Tuesday, August 27, 2019

August Journal of Wonder


I wonder what Mom intended to make from these purple squares? Was she inspired by the poem  "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple?"  I'm sure it would make her happy to know, I squared some of them up, cut them into smaller squares and added a piece of embroidery to create a small piece. I have just begun the hand quilting. Needle, thread, and thimble cast a spell across time.


I wonder why I only make a list for summer reading. Why not make a list for other seasons? Would I enjoy my summer reading list less if it were followed by an autumn list?

I wonder if I can knit my stash sock yarn skeins (specifically for socks) down to zero? I am currently knitting a pair and have three other skeins in stash. Certainly, I can do this but only if it is fun.

Where does the knot in my right shoulder come from?

I wonder why Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote so many sonnets. I would like to read more about her life and work.

I wonder what to do with the rest of the tomato crop? How did our great grandmothers do all the cooking, canning, and preserving in hot kitchens as well as prepare meals? What was it like to try and feed a large farm family from a garden?

How did we arrive at the last Tuesday in August? I wonder if I should quit complaining about summer heat and accept the invitation of W.B. Yeats in the opening of his poem, "Those Images."

What if I bade you leave
the cavern of the mind?
There's better exercise
in the sunlight and wind."

Cavern implies a shelter with an opening - a way out and a way to return. What would happen if I left the cavern of my mind more often?

Linking here with Juliann for reflections about wonder, my word of 2019.

8 comments:

  1. Oh, Jane, I absolutely love your journals of wonder! They open up so many questions and new ways for me to think about things that I find myself considering and returning to them for days. But you also remind me that it is important to leave the cavern of the mind. Thank you, thank you!

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  2. Leaving the cavern of the mind - what a wondrous idea!!

    Love that you are using some fabric that was your Mom's. And isn't hand sewing so soothing? Enjoy your moments with it and thinking of your Mom.

    I don't need to even think about our tomato crop. It was so pitifully small. There are some green tomatoes on the vine still (and a few that are ripening...slowly) - I think fried green tomatoes will be on the menu shortly.

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  3. Dear Jane, I am sitting here wondering how amazing it would be to be your neighbor.

    Your words are a balm and an inspiration. I am wondering if the rest of the tomato crop will ripen - or just rot on the vine as they have done in past years. So - to pick or not to pick is bouncing around my cavernous brain!

    Beautiful, beautiful post! Thank you!

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  4. The quilt piece is adorable. The purple is just perfect!

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  5. If you ever knit your stash (any stash) down to zero, it would be a wonderful blog post of what you bought to replenish the stash!! Can you believe we are at the end of August? Where does the time go???

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  6. I love your wondering list. !! I take the tomatoes and roast them with olive oil and fennel. Then I put them on pizza dough that comes frozen from the grocery store! I don't add cheese due to weight watchers, but you certainly could!

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  7. ahhh... wonder is such a gift! I'm reading a lot of Richard Rohr this summer and he talks about getting comfortable with mystery. unanswered questions. incomplete answers. sometimes those words make me uncomfortable, but wonder carries a similar sense of not knowing that somehow implies comfort. I like that. Thank you for sharing your list (and I'm three cheers in if you figure out the answer to knitting up that sock yarn stash ;-)

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  8. Hi, Nice to meet you! You had lots of neat thoughts and ideas in this post. I am sure your mother would be very pleased that you made something out of her purple squares and you've made a family heirloom!! My mom and grandma made all the meals for their family on an old wood cookstove and wrung the neck of the chickens themselves. They must have barely stopped working all day.
    ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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