Posted in Body, Bones, Essay, Growing Older, Life, Practice, Seasons, Wake Up, tagged aging, Bob Chrisman, red Ravine Guests, the process of aging, writing about growing older on May 9, 2008 | 22 Comments »
By Bob Chrisman
Last fall, determined to catch the color changes in the leaves, I watched them turn from green to yellow, orange, and red. I would sit on the window seat in the front room and write about the colors.
One day…suddenly it seemed…the leaves had all turned. When did it happen? I had been watching [...]
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Posted in Family, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Writing, tagged aging parents, caring for aging parents, red Ravine Guests, Seeded Earth, writing about growing older on May 5, 2008 | 37 Comments »
By Bo
Growing old? I can handle my getting older. I barely notice the days sneaking past. But then I barely noticed the days creeping past my mother, either — she lives 300 miles away and has always maintained her independence. Then there was a death in the family – a dear aunt who was the same [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Culture, Fiction, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Money, Music, Photography, Politics, Reading, Writers, Writing, tagged 1970's Bestsellers, 1970's history, American bestsellers, goddess of poetry, goddess of wisdom, how literature enriches life, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, literature, Minerva, Minneapolis Central Library, the 1970's on April 24, 2008 | 22 Comments »
Minerva, 1889 - 1890, Roman goddess of poetry, music, wisdom, and warriors (Greek, Athena), bronze sculpture by Norwegian American artist, Jakob H. F. Fjelde, downtown Minneapolis Central Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
The first black hole was discovered in the same decade that Star Wars was released (and not by Columbo, [...]
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I look in the mirror before I start writing but I can’t hold my own gaze. My nose is red from crying, eyes small. My skin is blotchy, and I am critical of my hair. It seems to get pulled straight by its own weight. I want my curls back.
Dad tells me this morning that [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Life, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Place, Politics, Practice, Topic Writing, Vision, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, honoring the dead, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, mirrors, the practice of writing, the process of aging, visiting graveyards, writing about growing older on April 11, 2008 | 22 Comments »
I’m looking at my ruddy face in a small, round, silver mirror. I look older than I remember. Thick eyebrows, salt and pepper hair; it looks the grayest to me right after a haircut. There is something about the way it lays across the black plastic smock, and falls in shredded pieces on to the [...]
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Posted in Art, Body, Death, Growing Older, Life, Quotes, Vision, Writing Topics, tagged aging, centenarians, longevity, writing about growing older on April 3, 2008 | 11 Comments »
Sarah (Book of Genesis), gouache on wooden board retablo,
painting © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
You can’t stop it. The tick-tock of the clock.
Once I heard someone say that time doesn’t pass (as if we’re standing still and time flows on by); instead, we pass through time.
Perhaps you don’t want to stop the passage of time. [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Life, Nature, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged bugs, doodlebugs, humans & nature, insects, memories of bugs, the practice of writing, writing about bugs on March 25, 2008 | 10 Comments »
There is a lot I don’t know about insects, spiders, and bugs. I do know they are connected to memories, sometimes traumatic memories. I had no idea my family had so many connected memories about bugs and creepy crawlers until this Writing Topic was posted and I started reading their comments. Memories are part of [...]
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Something about Mess nags at me. I can’t put my finger on it, although I know it has to do with control, wanting a perfect life. Wanting nothing to get out of hand.
It’s not me, I’m not a tidy person. Although there is something there as I age. A desire to finally and at last [...]
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In her post on names and the importance of names, QuoinMonkey wrote that “When we are long gone, our names are the one thing that will live on through time. My great, great grandmother wanted to be remembered by the things she loved. What epitaph would you want next to your name?”
A rich conversation ensued. QM [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Life, Memoir, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Photography, Place, Writing Topics, tagged ancestors, cemeteries, epitaphs, excavating memories, family history, names, researching memoir, Shirley Ellis, the name game, what's in a name, writing about names on March 13, 2008 | 42 Comments »
I continue to pore through photographs and tapes of my trip to Georgia and South Carolina last summer.
“What’s taking you so long?” Monkey Mind yells from the wings (grabbing every opportunity to scratch his haunches).
“It’s a slow process, excavating the past,” I soberly reply. “Don’t rush me.”
