Discovering Beauty in Everyday Life

Hello Everyone, So many of you knew my niece Lara.  I want to share this with you.  See you very soon, Linda Jo. Remembering Lara Calloway 1973 - 2015 May 8, 2015 MacLean Ballroom, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Guest Book "I loved her. I'll miss her. She exuded love and acceptance...." - Carrie Rubenstein View Sign More Photos View all 4 photos LARA LEE CALLOWAY  Funeral rites for Lara Lee Calloway will be at 3 p.m. Sunday in the village church at Canada de Los Alamos in the valley below her childhood home on the Old Santa Fe Trail. She died in her sleep on May 3 at home in Chicago. She lived in an artful world filled with colors and fabrics and images and fine trinkets and sacred illuminations and people with stories to tell. Growing up, she worked in Santa Fe galleries, ushered at the Opera and traveled often in Georgia O'Keeffe country. She graduated from St. Michael's High School in 1991 and received a

I know I missed Easter and Wester, and You, Thanksgiving and Chrismas, Columbus Day too, but my Spirit was with you; I had to make do! I even discovered a secret or two: The seasons keep rolling the hour glass sifts, regardless of whether or not I exist. If I don’t pay attention the matter at hand continues along just as though it were planned, Not by me, Never mind! I’ve got plenty to do, without thinking about how to discuss it with you! Not that I wouldn’t enjoy the exchange, If it weren’t so totally hard to arrange. I think I’ll go look for a wish and a star. I found one! My gosh! And it isn’t that far! What a beauty, oh my! Has it always been there? In my eyes, in my care, It’s just too much to bear. Easter in Central Park ~ 2015

On the J-Train The J Train in Brookly, across the Williamsburg Bridge Arriving at Gates Avenue Beautification of Subway stops: Gates Avenue, Brooklyn One of 4.5 bathrooms (yes, I know!  It doesn't have a soap dish yet.  But one has to get exactly the Correct Soap Dish!  This bathroom is a beautiful grey and white, although it doesn't look like it here.  It also is a fairly large bathroom--I guess I have to spring for a wide-angle lens like all those other people! Oh yes.  Indoor plumbing!  What a gift, even without soap dishes and towel racks! Mission for the day (should you choose to accept it): 1.  Enter into a bathroom; one with tub or shower.  Avoid gas stations, for example. 2.  Revel in the beauty and convenience of Tile!  Think what a mess the average shower might make without it. 3.  Check out the very simplicityof a water repellent floor!  Nothing fancy, just tile, tile, showers, water, toilets with double flush, maybe a mirror!!!!  A mirror. 

I love this video on mute as well....also try full screen.

This piece of Urban Flora is a prime example of a Time Warp Tree.  Notice how it is confused and out of focus!  This specimen is carrying a whole forest of wilted fall leaves, and uncountable leaves that simply refused to fall.  Even the winter snow cannot discourage these soggy hangers on (or, if you like, hanger ons).  Looking carefully, we see greenish leaves still clinging on from last summer.  Notice as well the half enclosed trunk.  What is that about? And to completely sadden one,  this Time Warp Tree is trying to shelter not tulips, not boxwood, but ice-encrusted garbage bags!  How thankless, yet noble. Time Warp Tree also appears to be wearing a tree-sized friendship bracelet.  Sigh. Time Warp Tree with Red Tree-Friendship Bracelet

I am hardened by the unrelenting cold Scorched by winter, moribund with icy calm Burrs scratch and itch, puncturing the edges Cold dirt. Talking drum calls out for me A drop, a flake, a pinch at a time By the tip of a root I become me again. Untermyer Fountain /Three Dancing Maidens by Walter Schott, French Conservancy Garden, Central Park.

Small Boulder on Way to Final Resting Place Emerging from the Tombs of Darkness (Please tell me the Architect did not just say "Oops! I forgot the drains") Cellar Stairs, Backyard

Walking along on the wrong side of the sunny street, I took it upon myself to wonder, why does the world seem a little bit shallow; flat maybe, not up to my usual standards? It seemed as though I'd been on this very block before, once upon a time in the early autumn. So as last resort I took a walk. A walk! Oh, how I have missed my walks! Look! See that sunlit sky as blue as starch, edging over that limb? It’s pushing away the grey underbelly of the day. Is that a sparrow resting a minute on a colden rail? Wait! My Gosh, it’s Ounce! Our little Ounce, fluffed up and balanced as a ball. Ounce is off now, to sip from the edges of a late fountain fall. Oh dear, I was so excited I forgot to take a picture!  Don’t worry though, we made an appointment.

Lights pushing, inching closer Magnetized in the falling rain From a Brooklyn to Manhattan Bridge, early summer

Sink down inside the hidden places, wait next to the heart of the matter, sense the sharded rainbow nesting there

I didn’t know about the mended life I did not expect the quiet I did not anticipate the candle life     Soft surrounding flame     Holding onto an orange-hot tip     Black wick I did not expect a rainbow life     Colors melting towards each other     Spring rain passing     New wet leaves Still I know that raging, jealous, microsecond fire     Brassy, logo-driven, neon     Staked to the charred past     Mind igniting Rescued again by the river of time Tossed back into the candle-dappled day I sink into the moment like a stone.

This Blessing Rainbow has momentarily stopped to rest in the fountain mists of the Conservancy Italian Garden. Notice the collection of Innocent  Bystanders-- or bysitters, if you will --totally unaware of their blessings!  They are being showered with rainbow spirit-blessings that will  travel with them forever, as they make their way along their worldly paths. Mystical Blessing Rainbow Watching Over Resting Cyclist Blessing Rainbow Creating Happiness in Fountain Sitters Mission for the Day (note: this mission may take a little longer than a day, since sometimes it's not that easy to find the proper spot where a Blessing Rainbow is staying) Go outside when the sun is up and shining. Locate a source of running or spraying water. You may locate sprinklers, fountains, (include drinking fountains), droplets on the edge of a leaf.... Position yourself between the water and the sun. You may have to move near, back up, go slightly left or right. When you ca

Amazing. We almost didn't recognize Robino. It was a difficult trip this winter, and a long, long winter to boot. Poor Robino! I know there was a lot of girth that wasn't totally accountable from feathers, but this slim, happy Robino. Well! What a nice surprise! Robino surveying his old territory near the Metropolitan Museum in Central Park

Brooklyn : Stage 1: acquire 1 three story house.... Larry C., Linda J.C., James A. Observing Vibes Stairway Welcome to Brooklyn!

Elegant upper East Side Travelers  Enjoy Whipped Cream and Espresso at Café Sabarsky - Neue Galerie Neue Museum, Fifth Avenue and 86th Street, Manhattan