Blog Archives - A Cottage by the Sea

"The Bridge", by Masri

5/28/2015

As counter-cultural as it may seem, I do very little shopping in Florence, one of the premier shopping cities of the world. This probably has something do to with my age and stage in life; the plethora of leather stalls hold little attraction anymore; I don’t need anything nor do I feel pulled to buy gifts; I’m trying to let go of stuff, knowing that simplicity means fewer chattels. My shopping days are over.

    That being said, I surprised myself in April by buying a painting. I walked into Art Masri Studio at Borgo Ognissanti 63R, and immediately fell in love with a painting of the Ponte Vecchio (‘The Bridge’ from the Cubism Series), and with Masri himself. We talked about how he paints with a pallet knife, about the energy in the painting and the energy between me and the canvass, me and Florence. I told him I had to think about it.

     “We don’t need another painting on our walls,” I emailed my husband, “but I need this one in my heart.”

     “If you really want it, buy it,” he replied. YES! The next day when I returned to the studio, it was closed. I peered in; the painting was gone. Had someone bought it? I walked away. I guessed it wasn’t meant to me.

     Out of sight, but not out of mind. When I walked in a few days later, Marsi pulled my painting out from behind some others. “I hid it. I was saving it for you. I knew you were meant to have it. It’s the energy.”

     Four weeks later it arrived by FedEx. The very next day Jim found the perfect frame at the ‘put and take’ at the dump. It was meant to be. It’s the energy.

http://www.artworksmasri.com

Solitude and celebrations~

5/25/2015

Solitude amidst family activity is especially sweet. On Saturday it was just the grown ups--our two kids and their spouses and us--here for a cookout. Yesterday everyone went off so I had some time to myself to write. The Memorial Day parade is about to go by our house and we will join the festivities along Concord Road. Let me reiterate--solitude is particularly precious when intersperse with family and holiday celebrations.

The silence and simplicity of copy editing~

5/22/2015

I’ve been working on the copy edited manuscript of Very Grateful that was returned to me the other day. I’m agreeing with almost every edit, mainly spelling out numerals, eliminating commas and the word “that”—too many of both—and responding to a few comments and questions. Working with electronic editing is simple and a rather silent experience, but not a solitary one.

This current editor is the one assigned to me when I published with Heinemann. I didn’t meet him then, nor were we in direct communication. This time, however, since I am self-publishing, we have email contact, but still no face-to-face. And yet he is present as I go through the edits. I’m very grateful for this and hope we will meet sometime.

Boston Strong continues on~

5/20/2015

I would never have been put on the jury. I would have told the court that under no circumstance could I cast a vote for the death sentence. That is still true. And yet, when the verdict came for down for Tsarnaev I was not outraged—saddened, yes, but also hopeful, hopeful that the sentence will become part of a process leading our country to join Massachusetts and other states in erasing the death penalty from the books.

I pray that this young man will not be executed. Even by default I don’t want to be a killer killing killers. Everyone, including Tsarnaev, can attain redemption. As a new chapter begins, let Boston stand strong against the death penalty. Boston Strong can lead the way.

Social media and writing~

5/15/2015

Sometimes this blog about silence, solitude and simplicity seems to morph into one about writing. For sure, writing is a solitary act; you can’t write and socialize at the same time. Resist as we do at times, we writers like to go off by ourselves and feel productive.

Last night at the library I attended a workshop by Erica Ferencik entitled “Writing Your ebook”. It was excellent—dynamic and energizing. For me the most helpful information had to do with publicizing one’s work through the internet, specifically social media. I have along way to go on that, seeing that I’m pretty limited to Face Book. I have blogs, but I don’t have my own author’s website. Do I want one? My teacher books, although still in print, are publications of a past era. Or are they? Joyful Learning in Kindergarten was about learning through play, which I notice is back in vogue.

Anyway, I’m energized to explore new possibilities as I await the copyedited, electronic manuscript of Very Grateful: My 100 Year Old Mother and Me. I want people to know about my mother, who although no longer with us, lives on as an example of aging gracefully by always knowing and believing that her life had meaning.

Inner peace~

5/13/2015

First let me offer an addendum to my last post about Mother’s Day. My church did a heartfelt job offering up the various qualities of the day and what it might mean to different people in varying circumstances.

Now, here I sit, visiting my sister, in the very same condo that my mom owned and lived in from 1990-2000. There was an interim owner until Alice, now widowed, bought it two years ago.

I wondered if I’d feel some conflict with this change of ownership, but no, only gratitude. It was the perfect place for Mom, and is now the perfect place for my sister. I feel the same calm and can absorb a similar silence, solitude and simplicity as I sit here in the morning, looking out the same trees that we’re turning green twenty or so years ago. In part, this feeling is due to my new awareness that I can carry peace with me wherever I go; it’s in me, not out there. So that’s what inner peace is!

Overdoing Mother's Day~

5/10/2015

There is plenty I could say about Mother’s Day, which was officially proclaimed in May 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson. He certainly didn’t invent motherhood, but he did launch the commercialism connected with it. Everyone is supposed to acknowledge mothers: husbands should send cards to their wives; store clerks replace ‘have a nice day,’ with ‘Happy Mother’s Day’; my supermarket hands out a carnation to every women buying groceries.

I am very grateful for my mother and I believe I’ve been a ‘good enough’ one myself, so my energy around motherhood is very positive. Mother’s Day doesn’t bring up feelings of inadequacy or tragic losses or voids.

But what about the women who aren’t mothers, or who have horrific mothers, or who are estranged from their children or their mother? I’m not suggesting that they dismiss the topic, but I am noting the insensitivity inherent in the overuse of saying, ‘Happy Mother’s Day.’ We are conscious about saying “Merry Christmas’ to everyone me meet. Perhaps we could be sensitive and thoughtful in a similar way.

A new 'space of energy'~

5/7/2015

The most precise term I can come up with at the moment, one that I have just made up, is that I have a new ‘space of energy’. A ceiling of inertia that blocked my desire and interest in other things lifted when I finished Very Grateful. Very subtle; no one would have know, but as I waited, I felt a headwind confront my enthusiasm.

Finishing the book was difficult until I figured out that it was about Mom, not about me, and that the subordinate themes, namely solitude, travel, faith, aging and dying all related to Mom and me. While waiting, I had to run in place but not get off the course.

Someone likened it to running a marathon. We train and then set out with enthusiasm until the last five miles when our energy wanes but know we can’t quit. All we can do is slow down and make it through, but when we see the finish line, adrenalin kicks in and we cross over with renewed energy and euphoria.

After the cottage, what's next?

5/5/2015

I apologize. In case you’ve been taking an occasional peek, I haven’t written since I returned from Italy over a week ago. My writing mind was on hold until the other day when I made the final tweaks to Very Grateful. My editor had suggested I add a brief explanation of what it meant that my cottage-by-the-sea days were over. As I inserted that final change, I felt a palpable relief throughout my mind/body/spirit. I hadn’t realized that my life had been on hold for the past six years, the years since my mom began fading away, to her death and through the writing of the book, which I realized covered the five winters that I had spent at the cottage by the sea, searching for silence, solitude and simplicity. Here’s what I wrote.

“What I learned during that time (at the cottage) about silence, solitude and simplicity I now carry with me wherever I go. My home is where I want to be, although I continue to travel and hope to do so for as long as I am physically and mentally able.”

Very Grateful is off to production, my cottage days are over, the six-year cloud has lifted. During all that time I never realized that I was grieving. I guess when we’re in the midst of it, we can’t name it.

P.S. The cottage-by-the-sea days may be over, but this blog isn’t. But that discussion is for another day.