Autumn leaves

It's October!!

Happy Autumn! Plenty of blustery wind & rain today - still lots of leaves on the trees, but many have already turned red & yellow and fallen on the ground - so, will there be anything left by Hallowe'en? Probably not...

Mmmmmm - Hallowe'en~!

I took the photo this time last year - just a portent of things to come

October is a lovely month - changes in the landscape, weather and mood - I am trying to declutter my space (how many years has it been going on now?) to make room for my creative muse and I to work on many unfinished projects - sewing, making cards & jewelry, etc (the good thing is that I've been finding things I had given up for lost!!) I will try to document some of this process and blog about it (boring) but hopefully there will be creative things to share as well

Happy happy October!!!

rest in peace

yesterday (september 9) it's been a year since my stepdad passed away - for a while, i was having mixed feelings about the whole thing, but prevailing winds dictate that he is missed by us all (my mom, my brother, his two kids, me not the least...)






born in 1935 somewhere in Louisiana bayou country, he and his seven siblings did not have an easy life - he ended up serving in the Air Force for 20 years, got married and had three children - he traveled all over the world and moved his family to california - his youngest daughter died at the age of four of some type of cancer, i believe, leaving behind a brother, a sister and two grieving parents - after that, his marriage ended and he migrated to texas and then florida, where he met my mother, who was herself recently divorced from my father - after a couple of years, they got married and were together (ostensibly happily) for 25 years - he drank and smoked more back then, like a lot of folks did - they both worked hard, danced to zydeco music, went on trips and had a good life - eventually he gave up liquor but clung to his smokes


as he was entering his seventies, his health began to deteriorate - now he was dealing with chronic back pain and Parkinson's-like symptoms (which include the inability to write legibly, difficulty swallowing, speech impairment and mobility problems) he grew frustrated and short-tempered - his sense of humor evaporated and he became critical of everything we did - nothing we did was good enough, he found fault with everything - it's difficult to be compassionate when someone's being berated on a daily basis, but we kept trying - in the end, he made some questionable decisions (we thought later that perhaps his judgment had become faulty due to pain medication he was taking) and finally, after several visits by EMTs he went into the hospital, where he got weaker and then died


i don't think he ever imagined it would end that way (none of us did) but i suppose he was sick and tired (literally) of continuing to live with his difficulties and the constant pain - the strain on his heart and other vital organs (all compromised by this time) seemed to be too much - he told my mother "i don't think i'm going to make it" (one of the few things he managed to say, since most of the time he was under sedation and on oxygen) he even told the doctor he was "ready to go" shortly before he breathed his last breath


i tell this cautionary tale not to besmirch his name but to illustrate that the human condition is transitory and mutable - we are all attached to our own silver cord and when our life force ebbs we must grab it and follow it back "home" to learn our lessons and prepare for whatever is next for our soul's growth (one of my favorite movies on this topic is albert brooks' hilarious yet poignant "Defending Your Life" with meryl streep, rip torn, lee grant and buck henry - another good one is warren beatty's 1978 comedy "Heaven Can Wait" where beatty is teamed with the wonderful jack warden, james mason, buck henry - again! - charles grodin, dyan cannon and julie christie: it's a brilliant remake of another great film, 1941's "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" with robert montgomery, evelyn keyes and claude rains)


to sum it all up, he was a good person who, under duress, said and did things that were out of character and not up to his own standards, but he did the best he could and eventually welcomed death quietly and bravely, like a good soldier - for years he fought the good fight and made a good life for himself and my mom - he was like a second father to my brother and me - he loved his own kids, and he loved my mother, although they were often see-sawing between sweet devotion and bitter agitation, like so many couples who have been together for 25 or more years - i choose now to remember him as a nice guy who was always there for us and made us laugh - he has gone on ahead to complete the hero's journey and figure out where his next path will lead - rest in peace, A.J. - we miss you

please take a number

photo by tjgoogins/moon at EPCOT/all rights reserved



today is my brother's birthday


the interesting thing about it is (and he gets credit for noticing this before i did) that this year i turned 57 in may and he turns 53 today - what's interesting about this is that he i was born in '53 and he was born in '57


