yesterday in her comment on the post,  Jan used the words….meaning making. 

meaning Making.  I like this Very Much.  meaning Making.  A lot.  

Early this morning,  i sat in the Morning Chair,  just looking around at things.  At what i have.  House at a Glance.  I can see everything from the Morning Chair, except the bedroom because my back is to that short hallway but it's ok because all there is is a bed and then those utility shelves with….cloth.  One shelf of clothing that i wear.  Nothing worth studying.  So…i'm looking around at what i have,  what has been made by hand,  someone's hand, my hand.  

and what i spent the morning with was this

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it's normally on the kitchen counter,  behind the colander of compost,  propped to cover the ripped electrical outlet that i had  taped with duct tape because once the mice were coming in through there.  They don't need to do that anymore,  have made other more convenient points of entry,  but the duct tape is still there,  hence this to hide it.  

I think i made it 21 or 22 years ago.  Right in the beginning of the time with that person i was married to for almost 10 years,  who has been dead for just over 10 years…so…right in the beginning of that when i was still wanting to Believe.  Even so soon,  there were signs.  But i didn't want to look at them.

Anyway…in those days there was NO extra money,  Zero.   I relied on ten cent Tuesday at the Thrift Shop for everything.  Everything.   And i so distinctly remember spending a whole ten cents on this plastic oval picture frame….not knowing what i would use it for,  but oval frames are not that easy to come by.  Still,  an extravagance.  

 

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in the middle here,  just above the sheep,  is Alexandra David-Neel.  You can google her.  I love the quickie side bar bio that Wikipedia has:   a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist and writer.    

I had this pic of her,  my total heroine,  stuck in some book.   The others here too,   most from National Geographics along the way

 

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I remember the day i made this collage.  I had stopped on the way home from working to buy a small bottle of Elmer's Glue.   The next day i made it.  Meaning Making.  

It's been through a lot.  Pretty worn from daily wear and tear,  how there is just a hole next to my face where his face was but that i tore out finally when he had died and couldn't have a response.  Really, the hole is as good as his face was there.  Maybe more.   

Meaning Making

I'm not finished thinking about it.   Maybe tomorrow morning will be enough.  But i thought if i had to leave here QUICK,  like some do in this world today,  leave Quick,  

if i had to leave Quick,  with only what i could carry,  like say in a back pack.   I think i would take this.  It's been my Friend for a long time,  through a lot.  It tried to tell me things even tho i didn't want to listen.  It was also just Beauty FULL to me and still is.  Just it's Beauty holds so much.  It is of no practical importance,  well,  except to cover the mouse hole,  but not really…but…

it was all i was able to do at that time as far as "meaning making"….my life then did not allow for anything else.  Torn pictures,  glue,  a Ten Cent plastic frame.   

Meaning Making.

 

 

 

 

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11 responses to ““meaning making””

  1. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    I hope you never have to leave in a hurry, but this is so like the memory pieces I have through time that may eventually be lost in time. I love them as you love this. Alexandra David Neel and her adventures in Tibet is still with me too in the form of three books, the most precious of which is a falling apart paperback acquired in 19884 “The Secret Oral Teachings” written by her and Lama Yongden (her adopted son), first translated to English in 1931 and published in this edition by City Lights in 1967 with a forward by Alan Watts. The other two are more recent works about her: “Alexandra David-Neel” by Ruth Middleton 1989 and “The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel’ by Barbara and Michael Foster 1998.

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  2. grace Avatar

    i love this…your response, it makes me even more REAL
    in a way, that you know Her, these books…City Lights 1967
    forward by Alan Watts…having really nothing to do with me,
    me here in Polvadera, but also SOMETHING to do with me
    Her…how Amazing she was, and i loved her
    in the light of all this so sad political stuff with
    people running for the office of President of the United States,
    not holding a candle to her
    Alexandra David Neel

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  3. ² Avatar
    ²

    making cloth with (rags of) paper (collage)
    thank you for Alexandra David-Neel
    Elmer’s Glue …. one of our grand son’s mame Elmer
    sitting in the morning chair ….
    enjoy your day

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  4. jude Avatar

    beautiful scraps of self

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  5. Mo Crow Avatar

    drawing and making helps me understand what is happening both within & without & see the magic which is always there when we take the time to slow down and see
    PS Anita Palenberg in the film “Performance” with Mick Jagger was and still is my heroine, loved that line, “I make things happen”

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  6. grace Avatar

    she was/is your countrywoman

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  7. grace Avatar

    so worn now, but so am i

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  8. grace Avatar

    will go look for Palenberg

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  9. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Ah….something to do with you….your Buddhism….her spirit. Read about her. You will like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_David-N%C3%A9el

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  10. Wendy @ the Late Start Studio Avatar

    I stopped still thinking about those early signs . . . for me too . . . I din’t want to see them, didn’t want to take in and rectify the HUGENESS of my mistake . . . and it was almost 10 years before I could. Such damage there was or is.

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  11. grace Avatar

    i went into it with such an open heart. It took a long time to
    believe what i was seeing. Kept imagining myself as capable of
    changing things to make them Good. a lot of Ego there. Imagining
    nothing that couldn’t be made Good.

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