By Bob Chrisman The idea of spring cleaning stayed with me through the night, but vanished this morning, when outside, sleet peppered the streets. My tax appointment required me to catch the bus to go downtown. I rushed around and all thoughts about the meaning of spring cleaning disappeared. As I pulled the front door [...]
Archive for February, 2011
Spring Cleaning In the Attic Of My Mind
Posted in Books, Death, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Spirituality, Topic Writing, Wake Up, tagged anniversaries, birthdays, Bob Chrisman, family history, family legacies, family memories, fathers, fathers and sons, love of books, memories of cars, memories of growing up, memories of my father, Reading, red Ravine Guests, Rites of Spring, Spring Cleaning, things I learn from my family, writing about family, writing about fathers on February 28, 2011 | 27 Comments »
Waning Moon (Haiga)
Posted in 13 Moons, Art, Culture, Family, Food, Great Places To Write, Haiku, Holidays, Life, Personal, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Spirituality, Structure, Wake Up, tagged alotus_poetry, ancestors, A~Lotus, BlackBerry 52, BlackBerry 52 Jump-Offs, building community through the Arts, collaboration, collaborative art, collaborative photography, collage, community, haiga, honoring life, honoring the past, honoring those who came before us, Lunar New Year, Poetry By Lotus, the value of process, Vietnamese Lunar New Year Cakes, Vietnamese New Year on February 26, 2011 | 11 Comments »
Waning Moon (Haiga), 7/52, BlackBerry 52 – WEEK 7, February 19th 2011, photo © 2011 by A~Lotus. All rights reserved. Medium: Digital collage created using MS PowerPoint 2007 & Adobe Photoshop CS2. Photo taken on Canon PowerShot A550. Waning Moon (Haiga) by Lotus is a response to the BlackBerry 52 Jump-Off Skip Rocks Not Breakfast [...]
PRACTICE — SPRING CLEANING – 10min
Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Dreams, Growing Older, Life, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Structure, Topic Writing, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged birthdays, change of seasons, cleaning rituals, deep listening, mentors, personal growth, red Ravine Guests, rituals, seasonal rituals, Spring Cleaning, spring rituals, Teri Blair, the value of introspection, the value of process, the wisdom of older women, turning 50, turning points, wisdom, writing about growing older, writing about spring cleaning on February 25, 2011 | 7 Comments »
By Teri Blair This spring I turn 50. The cleaning on my mind these days is an internal one. 50 is a significant marker, one that won’t be ignored. I saw Bonnie Raitt in concert the year she turned 50. She was playing the Grandstand at the Minnesota State Fair. She called out to the [...]
PRACTICE — SPRING CLEANING — 10min
Posted in Body, Bones, Home, Life, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Structure, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Bob Chrisman, cleaning house, cleaning products, cleaning rituals, cleaning windows, fresh air, mothers, old cleaning remedies, red Ravine Guests, seasonal rituals, Spring Cleaning, spring rituals, windows, writing about spring, writing about spring cleaning on February 24, 2011 | 8 Comments »
By Bob Chrisman In my mind it’s too early to think of spring cleaning. As I write that sentence my thoughts veer off in another direction. I never clean my house unless company will arrive within a few hours. Those little cleaning spurts only touch the surface dirt and clutter, not at all like spring [...]
PRACTICE — Spring Cleaning — 10min
Posted in Body, Bones, Growing Older, Life, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Structure, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged cleaning house, cleaning products, cleaning rituals, cleaning windows, letting go, old cleaning remedies, seasonal rituals, Spring Cleaning, writing about spring, writing about spring cleaning on February 23, 2011 | 14 Comments »
Spring cleaning. Where to start. It’s quiet, late in the evening. I’ve barely scratched the surface. I remember window washing, vinegar and newspaper. I remember dusting with Pledge. The smell of Lemon Pledge, etched in the nasal cavity. I remember Johnson Paste Wax, the rotating discs on the buffer. I remember sand and sandspurs, tearing [...]