although this may seem unusual, apparently this is not uncommon among siblings - i have done no research on it, but i talked to another person who told me the same thing happened to her and her sister


something similar happened to me and a friend of mine - five years ago i turned 52 and she turned 25 - amazingly, when i'm 63 she'll be 36 - and so on, every 11 years... too bad we're not friends anymore, i'd like to see how it all turns out - perhaps pythagoras was right - the universe is made up of numerical sequences or some such thing


at any rate, i want to salute my brother - talented musician, animal lover, turtle and dog rescuer, handyman, good son, brother and friend, and all-around funny guy - on the occasion of his 53rd birthday - i love you, bro!!


love, sis

cairns in the wild

i've been meaning to blog about this for some time - a friend of mine recently contributed photographs of cairns for an exhibit at the local library, which i got to see - lovely photos of rocks stacked and piled in all sorts of places...

here's what wikipedia.org has to say about CAIRNS:

little cairns & stream/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

A cairn (carn in Irish, carnedd in Welsh, càrn in Scots Gaelic) is a human-made pile of stones, often in conical form. They are usually found in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, or near waterways.
In modern times cairns are often erected as landmarks. In ancient times they were erected as sepulchral monuments, or used for practical and astronomical uses.

They are built for several purposes:

* They may mark a burial site, and may memorialize the dead.
* They may mark the summit of a mountain.
* Placed at regular intervals, they indicate a path across stony or barren terrain or across glaciers.
* The Inuit erect human-shaped cairns, or inunnguaq as milestones or directional markers in the Canadian Arctic.
* In North America, cairns may mark buffalo jumps or "drive lanes."[citation needed]
* In North America, cairns may be used for astronomy.[citation needed]
* In Norse Greenland, cairns were used as a hunting implement to direct reindeer towards cliffs[1]
* In the Canadian Maritimes cairns were used as lighthouse-like holders for fires that guided boats, as in the novel The Shipping News.
* In North America, cairns are often petroforms in the shapes of turtles or other animals.[citation needed]
* In the United Kingdom, they are often large Bronze Age structures which frequently contain burial cists
* In parks exhibiting fantastic rock formations, such as the Grand Canyon, tourists often construct simple cairns in reverence of the larger counterparts.[citation needed]
* They may have a strong aesthetic purpose, for example in the art of Andy Goldsworthy.
* They may be used to commemorate events: anything from a battle site, to the place where a cart tipped over.
* Some are merely places where farmers have collected stones removed from a field.

They vary from loose, small piles of stones to elaborate feats of engineering. In some places, games are regularly held to find out who can build the most beautiful cairn.[citation needed] Cairns along hiking trails are often maintained by groups of hikers adding a stone when they pass.

as for these, my friend and i saw them in the woods when we went for a walk one day this summer (or was it back in the spring?) anyway, cairns are cool - which reminds me, i want to create a walkable labyrinth in my back yard - more on that next time!

until my next blog... "love the life you live - live the life you love"

mermaid's necklace

this is a page from a wonderful book, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black - it shows what a mermaid would make to wear (various found objects like sea urchin spines and shells and things floating in the ocean, strung together with pieces of fishing nets)

so i got some hemp twine and wrapped some shells and stones and sea urchin spines and made my version (still might add a shark's tooth or a few more pearls to it)

it's not for everyone, but i do get some nice comments when i wear it...

that's it for now - i'm off to work - enjoy the weekend!!

where's chippy?

