quiltersmuse.com Blog

Your email:

 

“Faith Ringgold: Stories in Quilts and Colors,” is a special exhibit that is offered at the present time, at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, located at 10 Vernon Street, in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont.
A flyer that accompanies the exhibit states that Faith Ringgold will perhaps be most remembered by the following line from her book, Tar Beach:

“Anyone can fly, all you have to do is have somewhere to go that you can’t get to any other way and the next thing you know you’re flying among the stars.”

Growing up in Harlem, Faith clung to her dreams, and her faith paid off. She is the maker of quilts, and the art illustrator of many books. The exhibit is not large, but is poignant, and is well-worth your time and attention.

The museum is open daily, except Tuesday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Three other rooms feature contemporary art ranging from sculptures to paintings, and other art expressions. There is also a very enticing gift shop where the work of artist/quilt artist, Deidre Scherer, is available in notecard form, and where I was able to purchase a CD of one of my favorite Vermont folksinging groups, “Mary MacArthur and Family.” There are many other fine objects for sale in the shop. All in all, it was an enjoyable trip.

For more information, visit: www.brattleboromuseum.org

Pat

Your email:

 

Here in New England, all the leaves are off of the trees and the predominant colors of winter have set in, the browns, and the greys, and the blacks. Soon, Mother Nature will add white to the picture.

On a day like today, with its cold drizzling rain and darkness, one could feel hopeless and bereft. Hibernating for a few months might seem like a great alternative to looking out into the bleak landscape.

I was thinking earlier today about the word, “hopeless,” and what an utterly miserable word it is. I once knew someone who categorically fit that description. Ironically, his name was Mr. Hope. My late brother dubbed him, “Mr. Hopeless.” He was the type of guy that couldn’t be cheered up. If you greeted him with “Isn’t it a great day?” on the prettiest summer day imaginable, he would reply, “Oh, but you have to be careful not to catch a breeze. You really have to watch out for that, you know. You could get sick, even get pneumonia and DIE!”

Heavens, up to that point, we thought we were having a pretty good day, but after meeting this happy fellow, we felt doomed by the breezes of life.

I suppose we never know when a little breeze might catch us, off guard. For that matter, we don’t know if we might choke on a piece of steak, step in front of a Mack truck, or be mauled by a bear, in our own backyard. Life is risky business, and is not for the feint of heart, or the weak of spirit.

Having hope is something to be cultivated. If we give in to hopelessness, that breeze that takes our breath away will arrive even sooner.

How do you want others to perceive you? Are you Mr. or Mrs. Hope, or are you Mr. or Mrs. Hope-less? It’s your choice.

Bad things happen to us. That is certain. However, we have to cling to the hope that tomorrow will be better, and since hopelessness is so contagious, we have to be careful not to spread it around.

Just a thought…and just your choice!

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Pat

Your email:

 

In the U.S., it seems that the winter holidays begin with Halloween. In fact, when I was growing up, one of our neighbors would ask to go into our woods to cut a Hemlock tree, and the family would put the tree in their living room, and decorate it in October. Holding a live tree inside a heated home for two months is asking for trouble. Frankly, it’s a fire hazard.

Thanksgiving is behind us now, and so were a lot of people in the line at the post office today. This year, I got smart and addressed the first round of greeting cards and got together a few packages that will travel across the country, or across the world. I feel ahead of things, although I have more to do.

Everywhere we go, there are suddenly crowds of people shopping to gather items for gifts. The economy would be far worse without this shopping frenzy.

I can’t help but realize that the reason for the holiday of Christmas is often overlooked. For example, a few years ago, I noticed that people were signing their cards, “Happy Xmas.” It’s like we’ve hijacked the remembrance of an important event in history, the birth of the Christ child, and have secularized the day with baubles and doodads, and now, can’t even write the word “Christ” in Christmas.

With church attendance down, and with all the scandals that have been present in both the Episcopal and Catholic churches, not to mention evangelical swindlers that make the news, don’t you sometimes wonder to where Christ has been displaced?

Granted, I came from a home that was religious, even though we did not try to inflict our beliefs on anyone. My parents, particularly my father, was a sincere man of deep faith. Oh sure, we shared gifts at Christmas and that was a part of the holiday that we treasured, but the day and the season were much more than that. Prayer and spiritual preparation were included in getting ready for Christmas.

Today, to mention any type of faith orientation, is perhaps considered old-fashioned, at a time when it is of the utmost importance to be able to purchase a limited edition Play station for a child.

