More On Intangible Gifts

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Green Life, Learnin'

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gifts-and-needs-2011

Sorting through the plastic folder of papers I carry with me everywhere, every day, I found I’d been carrying around a list of my gifts and needs from the last gift circle gathering I’d attended in JP.

I think I’d been intending to do something with the list, though I can’t say what.  Re-reading it made me smile.  Such a departure from my original list at the first gathering, where I described a mere two needs (help washing sweaters and turning over compost!)

My scrawled notes reflect a growing trust, I think, in the process and people involved, strangers though so many of them were. This reminder of my humanity -my own vulnerable desire for connection and understanding- inspires me. Even if those needs are never met through the gift circle, there was value in letting them be known.

Quilting as a Meditation on Imperfection

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Learnin'

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Row fiveAt some level, all of my crafting is a study on imperfection.  Yet sewing, sewing holds a special place in my heart when it comes to wanting to rip things out and throw them away.

My friends might roll their eyes to hear me tell it (again and again), but I was turned away from a sewing club in middle school because my stitches weren’t straight!  Obviously, I never got over it.  And my stitches STILL aren’t straight.

Luckily (or, more like, through a great deal of effort) I’ve learned to hold more forgiveness for myself in my adult life.  In my most recent project, and what will be the first quilt I’ve ever completed, I’m watching those crooked stitches -not one the same size as it’s neighbor- stretch across the denim like fence posts dotting a pasture.  The fence in question might be a little rickety and wandering, but it’s still a fence, right?

Stitching

An imperfect photo highlighting my imperfect stitching . . .

Librarytour: Light Lines

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Librarytour

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Long before I started capturing photos with any seriousness (and believe, me, there’s only the tiniest amount of seriousness!), I followed light.  So, light in libraries is for me the most natural collaboration of interests.

Dixfield Ludden Library Children's Room

Dixfield Ludden Library Children's Room

Rumford Library, in the stacks

Rumford Library, in the stacks

Roslindale branch BPL and the blue sky

Roslindale branch BPL and the blue sky

Rockefeller Library, Brown University - stairwell

Rockefeller Library, Brown University - stairwell

Beverly Public Library, windows to the inside

Beverly Public Library, windows to the inside

Outside and in at the Cambridge Public Library

Outside and in at the Cambridge Public Library

A Few of My Favorite Things: Boston’s Best Underground Events

13 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Bike Life, Boston Moments, Learnin', Skillshare

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Part of my intention in creating (and sustaining) this blog is to crow about my favorite Boston-area events.  The four listed below are my long-standing loves.

Boston Skillshare: I learned of the Boston Skillshare as a result of my volunteering with Boston NOW.  My first Skillshare (I’ve been attending for about seven years) was a wonderment -free learning, for real, of the most random assortment -knitting, soda brewing, spoon whittling, home schooling, time management?!  At my second skillshare, I taught a class on letter writing.  Now everyone I meet, practically, I attempt to sway to the way of the Skillshare.  I’ve won lots of folk over, including my own mother.

Boston Pride Parade: I’m not sure how I learned about the Boston Pride Parade, but I’ve rarely missed a year of standing along the route, clapping and shouting and jumping for beads.  In the time that I’ve been attending, the LGBT community worked towards and won the right to marriage equality in Massachusetts.  And it might just be my opinion/experience but I believe, the Parade has since “cleaned up” just the tiniest bit, with fewer men shaking-their-rears on the elaborately decorated beds of semi-trucks to club beats.

Cambridge Citywide Dance Party: I’m only a three-year veteran of the biggest free dance party in Cambridge, where the city closes down one of its busiest streets, pumps up the music, and sets out chairs in front of the Senior Center for folks to enjoy watching the dance mayhem.  Want to see how well your city councillor dances, conga with strangers, or steal some new moves from a four-year-old?  This is your party.

Bike By Bike, At Night: I’ve only made it to two of these all-night rides that are so underground they don’t have a website (just flyers posted around the neighborhoods.) Begun in 1989, this annual tour is organized by the Back Bay Midnight Pedalers and features stopping points at historic and architectural sites of note in Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge. I haven’t yet made it to sunrise due to the lack of bathroom breaks combined with no published route, but once I figure those two issues out, I just might!

Librarytour: Cozy Teen Rooms

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

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“Adult” though I might be, teen/YA rooms have long been my favorite spaces in libraries. There’s something about having a space of one’s own amid all the heaving shelves of history and classics and computer manuals and picture books and DVDS, and all the other books intended for grown-up or baby eyes.

