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to “have in common”

what do these images have in common.  what is it that threads them together in my mind, in my life?  003

001

002

003

another rhetorical question.

yesterday,  daughter Jenny and i drove the many miles to East Mountains in th gigunda 4 wheel drive Silverado borrowed from the Old Cowboy.   we took 5 goats to the goat show.  above, is Amelia who won reserve grand champion for junior does.    i wish i would have been able to focus differently and tell you numbers, but i didn't so just can say that there were MANY people and MANY MORE goats than people and a goat show is an  I N T E N S E  event.  it has to "move along" at an orderly clip and if there is anything goats are Not interested in     it's moving along at an orderly clip.  my job was to keep track of 3 or so goats at a time while one was being judged.   so i sat on the ground with a long lead that had several collar clips which made it difficult to photograph everything.  actually, these were the only 2 photos i took.    after all was said and done, there was an enormous potluck barbque and after that,  we hooked up a 2 horse trailer that Jenny bought and

set out for home

here is where the above images begin to relate and i am still watching.   it has to do with life Occuring, with how we all choose from the Myriad Possibilities and  CHOOSE  which will Hold our meaning,   our purpose for particular segments of our life's journey.    i will say here that i was      Afraid  about hooking up that horse trailer, about driving those many miles in a relatively unfamiliar huge truck on this new mexico freeway that is similar to a vehicular rodeo.   before i left home at 5am i had put 2 drops of the Joyous Warrior under my tongue and as i pulled out from the ranch where the show was,  i thought about Cindy's ..Handstories… aunt who was a cowgirl.   and when i got  home, finally, early evening, all of us safe and sound,  Jenny, the goats, the trailer at her house, and me finally here,  i looked long at this large cloth on the wall,  this cape of What's Next and        oddly enough,   saw it all as part of some one very very large Thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

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39 responses to “to “have in common””

  1. jude hill Avatar
    jude hill

    i always wee space and a sense of horizon in your compositions.

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  2. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    Love seeing these images together. Possibilities, choices, meaning…very powerful things. And I would have been afraid to make that drive too, haven’t driven a car in over two years. 🙂 Got to soon, or I’ll be afraid to do that too.

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  3. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    Grandma Rosee would’ve been proud! You are a cowgirl (or should we call you goatgirl). I love how you share your fear and conquering and make us all feel a little braver, in cloth & in life. I’ve had your bursts of light in my head for a couple of days now, need to write about it, but busy stitching…xxx

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  4. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    hadn’t thought of this, but….personal symbols.

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  5. jude hill Avatar
    jude hill

    yes

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  6. nance Avatar
    nance

    glad you can see that is is coming together. it all seems to reflect the you that i know… on a level that has no words yet. so i’m glad its a rhetorical question. so relieved that it all went well at the goat show..congratulations to jennie and her goat! i don’t know what a reserve grand champion is … a reserve wine… well that i know!

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  7. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    I’m sorry. Every time I come here to leave a relatively straight faced serious comment I wind up snickering over Jude’s typo. It gets funnier the more times I read it.

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  8. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Fear is a funny thing. i learned a lot about it from
    this experience. and i guess Possibilities and Choices
    are funny things too.
    i had to “re-view” a lot to reach the point of following
    through on agreeing to haul this horse trailer. i said
    i would. but…then, both Jenny and i knew i might not
    be able to follow through. first, it wasn’t my truck.
    if i’d told the Old Cowboy what we were going to do, he
    would have been a nervous wreck. i didn’t tell him.
    i take the truck relatively often to just drive it. he hasn’t driven for about 5 years. he bought it new in
    1995. it has 32,000 miles on it. so you can tell.
    anyway
    when the person i was married to here died in 2005, it
    took a long time for the 911 energy to dwindle. and
    somewhere in that time, i’d made the decision to never again agree to do anything because someone else said it
    was no big deal. i made the decision to simplify my life.
    to …. well, simplify my life.
    and i did. totally. and it’s a very very good life.
    BUT. things change. unless we choose to live a life that
    includes no other person’s changes too, we will be faced
    with more decision making. who’dve guessed. alas.
    and what i realized about this event is that i had gotten
    so far away from the person i used to be…the one before
    this crazy husband person. the one who evaluated risks
    and actually, thoughtfully and consciously TOOK some.
    Took Many, really. not carelessly, but thoughtfully.
    so…with this trailer hauling, i have actually re-claimed
    parts of my self that had been damaged. i will look at
    all that now. who am i still, and what do i want to claim?