Personally, I respect all who have faith, any faith, and also, those who whose faith it is to have no faith. People have the right to believe as they wish.

I am proud of the religious diversity within my own large, extended family and ancestors. My great grandmother, who was Austrian, was also Jewish, a long kept family secret that was only revealed to me recently. I am equally happy that many members of the family are/were Baptist, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, and Jewish. I hope we all meet up somewhere, someday, in a place beyond the rainbow.

No matter what faith you have, please take a moment to remember the real reasons behind the celebrations, and then, please share that knowledge with your children. We are becoming a nation of people who are so ego-centric, we can’t look beyond ourselves and what we want, and what we want is usually some material object. If you are a Christian, reflect on the simplicity of that first Christmas.

Life is over too soon. I have had friends who have had no faith, and I have had friends who have died, believing that they would be stuck in the ground or incinerated, and that would be “all she wrote.” That idea makes me sad, yet they were so convicted in their beliefs, it would have been folly to try to try to convince them otherwise.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hannukah, or even the newly instituted holiday of Kwaanza, please share the whole meaning of the holiday, with those you love.

Have fun with your holiday preparations. Spread good cheer and remember to smile a lot, particularly at those overworked store clerks who are tired and have sore feet from standing at cash registers. Above all, enjoy yourself and find joy in all of the little things. Remember that even a smile, which costs you nothing, might mean the world to someone else.

Peace,

Pat

Your email:

 

For those who are prone to send out Christmas letters, one word of advice: don’t. Christmas letters are of two varieties: those associated with bragging, and those pain in the neck ones that literally describe in great detail every single bruise, injury, operation, disease, and malady known to man and make one wonder how this all could happen to one extended family.

Now, I’m not saying we don’t care that Renfrew finally graduated summa cum laude, speaks ten languages, and was voted Best Bowler of his graduating class. We salute accomplishments.

We are also not saying that we don’t care that the dog died, the car is making sounds as though it is going to do the same, the rent is due and there’s no money. We care.

My point is this, if we have not heard from these same people all year long, while events were occurring, why are we expected to be thrilled to share every ache, pain, and trip to the dentist, or glorious trip to Austria at the end of the year? Seems that there should be more of a point of connection during the year, so that we would not have to have our Christmas holiday cluttered up with all of these concerns. We care, but could we do so at another time? Do we really know WHO is sending this Christmas greeting?
Never mind -that’s just another one of my stupid rhetorical questions.

By the way, we’ve written our own Christmas letter this year. I hope it is interesting to those who see it. We might even post it online, when the holiday is more close at hand. We had to write it, in self-defense!

For the most part, Christmas cards do a good job of sharing the good will of the season with your fellow man. Just sign your name, put a stamp on the envelope and mail it. You’ll be doing countless people a big favor if you don’t provide an update about the bunion treatment that worked, or how your fingers got broken, in a fall, and you can no longer use them to lift potato chips to mouth.

Disclaimer: This announcement is not directed toward any particular person and the writer is wholly responsible for its content.

Aw, go on. Write a great Christmas letter this year, but please, make it comical, and folks, please send me a copy.

Pat

Your email:

 

I have a delightful and very dear, ninety year old friend. She is dying, or so she has been told repeatedly for several years now. She is on and off of hospice care, and on and off with visiting nurse care. I call her as often as I can, without seeming to be a pest. Her mind is keen, and above all, she has retained a sense of humor.

The other day, after she questioned me about what I’d been “getting into lately,” I asked her how things were going with her. She still lives in her own home. She said, “Well, you know, I have these babysitters every night. In the morning, they have to fill out a log book as to what I have been doing…every little detail.”

She sighed and continued, “This morning, the girl didn’t know what to write, so I said, “Write this down: The client was restless and wanted to drive around all night in my car to look for a street we could walk on, but unfortunately, all the streets had been rolled up.” She laughingly reported that the girl had written that down, as instructed.

Isn’t humor a marvelous thing? For my friend, it has gotten her through the rough spots. No matter how bad anything is, she finds a way to look at the situation in a humorous way. No, “the sky is falling, the sky is falling,” for that spry one!

I sure will miss my friend. I am not ready to lose her yet. Perhaps, I am being selfish about that. I appreciate how she has a way of taking the weight of the world off of my shoulders. They say that laughter is the best medicine.

On my front page, I have a quotation, “Laugh at yourself and you will be forever amused.” Enjoy humor and you will walk with a lighter step.

By the way, watch out for those ninety year olds who aspire to go street walking at night!