Love and kisses
Couldn’t resist buying a book of stamps that’s bright red, has a big heart in the background and a candy kiss in the foreground.
Sure couldn’t hurt to bring a little more love in …
In memory
From a news report:
“Sidney Sheldon, who won awards in three careers, Broadway theater, movies and television, and who at age 50 turned to writing best- selling novels about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men, has died. He was 89.”
Wow. The man who wrote Rage of Angels has died. That book made such an impact on me. At a time before I discovered “literature,” when Nancy Drew and then Danielle Steele books were mostly what kept me engrossed, along came Sidney Sheldon’s smart, classy heroine and powerful storytelling skills. I even fantasized about being a lawyer after reading that book, so compelling was Jennifer Parker, his main character.
It’s amazing that that one book was just a tip of the iceberg in his distinguished career. Thanks, Sidney.
Art matters
Sometimes I wonder why in life coaching and in life I am so drawn to creatives or wanna-be creatives. Today I am not wondering.
Oprah showed a segment on 14 families in Charlotte, North Carolina who adopted children from Liberia. Interesting in and of itself, but the fascinating part is how it happened — music. A group of orphan boys was giving a concert in their town. One woman there, a mother of two, heard what she called a message from God telling her she should adopt two of those boys. Everyone, including her husband, thought she was crazy at first. But then her friends went to see the boys perform and were similarly touched. It set off a chain reaction of adoptions.
Yes, I cried.
Later I read Anna Quindlen’s wonderful piece in Newsweek about the movie Freedom Writers and how a teacher used writing to release a world inside of troubled teen-agers who seemed unreachable. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16608254/site/newsweek/) It was so touching and inspiring and it certainly convinced me to see the movie.
Art can do wondrous things.
Connection
Today I spent three hours talking to someone I just met. I’m confident we could have spent another three.
It is so special to make that kind of connection. Makes me wonder what it is exactly that sets the stage for that kind of comfort level. A vibe? Chemistry?
My gut tells me to stop analyzing it and know that life brings us things for good reason. Love that.
Warm thoughts
My apartment is cozy again. What never ceases to amaze me after having no heat is how absolutely fabulous it feels when things are back to normal.
Pure joy.
Paper wisdom
My fortune cookie message today:
The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Yep. I’ve always been a big fan of that one.
The big chill
Coldest night of the year.
No heat.
‘Nuff said.
Yes, Virginia
From Virginia Woolf, An Inner Life by Julia Briggs:
” … A Room [of One's Own] was drafted in a single month (March 1929), and then heavily revised: ‘It made itself up & forced itself upon me … as I lay in bed after Berlin … at such a rate that when I got pen & paper I was like a water bottle turned upside down. The writing was as quick as my hand could write.’”
Hail Olympia
A weathered, creased print of Manet’s Olympia has lived on my bedroom wall for nearly eight years. I found her in an antique store in Hoboken called Fat Cat which no longer exists. I fell in love with her immediately and bought her for under $20, she in her non-descript frame and worn cardboard.
Well, a few months ago she fell off the wall because the cardboard couldn’t hold any longer. There was nowhere to affix the hardware to hang her on the wall. I brought her to a framer and started asking myself questions about whether this battered print was worth the investment of a mat and new frame.
I told this story to a man in a cafe, explaining how I loved the print and how it was a highlight of my recent trip to Paris that I saw the real, breathtaking Olympia at the Musee D’Orsay. She is a high level prostitute known for her frank gaze and and Manet captured her in beautiful detail. She is also one of several pieces of art in my bedroom that features a lounging woman, I recounted to the man.
The more I spoke to him, the more I realized I had my answer. Of course I should make the investment. If I can spend 20 minutes talking about a piece of art, if it means that much to me, it’s worth preserving in a nice frame. Duh.
So Olympia went back on the bedroom wall last night. She is shown off perfectly in a light mat and black frame. She’s home.
She’s home!
Job well done
I have been working so hard on a grant application this month that I think I should reward myself somehow. It’s what I would tell my life coaching clients to do. Hmmmmmm.
A massage?
A new book?
A dinner splurge?
Shoes?
Ah, the possibilities …