A Warm Game Of Texas Hold ‘Em (haiga) – 6/52
Posted in 13 Moons, Art, Haiku, Life, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Quotes, Relationships, Seasons, Skies, Structure, tagged BlackBerry 52, BlackBerry Moon, blue monochrome, blue skies, Bone Moon, building community through the Arts, collaborative photography, color psychology, color symbolism, February Full Moon, February Snow Moon, haiga, inspiration, the color blue, the value of practice, the value of process, The Void, winter blues, winter in Minnesota, With The Void Full Powers, Yves Klein on February 16, 2011 | 6 Comments »
A Warm Game Of Texas Hold ‘Em (Haiga) – 6/52, BlackBerry 52 – WEEK 6, Golden Valley, Minnesota, February 11th 2011, photo © 2011 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. Medium: Digital BlackBerry photograph altered in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, Font: Myriad Pro. After reading the Lunar New Year postcard from Lotus (her BlackBerry52 Jump-Off for [...]
WRITING TOPIC — SPRING CLEANING (HOMEMADE CLEANING REMEDIES)
Posted in Home, Life, Practice, Seasons, Secrets, Writing Topics, tagged Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda, Baking Soda, Borax, cleaning green, cleaning house, cleaning products, cleaning rituals, herbs & spices for cleaning, Homemade Air Fresheners, Homemade Cleaning Remedies, old cleaning remedies, seasonal rituals, Spring Cleaning, spring fever, spring rituals, vanilla, vinegar on February 13, 2011 | 14 Comments »
I spent yesterday up to my elbows in dust bunnies, paper filing, and boxes of old memories. I have started Spring Cleaning. In the middle of this seasonal ritual, I stopped to read an old letter that revealed a secret, found a bulging folder full of fun city facts dated about the time Indria (our [...]
Celebrating The Lunar New Year — Postcard From A Friend
Posted in 13 Moons, Animals & Critters, Art, Bones, Culture, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Holidays, Life, Life In Letters, Place, Postcards From The Edge, Practice, Relationships, Seasons, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, Weather, Work, Writers, tagged alotus_poetry, A~Lotus, BlackBerry 52, BlackBerry 52 Jump-Offs, building community through the Arts, Chinese New Year, collaboration, collage, community, hopes for the New Year, kusudama, Lunar New Year, origami, Poetry By Lotus, postcards, Tết, Tết Nguyên Đán, the art of postcards, the art of writing postcards & letters, the value of practice, the value of process, the value of the Arts, Vietnamese New Year, ways to start the New Year, Year of the Cat, Year of the Rabbit on February 10, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Lunar New Year Postcard 2011 (Side B), 6/52, BlackBerry 52 – WEEK 6, February 7th 2011, photo © 2011 by A~Lotus. All rights reserved. Medium: E-Postcard created using MS Word 2007, Adobe Acrobat, & Adobe Photoshop CS2. Photo taken on Canon PowerShot A550. Digital Collage (Side B): Text by Lotus, clipart of lanterns from MS [...]
An Open Letter To My Father
Posted in Family, Growing Older, Holding My Breath, Home, I Don't Remember, Life, Life In Letters, Love, Personal, Place, Relationships, Secrets, Wake Up, tagged aunts & nieces, family heirlooms, family history, family legacies, family memories, fathers and daughters, fear & fearlessness, grandmothers, importance of grandmothers, letters, letters as family heirlooms, letters as healers, living the questions, mothers and daughters, old letters, parents, parents & children, reconnecting with family, the art of writing postcards & letters, the value of old letters, things I learn from my family, unanswered questions, writing about fathers on February 6, 2011 | 56 Comments »
An Open Letter To My Father, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 2009, photo © 2009-2011 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. I haven’t seen my father since I was six years old. He reached out to me that day for the first time since I was a toddler. But I was scared and didn’t want to [...]






























