i identify tonight as the Beginning of my present self.   actually, it was sometime at the end of October, 2009….but i didn't really realize it fully until November. 

some time around then, i dared to make my first comment on Spirit Cloth.  actually, it was the first comment on a               blog           .   and  i remember saying that i knew my life would change.  and this has turned out to be true.  Truer than i could ever have guessed.

and over time, i have watched as things have woven together from long long ago through the days to the present in the form of cloth making.  the other day, when i took that pic of the three things on the wall  "for Helen",  i wondered about it.   Why did i do that?  hmmm.  and then today, i knew. 

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i found this piece of shell at a yard sale in Ann Arbor Michigan  around 40 years ago.  it was in a shoebox of Free Stuff.  little bits of broken jewelry,  buttons.  i couldn't believe my eyes.  but i also didn't ask if it was some kind of mistake.  i just set it on the card table  when i paid for other things then picked it up and left.  holding it…just as in the pic above. 

it has been in many places since but always near.  most recently, on the wall as you see it in that pic.

today over at Magic Diaries,  Jude talks about eyes.   since i can first remember, which was when i was maybe 3,  i have had a thing for eyes.  everything has eyes.  eyes of a sort.  but eyes.  i have drawn eyes more than anything else all my life.   eyes are where Life shows Itself.  if you look for eyes,  you can know things about what is happening. 

there is that reflection of light in a living eye.  if the thing is dead, it doesn't reflect.  i remember studying this in dead things i found and buried when i was very young.  i studied this.  like a scientist even though i was a very young child.  i have always been interested in what Life is and what is  non life.  and what the difference is.  and why.

so eyes.

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can?i put Her kind of eyes in this cloth?  how?  should i?

 

 

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17 responses to “an anniversary/birth day/celebration of becoming?????”

  1. Valerianna Avatar

    Fascinating… never knew that about live eyes and dead eyes…. that’s really – something .
    Look forward to seeing where this goes. Hope you’re asking the universe these last questions, cause I sure don’t know what to answer!

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  2. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    well…until i typed the words, i didn’t really realize
    the significance of the question i guess. why?, have i
    never done anything with these eyes, these Shell Eyes? as you can see, i got a dremel some years ago so i could make those two little teeny holes, so i could WEAR Her. under
    my shirt. never on the outside. but it wasn’t right.
    so, didn’t. i have stared at Her. held Her. put Her
    here and there. sometimes outside, too. for long months.
    and i really don’t know still, who she is. to me.

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  3. deb Avatar

    I recall you stitched a moth a while ago and the eyes made all the difference. You know eyes.

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  4. handstories Avatar

    my first comment was on spritcloth, too. it was the first blog i ever read. my sister says she had sent me blog links before, but i didn’t understand, or want to, before spiritcloth.
    She is beautiful. for me it’s the whole face-eyes, mouth, eyebrows- being able to see what’s really going on behind the words. which is why the phone & writing can be so hard for me, and there are those people who do not let theirselves into their faces- I try to avoid them. i see faces in everything, and now my boys do too-that makes me so happy.

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  5. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i WANT to know eyes…………..

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  6. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    i had looked at some others and couldn’t understand what
    blogging was. couldn’t understand the meaning of this
    computer thing.
    i understood when i saw Spirit Cloth.
    “let theirselves into their faces”
    i sometimes look at the small image of Jude in the
    Magic Diaries Introduction…it is so tender, so very REAL.
    your boys. a great gift, Cindy, to the boys. maybe the
    greatest gift you can possibly give them. yes.
    The Greatest Gift you can possibly give them.

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  7. Suzanna Avatar

    In each photo she seems to be saying something different…I think she must hold all expressions, like a wishing well…

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  8. jude Avatar

    i watched my dog die along time ago. she was still and i wasn’t sure what was happening. her eyes were open and i watched the light go out. or in and away as i remember. i remember it always.

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  9. jude Avatar

    ah she is that woman. this is the face. your eyes are more human. mine seem always to be stylized. it will be fun to share eyes as a group. shared vision.

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  10. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    was just over at Diaries and yes…you DO have a certain
    gift for what might be said to be stylized eyes…
    to me, these are Universal Eyes that ARE human but also
    everything else. like Life eyes.
    i can’t believe how exciting this is…
    WHAT MAKES JUST THE OH SO SUBTLE DIFFERENCE in the
    story a “still life” eye tells…..
    oh YaaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. oh LA! this is the BEST.
    and
    it is all such an enormous Well of Metaphor, this whole
    investigation. i just get all crazy when i feel like a
    scientist. ok. am going to go breathe for a while.

    Like

  11. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    What a stunningly beautiful shell!.. What a face, those eyes!! She is all knowing. She SEES all around her..She is concentrating on one thing and watching what is going on around her as well. A wise spirit indeed. ox

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  12. Mo Crow Avatar

    wow! those eyes have seen a lot! no wonder you have such deep vision Grace, with those extra eyes you have found many a new and unexpected world!

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  13. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes. out? in? away?
    for me, 2 dogs, a cat, a flicker and two human beings.
    it most seemed like
    away

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  14. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    and that’s interesting..
    context………..

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  15. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    what i THINK i see is that she sees everything
    as equal.
    no judging, no opinion. just looking

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  16. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    Mo…thanks for the reassurance. but deep vision…no.
    i just really love to look.

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  17. Tammy Avatar

    Well just spending some time over in the blog world and read this post out your most recent ones and felt the need to post a comment. I was surprised to read my words on your blog .. which just means I could have written the part about doing eyes and being fascinated with eyes my whole life. I have always had a thing for eyes. I can draw them upside down .. i know that sounds really silly but when your young you think things like that are important. haha… anyway .. I love always to see what your up too… and love your eyes and love your shell with the eyes. I would feel like I’d found a treasure just as you did. Amazing what some discard others treasure. Eye to eye .. I see you .. 🙂

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