Letting the light come in

I can hardly believe it, Lobsters, but last week, I actually turned on my sewing machine. 

Before Sofia was born, Manny got me a sewing machine for my birthday in order to fill decades of dreaming of becoming a proficient quilter. I made a few squares, baby came, and then I went into early retirement. I finally have space for craft projects now, but the supplies and tools all just sit there, mocking me as I run back and forth chasing my little mobility machine. 

But this week, fed up with my computer, and finally relieved when Sofia went down for a nap [she hadn't been napping for a few weeks], I turned to my sewing machine for revitalization. By some stroke of fate, I managed to whip the project out before she woke up and without any huge disasters or even re-starts. This is not usually how well my crafting works out. Not that the finished project is worth any lavish display, but it is functional, and that's enough to satisfy me. 

I know there are lots of blogs out there with incredibly helpful tips and tools for making everything in your house yourself, I even knew a guy who once promised me a home-made video-cam [and this was in the '90's when I didn't actually believe these would ever truly exist, and was mostly mocking him when I told him, "sure, I'll take one"]. This is not that blog. I didn't use or even make a pattern, I just kind of flew by the seat of my pants. My most careful decision was the fabric, the rest was mostly just me messing around. 

But just the messing around felt good. To think the project through. To pull together all the tools. To feel the fabric break beneath the cutter. To smooth the pieces away from each other. To guide them through the machine. To let the friction work between my fingers as I turned it inside out. To experiment and adjust. To iron out the finished product. To wave it before my then awake daughter to show her what I'd made.

I am not sharing so much because I think you are all dying to sew your own curtain tie-backs, but just to celebrate the joy of creating, and to appreciate the gift of light. 

I have been warned hundreds of times since our August arrival that the early sun sets are one of the hardest parts of enduring Maine's winters, being so far north and all. But like many things we are experiencing here, you don't truly understand the wisdom people are granting you until you live through it. It gets real dark, real early, and its real weird. Sofia woke up from her nap and was honestly frightened by the fact that it was already completely dark out. Now, any bit of vitamin D we can expose our epidermis to is an urgent issue of gratitude. 

So while in the summer I was so relieved when they finally installed our curtains (privacy, protection from the warm sun in an house without air conditioning), it is now a relief to be able to pull those curtains back and just let the light come in.

It is a rather passive act, letting the light come in. I did not make the sun, I do not warm our house with the suns rays, but I made way for the light to do its thing after a time of not. I don't know that I'm really much of a crafter, but it felt good to craft. I don't know whether I am a writer in the making, but it feels good to write about this and share with you. I don't know if I am an artist in the making, but there is a harmony with my deeper self when I am able to create. I do know that I am a creature of the light, and it warms my soul to let the light in. 

Brown Image

San Diego is a great town to visit. Downtown is close to the waterfront, is close to the airport, is close to Balboa Park, which includes San Diego Zoo. They have a wild animal safari park, Sea World, Legoland, and beaches galore. Is it because it has so many beautiful destination points that an incredible place like Chicano Park just doesn't often make the list of "things to see"? Somehow I fear there is more to it than just that. I doubt all that many people in San Diego have even heard of Chicano Park. And sadly, it took us nearly the whole year we were here before we made it there ourselves. But we did! And it was amazing! 

Chicano Park is a neighborhood park placed under a series of freeway overpasses. The history of this park is phenomenal. Where the people in power showed complete disrespect, the people of this community showed incredible strength. When a neighborhood was decimated, freeways trampled over homes, and a community was geographically divided, the people of this barrio came together, rose up, and built a beautiful park and cultural center. Walking through this park sincerely out-did most museum experiences I've ever had.  

The mural series is beautiful and thought provoking. But I was greatly saddened by the contrast between how obviously significant, symbolic, and meaningful the art was and how little I knew about Chicano history. I recognized the name of an artist or activist here and there, and it is kind of impossible to live in California and not know SOMETHING about Cesar Chavez, founder of the National Farm Workers Association. But my knowledge kind of ends there. 

Place is significant. The land we live on, work, own is more intimately connected to who we are than I think we recognize on a day to day basis. Among other things, it was beautiful how this park could celebrate that. 

Chicano park lit a fire under me. I wanted to know more about the park itself. I want to know more about Chicano Art, I want to know more about Chicano history. Just the story of the park alone brought tears to my eyes. There is so much sorrow but so much resilience to learn about from these stories. I want to be impassioned for the causes these great heroes have fought for. I want to be able to tell my daughter these stories. I want to raise her to be a Chicana who might herself grow up to be a woman of such strength and an artist of such significance.

Lobsters, dig me out of my ignorance. Do any of you have some great tips for books or resources for learning about Chicano history? Both for myself, but also, maybe some great children's books for Sofia? I would love some leads so I can learn more!!

Shout Out to Our Artist

My mom drew our header. She is nice. And lovely. And so fun. And talented, obviously. Though she admitted that on several attempts to create this header, the first lobsters came out cute and the second ones looked like Gandhi.

I, for one, would like to see some Gandhi lobsters.

In conclusion, Zoe and I raise our claws in thanks to you, Mama.

Check out more of her art here: http://bionicrobyn.deviantart.com/