I just wanted to give a plug for Kelly Corrigan's new book...LIFT. This is her second book, the first called "The Middle Place", a story about her battle with breast cancer at the same time her father had cancer...and about not being the kid anymore, and coming into adulthood and parenthood and all of the real life struggles that it entails. It is a great book.

Her next one is a letter to her two daughters...I have a clip by her posted on my facebook page, and even 2 minutes of this book made me cry...about how kids shift and change and mature faster and more differently than we expect them to...her 3rd grader does not want the "Mommy time" that she used to...she wants to call her friends, see her friends, email her friends....things that Kelly thought would happen later than 3rd grade.

It makes me think about the fact that kids just pass through our lives, if we get this right...we do not own them, we raise them, to hopefully go out into the world as happy and secure adults, who still want to come home and see us sometimes! I just saw some photos on facebook of a friend named Marie who took her amazing looking teens to go and see a recent John Mayer concert...they all looked so happy and like they had a great time. I hope that when my kids are teens, that they will want to do things with us like that, as well.

Go and buy Kelly's book, it is available on Amazon...anyone who is watching their kids grow with a wistful eye will appreciate it. Makes me think of the song Landslide by Stevie Nicks, with the line that always makes me cry ..."children get older, and I'm getting older too". I am so thankful to have had the chance to become a parent, it is literally the best thing I have ever done. Thank you Julien and Amelie, for being who you both are, I am amazed by you every single day.

Love

I am thinking about love, and all of the forms that it takes...and of the people, near and far, past and present, whom I have loved and cared about. I am thinking about people who recently lost their spouses, Merrill and Ruth, and how short this life really is, and how hard this day must be for them, alone. I am thinking about how love can be the most complicated with the people that are closest to us, how sometimes we are kinder to strangers than to our families or friends. I am thinking about Charles, whom I have been with for 13 years now, and how I am so thankful that we have this big love and shared vision of a life together...how it just works. I am thinking about my kids, who made us huge Valentine cards this morning, so happy, so innocent, so full of love. I am thinking about single people today, and hope that they find love, if that is what they are looking for. I am thinking about my Mom, my sister, my grandmother...my family. Aude, in England, whom I wish was with us today...my in laws...all of us so spread out. I am thinking about my female friendships that bring me more than I can even express. I am thinking about how lucky I am to have so much love in my life.

Mostly I am thinking about how we only really have today, this minute, as we have no idea what the future will bring. So, love one another. It is simple, really. xoxox

MADE SHOP, Kutztown, PA

Just had to give a plug for a new shop that opened in Kutztown recently, called

"MADE SHOP"...I saw a great article about it last week in the Reading Eagle, and I know the couple that opened it, Dave Jones went to Kutztown with me, he and his wife Tess Doran are both artists, and have filled this shop with what looks like museum quality arts and crafts...

I can not wait to go and see it...eat at Snuzzles, shop at Rennigers, and stop at MADE SHOP.

If you want to check out their blog, the address is

www.madeshop.blogspot.com/

I wish them luck, and can not wait to go and see this store...the address is 227 West Main Street, Kutztown, PA...everyone knows that I am a big fan of charming Kutztown, and here is one more thing to make it even better!

Rashmee's Art

I just had to share this amazing painting that I just saw on the blog of a friend that I made when I lived in France, her name is Rashmee Pal Chouteau, she is from India but now lives in Le Mans, France, where I used to live, with her French husband and child. Her artwork is amazing!!! This is a painting that she did for a magazine in the Netherlands...I love her art, and I love Holland, so I had to share this...I have photos somewhere of her cool house that I had visited when I lived in France, she is one of those people who makes every single little corner of her living space look interesting and inviting. I hope I get to see her again one day soon, but thank you to Facebook for reconnecting me to her.

Inertia

I am feeling a terrible sense of inertia. I read a little quip by the singer Carly Simon, saying that the thing she dislikes about herself is her "paralysing tendency towards inertia"...and boy, can I relate. It made me feel marginally better that even someone like her can feel this, too. I spoke to my friend Cara this morning, and she said that most people, unless they are hyper motivated, are like this too. I feel like the more I have to do, the more I accomplish, but when a huge open day is before me, it is gone, wasted, toast, before I even know it.

I also am pondering foul moods that are inexplicable. Where do they come from, is it the moon, hormones, fatigue, brain chemicals, what? This photo I took last summer on the finger lakes in NY, of a stormy patch coming on, is an apt image of my current turbulance, my inert, rather foul mooded turbulance. I guess that all we can do when this happens is press on, move forward, and get through the day. I also know that if my house were clean, I would feel better.

I worked at a home for mentally ill adults for a long time, called Gheel House, in Kimberton, PA. Gheel was named after a town in Gheel, Belgium, where long ago, people with differences were embraced and made part of the community, rather than hidden away or institutionalized. Anyway, the phiosophy of Gheel is that of Rudoplh Steiner, he was an Austrian Philosopher who founded a spiritual movement called "Anthroposophy"...interesting stuff, look it up(this is also the basis of Waldorf Education). Anyway, I remember hearing something he said once, that a person's external environment is a manifestation of their internal life. That being said, my house is a mess, and perhaps some of this angst will cease if I go and clean it now.

Serendipity

Is THAT not a great word, a great concept? What is serendipity to you? I remember a French woman in Paris speaking to me, her name is Evelyn, and she worked with my sister in law, Aude, when she lived there. She loved this word, and asked me what it meant to me, and she believed in the magic of it's power.

There are different definitions on the web, but it basically means that you make a desirable discovery by accident...like my Dream which led me to my stamps paintings, in my last (and first!) blog entry...I also like Wiki's definition ..."the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate while looking for something entirely unrelated". I think that my life has held very many serendipitous moments, there are there like little shining jewels, if we only take the time to notice. Tell me about the serendipity in your life...

I think that meeting my French husband held a lot of serendipity...he is quiet, I am loud, he is solitary, I am a social beast, he is Catholic, I am Quaker, he is serious, I am crazy, he is reserved, I am out there...on paper we would have never, ever worked...but 13 years later, 2 crazy cool kids later, 2 countries later, 6 moves later, a dog and a cat and lots of ups and downs later, I still feel that meeting him was a very fortunate accident...like most of the relationships and friendships I have had. A lovely series of accidental meetings that have made my life so full.

The Dream

So, I want to tell you about THE DREAM. Firstly, this all has to do with stamps. I love stamps, and have collected them for a really long time, and have longed to do cool art with them. Only, no cool art happened when I tried, only mediocre art.

So, THE DREAM. In early 2009, I dreamed that I was in an art gallery somewhere, and the walls were filled with these bright watercolor, pen and ink pieces of art, and they all had stamps in them, done in little squares. I loved them SO MUCH in my dream. I loved them so much in the dream that I went outside into an alley beside the gallery, and in the dream I sobbed, sobbed that I was not the person who had done these paintings. SO, the next day I woke up, and did a painting like the ones I had seen in my dream. The first one has all LOVE stamps in it, and I was so happy that I finally found something cool to do with stamps and art. I have not seen anything else like it, which I also love!

I adore old letters, cards, stamps. I have nearly every letter that has ever been written to me, and I always look through boxes of old post cards when I go to farmers markets or flea markets...I love ones from 1923, with the thin curly black fancy writing, and the stamp that was one cent...the post mark, and then I do more dreaming, about the person who wrote that card, who they were, where they were, what they were doing. I just love them.