My friend, Frida

I have an awesome friend who I call "Frida" and she calls me "Frida" too, in recognition of living our lives out loud, in full colour like Frida Kahlo.

She posted a photo on Facebook of a fabulous t-shirt created by Rachel Awes and I jokingly said I wear a size medium.  And the next thing I know, there was a size medium in my mailbox, gifted to me by Frida.

With a lovely little note.

(Pssssst.  Rachel Awes is now over here.)

All she did was listen and kept her heart open.  And gifted me more than a t-shirt, she gifted me renewed hope that I am heard which is especially B-I-G to me as I pray fervently for Fukushima and the healing and survival of all living things on our earth.  Thank you, friend.

All NZ, all the time

I've mentioned my friend Sally here a few times. A dear friend who used to be my neighbour, we have boys the same age who went to the same school. She left last July to move back home to New Zealand, literally the other side of the world. So far we're managing to hold onto our friendship through technology and the good old fashioned post (thanks to her lone efforts). She recently sent me this astonishing koru for my birthday. It is made out of rose quartz and together with the Maori meaning of the koru is my current talisman for new life, growth, strength and peace. I am so very grateful for the people who bring these things into my life.

We also had this little e-discussion over the word, "bugger" which, apparently, is quite a popular expression in NZ. I grew up with not being able to utter the word (of course the adults in my childhood imagined a slightly different spelling of the word) for fear of dire punishment, whereas it is commonly said where Sally lives. She sent me this video that had me howling and convinced me that I had to experience this place for myself.

A glimpse of what guides me

All my regular readers (including the lurkers) know that the Queen of Arts and I are thick as thieves. I have been creating blog-art with the rocks I get from her. I have left so many behind in my neighborhood, given so many away, offered up countless ones to friends and strangers and yet some have found me again, returned to me, insisted on being with me. They seem to have a life of their own. I have written about many, including "join in" and "be". "build a bridge" has it's own separate story. Here is a shot of a corner by my computer, one of my many altar sites.

I kept "emerge" because I couldn't part with it. The Queen painted me "Forward" by special request after suffering the very painful loss of my 15 year old dog. And from her visit last weekend, enjoying some time up north of my city at my cabin, I chose "give free hugs" from her own bag of blessings (guess who I gave my first free one to!) . My only regret is that I didn't get a shot of the one that said, "Leap" that she left on my fireplace mantle. Here is a shot of two of my favorite people, together in one of my favorite spots.

What do you do to rejuvenate yourself? What keeps you hanging on?

Here a Chick, There a Chick

She beat me to the posting board, the Queen of Arts, she did. I was so excited for days before she came. We've been blogging buddies for any number of months, probably since last spring but when we sat down together it was like we were spirit sisters. We talked so much and so fast about everything, jumping from subject to subject, trying to learn it all in the few short hours we had to spend. All those things we choose to not blog about and that don't carry so well in emails either. Our visions and dreams, our stumbling blocks and our beliefs that everything is going to work out just fine. She is originally from my neck of the woods and lucky for me she still visits family here quite often which means other trips will be down the pike before I know it. She's a special soul, you can tell when you look in her eyes and she looks back. We laughed and nodded a lot in agreement - oh yes, me too. If I could choose one word to describe the Queen, it would be Authentic. It was a gift to sit and break muffins with her, and naturally we left a rock behind! Thanks for sharing those parts of yourself with me Kim, they are safe in my heart.

For many reasons this is a poor photo but I love our expressions - my favorite of the ones I took of the two Kims this week.


And the rock, again the quality is poor, the light was difficult to work with but it has an ethereal quality at the same time.