Sunday, May 31, 2015

"... But more than that / I know / You’ll be alright / You’ll be alright ..."


















Ever since I heard the news about a month ago that she was in the hospital, I have been thinking about Joni Mitchell and how much her music has meant to me since I first heard her in 1968, when I was 18 years old. I had looked for and found no updates on her condition, and a few days ago I went to her website to check again. I didn't find an update, but I found 300 pages documenting her art work. Although I knew that she was a painter, I had no idea how much work she has done throughout her life. The catalogue opens with pieces of undetermined dates and then moves year by year through her art work that can be dated, beginning with drawings when she was 3 years old in 1947.

It has taken me several days to look at all the art work and notes. That was time well spent.

Here are some of my favorites:

"Untitled" -- 1947


















"Calico Cat" -- 1969


















"Ladies of the Canyon" -- 1969


















"Sweet Sucker Dance (Abundance and Decline)" -- 1976













"Georgia O'Keeffe" -- 1978


















"A Chair in the Sky" -- 1978

"In the Park of the Golden Buddha" -- 1995
"Untitled" -- 2001
"Untitled" -- 2002
"Dreamland" -- 2004
Panel 2 of "Green Flag Song" exhibition -- 2007
Panel 17 of "Green Flag Song" exhibition -- 2007

On her website, I also found that a video documenting her exhibition of 60 new works in Los Angeles in 2007:


IF (Joni Mitchell's adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's poem)

If you can keep your head
While all about you
People are losing theirs and blaming you
If you can trust yourself
When everybody doubts you
And make allowance for their doubting too.

If you can wait
And not get tired of waiting
And when lied about
Stand tall
Don’t deal in lies
And when hated
Don’t give in to hating back
Don’t need to look so good
Don’t need to talk too wise

If you can dream
And not make dreams your master
If you can think
And not make intellect your game
If you can meet
With triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same

If you can force your heart
And nerve and sinew
To serve you
After all of them are gone
And so hold on
When there is nothing in you
Nothing but the will
That’s telling you to hold on!
Hold on!

If you can bear to hear
The truth you’ve spoken
Twisted and misconstrued
By some smug fool
Or watch your life’s work
Torn apart and broken down
And still stoop to build again
With worn out tools

If you can draw a crowd
And keep your virtue
Or walk with Kings
And keep the common touch
If neither enemies nor loving friends
Can hurt you
If everybody counts with you
But none too much

If you can fill the journey
Of a minute
With sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
Then
The Earth is yours
And Everything that’s in it
But more than that
I know
You’ll be alright
You’ll be alright.

Cause you’ve got the fight
You’ve got the insight
You’ve got the fight
You’ve got the insight


©2007; Crazy Crow Music


Still no update on the Joni Mitchell website, but I found this. 

Sending love and gratitude to you, Joni.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Looking At Old Stories Without Words and Planting Seeds and Listening To A Dream on Memorial Day 2015


















Early this morning, I planted seeds of yellow and red Zinnias out on my porch. It turns out that I did the same thing last year on Memorial Day. I had forgotten.


















Sunday, May 24, 2015

Bobu Diran: Forever Young / This Old Man



ボブディラン「フォーエバー・ヤング」の日本語詞です。
直訳ではないので、替歌です。

(Google translates: "Bob is the Japanese lyrics of Dylan, 'Forever Young.' Because it is not a literal translation, it is parody.")



ボブ·ディラン
(pronounced Bobu· diran)

Click on the Listen icon in Japanese and English.

Kindest wishes to you on your 74th Birthday and always, Bobu.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Porch Garden Meditation on Memorial Day Weekend 2015




















I listened to Maira  and then went out on my porch again, just in time to see two deer walking by on the path below my porch:



Ich habe genug.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Alive in the mystery of kindness



We're not there anymore.  That was 40 years ago.



We're not there anymore either. That was 12 years ago.



We're not there anymore. That was 6 years ago.



We're not there anymore. That was this last Tuesday evening.

Albert Einstein

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.” (Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies)

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." (The Dalai Lama)

"... You a praying man, huh? What do you pray for? You pray for the world?" I never thought about praying for the world. I said, “I pray that I can be a kinder person.” (Bob Dylan, Chronices: Volume One -- from a conversation with "Sun Pie" near Raceland, west of New Orleans)

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

We


                                                  
"End Of The Line"

Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it's all right, if you live the life you please
Well it's all right, doing the best you can
Well it's all right, as long as you lend a hand

You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring (End of the Line)
Waiting for someone to tell you everything (End of the Line)
Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring (End of the Line)
Maybe a diamond ring

Well it's all right, even if they say you're wrong
Well it's all right, sometimes you gotta be strong
Well it's all right, As long as you got somewhere to lay
Well it's all right, everyday is Judgment Day

Maybe somewhere down the road aways (End of the Line)
You'll think of me, wonder where I am these days (End of the Line)
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (End of the Line)
Purple haze

Well it's all right, even when push comes to shove
Well it's all right, if you got someone to love
Well it's all right, everything'll work out fine
Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line

Don't have to be ashamed of the car I drive (End of the Line)
I'm glad to be here, happy to be alive (End of the Line)
It don't matter if you're by my side (End of the Line)
I'm satisfied

Well it's all right, even if you're old and gray
Well it's all right, you still got something to say
Well it's all right, remember to live and let live
Well it's all right, the best you can do is forgive

Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it's all right, if you live the life you please
Well it's all right, even if the sun don't shine
Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

When finding my way is not getting my way / Getting out of my own way


Explorers, the historian Aaron Sachs wrote me in answer to a question, "were always lost, because they’d never been to these places before. They never expected to know exactly where they were. Yet, at the same time, many of them knew their instruments pretty well and understood their trajectories within a reasonable degree of accuracy. In my opinion, their most important skill was simply a sense of optimism about surviving and finding their way.” 
― Rebecca SolnitA Field Guide to Getting Lost

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Taking place now


Eduardo Galeano notes that America was conquered, but not discovered, that the men who arrived with a religion to impose and dreams of gold never really knew where they were, and that this discovery is still taking place in our time.” 
― Rebecca SolnitA Field Guide to Getting Lost

Saturday, May 9, 2015

I'm lost, and it's okay


“For me, childhood roaming was what developed self-reliance, a sense of direction and adventure, imagination, a will to explore, to be able to get a little lost and then figure out the way back.”

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

looking forward to getting back to work on the mandalas





















My cataract surgery went well. I have excellent distance vision in my left eye now, but most book reading and all drawing are not an option until I get a new pair of prescription glasses in June after the new lens has settled in. I started Mandala #12 before having cataract surgery.

Here is the mandala my mother made after her cataract surgery in the 1980s, when cataract surgery was a much more complicated and painful process than it is today.