conversation with Mother Nature in the future to talk about our timing. Try and get on the same page. After all, she is beautiful and magnificent and not always in control, either.

I don’t really feel like talking to Time — he can stay in the future as long as possible.

He moves too fast, anyway.

Never was so much owed by so many to so few.

~ Winston Churchill

Kimika Hara is an Embroidery artist and illustrator from Kyoto, Japan.Hara’s style of needlework highlights the culture of Kawaii, a style that celebrates all things adorable and embraces fictional characters as the embodiment of positivity.The artist uses fabric, thread, acrylic paint, and beads to create colorful, free-stitch embroideries.Her designs embrace subjects such as dogs, flowers, and even insects, her color choices bringing light and depth to her Kawaiian figures.Her technique includes combining loose satin stitching embroidery with painted, appliqued, patched and corded pieces.A lot of work goes into each one of Hara’s embroideries, which can be seen on closer inspection.The themes are fun, cute, and something that makes you feel a little happy when you look at it.

You can find more of Kimika Hara’s delightful embroideries at  https://www.kimikahara.com// and https://kimikahara.blogspot.com/

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.

~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“A spider lives inside my head
Who weaves a strange and wondrous web
Of silken threads and silver strings
To catch all sorts of flying things,
Like crumbs of thoughts and bits of smiles
And specks of dried-up tears,
And dust of dreams that catch and cling
For years and years and years…”

― Shel Silverstein, Every Thing on It

To all the mothers of all shapes and sizes and relationships — YOU ROCK!