Today is more than just another day in your life…..

 

I’m happy to pass this along.

With many blessings.

By Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg,busic is by Gary Malkin and narration is from Brother David Steindl-Rast.

2 Comments

Filed under Art and Learning, Community

Grant Opportunity for Ohio River Valley Artists

Heads up local artists. The Fast Track grant application process is open until February 1, 2011.

I can speak from experience. I’ve received this grant 3 times over the years.  It’s not a huge amount of money but, I’ve been pleasantly surprised each time by the interest and passion this gift of support generates. It is well worth the effort. So, go for it!

More details:

The Artist Fast Track grant program is open to artists and craftspeople, part-time or full time with professional experience who live and work in the Ohio counties of Adams, Ashtabula, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Carroll, Clermont, Coshocton, Columbiana, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mahoning, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Vinton, Washington or theWest Virginia counties of Wayne, Cabell, Mason, Jackson, Wood, Pleasants, Tyler, Wetzel, Marshall, Ohio, Brooke, Hancock.
Artists and craftspeople may apply for grants of up to $500. You may not apply for more than one grant in the state fiscal year period, July 1 to June 30.

Download information at the link below.  To request an application, write to Bill Howley, project director at billhowley@hughes.net

fasttrack

1 Comment

Filed under Art and Learning, Misc

Earth and Fire Pottery

Horsehair Raku Vase by Eric Preston

I love artists who allow themselves to dive, dream, play,  listen, create, move to the edges – with joy and dogged determination. I love artists who keep doing what they love in spite of a million obstacles. Eric Preston is one such artists. Eric listens to clay, allowing it to speak it’s shape. He senses the future the clay is trying to express. He assists, midwifes, enables clay to be reborn in the shapes, lines, and colors it was meant to have.

 

See more of Eric’s assisted births here

4 Comments

Filed under Art and Learning, Community

THE Right Way to Read –

Love this story by John McKnight about the right way to read.

More good stuff at “Abundant Community.”

Have you every felt your ideas, experiments, dreams sabotaged or undermined by the right way? Or by best practices? Or by we don’t do that here?

2 Comments

Filed under Community, Reading, Teaching

Blessings

A Woman's Way of Knowing©

Just found this loving kindness meditation led by Sylvia Boorstein. I hope to practice this meditation everyday for the rest of my life. From the Being Blog.

1 Comment

Filed under Art and Learning, Community

Making Art is like fire in the dead, cold night of winter

Making art in a destitute place is like making fire in the dead, cold night of winter. It gives out warmth, gives out light, gives direction and rekindles hope.

Lily Yeh

1 Comment

Filed under Art and Learning

One Crease, Much Beauty……….from the Being Blog

One Crease, Much Beauty

by Susan Leem, associate producer

The documentary Between the Folds won a Peabody Award this year for chronicling origami artists who reinterpret the world through folding paper. Though the film features elaborate technical mastery and the possibilities for physics, Paul Jackson, an origami teacher from Tel Aviv, Israel, describes a broader philosophy by demonstrating the elegance of a single fold of paper and the unexpected shapes that can be created:

“This is the lesson of one crease, that you don’t need to have a very strong knowledge of origami technique to make something beautiful that you feel is in some way significant and interesting.”

1 Comment

Filed under Art and Learning

Be Good to Yourself – Be Your Own Best Friend

Patty Foote, a student in my public speaking course wrote the following essay in preparation for her ‘Persuasive’ Speech delivered to the member of her class (115 so1) at Southern State Community College in June 2011. Originally posted on the class blog. With Patty’s permission and my GREAT JOY, I’m re-posting it here.

 

I knew from the beginning of the quarter what I would want my persuasive speech to be, and now that I have gotten to know everyone somewhat and got a glimpse into your lives, I know this is the perfect choice for this audience – YOU!

My speech is BE GOOD TO YOURSELF – BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND

As I have listened to all of you the past two months, I have no other message that I think is more important.  I have done a good deal of reflection since going back to school.  When I listened to your own stories and reflections, I can identify and connect with many of you.  Trust me, I have many more years of life experience than all of you and I have spent years of what you might call just surviving because I did not know my value, or I let someone else define it.  I am far from that road I was on and still traveling away from it.

I will discuss these points; I like to call them valuable thought lessons.

Thought lesson 1 – You are Important

Thought lesson 2 – You Deserve the Best in your Life

Thought lesson 3 – Learn from your Past

Thought lesson 4 – Be Good to Yourself, Be Your Own Best Friend

You are Important

There is only one you on this planet, Earth.  You have talents, gifts and ideas that no one else has or can offer to this world.  You are unique and no one can take your place.  Don’t let anyone in your present, your past or your future dictate who you are and where you are going.  The people that surround you will be better off because you are in their life.  You are Important. Remember that!

You Deserve the Best in your Life

The Best contains all your goals, your dreams and any star that you dare to reach out and grasp.  Don’t settle for less than what you wish for.  Write your goals and your dreams down and go after them.  If you don’t know what your goals are right now and are finding your way, that’s okay.  Just wait on it – it will come.  It’s okay to be uncertain.  Live everyday being confident in who you are.  Just live everyday the best you can.

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Community, Teaching

Prenatal Care or Selective Breeding?

According to the Mayo Clinic’s website “Screening for Down syndrome is offered as a routine part of prenatal care.“  That statement is difficult for me to grasp given that 95% of fetuses identified with Down syndrome are aborted.  That hardly sounds like prenatal care to me.  So, what is it?  Social engineering?  Dare we say eugenics?  And, even more important than what to call ‘it’, what in the world can we do to cut through the biases and prejudices?

From  the “What Sorts of People Should there be?” Blog.

Down But Not Out

Faced with a positive test in pregnancy for Down Syndrome, what would you do?

Last year, New Zealand introduced a new blood test as part of an improved screening programme for Down Syndrome. But a group of parents provocatively calls it eugenics; the practice of selective breeding of the human race. Because worldwide data shows the better the testing programme, the more Down Syndrome pregnancies are terminated. 60 Minutes reporter Paula Penfold meets those who live with Down Syndrome to see what kind of lives they do lead, and asks the question at the heart of the issue: should they, or shouldn’t they have been born?

The show airs in New Zealand

 

6 Comments

Filed under Community

Living Sculptures

Theo Jansen’s website

Leave a Comment

Filed under Art and Learning, Misc