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  9. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    why did i call her Aunt Rosie????? hmmmm. i still want
    to call her Aunt Rosie. maybe i will. she would be like
    a sister to me. no…cowgirl. we were talking about
    Ranch Women in that first conversation. how i admire and
    honor Ranch Women most of all the women i see in my world.
    and it is still true. the Goat Show was at the Place of
    a Ranch Woman who raises goats. her husband raises cattle
    and horses. they have a huge place. she is not the most pleasant person, really. President of the SouthWest
    Nigerian Goat Association. but….
    having been born into ranching…she is no nonsence. she
    gets done what needs to get done. so…i respect that too.
    For real, Cindy. i thought of Gramma/Aunt Rosie when i
    set out.

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  10. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    well…it’s just GOOD. very very good. it means that
    you have watched your herd closely and bred well. corrected flaws and improved your herd. i am beyond
    proud of Jenny. which is part of the reason i am looking at all these things. she reminds me of how i used to
    be. funny. for a while i had come to think that i’d been
    uhhhh, irresponsible. maybe not.

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  11. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i’d gotten over that, but with your comment, i am
    laughing again. i like it that she doesn’t care. never
    excuses herself or corrects.

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  12. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    god/dess i tried so hard to let it go because, really, it was perfectly clear what she meant. but. its. funny.

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  13. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    I had already figured that you wanted her to be your aunt-what matters is her spirit, however she’s labeled. There’s a few Ranch Women on all sides of my family- a great grandma cattle rancher, aunt norma (married to leroy brown (who I KNOW that song was written about) on another cattle ranch- grew up watching her kids in rodeos. toughness is the word that comes to mind- yes, doing what you gotta do- i like that too.
    and reading up above, about fear & reclaiming- i cheered for you and your spirit as i read it. much love to you

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  14. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    well, i call her Aunt because i feel sisterly to her.
    and well again, sometimes we just want to take it easy.
    and that’s nice for a while. but Life asks us to live
    it fully. and we can say yes or no.

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  15. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    Definitely your aunt, Rosee would be over ninety if she were still alive.

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  16. Suzanna Avatar
    Suzanna

    Yes Grace, congratulations to you and Jennie, and Amelia, who is very beautiful…and thank you for telling about this experience…I wish I could have been there at the Goat Event.

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  17. nance Avatar
    nance

    glad you can see that now.

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  18. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    just glancing out of the corner of my eye…it’s a
    big thing.

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  19. nance Avatar
    nance

    ok… i have looked and looked at that longest vertical piece in the weaving… it seems transparent in places. the way you have placed it in combination with the other pieces. i am trying to decide if it is just laid on top or maybe just under one of the horizontal… its quite mysterious. the whole weaving is actually. trying to look at some of the individual fabrics…. but it all works together to form some type of landscape maybe from a memory… quite ethereal and mesmerizing.

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  20. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    nance…thank you SO much for these words.
    it’s that same cloth, the oh so loved Rayon from that
    frumpy thriftshop skirt. same cloth as i used for
    the second window hanger for Wendy’s kids.
    it is truly amazing cloth. and, it’s just laid on top.
    two of the horizontal strips are from you.
    i love this cloth a LOT. it again was the result of
    trying and trying to make something happen that just didn’t want to happen and then just sitting there, staring at it all and suddenly, re-arranging, taking out and putting in and it became, all of a sudden something uhhh,
    something that “sang”. and i glanced over and
    looked upon Deb L’s orb piece which had been in so many places in the time i’ve had it…a year? maybe? or so
    and put the two together and THERE IT WAS.
    what it has taught me is that i AM learning something about process, about how it is that i work with cloth and that decisions i make are ok…like loving to use that rayon.
    xxxoooXO

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  21. nance Avatar
    nance

    again, grace, i am so glad that you see that… like what jude was talking about being on a blog or out there in front of people…. it all seems so organized like you knew what your were doing with every strip, placing it just so and voila there it is. but we know its not like that and we have doubts as to whether we can even do it at all but it all comes together and we see that we can. oh its a cycle that i am familiar with and really isn’t everyone who is an artist? you are doing good work on lots of levels. i am so glad we are both studying with jude at the same time and we have sooo many other good and fine artists studying with us too. xoxoXO!

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  22. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    it began with me wanting to do something in that blank space under the Lightning and above the frog eggs. i was watching everyone’s weaving going on and thought YES! a weave! but then…oh, NOT! i didn’t work at all. so i just took that whole 9 patch away from the Ligntning piece (replaced it with another blank one that i’m watching again now) and began seeing what it was
    as it stood alone.
    I JUST LOVE ALL THIS MORE THAN I CAN SAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  23. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    Something about the colors you choose – the grays, then you add in things that glow.
    all together they make atmosphere – or their own atmosphere – a sense of strange weather
    I always see that.
    So glad you made the goat adventure – I like the photos of her face so close – like she was watching over you rather than the other way around. Wonder what all the animals were thinking!

