DeJarnette Sanitorium

Look what I spotted on our way home from the Maple Sugar Festival! There were NO TRESPASSING signs posted everywhere so I could only snap these photos from the road. I just about drove Rex crazy on the way home with my questions: "you're from Staunton....who can you call to let me in this building?"..."promise you'll call tomorrow?"..."you will call tomorrow, right?" When I really want something I can become quite obsessed and very determined. When we got home I did a Google search and found quite a bit of information on the DeJarnette Sanatorium. I have also emailed another artist who has filmed there. In my mind's eye I can already see the photos! I imagine overturned metal beds and decaying mattresses......graffiti on the walls....nature growing up and through the floors and windows. I will keep you posted and I will try not to obsess! OK....I'm obsessing now because I fear it may be destined for the wrecking ball before I can document it!

Self Portraits

bolstered!

softening....

In this post and the next I have included photos of self-portraits in progress. They are created by the amazing women in Jena Leake's Expressive Arts Therapy class. Every week I am just so amazed by these very beautiful and talented women. I thank them for sharing their stories...(life's ups and downs).... their written words.....their vulnerabilities.... for allowing me to be myself! I enjoyed dancing with our masks....dancing with each other....quietly admiring not only the paintings....but the process.........

Self Portraits in Progress

bursting!


inner child!

brilliant!

imprint!

This makes me smile

The Power of Forgiveness

Today forgiveness has been on my mind.

I thought I had forgiven.
I said to myself "I forgive you", but it was not until last night that I put my whole heart and soul out there and sincerely offered forgiveness. I know now that until last night I was only going through the motions.....wanting to believe that I had forgiven....but not committed.
Today I have discovered that by forgiving........someone else was set free. It sounds strange to me....but it was almost audible....like a deep exhalation..... even though there are miles between us. I believe that when we don't forgive one another we hold our hearts hostage.
So.......I am sorry. I love you. Please forgive me.

Things that make me smile:

Handmade Christmas presents......slightly too large, slightly mis-shapen but made with love!
(With more practice maybe I will make some that actually fit this year)

Things that make me smile continued:

1. Help with pumpkin muffins
2. Tender moments
3. Playtime

CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN MUFFINS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. In a large mixing bowl combine 1.5 cups vegetable oil, 4 eggs, 2 cups sugar and 1 cup canned pumpkin. Beat with an electric mixer until well mixed. Set aside.

3. In another bowl combine 3 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp salt.

4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Stir in a 12oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

5. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and bake for 16-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

6. Smile as you and your loved ones enjoy muffin-munching!

Smiling is very contagious.....I hope you catch it!

Smilingly=adverb=If someone does something smilingly, they smile as they are doing it (The Cambridge Dictionary)

I have been doing a lot of smiling lately and thinking a good bit about smiling. It started with the creation of this blog a little over a week ago...smilingly posting the "winged messenger" photos....smilingly writing about my expressive arts therapy classes and smilingly reading the kind comments from other bloggers. As Misty said "I am smiling now, see how contagious goodness can be?!;)" She is so right! Kindness and goodness are contagious and you can't help but smile. My wish is that everyone would catch this.......that everyone has a reason to smile and to spread goodness. I have watched it spread in my own home......my husband was sitting on the sofa as I was posting and reading comments......he began smiling because I was smilingly typing away......(actually, I think he was laughing)....but that's OK....it made me smile!!:) So....thank you to all of the wonderful people who have brought a smile to my face....I am grateful for each and every one of you........

Boy = "a noise with dirt on it"

You Will Be Okay!

This is the very first picture I took of Susanna's "winged messengers". This is my three year old son Rowan....he instinctively held the wings over his head. "You will be okay"......what a wonderful message of hope.....this is what our world needs more of.....random acts of kindness from strangers and winged messages full of hope and joy. If you haven't already....please check out Susanna's blog. Her photos and artwork will amaze you.

