This is What is for Now

"Spiritual practice is about transformation, but it's also, and more importantly, about working with what is." Angel Kyodo Williams

In Memory of Suzanne

I won Suzanne at an art fair, won a lesson on bookmaking, won a friend who taught and supported me me and challenged me to believe in myself as much as she believed in me. She called herself The Paper Queen, she could do anything with paper, and she called me Bookie. Once following surgery, she brought me a a carton of papers that over the next few years and up to today is the basis of books, paintings, bookmarks and cards. Her patience with folding origami designs and little bitty books is legendary. The best way I can remember her is to to believe I have as much creative juice as she was sure I have. Suzanne was a loner, a person most comfortable in her studio which was actually her entire living space. I need a lot of alone time, but I'm most comfortable in the community of friends who know me. We clicked from the beginning. I'd reached out and she let me in. I am grateful.

This morning I made shrine for her: books she taught me to make, a thank you card made with one of her paste papers, a small book she made of green tea bag wrappers for my birthday, and I lit a candle.

In this time of ebb and flow, of the transition between life and death, of moving into my summer life in the mountains, of coming up to a very significant birthday, I've decided to pull back even more on blogging. Right now, I don't feel I have much to say, and I need to go back to more personal writing exercises and dig into myself. I want to be more personal than I feel I can be going to a wider audience through Facebook and online sites, and I want to blog only when I feel motivated. If you don't get me in your email box and you want to follow me, sign up to receive me through email. If you would like to stop seeing me in your email box, let me know. I thought you could unsubscribe by a simple click at the bottom, maybe you can, but I'm not seeing that. Let me know and I can do it from my end.

Thank you for reading me and thank you for your comments which always mean a great deal to me.

Baruch ata adonai...help me to be gentle and sweet with myself. Help me to let go with grace and gratitude. Amen