An Old Year Passes | New Things in the New Year

 

Best wishes of the 2018 Yule Season!

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food
and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home."

Edith Sitwell

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I am hoping for new things in 2019. Writing mostly . . . but also some things made.

A fantastical picture book of a typospherian nature.

A starting, finally, on an SF novel that's been over 30 years in the imagining.

 

A mystery novel involving a carillon!
[Hopeman Memorial Carillon, University of Rochester]

I'll be reviving this blog as I progress. There are old stories to update and new stories to tell. And, if things go well, some announcements to share!

“Life rises out of death, death rises out of life;
in being opposite they yearn to each other,
they give birth to each other and are forever reborn.
And with them, all is reborn,
the flower of the apple tree, the light of the stars.
In life is death. In death is rebirth. What then is life without death?
Life unchanging, everlasting, eternal?
What is it but death-death without rebirth?”

―  Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore, 1972

Go In Beauty

Navajo Ceremonial Basket
[Source]

Some many years ago I came upon the novels of Tony Hillerman.* I was less struck by the stories, which were wonderfully plotted and written, as I was by the encompassing ambiance. These many years later I can only recall what was the underlying mantra of that world: Go in Beauty.

There are variations on the poem/blessing. Here are two: 

Walk in Beauty

I walking in beauty before me
I walking in beauty behind me
I walking in beauty from the bottom of my feet
on this Mother Earth to the top of my head
all the way up to the heavens and the universe
All around me I walking in beauty
Therefore I exist in beauty
All is beautiful again
All is beautiful again
All is beautiful again
All is beautiful again

[Source]

Walking In Beauty (Blessing)

Today I will walk out, today everything unnecessary will leave me,
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.  

[Source]

Earlier this year my Beloved Spousal Unit and I had to move, unexpectedly and within a short time frame. We decided to look for house instead of continuing to rent. After a stressful 2.5 weeks, when we looked at many houses and found the market was decidedly a sellers' market, we found a small 1925-era bungalow we could just afford. 

It had been entirely rehabbed which means we aging types would only need to keep it up rather than do the rehabbing ourselves.  As we frantically downsized, we decided to take advantage of this new opportunity to reshape our daily lives a bit.

Maple in autumn, from my new office window.

We had, packed away, wedding gifts from long ago, artworks we had no place to display, colorful, beautiful things that we loved but rarely used. The phrase go in beauty came to my mind. And the notion that now is all we have.

So we will look to do, be, and walk in beauty.
We will use the beautiful things we have, were given, and have made. 

 We planted an herb garden.

We have made welcoming spaces.

 

 We have welcomed people in and shared food we have all made,

served on our "good" china and our everyday ware.

 

 We've entertained passers-by.

We miss our last home. . .

But we're settling in and it is becoming familiar once again.

________________________________________________________

* For more information on Mr. Hillerman and his writing, see The Tony Hillerman Portal, An interactive guide to the author's life and work. A project of the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico Libraries.

A Few More Encouraging Words

Image source

The spelling of the author's name (Vonnegut) is wrong, 

but the sentiment is straight on!

Times After

I'm a nut for dinosaurs.  I am often asked why.  It's not the animals themselves, though they are awesomely awesome.  It's the idea that dinosaurs are our very own extraterrestrials: our own alien species.  Our planet was their homeworld, and now they are no more.

At some point, it's likely another species will replace us on the Terra Homeworld.  I don't find that depressing.  It fills my imagination of what things will be like then in the same way I imagine, regarding dinosurs, what it their then was like.

The History Channel has been airing a series titled Life After People that explores the great "what ifs" about our homeworld after we've moved on.

The Washington Monument 500 years later - from Life After People.

Photographer and blogger James D. Griffioen has posted several poignant and evocative images series on houses and buildings after they've been abandoned.  Trees, vines, and all manner of greenery slowly reclaim  the structures.  You can listen to an interview with Griffioen at American Public Media's the story, April 14, 2009.

Author Alan Weisman has published a book titled The World Without Us (NY: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007; ISBN: 978-0312427900).  His website for the book has this description:

"In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."

 

Portion of timeline featured on Weisman's website for The World Without Us.

VIDEO: Your House Without You

[from the YouTube description]: "In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."