Writer's Workshop

Lynda Barry

 Today, I had the good fortune to attend a Lynda Barry workshop: Writing the Unthinkable.  I think she has been doing this workshop for a while.  I see others who have taken it talking about it.  She is interested in what an image is in a deeper way and the process of writing with a pen or pencil on paper and how the brain is engaged when we do this.

She shares a process she uses to access memories and hone them into a perfect short story just about the right length for a comic strip.  It seems to work very well.  Many people read their seven and a half minutes stories and they were fresh and tasty!

My Wonky Spiral

 Part of the exercise is to sit and make a spiral on a blank page while she recites Rumi and reminds us we are in our bodies.  The poem is beautiful and I was grateful to be introduced to it.  She recited it about four times for us and I will carry it with me now and it feels like a gift.

Thanks you Lynda Barry!

Waves on the beach

THE DIVER'S CLOTHES LYING EMPTY

You're sitting here with us, but you're also out walking
in a field at dawn. You are yourself
the animal we hunt when you come with us on the hunt.
You're in your body like a plant is solid in the ground,
yet you're wind. You're the diver's clothes
lying empty on the beach. You're the fish.

In the ocean are many bright strands
and many dark strands like veins that are seen
when a wing is lifted up.
Your hidden self is blood in those, those veins
that are lute strings that make ocean music,
not the sad edge of surf, but the sound of no shore.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Rumi)

Rumi

Wild Geese

Crescent Moon and Wild Geese 

by

Utagawa Hiroshige

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting 

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver 

Wild Geese 

by

Maxfirle Parrish

Christkindlmarket

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Christkindlmarket Chicago.  It's a little bit of Gemany right downtown at Daly Plaza.

"Inspired by the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany, which began in 1545, the Christkindlmarket Chicago brings a cherished German and European tradition with international flair and local charm to Chicago. Chicago's largest open-air Christmas festival was first held on Pioneer Court in 1996. By special invitation of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Christkindlmarket Chicago moved to Daley Plaza in 1997 and has become a stable event on the plaza ever since. Together with the support of the Mayor’s Office of Special Events (MOSE), Christkindlmarket Chicago has grown to become one of the most popular winter attractions in the heart of the city."

I had long thought that Christmas would be a wonderful time to visit Germany.  When I had the opportunity to visit at Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, we had to go the the Christmas markets.  The Christkindlmarket Chicago conjures up memories of this visit.

 

Christkindlmarket Chicago Chicago offers many of the same things you would find in Germany like  ornaments that are hand-blown and painted, classic German products like nutcrackers, cuckoo clocks, and beer steins.  We really liked the ornaments.  There was a whole store full of glass ornaments:

Lucky Piggies

Bathtime Duckies

Shiny Pink Booties

Berlin Medallions 

Sweet Mushroom Fairies

Snacks at the market

You can warm up with some nice soup or potato pancakes, or a bratwurst.  Traditional Gluehwein, a  German holiday market hot spiced wine comes in a commemorative mug shaped like a boot!

So, if you want to pretend you are in Germany at Christmastime for a couple of hours, head to Christkindlmarket Chicago!

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause

Virginia O'Hanlon

This story starts in 1897 when Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the editor of The Sun asking to clear up the controversy of the existence of Santa Clause.

They wrote back to assure that "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist."

This year Macy's windows in Chicago have taken this story as a basis for their Christmas display windows with a "Wish Factory" theme.

They are full of gears and sprockets in what's being called a "Steam Punk" style.  I was reminded of the great Clocks on the corners of the store.  The displays rotate like the inside of a timepiece.

The gears and sprockets are chock full of Christmas goodies:

The production of these windows is a huge job. A team of 60 painters, welders, engineers, costume makers, carpenters, and visual artists produced, created. and installed the windows.  It took eight months of work.
The detail and fanciful quality is delightful!

If you're in Chicago, check it out!

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

~ Langston Hughes

Wind and Water and Stone

Wind and Water and Stone

The water hollowed the stone,
the wind dispersed the water,
the stone stopped the wind.
Water and wind and stone.

The wind sculpted the stone,
the stone is a cup of water,
The water runs off and is wind.
Stone and wind and water.

The wind sings in its turnings,
the water murmurs as it goes,
the motionless stone is quiet.
Wind and water and stone.

One is the other and is neither:
among their empty names
they pass and disappear,
water and stone and wind.


~ Octavio Paz ~

Turkish Hamam

Recently, while cruising around on the internet I happened upon some paintings of Jean-Léon Gérôme, who was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism.  He did a lot of traveling and went to Turkey in 1853.  I was drawn to his paintings that depict the baths in these areas:

I was anxious to try a Turkish bath when I was in Turkey.  I did not see any Hookahs in the bath we went to.  We first went to an outdoor mudbath.  It was a warm spring with rushing water and a good deal of fine mud which we applied all over and then rested in the sun while it dried.

 After showering and enjoying some watermelon in the shade, we went to the Turkish Hamam.  The baths.  

After leaving our clothes in the dressing room, we venture forth with a Turkish towel wrapped around our swimsuit to the baths.  We are given bowls to pour water over ourselves and get drenched.  It is warm in the baths and then we rest on the warm marble.  At first it seems quite warm, almost hot, but after resting a while, it feels wonderfully relaxing and we are melting into the warm marble.

The chamber echoes as we trade desultory comments.

Next the men, dressed in towels, come in to wash us.  We get scrubbed with a rough cloth about like a loofah. Scrub, scrub scrub.  We are so relaxed, we are pretty much putty in their hands.  The next step, is a foam bath.  Clouds of foam are applied to our fresh tingling skin.  The bubbles pop like champagne on our baby-fresh skin.  It is a delightful sensation.

We are left to rest, again, as long as we like on the wonderful warm marble with bubbles popping, blissed out in the bath area with no sound but the echo of a drip, perhaps, and the shafts of sunlight playing  through the room.

Next question is "Would you like a massage?"  We had decided in advance that the answer to this question would be yes, but I think few would be able to say no at this point.  If you go to Turkey, this is an experience not to be missed!