what to say here. 

a perfect day.  and it's not finished yet.  which makes it even more perfect.  i will put this here and then have at least 2 hours yet.  Outside.  i already know what i want to do.

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part of the Perfectness was sewing since morning.   Stitching is a powerful thing.  it "rights" everything.  it creates a smooth movement in my Brain, almost a rocking from Left to Right that creates a strong flow of energy that affects everything.  on Sunday when Wind was 65/70 mph and the metal fence post, t post, jammed into my ribs,  there was significant residual uhhh, not pain, but discomfort.  Stitching today, that corrected, even.  and i was "taken in".  So…This is?/was? supposed to be one of the two first altar cloths.  and as i worked on it, i thought all the while about what altar cloth is/was.  i think i would use the term Spirit Cloth, really…but that seems to be taken.   and Cindy claimed this one instantly but i told her to wait.  i think she was responding to the ringed oval, which my guess is that it reminds her of the rings on the apple tree that was taken down.  i said..wait.  you don't know what it might end up looking like.  and i didn't either.  and here we are today and i still have no idea what's next.  and as i worked, i thought about how this didn't seem really like an Altar Cloth.  if i googled altar cloth, i think i would expect something different.  so i don't know what to say.

001f

i flooded the base of the Apricot Tree.  This is an altar.  an altar to a great grandmother expecting her great grandson last year.  the year i became real as Old Nana.

003f
and this was on the ground.  what IS it?  a wing?, a hair comb?, a goat scratcher?  something to place on the little Child Buddha altar of the Cairn.

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and as i walked out,  the first time,  after stitching all day , in response to Them calling me, i glanced over at this.  i don't know what it is.  but i like things like this.  i like that they are rusted metal.  and i like that they had some specific purpose that someone created them for.  so this hangs on the post of the porch at the first step.  and when i stood there, listening to the Goats calling, felt the Air, the warmth, the heat….i had a flood of sensation.  in my feet.  in my legs.  in my body.  in my face.  in my heart/mind.  a flood of sensation that told me of how much i love my life.  really really LOVE it.  we are on the brink, the edge, of seasons days to come where the Intensity of It All will unfold.  Day unto day.  and i was flooded with Love for it.

 

 

 

 

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28 responses to “28th”

  1. handstories Avatar

    oh, the continuing rings! the apple tree, marriage, hypatia, time and growth- tree rings hold many many things for me. i think there is wonderful wonder in the not knowing, and the watching, and waiting.

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  2. Jan Avatar
    Jan

    grace, the cloth is beautiful and imbued with spirit. I am thinking about altar and how we have carried them over time. the first one may have been a stone, a branch, a shell. . .placed on the ground. . .like you have done in the garden. and if we look in just the right light everything we do is an altar. this desk. the sewing tools. the table that is set for dinner. simple or complex the altar is in our own vision. and your vision is creating an altar cloth(s) that may be used anywhere. may take the recipient into places they didn’t imagine. what a blessing.

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  3. grace Forrest Avatar

    little Sister…so it’s still for you? you know, that it’s ok if not. things that don’t find a place to go here can go to Michigan or be kept for the Art Event here.
    the thing of Not Knowing is very important for me…the
    Unforseen, the Unknown. but i am looking at that in terms
    of refering to these as altar cloths. in terms of other
    peoples sense of altar cloth. for me, the WHOLE sense of altar talks about Unforseen. but…who knows???
    and maybe that’s the real answer…Who Knows?????
    xoxoxox to you

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  4. grace Forrest Avatar

    Jan…i thought exactly this the other day. how putting food on a plate, setting it on the table, getting a glass of water, putting it there. sitting down. that this is altar. and maybe, yes. this is the point.
    it’s All altar. and i just want to make Cloths about
    the Phenomenon of Altar. about how it all feels just
    so much like ……. like i don’t know what.
    THANK YOU
    for these words above.

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  5. handstories Avatar

    oh, yes, please! the Not Knowing is the center of things for us right now. and I am finding a new sense of peace and even joy in it, though the old anxiety tries to creep in & remind me of the old comfortable way of doubting everything. altar- for me-a place to honor, recognize and hope. We are hoping for a letter in a couple of weeks from something that we can’t control, but in an effort to do all that i can in this place of waiting- i wrote the letter myself, to us from them, saying everything we wish/hope it to say. i read it every day and believe-clicking on this little “altar” on my desktop screen. So many shapes and sizes for an altar to be. & did i already say, “YES!” to the still wanting it?!.x

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  6. Michelle Avatar

    Rust, wood, alters and cloths.
    A single ‘simple’, a well lived day.
    Everything alters all the thoughts
    of sacred minds at sacred play.