an earlier post showed us chippy the chipmunk in his natural habitat - sitting on a stone wall, nibbling on something, showing general disdain for his/her viewing audience (me and the cats, who spied him/her first)

a short time after that episode of chippy tv, i happened to hear some rustling in the black raspberry bush where a few dried-up berries were still visible deep inside (a place no birds had dared to tread) and when i looked closer, i saw chippy high up in the dang bush, hanging upside down, a** over teakettle, being very "stealth" so i wouldn't see him/her! i sprinkled some sunflower seeds on the sidewalk next to the bush and sure enough he/she found them and stuffed them all in his/her cheeks and took them home with him/her as quick as ever he/she could

twice now, we have seen him/her in the evergreen bushes in front of the house - we think he/she is eating some berries (possibly bittersweet berries, which are coming on now, or whatever little berries the bush itself puts out) so here are a few snaps of our industrious little chippy, hard at work, cute as a button... and of course, he/she got rewarded with more sunflower seeds (chipmunks are small striped ground squirrels, so they dig and climb just like regular squirrels, but i've just never seen one cavort in the bushes like this one!) and now, the latest episode of chippy tv: (photos - chippy/tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

i'll be back with a few photos of recent crafts & jewelry projects - and an update on how the upstairs sorting is going (hint: real slow, no visible results, but order will prevail)

recap on marishi-ten

wanted to source an earlier post - i looked at several web sites to get info & images on marishi-ten, specifically these three:

www.orderwhitemoon.org

www.worldlingo.com

www.onmarkproductions.com

what attracted me to this information was the boar/pig/hog reference (my group of friends and i call our get-togethers "hog reunions" because we tend to overindulge - feasting & drinking at one location - and keep laughing a lot) we always have such a great time - we have been friends for a long time and don't get to see each other much (the last hog reunion was in 2003)
marishi-ten is also known as "the diamond sow" and us girls call ourselves sows, so it's only fitting that all my hog friends (especially the "sows" and most especially sows who are battling illness) know about this wild warrior woman who goes around riding a wild boar and slinging swords around!! you go, girl~!

so check out my earlier post about marishi-ten - there's a cool dedication to the goddess there and i also found a ritual (lighting candles and there's a sword involved... very fierce!)

ok so next time, more stuff that i make!

time to show off

well, i suppose i should share some pix with you - here are some earrings i made a while back and one of my cards - i'll try taking some new photos of things i still have lying around - also, bookmarks and cards 'n' stuff like that





i also make papier roule (rolled paper) beads - i have to take some photos of those, too

i've learned so much and have so much more to learn - i procrastinate and plot and plan, but don't make much headway - i'll post more later, just trying to get some things done, posting, sharing, etc

photo: copper earrings/tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

have a great weekend, y'all! TJ

Marishi-ten

Marishiten

This is a photograph of a statue depicting the warrior goddess Marishi-ten.


Marishi-ten has historically been expressed in many forms:

* As a beautiful woman sitting on an open lotus
* As a ferocious demon perched on the back of a boar
* Riding a fiery chariot pulled by seven savage boars or sows
* As a multi-armed woman with a different weapon in each hand standing on the back of a boar.

She has been depicted with one, three, five or six faces; three eyes; and two, six, eight, ten or twelve arms. In her many-faced manifestations, one of her faces is that of a sow.

Symbols

* Sow
* Lotus

Origins

The origins of Marishiten are obscure, however she appears to be an amalgamation of Hindu, Iranian, and non-Aryan [citation needed] antecedents spanning 1500 years. She is identified as a Buddhist "goddess" of light, Marici.

Bujin Marishi-ten

Marishi-ten, Queen of Heaven, Goddess of the Sun and the Moon was adopted by the Bujin or Samurai in the 8th century CE as a protector and patron.

While devotions to Marishi-ten predate Zen, they appear to be geared towards a similar meditative mode in order to enable the warrior to achieve a more heightened spiritual level. He lost interest in the issues of victory or defeat (or life and death), thus transcending to a level where he became so empowered that he was freed from his own grasp on mortality. The end
result was that he became a better warrior.

The worship of Marishiten was to provide a way to achieve selflessness and compassion through Buddhist training by incorporating a passion for the mastery of the self.

This once-popular female deity, now nearly forgotten, is believed to have been male (India) before being worshipped by Japanese samurai 12 centuries ago.

