she likes to draw

I'm a student of graphic design, exploring the edges of creative freelancing.

["Freelance Dance" postcard from Carolyn Sewell's awesome collection Postcards to my Parents.]

It's the first week of a new college term and I'm always up for learning something new. When I landed in my first graphic design course on Tuesday, I had a super-grounded feeling. Like when this little girl said she wanted to be a cartoonist, she knew she'd come back around to drawing, one day. That day is today.


From my "School Years" book, it looks like I was keeping "secretary" as a back-up plan, no doubt influenced by the times. I mean how weird is it that there are "boy" choices and "girl" choices? And it's a pretty narrow list on either side of the aisle, right?

I'm starting with learning the Adobe Creative Suite of software, and getting right back to Amy Becraft's Typography course at City College, once I get my digital toolkit together!

sweet oranges

From John McPhee, I learned that the word 'orange' evolved from Sanskrit. "The Chinese word for orange ... is jyu, but it did not migrate with the fruit ... The Hindus called an orange naranja, the first syllable of which, according to Tolkowsky, was a prefix meaning fragrance. This became the Persian naranj, a word the Muslims carried through the Mediterranean. In Byzantium, an orange was nerantzion. This in Neo-Latin, became variously styled as arangium, arantium, and aurantium -- eventually producing naranja in Spain, laranja in Portugal, arancia in Italy, and orange in France." Fascinating.

By any name, I will never tire of having sweet oranges right outside my door in January. We've harvested 90-something so far (I'm trying to keep count) and the tree still looks full.

On the other side of the garden, aloe flowers glow orange against the canyon this afternoon.

infinity

The other day I dreamed that I made a flagstone infinity sign connecting our two small apple trees. Who am I to question important messages that come through the dream state? I went out and did it.

Maybe I should meditate right there in the center.

saul david raye

Saul David Raye led an afternoon of yoga, and an evening of kirtan with Ram Dass and at Studio Maui in Haiku. He suggested kneeling to touch the Earth and to connect our hearts with the heart of Mother Earth. It reminded me of a gathering of friends where Laura suggested that because Amanda had hooked her light to Divine Light, she was eternal and invincible, and when Saul spoke these words about Gaia, EVERYTHING felt connected in Radiance.

That was late October, and this holiday season has been an ever expanding understanding of the Divinity of all creation. I had the beautiful opportunity to be in the presence of Saul once again from Hawaii via the Cosmic Webstream to celebrate the Winter Solstice, and now I'm between classes as I participate in his virtual New Year's weekend practice from Kauai.

As the holidays have unfolded, I have had family time, connection with our homeless brothers, labyrinth walking time, powerful live music, yoga, and a day of Buddhist practice at Deer Park Monastery. Consistently, the message is to keep opening up my idea of God, of Holiness, and to always dwell in Divine Light.