Heirloom Apron

Years ago my Grandma gave me an apron crocheted by my Great Grandma Dora. It has been sitting in a trunk, but I have thought of it so often, and wanted to find some way to show it off. It is too beautiful to be left in a trunk. I have even tried to figure out if there was any way I could wear it without it looking like a costume. I still haven't given up on that, but haven't been brave enough to do it either! Last week I did find a way to 'show-it-off'!
I am working on moving into my own little basement suite, busily setting up house. This summer has been especially nice since I haven't been pressured to find a job right away. (Note: The job thing must become a higher priority from here on in.) I have had time to clean and decorate, help out with summer camps and spend time with friends and family.

I needed to fill the space by the kitchen door, and remembered my Great Grandmother's apron. I am guessing that it was made around 1920. I painted a canvas red with acrylic, and then stitched the apron on. I love the block of color combined with the obviously heirloom piece. Roots and family heritage are things that are easily disregarded, but I love being able to remake them so that they are still valuable and applicable in my life. After all, they are a large part of explaining who I am now, whether I accept that or not.

Once I went swiftly nowhere

This summer has been a "very happy one, - a time of glad living with summer suns and skies, a time of keen delight in wholesome things; a time of renewing and deepening of old friendships; a time in which [I have] learned to live more nobly, to work more patiently, to play more heartily."

L.M. Montgomery from Anne of the Island


A sauna on the edge of the Sea, somewhere between Finland and Sweden.



I have been freed. I don't know from what exactly, but the thrill of new life, of an unknown future, of a "peace the surpasses all understanding" has taken hold of me, and I have no intention of letting it go. The Spirit has pursued me, both gently and unrelentlessly, like the Ocean Wind.

I drove to the library today to find poetry! Specifically poetry of the Sea. I found a wonderful collection by Gilean Douglas who lived just off my own shores. Her poetry frees the Sea, the Islands, and most of all those who love the Sea and Islands. This poem shares the current frequency of my soul. As I read it I thought the vibrations could shatter glass. It is good that I was outside.

Reborn

The beat in my blood is changed,
my rhythm is the rhythm of this tree,
my pulse is counted by the drip of rain,
my breathing reckoned by the gust of wind.

Once I went swiftly nowhere,
now I go quietly as a cloud goes;
as a high cloud above low darkness,
as a slow star in its appointed course.