lespwa means 'hope'

like the rest of you, i have been wondering what i can do to help the victims of the earthquake in haiti... 

i happened to be on rebecca sower's blog... she had been travelling to haiti long before the earthquake... but when it happened, she went into action... there is now a blog and an etsy shop called 'haiti by hand' where you can go to help...

i had seen in rebecca's blog that lespwa means 'hope' - a word near and dear to many... for this lespwa necklace i created resin components... the link says 'renewing' and 'time'... it is always the time to help, but when crisis arises we can renew our dedication to that cause... all copper wire, lapis, turquoise, recycled sari fiber, a fiber & fabric wrapped link... and a hand - to illustrate our reaching out... 


i encourage you to take a look at her shop... 

what does one say...

when they feel as if nothing they can say is important? in the midst of witnessing a tragedy from afar, in the poorest country in the western hemisphere... i do not watch the news or listen to it on the radio... i don't even read the newspaper... and so with embarrassment i say that i did not know how bad this was... and i am saddened... 


with relief and gratitude (not selfishness) i say 'thank you'... i know where my kids are and that they are safe... my house is standing... i have water and food... i know where my friends and family are... i remember the panic in september 2001 when the reception had gone out in the city and we couldn't reach our loved ones... i cannot wrap my brain around this level of disaster... 


and i say 'how do i help?' ... 

'how wonderful it is that nobody need wait

a single moment before starting 

to improve the world.'

~ anne frank

the moment is always 'now'... 

please do not get swallowed up in the skepticism that can arise when thinking of donating... yes, there are scams... so stick with the names you know - doctors without borders, the red cross, hope for haiti, oxfam... 

every little bit counts... we can all make a difference together... 

there is another auction going on at nina bagley's blog 'ornamental'... that one ends at midnight tonight... 

on growing pains and helping -

this is my christmas tree - 


i wish i were kidding...


you know those posts i kept putting up in december, about keeping things in perspective, staying mindful, trying to destress amidst the high intensity season... about finding beauty and goodness and love? i did do some of that... but there was a lot of stress... and i must have felt it building because those posts were affirmations for myself as well... 


as i started to take the ornaments off of the tree - all of the needles dropped off... and i said 'thank you' to the tree, my giving tree, for shedding its needles, absorbing my stress and allowing my hair to stay put... i felt badly that it had to do it... and i vowed 'never again'... 


it was so symbolic to me... now you might tell me that i should have watered it more or it was the dry heat... but, honestly, it isn't often that you see a tree look like a pile of kindling at the curbside... and i had to take that as a sign... 


while i was on stephanie lee's blog, i saw that she has a journaling class... and i knew it could be considered 'frivolous' to sign up (not by me), but it called to me... and the inner voice said, 'no time like the present.' (let me here explain how keeping a diary and journaling differs for me... in the past, keeping a diary was more like a recording of events and thoughts around them... this is writing for a certain amount of time with prompts...)

'let the gentle bush dig its roots deep

and spread upward to split the boulder.'

~ carl sandburg

just a few months ago, i started keeping a journal that i draw in... so i can put down those ideas that swirl around my head at bedtime and capture them on paper... so i can get to sleep... so come morning i can remember what exactly i got so excited about the night before! 

having experienced such a rapid rate of creative growth in the past year, i feel a bit unbalanced... i realized that while i am expanding in many ways, i need to go deep and search the self... because only then can my work have the intention i wish for it to carry... it will always be authentic, but it just feels like the right time... for all of it... for me to really get in touch with my 44 year old self... my word for the year was 'nascent'... funny how things happen, isn't it?

in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake in haiti, people are wondering what they can do to help... deryn mentock is holding an auction to raise money to donate to hope for haiti... 

take a look, won't you? her necklace is absolutely sublime...