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  7. beth Avatar

    It’s all good isn’t it? I love those moments of perfect and the flood of love.
    I wanted a sense of what it meant for you when the goats came and so I went back in time a year on your blog. And got lost in the cloths and the goats and the cloths. I may need to go back to the beginning…

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  8. Dee Avatar

    sometimes, Grace, I think YOU are the wind.

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  9. Deb G Avatar

    eye of the storm…

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  10. Nancy Avatar

    I think this is a very beautiful cloth with, yes the rings and the little red-orange bitty piece at the bottom that looks like the shaving of a colored pencil.
    And when I read at the last paragraph, I suddenly got an image of you living in that space until Old Nana was Very old and melting back into the earth you live on and love. You were actually a pencil drawing and your calves and feet were combining with the ground, spreading out…like how one might draw the base of a tree. You had cloth gathered around you, pulled up over your shoulders, like one may huddle in a quilt. And you were a drawing, but I already said that. Odd the things that can come to ones imagination!

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  11. roz Avatar
    roz

    i did not participate in the altar cloth conversation previously, but i would like to offer a couple of other words for your consideration.
    faith cloth , hope cloth ..
    these words i choose because i think your cloths are less about something concrete like an altar , or where it may go , or how it may be used .which is what comes to mind with altar ..its purpose, but more about something like spirit as you say ,and perhaps more a reminder to a way of being in the world.

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  12. patricia Avatar

    “and i was flooded with love for it all.” such words, i started to say and then–no–realizing first that these are not just words at all. these are representations–kinda like what we do with cloth–of such deep feelings. sensations. awarenesses. and we can express them in many ways–dance, sing, stitch,–you know, and sometimes words. and sometimes the words, as in these words of yours, REALLY manage to capture the essence of what was coming forth. and then we, those who await your musings, experience what feels like a magic spine shiver–and we can say, “oh Grace. this is so beyond beautiful. thank you.”

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  13. roz Avatar
    roz

    okay one more..
    just accidently referred to this site as WINDCLOTH
    hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    “everything alters all the thoughts” about altars….

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    you are truehearted to go back so far…
    when Mo found my old blogspot blog i remembered so much
    that didn’t make it into typepad and thought i maybe
    needed to go there if i could find a way, but now i’m
    thinking no. today needs all the energy.

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    no. just his Lover

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    it could have been, but isn’t

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    maybe odd, but Nancy…this is beyond beautiful. if it
    cound be…how so totally Wonder Full and Excellent that would be.
    I love the image. i might draw it. if i do, i’ll send the drawing to you.
    very much Love,

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    roz, first….i smile so tenderly at the screen, thinking of you thinking of my words. thank you.
    but faith and hope.
    well Mo knows my thing about hope. i don’t really hope
    for anything at all. unless in the way of May all beings be free of suffering. specifics…there are too many things at work all the time. to me, hope focus’on my
    own wishes and desires. what would make ME happy or
    less worried or or or
    there is too much at Work that i don’t even know anything about to have a hope for an outcome. so…nope. not
    Hope Cloth.
    and then Faith…well i tried to think if i have any Faith.
    and all i could come up with was Faith in the Dalai Lama.
    that he is who he is and ever will be. but that’s it.
    so…nope again. not Faith Cloth.

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    the thing is…it’s all so ordinary. so totally
    Available.

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  21. roz Avatar
  22. Nancy Avatar

    I would be honored. Maybe place it in an altar to honor friendships…a Most Important thing to me 🙂

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  23. nance Avatar

    Ok… It’s a couple of days later as I’m reading this… On Friday. You must know its an altar cloth by now. A place to put sacred things. Your stitches are sacred things.

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  24. Joan Avatar

    The endless circling of the this cloth is wonderful–the stitching, the pattern, the rhythm. And the blue/green strip at the top feels like a benevolent presence that just IS. I feel the ceaseless movement and the ceaseless emanation of spirit in this piece. Beautiful, Grace.

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