I invoke the warrior goddess Marishi-ten to help two of my female friends fight cancer. May the goddess Marishi-ten symbolically inspire all who battle with dis-ease. I also send reiki to all who need the healing energy of love.

here is an invocation to this ancient diety that can be spoken as an affirmation

DEDICATION TO MARISHITEN

Great Goddess and Protectress of the Warrior
Grant me the gifts of Beauty – both inside and outside
Strength – to protect myself and my loved ones
Courage – to never let fear keep me from the way of the warrior
Honor - to always do the right thing and keep the right mind
Focus – to never lose track of my path
Health – so that I may always be able to endure whatever may come to pass
Wisdom – so that I may always know what is the correct action to take in any situation

Marishiten, I know that you possess these aspects in your own self and I now ask that you instill them in me as well.

As my dedication to this path, I take on the warrior’s name: ___________________ (choose a name) and will consider myself thus as I walk through life as a warrior of the great protectress of the samurai, Marishiten.

Something interesting to note regarding Mari/Marici/Marishiten was that she was known through the near-east as Mari, which became one of the most common girls’ names in the area. While Mari/Marici/Marishiten is considered the goddess of light, the festival honoring Mary, the mother of Jesus, is also known as the Festival of Lights. (Mari...? Mary...? How far back do the old stories go?)

Let us fight the good fight and win the day, one day at a time.
Love & light - good night! TJ

happy fourth of july

independence day - huzzah!

i actually have the holiday off (tomorrow, sunday) and so does my husband - very unusual for us to have a day off together - which means we'll drive all over the place, running errands and just generally getting on each other's nerves ;)

anyway, not much going on right now - working on some projects, one of which i will share in the next post along with some photos to show a transformation

have a great weekend, y'all!!

tj

when dogs have wings

renaissance faire: dogs with wings/photo: tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

it's thursday, july 1 - this summer is going fast - it's been hot & humid up here in new england, and yet this morning it was a pleasantly cool fifty-five degrees - too soon, too soon will the days of summer be merely a moist memory

well, some new projects, some old - still hoping to make some headway with the upstairs hoard (will i ever be able to say "finally finished"?) i was looking through an old journal and there it was: "still trying to get the upstairs organized" and this was in 2003! we'd only lived here three years and it was already out of control! now, seven years later, it's much worse but at least i'm not bringing stuff home every day like i was before - not going to the thrift stores looking for treasures, not shopping at joann's fabrics (it closed) and buying things that never get used just because they were on sale, etc

otherwise, i've been trying to figure out how to make images stay on cookie glaze without them bleeding and becoming a big mess - i think my husband, the pastry chef, is right about freezing them - hopefully they won't sweat when they come to room temperature... finding more web sites every day, looking for interesting cookie & cake stencils, food colorings, etc - very exciting!!

will try another batch this week - want to try using edible transfer sheets made of rice flour or sugar or some such ingredient - that might solve many problems re: image degradation - more updates soon, plus i hope to unveil my plan for these sweet things!! but then again, nothing is certain - it may not be until pigs (why not dogs? or cows?) have wings!!!!

so, what shall i leave you with today?? perhaps this photo from the recent, much-heralded Ren faire - i hope the day treats you well - stay thirsty, my friends!

tj

chipmunk telly

we finally got some rain last night - looks like we'll get more of it this week - i love being the first one up in the morning (even tho the cats are usually up before me) and this morning it's even nicer, all quiet and wet and green after the rainstorm (yesterday there were lots of road-work vehicles beeping and clanging - i'm sure they'll be back, since the road is all chewed up in front of our house but for now it's quite peaceful)

in fact, this summer the cats have been enjoying a fabulous new show, "Chipmunk TV" - they sit in the window and stare at the little critters who cavort along the top of a stone wall on one side of the house - if you squint, you can see him standing up, almost like a meerkat (according to the dictionary, they are small striped american squirrels) here's a couple of shots from the latest episode of "Chippy" - enjoy!

a new look

hey there!

i decided to try one of blogspot's newer background templates - i like the darker screen with the white text (everything else is so hard on the eyes - all that white space) so much easier to read, at least for me - i really like it - more later - with a new photo or two!!

my inner gargoyle

gargoyle/photo by t j googins 2010/all rights reserved

if i were a gargoyle, this is what i'd look like... sitting, thinking, smiling enigmatically...

