Happy Halloween!!!

Today, Ross carved his jack-o'-lantern mostly by himself.







Didn't it turn out great?

Trick-or-treating is coming up soon . . . and Chris is currently creating his costume. Stay tuned for more!

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween!

A moment of autumn

Windy flowers

It wasn't swine flu.

But it was a virus, some sort of crud, that gave Ross and me a fever for a few days. I slept a lot, but I did manage to do a little hand-stitching, as well. Ross was (annoyingly) perky, but running a 100-degree temperature -- go figure. By the weekend, we were both doing much better.

I'd been feeling very out of touch with the natural world, so on our windy Sunday afternoon, I grabbed the camera and took a little walk. The flowers were waving around madly and the light was getting dim, but I clicked away, anyway. (Sharp focus can be overrated.) I tossed out most of what I shot, but I thought I'd share these, in honor of this October Monday.

Hello world

I'm out here, sort of. Trying to keep in touch with folks as I've plunged into this new job has been a challenge. Doing any sort of artwork has been a huge challenge. I embroider for a few minutes when I'm waiting to pick up Ross from school, but that's been about it.

And now, poor Ross is sick. I think it's swine flu. He's trying to nap at the moment, if his fever and stuffy nose will let him. My busyness may have to halt.

If I get sick, I wonder if I can crochet while lying down . . .

Newness, part two

Lots of newness around here. Our new cats are getting used to their new surroundings.



Ross and Chris are settling into their new school years. And I have opened the floodgates to new in my life. Exhibit A: a new job! I've been teaching classes for the city's park & rec. department for a couple years, but I haven't had a steady job since a couple of years before Ross was born. Out of the blue, I was asked if I would become the communications coordinator for my church. It's a part-time affair; the largest responsibility is creating the weekly bulletins and the monthly newsletter. It didn't take me long to say yes.

Exhibit B: I have begun to play a new instrument: the shakuhachi.



The shakuhachi is a traditional bamboo flute, invented by the Chinese and perfected by the Japanese. It is used as a Zen meditation instrument, and is often featured in traditional Japanese music. You've heard it in nontraditional places, as well -- the flute heard in Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer" is a synethesized shakuhachi.

I stumbled upon a local group of shakuhachi students, and they have very kindly allowed me to join their group. One has lent me a shakuhachi to play.



This is a notoriously difficult instrument. It takes a long time to learn to get a sound out of it! I played clarinet and saxophone as a kid; I find it very humbling to pick up a woodwind and not be able to get a note from it. Frustrating, too. It takes me back to when I was learning clarinet when I was eleven, and it seemed as if everything I played sounded awful.



But the frustration gives way to laughter. I can laugh at my lofty expectations, and smile at the way the shakuhachi puts me back to square one. I can eke out a few notes, and they sound terribly flat. But I'm thrilled to get any sound out of it at all. I have to be conscious of posture, breath, mouth position, everything, in order to make a lovely note. It is good practice in staying in the moment, being in the Now. No wonder the Zen monks used it for meditation.

Newness

Lots going on these days -- lots of newness that I've plunged into. It's been a shock to the system, like jumping into the North Atlantic on Memorial Day. Gasping at the icy water as it hits my body, I will be catching my breath for a while. I feel excited, yet part of me wonders what I've gone and done. Fear makes me want to look back, maybe turn around, yet I know there is no taking things back. I'm keepin' on, keepin' on.

Some news I can't share just yet, but it will arrive soon.

For tonight, I'd like to salute you, wherever you are:



Namaste.