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Apr
3
spring cleaning, of sorts
Filed Under Embers, Natural Curl
the pollen is so bad here, that on the few occasions when i venture out, it looks like people all up and down the road are cutting their dirt. the air is so pollen-laden it looks hazy, and it is taking its toll. i have taped up windows, turned off a/c and furnace, bolted the doors. this plastic-encased place looks like the poster house for the homeland security administration.
just kidding. i only fantasize about insulating myself thusly.
streets, automobiles, yards are 1/8 inch deep in pollen - but spring is young. in other words, there’s lots more to come. will have to don the pollen tires this weekend, no doubt about it.
in allergy-time, i’m only 3 years old, so i’m still getting used to feeling perpetually yucky, having my throat constrict and sting, dealing with a constantly running nose, enduring a headache that no remedy can touch, and feeling sluggish on my most energetic days.
don’t know whether it was the ingested antihistamines or a spring-fever bug bite, but today i could take it no longer. after 7+ years, jeannedom (my room) got a total makeover. (at least the front end of what will eventually be a total makeover.) i felt like i was drowning in stuff. call me shallow or whatever you will, but i flat-out need my physical environment to be orderly and open with room for possibilities.
with no plan in mind, i moved my desk which of course meant moving all the ubiquitous and dreaded cords. got rid of about 200 books (since i’ve given my creative self space in my life, it’s as though i don’t feel the incredible need - or desire either, for that matter - to absorb words from other folks), selling several (but not enough) to powells.com. the boxes head northwest tomorrow.
now i’m still not tickled with anything but the new location of my desk and my painted cabinet. the closets are horrible (i dread opening them), the desktop is still home to way too much, my project table juts out like a sore thumb - but i’ve started, and i WILL complete this makeover by the end of april, so help me miss scarlett.
in all the mayhem embedded in any makeover project i take on, one of the cats played jungle kitty, gingerly stepping over, under, around. the other cat perched herself way up high and looked at me scoldingly, as if to say “you know, I didn’t see anything wrong with the way it was” while the dog turned it into a game, trying to guess where i’d be headed next and stretching herself out right big in that very spot.
now i’m not letting this distraction keep me from creative pursuits. in fact, i started 2 surprises today. and perhaps most important of all (for me, the one who doesn’t like naming): i renamed my space.
yes, i really did.
i am now writing to you from the Blue Morning Glories Studio. where i will create - what else: blue morning glories that will - whether of the cloth, clay, or creative writing varieties - romp uncensored without apology for excess.
it’s from one of my absolutely favorite poems by anne pitkin (most favorite parts have been bolded):
Blue Morning Glory
Voracious, yes. But when you see it,
shy blue flowers blaring like trumpets in spite of themselves,
center star shaped and yellow; when it startles you,
early in the morning, all over a white picket fence, say,
in Massachusetts, you might think “triumphal,” “prodigal,”
“awake.”
Of course you don’t want it in your rose garden
among all the pruned, the decorous bushes. You don’t want it
in the vegetables, for it will romp through the tomatoes,
beans and peas, will leave no room on the ground, or even
in the air, for the leafy lettuces and cabbages soberly
queueing up in their furrows. It will hog all the sky it can get
knowing as it does what enormous thirst is satisfied by blue.
Father Michael says Follow the God of abundance
Says we hurry from the moment’s wealth
for fear it will be taken. Think of this:
the morning glory has been blossoming for so long
without permission that in some gardens it is no longer censored.
What does that tell you? See how it opens its tender throats
to a world that can sting it, how, without apology for its excess,
it blooms and blooms, though even yet
it seems surprised.
blue morning glories. yes, i think that’s a very nice name to grow into.
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I almost literally choked from lust and longing at the thought of some morning glories made out of clay. Blue or otherwise I am itching to see them. So, you know. Whenever you’re ready …
Hi Jeanne,
Thank you for complimenting my Alaskan moon, I very much appreciate it.
I don’t know if you might be interested, but I have kefir grains if you’d like me to send you some. Since I have been using them, my allergies, both food/environmental seem to get better. I have done some reading about magnesium(which would be in the milk used with kefir grains). Magnesium is supposed to be very helpful to the body, making allergy symptoms lessen. The helpful bacteria in the kefir help balance the intestinal tract and that too probably helps with allergies…..let me know if you want some and I will send them along with instructions…very easy.
acey, you’ll be the first to see when i wind up with something that even vaguely (or “artistically” as i’m prone to use because it gives me so much license) resembles a blue morning glory. you know, when i was a teensy, my mother used to call me “morning glory”. not for long, though. she soon switched to “peanut”. doesn’t have quite the poetic ring to it, does it????
laney, that would be great. i’ve been reading about magnesium, but haven’t heard of kefir grains. would love to try some. my mother bought me some honey yesterday cause she read about all the beneficial effects. while she was there, she snagged some bee pollen for herself cause the beekeeper lady told her it generates energy - so much so that she (beekeeper lady) can’t take it after 2 in the afternoon or she won’t be able to sleep.) i couldn’t help but ask mother why she didn’t get me some of that, too;) look forward to trying the kefir grains. thanks for sharing! (and i do love that alaskan moon. gonna head back over and read backwards to find out more about the project.)