Wisdom Hath Built Herself A House

I remember my first year of college at St. Mary of the Woods back in 1969. Most of my remembrances are from Foley Hall. We dined there, we sang, had art classes there and it was the home of the infamous Faceless Nun legend. That is another story for later. Upon arrival we were told that we would probably never live in a more beautiful place and so far it has been true. I remember the art room on the 2nd floor..it enchanted me. Some creative students had suspended an orange parachute from the middle of the ceiling and anchored it on all four corners of the room. Directly underneath was a large wooden round table which in a former life was a huge cable wire spool for some industrial purpose. Books were placed around the bottom and candles, old art books and pieces of art, sculptures and masks populated the top sphere. The room wasn't large but high ceilinged and it had two doors..one that entered from the long winding hall near the rickety freight elevator and the other door across the room toward the corner that led into a big art classroom. I will always remember that room..it's one of those places that you return to in your mind as a happy place. One early afternoon I was walking through the front doors toward the dining room. I looked down at the marbled mosaic floor just in time to avert a stumble over a piece that had become dislodged and was sticking up. I reached down and plucked it up and put it in my pocket. I don't know what made me do that..a precious relic I wanted to keep and cherish maybe. I kept it all these years guiltily thinking time and time again I should have returned it..it couldn't be authentically replaced for it was over 130 years old. Foley Hall was torn down in 1987, with her went 147 years of history, tradition and pride. The original cornerstone of Foley Hall, laid in 1860 bore the inscription "Wisdom hath built herself a house." I don't feel so guilty now...I have kept a treasured piece of my happy place.

Me Thinks Too Much

My friend, a fellow blogger who actually got me interested in blogging wrote a post today called Living In The Moment that made me think. After a long day of contemplation and perhaps a bit of stewing over the phrase 'living in the moment', a kitty landed on her lap to play with her toes. Yeah, I'd say that's living in the moment. You know when you think about it, moments are all we really have...but we never think of seizing the moment...we all put it in a big ball of wax as she put it and sometimes it just melts into a big glob of crud! Maybe we aren't meant to figure out stuff. Maybe we should just do like they did "back in the day". You know stuff like~they usually married so they could have a life partner to carry on life's work..they didn't look for "soul mates" and besides they were too busy working for the family to contemplate on how to keep it all together. Maybe that's how we should think...or maybe we shouldn't think too much at all. I'm an overthinker...I want all the details so that I can put together the story in my mind...my mind is not based on abstractions~but some people have said that I'm thinking about the non-pertinent things..well, I don't agree...everything is pertinent if it interests me~"momental pertinence". As I have aged (now,this has just suddenly happened to me recently by the way...without warning...the aging I mean..)I feel like grasping the little moments of a squirrel eating a peanut, a bird flitting to a branch, the neighborhood kitties coming for a treat of regular dry cat food I set outside that they think,~fools that they are! ~is a real treat, or the fact that I can put that 'primer/filler' putty makeup and lipstick on in the morning and still dance.

Regan and Marcel's Wedding Moved People!

"We are now Family"

Ahhhh, the American and the Dutch Boy...makes a wonderful pairing! It was a most wonderful outdoor wedding in Portland, Oregon~ where you can pretty much count on a beautiful day this time of year. The uniting of two families from across the big pond who if you didn't know better, you would think they have always been together~and maybe, just maybe they have in another life or realm if you believe in that. It was so wonderful and meant to be that I didn't even cry...which is not like me...but I just shouted Woo Hoo as they paraded down the grassy aisle. I'll let you see for yourself why I was so elated....