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  24. Tammy Avatar
    Tammy

    I always enjoy reading your stories and yes fear does have a funny way of creeping in but so nice that you found that you wanted to reclaim old parts of yourself .. sounds like that’s what Jude’s doing too on her blog today about ghosts. I feel the same in many ways. I married the first man I ever dated over thirty years ago and even though we are not still together it has taken me these ten long years to find out things about myself that I never knew. I have ups and downs like most people but I do like where I am today… right here at this moment. So nice to read your words.

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  25. KaiteM. Avatar
    KaiteM.

    hi grace, just checkin in to say g’day to you and Amelia, she’s got nice eyes.

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  26. helen lee Avatar
    helen lee

    Reserve Grand Champion is hugely proud~making. My step~mum used to show pedigree sheep until fairly recently. Her brain for breeding is like a computer…amazing to witness. A very big YAY to Jenny and Amelia…..and to you for courage and reclaiming.
    I love your process with this cloth.

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  27. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    grace….not to change the subject or nothin’, but is the address on the giftie from you the correct one?
    i love this piece, the whole darn thing, and i can’t wait to see more…more…more….
    my husband changed me too…because he would never change….then i got therapy, he took a ‘be a good husband’ class, and life got a little better. but i am still changed.

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  28. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    you would have really liked it. they are quite an amazing
    group of people, these goat people. a lot of the younger
    ones also home school, so their kids are involved also.

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  29. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    susan…before Amelia goes off to a new herd, i will take
    more pics of her eyes. the markings around them are
    really amazing.
    what they were thinking???, well goats are very interesting and i don’t really know anything near everything about them at all, but what seems to be true is
    that they are very much in the NOW. they participate fully in the moments as each arrive and then when that’s over, they participate in the next. as in no looking back.
    they are really wonderful creatures.
    that atmosphere…i think about the why of it too and i guess it’s just how i experience that world out there

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  30. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i would like to say that things come when we are ready to accept them. a lot of times it seems like that…????
    but also, i think there is a constant wish for things
    to just ……… float along?
    and is that a good thing? or ……

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  31. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    g’day to you Kaite. she does. she does have nice eyes.
    xoxo

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  32. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    buzz…yes. Proud Making. these goats have to do with way more than goats. they are dairy goats and Nigerian
    Dairy….to be specific. they are small compared to the
    Nubian, say….less need to Consume and more able to provide milk, cheese, butter. they are, beside about themselves, about a Life Choice that will be necessary here in this country. there is an enormous need to downsize. to make do with less and too, to realize that
    life then can become More.
    Jenny has maybe been some like your step mum. she has
    studied her goats and bred for the best milk producing.
    this is something i never could have done, but to her,
    it’s just a kind of “going”. that’s the really interesting thing about the “shows”…the judges talk about
    the goats general conformation, and with dairy, a lot about their mammary system…which makes a huge difference
    if you are milking.

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  33. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes. correct address…but no need to send anything.
    i am just happy to see those great pics of your family.
    well…changes. sometimes the ones we love are the most
    challenging?…and i think really, our lives are all about
    our OWN response to whatever arises. always would be
    nice and loving and good if the response of those around us were for the Well Being of the Whole…but that’s rare.
    xoxo

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  34. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    way to rare. unfortunately, i learned that all he {my man} learned was from his father, who figures that children are not to be heard, seen, or dealt with. seems his mom felt that way too, so what are you gonna do? i just wish i had more tact and was able to show him a better way of seeing the world…i mean, saying things like ‘you are going to die a lonely man’ are not exactly a subtle way of showing the way.
    i know i don’t have to send anything, but a little thing made itself and whispered your name in my ear….

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  35. Drucilla Pettibone Avatar
    Drucilla Pettibone

    grace, this post means much to me, as a lover of animals and those who tend them … and also because there’s something else i Have to do now, over the next month or so, not something i want to do, and it will take me away from my stitching and spinning… i have stopped taking risks in the last few years, but this is one i must take… your post comforts me because it shows me that there are relationships and meaning still to be found in what i must attend to, even though it feels very unrelated to my loves. but i can do it with care, and then bring that back to the cloth. and not stress too much because the cloth will still be there.

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  36. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    maybe your children and grandchildren will show him a different way…those pics of him and the new baby…~

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  37. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Dru..we will await your return. and yes. the cloth will still be where you leave it….
    xoxo

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  38. Drucilla Pettibone Avatar
    Drucilla Pettibone

    thank you for saying this grace!! although i think i’ve decided not to go, after all. ❤

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  39. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    sometimes just choosing to make the decision is enough.
    glad you will stay.
    xoxo

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