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When my father finally lost his vision I was able to beat him at Scrabble, and not one day before.
We are heading into the first holiday season since my father passed away. The times we've had – I'll always remember them. Thanksgiving is this week and it won't be the same, but we'll raise a glass and toast to his life. At Christmas we can watch The Polar Express... at full volume.
*Sigh*
We'll miss you, Dad.
It's Thanksgiving Day. I hear Barry in the kitchen making the dishes that we'll be taking to his mother's house. I should be in there making Green Slime (AKA Ambrosia Salad), but I'm still drinking my first cup of coffee.
I can reflect, though. I can reflect on the recent political upheavals and remember that I am thankful that we still have a free press, where opposing opinions can be published. I can be thankful that I am employed and I have a place to live and food to eat. There was a time, not too terribly long ago, when I wondered about these things. (Poor life decisions have a way of catching up with you.) Amidst the cat hair with which I live, I can be thankful for the feline personalities that have taught me to understand cats and myself.
I am thankful for art, now more than ever. As I slowly drag myself to the canvas again, I am grateful for the artists that I know. I am so honored that they consider me their friend. I am thankful for the studio that Barry has been working so hard to remodel, and the opportunities that it offers us – an opportunity to bring the community to us, to engage with us at one level or another.
So, I will share a couple of images from an artist that will be a part of our studio this year. I have been asking her for a few years if she'd like to join us, but she has always had conflicts with her own studio's schedule. This year, something cleared up and she said she'd join us. (I'm a little guilty that I feel grateful that a workshop she had planned didn't work out, but I'm too happy for her to be with us to be very guilty about it.) Barbara Francis combines two things that I love – ceramics and doodling. I love her ceramics and I love the patterns she incorporates into it. I saw her briefly describing methods she uses, and I hope to talk to her more in depth, so that maybe I can write a post all about that. In the meantime, here are a few of her images.
If you'd like to see more of Barbara's work, you can visit her website or her Facebook page.
What are you thankful for this year? Are you stretching your goals? Reaching for new ones? Are there secret goals or dreams that you haven't had the courage to take seriously yet?
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