These are the areas I gravitate to with my camera when I visit a new (to me) library. Below, a small sample as diverse as the libraries they belong to, but united in their attempt to draw young adults (near adults?) to come, sit, read, stay a while.

Teen room Mexico

Mexico Library Teen Room

Beverly Library teen room

Beverly Library teen room

Elanco Library teen room

Elanco Library teen room, check out the goldfish on the far wall!

Cambridge Library YA room

Cambridge Library YA room

Whole Heart Resolute 2012

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Learnin'

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At long last, my 2012 resolutions and goals.  This January, my mind was abuzz with what I’d like to accomplish this year, but the ideas were constantly whizzing by, hard to pin and pen on a slip of paper destined for the ‘fridge.  I think part of the issue is that I had some secret desires knocking around that didn’t want to be exposed.

Resolutions
1.) Practice trust (instead of worry)
2.) Understand that everyone is doing the best they are able

Goals
1.) Discover timing and space that works for “Confessions,” and the other books to come
2.) Get some shelves up -kitchen, litter box room, office
3.) Cull my clothing, keeping only what I love, and keep clothes picked up
4.) Eat honey early (for allergies)
5.) Develop a “family creed” with my partner

Goal for this blog
1.) Grow to 10 views per day

Secret resolutions
1.) Visit as many new-to-me local libraries as I’m able
2.) Attend a writing residency

three leaves

Shrinking the Big City

03 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Boston Moments, With Friends

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A study in making the big city small, as illustrated by my experience in three neighborhoods:

Pretty Big

When I lived in Boston’s worst neighborhood (disclaimer: fact might be unproven), I used to see a few people a few times over.  There was that guy who sat on his cement porch playing guitar while his leashed-cat prowled.  Also, a woman with long, red ringlets -the most amazing hair!  Sometimes, as I keyed into my apartment building, I’d spot her walking down the hill towards Brighton Ave., locks carefully held in place by a headband/earmuffs. Once in a while, I’d see her on the B Line.  I wondered where she lived.

twin donuts by David Salafia, Flickr

Twin donuts, Allston, by David Salafia, Flickr

Not So Big

In the Savin Hill neighborhood of Dorchester, neighbors say hello.  It took me some time to get used to this, as it NEVER happened in Allston. One night, I saw a young man steal a Pride flag from the porch of one of my neighbors.  I stared, not exactly sure what I was seeing as he leaped past me, holding the flag high, streaming, as he raced down the street.  Additionally, at the Savin Hill T stop, I developed a family-crush on a couple and their young son, combinations of which I’d see on the Red Line in the mornings.  Sometimes we smiled at one another.

Spring Yarn

A Sagamore sight (and one of my most popular photos on Flickr)

Kind of Tiny

My friends might be tired of hearing me say it, but rarely a day goes by where, commuting from JP to Cambridge, I don’t bump into a friend, a friendly acquaintance, or my own partner walking past when I least expect him. I see community members from JP and Cambridge out of context -in Boston and Somerville- and yet I still recognize them (which is an impressive feat for me, since I tend to forget faces.)

JP winter windowbox display

Windowbox: It's always a party in JP!

Keep The Old (Friends)

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in With Friends

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Gold:

It’s not by accident, I think, that I grew up with the notion that as I matured, my opportunity and desire to meet new people, make new friends, would decrease.  The Common Conversation, my seconds-ago, made-up term for unspoken cultural norms and expectations that hovers a like swollen cloud over our hearts, lives, and dreams, convinced me that life as an adult would not be so much lonely as complete.  Things falling into place -click, click, click- like those red and yellow discs in the game Connect Four.

I’d take my gold friends -couple from high school, a few more from college- and shine ‘em up once in a while.  Done.

Silver:

I think I was maybe four years out of college before I realized that a number of factors made my above assumption just not true (for me.)

1.) College town: there’s about a billion (just over fifty) here in greater Boston area.  All those smart/clever/engaged/engaging/inspired/inspiring people coming and going.  Some of whom get snagged in the net that trows behind me even when I think it’s not.

2.) Work: Duh!  There are people at work.  More importantly, folks whose values match mine, whose interests and desires I share.  Even if I tried, I could not resist deepening some of these connections -and the choice is not always mine.  Also, I’m a community worker, which brings us to . . .

3.) I like people: Isn’t it funny to rediscover what you long-knew in a wordless kind of way?

So, in the cold, cranky, over-educated city where I’ve heard people describe difficulty breaking into culturally, and where I’ve heard other people claim a depth of connection that they could not quite achieve elsewhere, I continue to fall down the rabbit hole.  Silver, all the way.

Friends under the down comforter

Friends warm up in JP

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