actually, after i spray him with some thompson's water seal, he's going to live outside and guard my garden - i also have a gazing ball that i bought years ago when i lived in georgia - it's a lovely teal color and needs to go outside - if i ever finish digging up the invasive rose out front i'll put them both there - then i'll take another picture - i'll embellish this post later - just had to post something - much like this gargoyle, i sit and think about blogging but then i never get around to it - so annoying...

math equation for today

so, is it 2/3 perspiration, 1/3 inspiration ~ or vice versa? either way, that's what i need if i'm ever going to make a dent in my "art hoard" upstairs ~ for years, i've kept so many things up there to use for creative purposes, but my output is pitifully lacking ~ so many ideas, so little ambition! still having coffee, so my thought process is still fairly slow ~ but i will be productive and cross some things off my list ~ have you ever had a list of things to do, then done something not on the list? i have ~ here's what i do: i add the missing item to my to-do list just so i can cross it off! makes me feel great! just try it! this post doesn't really "deserve" to have a photo, but let's see if i can show you what i'm talking about... have a great weekend!!

TJ

the merry month of may

so long, April - hello, May!!! my favorite month (December comes in second) it's a month that just sounds like anything is possible: "mother, May i? yes, you certainly May - you know, i just May do that!" you see? all manner of possibilities right there, bursting at the seams!

april was always a busy month for me (lots of birthdays - grandmother, mother, father, boyfriend - also spring and easter) but May was the month when things ended so other things could begin; i suppose it was mostly dictated by school ending and summer vacation beginning - when i was young, i could look forward to going to the beach with friends, riding my horse, pool parties and sleepovers - after leaving home and entering the working world, that cycle ended forever - no more vacations that lasted an entire season, no more lazy days, no more sleeping in (or sleepovers) except maybe on weekends - but i still burned the candle at both ends - working a 40-hour week, play rehearsal after work, sunday brunch with friends... i could squeeze it all in there - these days, although i don't expect to do nearly as much stuff as i used to, i hope to somehow manage to find time to work and play, in addition to doing those things i really must do (bathe, do laundry, clear all the clutter that's holding me back - that's a tough one - create and write) so - here i go again!! i challenge myself (and anyone else) to open a new door into a world of possibility!! let's do it - have a wonderful weekend. teejay

a new blue door/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

what i see when i look down

in my book, Personal Proverbs & Hasty Haiku, i wrote: "The act of creating Art is often difficult. One must do something again & again before it becomes Art."

if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if practice makes perfect, then how do we know if and when what we are creating is beautiful and/or perfect? it seems to me that there are so many beautiful things in this world (i'm not going to address all the ugly and mean things just now) but not too much in the way of perfection - so, imperfection must be the order of the day, indeed sometimes it is all we can aspire to, insomuch as it is in the striving that we suffer and learn and create something worthwhile...

here's what i'm talking about

pink on pavement/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

a far far better thing i do

a woman wears her tears like jewelry...

tis a far far better thing i do than i have ever done before, a far far better place i go to... (ah, close enough) i can still see ronald coleman standing there, wistfully giving that speech at the end of "a tale of two cities" - never read the book, tho....

quotes are great little equalizers - kinda like spouting scripture - it shows you know how to make a point or draw a conclusion - ok enough of that

let's see, i'm posting this on my apple laptop, and i have no images saved to this hard drive, so this will have to be a pictureless post - but i did go to one of my favorite sites tonight, the NASA archives - great images of nebulas and star systems and the moons of saturn (artist-enhanced, most of them, but eye-poppingly gorgeous) and shots of the earth from space and the northern lights - incredible stuff - even google is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the hubble telescope and is hosting a "best photos from hubble" virtual tour (if you download the latest version of google earth, that is) - incredible photos, both there and on the NASA site...