Mask Making

I would like to introduce you to two amazing women in my expressive arts therapy class.....Charlie and Heather. Last night we made masks of our faces. We turned into Sculptresses as we very gently and lovingly placed layers of plaster over each other's faces.....some with eyes and mouth shut....others chose to leave eyes wide open. I imagined what it must be like to be blind....to use my hands as eyes and feel the shape of someone's face. This was a very intimate process of both giving and receiving and took an incredible amount of trust. I've had issues with trust in the past and was amazed that I was able to surrender and receive this lovely gift of touch. Jena quietly told us to just relax....to take our time emerging from our masks....finding our own way out. I smiled....I wiggled....I scrunched up my nose....I made funny faces under the mask to loosen it......finally, I used my hands to pry the edge of the mask away from my face.....when I did "emerge" Jena was sitting beside me......and said "look at your beautiful face". Those who know me know that I absolutely LOVE birds.....I felt like a newly born bird looking at her mother.....I smiled and am still smiling. Even lovlier was to watch the other women in the class emerge from their masks and see themselves as if it was the first time. Charlie emerged while lying down and then sat up and held her beautiful face in her hands........Heather chose to wander around the room with her mask still on......soaking up everything and allowing me to take photos of her beside her self-portrait. She finally "emerged" while standing up and look how beautiful she looks......gazing at herself! Thank you to all of the beautiful women who have touched my life and my soul.....the women who are here on earth and the ones who have left it.............I love you all! "The light in me sees the light in you!"

Life Size Self Portrait in Progress

This is me......scars and all. I am taking an expressive arts therapy class from one of the most amazing women I have had the pleasure to meet. Her name is Jena and she is positively radiant. I signed up for her class Art and Soul not knowing what to expect and very very very nervous about beginning something new. What has happened... as is evident in my self-portrait... is that I feel like a butterfly emerging from it's cocoon! This IS a life changing experience for me. There are 5 other very talented and beautiful women in this class and I love them all! I have so much I want to share and unfortunately no time as I have to leave for work in about 10 minutes....(work is interfering with my art!!!). So.....all day I will be looking forward to sharing more about class. Last night we made masks..............and I have pictures!

I AM.........................

As I sit here at my computer at a ridiculous hour (since I have to be at work very soon) my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. I am smiling.....and blushing after reading the beautiful comments some very kind bloggers (new friends and strangers) have left about my photos of Susanna's "Winged Messengers" . I am very shy...at times painfully so. For the past several years I have been following a few of my favorite artist's blogs.....always reading and admiring but too shy to comment or contact........until recently. I decided to take a risk.....first commenting on photos and artwork that inspired me and then...........emailing the artists. Quite honestly...I never expected a response.....and then............this very talented artist wrote me back....I've been reading her blog for awhile and discovered that we actually live in the same county! Next.....I picked up the Jan/Feb issue of Somerset Life, turned to p.94 and saw Susanna's lovely "Winged Messengers"....I was so moved by her random acts of kindness. I imagined what it would be like to find one of her "Winged Messengers".....how it would make me feel? Would it be just what I needed to hear that day? Would I be afraid to take it? After much thought I decided to take the risk.......to contact her and ask if I could photograph her Wings in my hometown. Her response was quick and amazing....."Really? You Will? Thank You!" A few weeks later her wings arrived with the wonderful message....."you will be okay".....

Like I said....I am shy....I began this blog by posting some photos and a poem with very little commentary or explanation......not really knowing what to say and obsessively worrying whether anything I had to say would be interesting enough. With encouragement, gentle suggestions and after reading parts of my email to Susanna on her blog.....I found some words.......what I wish for people to know about my photographs of the wings can be read on Susanna's blog........please visit.....I am still trying to figure out the technical part of blogging....how to rearrange photos I have already posted and to add commentary.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! (eyes closed, head in hands, head turning side to side, smiling) I am happy.............

Blue Wings

More of Suanna's "Winged Messengers"

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Where did the time go?

Rowan and REX

More Wings