Monday, October 26, 2015

Life's a Circle

Saint John artist Doris Daigle created this beautiful watercolor and presented it to me last Thursday at an event hosted by the Saint John Art Club. The art club members read one or more of my books and some of them produced paintings inspired by something they read. It was wonderful to see their creations. Some members told me about their efforts but didn't bring them to show. It was a wonderful evening.I love the circle effect Doris created when depicting the story in The Memory Chair. I love Harry Chapin's song All My Life's a Circle. I often talk about the cycle of the seasons. So many circles and cycles in our lives. The Double Wedding Ring Quilt is a perfect symbol for that. We all intertwine and impact each other. On pg 109 in The Memory Chair Betony talks about the pieces in the Double Wedding Ring quilt. She ends by saying "Each little piece becomes part of the whole thing before it becomes a quilt." What better analogy about the moments and days of our lives and the experiences and people we meet along the way that come together to create a lifetime.

Friday, October 16, 2015

On the Home Stretch of Harvest

October is in full swing. We have reached the mid point , the leaves are in their full color, the furnace has been on several nights and the garden has just about been harvested. Again the cycle is reaching its completion. The promise of sowing a small seed and attending to it and reaping its bounty has been realized. So much to learn and so much to be thankful for in that process. Last night I spent some time reading the ms that will soon go to the editing stage. I am always so happy when I revisit something and still feel strongly about the story it tells. The scrutiny that editing involves sometimes is daunting and you begin to second guess yourself. Daunting but yet affirming and I look forward to taking that journey to prepare Shame the Devil for publication. At the same time I am fully into the new book I started when I returned to work a few weeks ago. These October days have taken me back to my wood road walks and as I walk through the golden colored ferns and grasses that will soon die down I picture the changes that November will bring to the landscape and then the changes that will come with snow cover. Another cycle just like the planting/harvesting one that we are seeing unfold in these October days and I have the same confidence in the pleasures and rewards it will bring.