it's after midnight - must be toddling off soon - going to a daffodil potluck to commemorate earth day at a place called hay house farm (not to be confused with louise hay and her hay house biz) i made a 3-bean salsa (black beans, garbanzo & pigeon peas with onion, tomatoes and some vinaigrette, with a little turmeric and mrs dash tossed in for good measure) and i bought some tortilla chips - i really wanted to make this potato tian (kind of like scalloped potatoes or au gratin) with Gruyere cheese - mmmmmm - but i'll make that another time for my next social event

so - another day, another reason to blog!

happy earth day (yesterday)

springtime/photo by tjgoogins 2010/all rights reserved

well, here they are, my little daffodils - pretty, aren't they? can't seem to fall asleep (it's 3 am) so i'll write a little bit

today (or, yesterday) was earth day (april 22) so it's fitting that i should post these flower photos in honor of our planet, good old Earth, the big blue marble, love it or leave it... oh, wait, can't do that, so let's love it and take care of it - i know, i know, it's not taking care of us, what with earthquakes and volcanoes and floods and tornadoes and blizzards and hurricanes and such - but that's how it is on planets with an active core of molten rock and stuff... at least it's nice the rest of the time!!

i went back to the place where i bought the cool postcards and i bought more!!! and they had put out lots of new ones that weren't there before!! oh, it was heaven! i mean, 10 cents each, how can i not splurge a little?? world war one posters and works of art by people i've never heard of, and abstract photographs... hmmm - maybe i'll scan a couple just to show you how much fun i'm having!

i'm also going to try to upload another image just as an experiment - it's from a clipart CD - just want to see if it will let me import it or not - anyway, that's it for the moment - more later

no TV today

well, here it is - day two of trying to write a daily blog post!!

found some really cool vintage post cards from pomegranate publications at ocean state job lot yesterday - 10 cents apiece!

(i bought 20) some black-and-white, a few in color - there are some interesting images (one is a rhino peering around a corner at the camera; there are two old albumen silver prints from French photographer Eugene Atget, a French farmhouse and a line of boats in a canal on a misty morning; there's a kooky one from the 1930s of a woman sitting on a table holding wooden models of elements like sodium, salt, aluminum and magnesium, etc.)

i still haven't started doing anything today - just talked to a friend on the phone, fed the cats, had coffee - but the good news is, i haven't turned on the TV! if i do that, i will sit down and never get up... i try to watch things that will improve my mind or entertain me in a good way, but then nothing else gets done!! sigh...

so - let me see if there's a nice photo i can leave you with... if not, i'll insert one later... have a great day, all!

Almost Like A Fortune Cookie

Double Amaryllis - photo by T J Googins 2008 - all rights reserved

Written on a Good Earth tea bag tag:
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882

Caution: Do not mistake me for a Tea-Bagger, or Tea Party person, or whatever they are called. Those people, however well-intentioned they may be, are dividing the country instead of uniting it by creating an inflammatory situation when we need more cohesiveness. Times are hard enough without having to listen to a lot of hostile mud-slinging and negative name-calling. We need more level-headed, compassionate people out there trying to change and fix things. More later... can you dig it?

"Ours is a redneck nation that rallies 'round the flag for profits, not for freedom." T J Googins (please don't let this be true...)

In other news, I am so happy that spring is finally here - I will try to take a photo of my daffodils (soon, maybe tomorrow) and share it in another post - in the meantime, here's another harbinger of spring

In the interim, I'm slowly clearing clutter, working on some projects and preparing to write some articles and books - I'd better get busy!!! Happy spring, everybody!

a new year, a new decade

Happy New Year!!

still struggling with same issues as last year - trying to clear the clutter, trying to write, trying to find a steady income (nothing yet) and trying to create a better life - some things have happened since my last post

my stepfather passed away in september - my mom's dealing with a lot of stuff - at least my brother's there to help with some of it

i went home for thanksgiving and got to spend some time with both of them

christmas was nice - had the chance to work a little here and there so the income was helpful

i'm working on a children's book - am going to enter it in a contest - wish me luck!

am finally going to tackle the mess i've created with too much stuff - wish me luck!

more soon, i promise - meanwhile, here's something to look at

golden tree/photo by tjgoogins/2009/all rights reserved