Tag: hope

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Poetry of Resilience – Irina Ratushinskaya

Poetry can inspire by acknowledging a person, telling their story, celebrating their life’s witness.  I just came across a poem by Luci Shaw, which tells us another poet/person’s story, their persistence through harsh circumstances.  Encouraging.  Luci’s poem begins with her introduction to Irina, in italics. Irina Ratushinskaya —Russian poet and physicist who was sentenced to seven years in a Soviet labor camp for writing about … Continue reading Poetry of Resilience – Irina Ratushinskaya

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Thing of Beauty

Quilting and the Community

OK, so this is a video hosted by giant company Google, applauding Youtube – BUT it’s still an amazing turnaround story: economically devastasted couple and village rejuvenated by – quilting classes online:  Missouri Star Quilts.

Long before I saw this video back story, I had seen Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt company in action on video, and was struck by how down to earth, warm and welcoming she was onscreen.  The quiltmaking taught was simple and yet effective. It needed to be.  I haven’t even learnt yet, was just attracted to watching the process and the putting together of various elements into a new form.  (ie much like curating a blog, the way that I do it.)  I had no idea that the business began from such difficulty.

Continue reading “Quilting and the Community”

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Calming words

Writer Anne Lamott before her 61st birthday sat down and wrote all the truths she absolutely knew.  They include the importance of radical self-care “Being full of affection for one’s goofy, self-centred, cranky, annoying self is home; it’s where world peace begins.” “Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts – but they keep their butt in the chair… they do it by prearrangement … Continue reading Calming words

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Kaleidoscopic mixed media – Jill Ricci (NY)

Just met Jill’s work this morning, and I’m a fan. Jill Ricci’s one of a kind collages immediately stand out with their unique and playful shapes & figures.  – http://www.artisticmoods.com “I am exploring the place between “high art” and popular culture, text and image, figuration and abstraction, past and present, and two and three-dimensional space.” – Jill Ricci Jill Ricci is inspired by peeling walls, … Continue reading Kaleidoscopic mixed media – Jill Ricci (NY)

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Poetry vs depression

Rachel Kelly has a remarkable story to tell – it’s her own life – of her 2 mental breakdowns and how poetry helped her recover.

The love of my family, drugs and therapy were hugely important in the battle to recover from an illness so severe that the first time I was bed-ridden for six months, the second for a year. But it’s no exaggeration to say that poetry proved a lifeline.

Her story is grippingly told in her book “The Black Rainbow” – which I recently read through in 24 hours straight as it is so well-written and gripping – Rachel is a journalist Continue reading “Poetry vs depression”

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