Tag: in her own language (Page 7 of 16)

107

October 5, 2012 / JeanneHC / 1 Comment

First, she draws:

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Then I stitch:

107b

If you like stories, take a few minutes to trot over here and help yourself. We’re at the storytelling festival this weekend. I bought myself a thimble for this year’s souvenir – an old, well-used, dented, and tarnished thimble. Seems about right.

Thimble2

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She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And pssst: there’s a pinterest board, too.

106

October 4, 2012 / JeanneHC / 1 Comment

She draws:

Then I stitch:

106b

It’s tired out tonight. Will be sitting, stitching, strolling, and storying the next 3 days. Stay tuned . . .

~~~~~~~~~

Nancy is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

101, Envoy: Laura Fincher

October 3, 2012 / JeanneHC / 0 Comments

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Today’s Envoy is Laura Fincher.

101laurafincher

Laura says:

Reminds me of grandmother’s hat. She never went out without it. I still have the hat, though it’s a little crushed now. This drawing also reminded me of a circle in a circle and how life is a circle and we are running around in one.

——-

I met Laura when our children were in third grade. I was elected to some PTO office, and I “convinced” her that she wanted to serve, too. Thank goodness she’s never held that against me and continues to love me anyway. Laura met Nancy once . . . Many years ago, I brought Nancy home for a visit, and I took her over to Laura’s house for lunch. As we got to the door, I remembered that I’d completely forgotten to cue Laura about how proud Nancy is of her “pretty red hair.” Not to worry, though. We knocked, Laura opened the door, and as Nancy crossed the threshold, Laura hugged her and said “What pretty red hair you have.” Well, don’t you know that from that point on, Nancy didn’t have another thing to do with me. For the rest of her visit, she was glued to Laura’s side.

I also find it interesting and endearing that Laura photographed the so-called wrong side of the cloth. The side showing the uneven, imperfect stitching and the knots. (Yes, I use knots.) I used very thin cloth in this project because it seems fragile and ephemeral and near-transparent, just like Nancy. And like Nancy, the inside – the so-called wrong side – is just as unapologetically visible as the so-called right side. Whether intentional or not, I’m quite touched and not a bit surprised that Laura did that, given the sensitive, intuitive, wise woman she is.

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94, Envoy: Margaret Gillaspie

October 2, 2012 / JeanneHC / 0 Comments

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Today’s Envoy is Margaret Gillaspie.

94a

Margaret writes:

On the day I received “Nancy’s Magic Bird” we had been on I-95 and were surprised to see a beautiful American Bald Eagle fly across the road just in front of us. Could this drawing be responsible for our sighting of the beautiful Bald Eagle?

Later that same week, while sitting on my deck in the evening watching the birds at the bird feeder, there was a loud rustling in the trees. I was startled to see an owl perched in the tree . . . Nancy’s magic again? I think it must have been.

Thank you Nancy, for sending your magic my way. Thank you Jeanne, for sharing.

——-

I first met Margaret at a Toastmaster’s meeting when she regaled me (and everybody else) with one of her speeches. We became fast friends, the kind of friends who can see each other once or twice a year and still feel close, picking up right where we left off the last time we saw each other. Once a realtor – our realtor, to be more specific – she’s now retired and enjoying her adorable grandsons, sharing the most entertaining little ditties about them on Facebook. Go on, click the link and become friends with her so you can enjoy her day brighteners, too.

~~~~~~~~~

105

October 1, 2012 / JeanneHC / 0 Comments

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105a

Did you ever feel the need to deconstruct something?

Skirt

To tear it apart?
I had that urge today,
so I ripped up this skirt
I bought in a thrift store a while back.
Bought it cause I liked the fabric.

Fog2

As I snip and rip and pluck,
the fog recedes

Leaves

and as though taking a cue from the leaves as they begin to turn,
my imagination begins to turn
to display ideas for this project.

Hangers

Which necessitates another trip to a nearby thrift shop for materials.

Of course.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

104

September 30, 2012 / JeanneHC / 4 Comments

104a

The poet Rumi was born on 30 Sept 1207, which would make today his 800th birthday. I was first introduced to his moving, resonant poetry several years ago when a book of his poetry leapt off the bookshelf into my arms while visiting my son in Los Angeles. Hard to choose my favorite Rumi poem, but this one seems to fit today:

Be with those who help your being.
Don’t sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.
Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.
A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don’t try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it’s too late for all you could become.
Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

Ode 2865 Trans. Coleman Barks

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Color1

Color3

Color4

Ferns

Soon enough, they’ll start cutting these:

Christmastrees2

~~~~~~~~~

95

September 29, 2012 / JeanneHC / 3 Comments

We’re skipping through the numbers now,
straying off the chronological path
as Envoy packets begin to wing their way back to me.
Today, signatures of fall
and signatures of Nancy.
Together.

95c

95a

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93

September 28, 2012 / JeanneHC / 0 Comments

The practical part of me just loves the portability of this project. I carry around cloth and needles and thread in my pocketbook so I can stitch anywhere anytime. This morning I stitched through breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants: Shamrock Kitchen in Tyrone, GA. Let me tell you something: the people who work at Shamrock score high in the nourishment factor. And I’m not just talking about food. “What are you doing?” Mindy asked me. I told her about Nancy, her drawings, and my stitchings. Somebody else happened by and said this particular drawing looked like a pitcher. A fella sitting close by said it looked like a metal bar and a baseball cap.

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93a

#93 is held by Mindy and Mike, two of Shamrock’s finest.

~~~~~~~~~

92

September 27, 2012 / JeanneHC / 13 Comments

She draws:

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Then I stitch:

92a

Boris Pasternak says:
When a great moment knocks
on the door of your life,
it is often no louder
than the beating of your heart,
and it is very easy to miss it.

Thank goodness I was home,
was listening,
when the idea for this project
came knocking on my heart.
I knew it as a great moment
by the quickening.

~~~~~~~~~

91

September 26, 2012 / JeanneHC / 0 Comments

The collaboration: the drawing, then the stitching:

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91b

——-

Things are chaotic. Life things, I mean. Creativity and humor are where I turn in any time of distress or confusion. They are my stays, my lavender, my therapy. First I needed to bring things together, disparate things, and so I ripped pieces of fabric and wove them together to form something new.

Ribbonrunsthrough3

Then I needed the calming effect of kantha stitching. Up and down, back and forth goes the needle. I love the change in the feel of the cloth as I fill it with kantha stitches. The stitching gives it body, substance. Keeping my hands busy, making something new from something familiar – that’s the best medicine I know of and a better sorting hat than Hogwarts ever imagined.

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