An Exotic Bird, Jubilación, and Granny D

"You have to keep the young adventurer inside your heart alive long enough for it to someday re-emerge.... Granny D
It may take some coaxing and some courage, but that person is in you always -- never growing old." Granny D

An Exotic Bird
"For me, the vast marvel is to be alive. For man, or for flowers or beast or bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly and perfectly alive." Al Purdy

We happened upon the wonderful parrot in the pictures on a stroll in a Portland park in July 2008. He was perched on his owner's shoulder. I have to wonder who owns who... Aren't we the ones captured by the wildness, that exotic beauty, the sumptuous colors? I couldn't resist taking several photographs. This one is for my current photoartjournal project on birds.

I will soon share more photos from a more recent trip I have been on... meanwhile...

Jubilación
I just passed my 6th anniversary of being "retired". It's hard to imagine it's been that long ago already. First let me say, I detest the words "retired" and "retirement" as they have a connotation, if not a stereotype, that seem to conjure up images of settling into a rocker for the final few days. Not that anything is wrong with sitting in a rocker, it just always seemed to me that it used to mean that life was almost over, and in our culture, you might become one of the invisible folks, the aging, that are not as revered as the youth culture.

Anyway, I happened upon the word for retirement in Spanish - it is "jubilación" -- jubilation!!! Jubilation in the English dictionary means: a feeling of or the expression of joy or exultation or shouting for joy. What a wonderful word to describe the next phase of life after work. Because, in many cases, I'm sure, people didn't do for a career what their "purpose" called them to do, but instead, perhaps as I did, fell into their line of work by accident or as a practical matter of making a living. So leaving and entering the next stage may be with some jubilación, as you become freed to do more of whatever your heart desires.

But, as with any change in life there is what I call the "land of in-between" where you have one foot in the past and one stepping forward into the unknown. I remember vividly my last work day having stayed late to "finish" things up, feel that completion, while everyone else had gone home. I had the card key pass that I left for a manager on her chair, then hesitated as I walked out the door for the last time without the key, knowing I would never go back in. I was closing the door on that world, a thirty-four year career, and walking into an unknown world.

There is that one moment of trusting the momentum of the step forward, and releasing the energy in the foot stuck in the past that propels you into the new. And suddenly, in a step, a blink... life is different. And you might wonder why you resisted at all. And you might realize that there you are, everything you were and are, is still there, the adventurer, the artist, the person with experiences that have prepared you with tools, still there. New and different, but still the same after all... we are such paradoxes. And that land of in-between is always with us as we shapeshift from one phase of life to another...
Granny D
Here's an interesting life story of "Granny D" who just passed on at 100, what an inspiring woman. I read about Doris Haddock a couple of years ago and was so impressed. She walked 3200 miles across the country at 89 years of age just to make a point, stand up for her beliefs and educate people along the way about campaign finance reform. And she even ran for the Senate at 94. Her autobiography, written with Dennis Burke, is being republished soon, "My Bohemian Century" with the subtitle "You're Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell." Don't you just love that? It's on my list to read. And, we are SO, never TOO old if we stay awake to our possibilities........

Here's a You-Tube about her; copyright the Boston Globe and filmmakers:



And another; copyright Arts Alliance America and filmmakers:

Sunday Meditation - Poppies, Birds and Pulling Weeds

another lovely NW day...a little of this and a little of that... enjoying flowers, colors, and birds Poppies and a Special Friend
Aren't these colors just eye-popping, well it is a poppy! I was SO thrilled yesterday when my dear friend Sharon Baker gifted the beautiful wall hanging on the right to me... she hand hooked it with those gorgeous wool colors and modeled it after the poppy picture I had taken on the left... and totally surprised me at our local art club meeting with it. Isn't it wonderful to see a different (and stunning) interpretation from someone's else's point of view... all the more reason to try out collaborations perhaps. Or at the very least take a piece of artwork you've done and do it again in another medium. I will be enjoying this special wall hanging for a long long time. I was focusing on taking pictures of poppies last year when I took this photo, as they remind me of my favorite artist, Georgia O'keeffe.

Birds and Etsy
Today I worked on updating my Etsy shop and listed quite a few items I've had ready for some time. For those of you who make art, I do recommend trying it out... you probably won't get rich but it is nice to make a sale now and again to fund the art supplies. I played with Photoshop making a mosaic of these bird and floral/fruit pins. And following up on our Northern Flicker, here he is at the Honeymoon Palace peeking out at us from on high. You can see the patches to our house over the holes he drilled in our house. But he looks happy now and my husband managed to catch this photo. He's on the lookout for a female roommate...Meditation
My thought for today on a meditation... or practice... is merely to take time out. Look out your window like the Flicker above, go walk in your yard or neighborhood and appreciate the songs of the birds, the gentle breezes, the blossoms. Today I did manage to do just that for a little bit, pull myself away from this computer and the laundry, etc. Stop and breathe in that fresh air. Be still. Or pull a few weeds in the garden... something so satisfying about that, hands in the dirt, drifting, letting go of the to-do lists... Namaste

My Body Electric

"Your body wasn't made just to carry your head around...." Saul Snatsky

"But in my head I still feel like I'm in my 20's...." from my mother in her 80's looking in the mirrorIf you listen and observe enough you can pick up gems of wisdom from everyone. A quotation doesn't have to be from someone famous or published (such as "I sing the body electric" by Walt Whitman). Everyone, including yourself, if you listen hard enough, offers something you can learn. The two lines I used as quotes ran through my head as I thought of posting another recent junk mail collage from my daily art-a-day journal.

I've recently restarted going to the Y for various exercise classes, and feel as though there are muscles re-awakening that I'd forgotten or maybe didn't even know existed. Ouch! I am very sore, yoga, weightlifting and cardio (oh, and tango lessons) has got me moving and re-energized but tired. The paradox of feeling really tired, but better is always a wonder. I am focusing more on building strength and flexibility first.... a good thing to do as I sage into elder age, since I don't want to be rigid in any sense of the word!