Family history rises from the rich, black compost - memories, stories, [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Body, Culture, Dreams, Growing Older, Practice, Recall, Secrets, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged body piercings, writing about tattoos on March 10, 2008 | 15 Comments »
What I know about tattoos I learned from D___. His entire right leg was tattooed, and most of his left leg. Both shoulders, all around his neck, most of both arms. His tattoos were serpents and Japanese letters and blues and purples, some red, beautiful tattoos, and I would examine them, lifting his leg while [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Body, Culture, Growing Older, Labyrinths, Life, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged mandalas, memories, Tattoo You, writing about tattoos on March 10, 2008 | 12 Comments »
I thought about getting a tattoo. In my 40’s. I changed my mind at the last minute. It was going to be a lynx. Yeah, the puffy jowls that look like Kiev’s. When you brush her hair back, her face is thin and pointy like Chaco’s. But naturally, it’s wider at the edges than it [...]
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Posted in Body, Growing Older, Personal, Practice, Recall, Writing Practices, tagged body hair, Christine Swint, Desmond Morris, hair, Persian threading, The Naked Ape, writing about hair on February 12, 2008 | 32 Comments »
By Christine Swint
Whatever grows out of this pen, the ink, the spidery words trailing across the page, grow out of me like the hair sprouting from my scalp. The words are connected to my brain only in the instant the pen touches the paper, the same way that my hair is a part of my [...]
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Posted in Body, Essay, Family, Growing Older, Memoir, Practice, tagged hair, memories of hair, red hair, redhead, writing about hair on February 8, 2008 | 26 Comments »
By Robin
There’s a story about my birth that was told fairly often when I was growing up. It’s a short story, and involves hair.
When my mother was pregnant with me, my father was asked by a friend what his preference was: a boy or a girl? His answer was that he didn’t care if it [...]
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Posted in Body, Culture, Family, Growing Older, Life, Personal, Practice, Secrets, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged hair, hair phobias, hairstyles, memories of hair, writing about hair on January 31, 2008 | 18 Comments »
I can’t stand loose, grubby hair on the bottom of my socks. I either go barefoot, or wear slippers around the house. But I rarely go barefoot (tender feet). So we’re back to the slippers. My slippers are (were) Minnetonka Moccasins I had for the last, oh, probably, 20 years. They finally wore through at [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Authors, Bones, Books, Culture, Dreams, Gratitude, Growing Older, I Don't Remember, Life, Personal, Politics, Practice, Silence, Topic Writing, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged Enrique Rivera, fighting the good fight, finding your voice, Human Rights, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, memories, Shirley Chisholm, stepping out of silence, Temple Grandin, the 1960's, Walking with the Wind on January 25, 2008 | 12 Comments »
I don’t remember Martin Luther King in 1962 or ‘63 when I was 8 or 9 or 10. I don’t remember him when I lived in the South. I must have been sheltered from all the strife and unrest that was going on during those years. I would not have understood.
I do remember him in [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Books, Death, Growing Older, Holding My Breath, Home, Life, Love, Photography, Place, Poetry, Practice, Quotes, Relationships, Silence, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged December (Christmas Box), Fitzgerald Theater, Galway Kinnell, Josephine Dickinson, MPR Talking Volumes, Silence Fell, Strong Is Your Hold, Where Were You When I Came In From The Evening Milking, Writers Hands, Writers reading their work, writing through grief on January 9, 2008 | 28 Comments »
Writers Hands VI, Josephine Dickinson, Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota, April 2007, all photos © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Josephine Dickinson read her poetry at the Fitzgerald Theater last April, sharing the stage with her mentor, Galway Kinnell. She met Galway at a poetry reading at Morden Tower in Northumberland. She was drawn to [...]
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Posted in Death, Film / TV / Video, Food, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Growing Older, Holidays, Laughing, Personal, Quotes, Seasons, tagged A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, Bob Clark, celebrating the Holidays, Holiday classics, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, never eat December snowflakes, nostalgia, Peanuts, snow, Vince Guaraldi, winter on December 24, 2007 | 17 Comments »
A Charlie Brown Christmas, snippets on YouTube by FlyingForGlory
Patty: Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue. It’s fun.
Linus Van Pelt: Mmm. Needs sugar.
Lucy Van Pelt: It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.
Linus Van Pelt: They sure look ripe to me.
I love to watch the snow fall. I’m a [...]
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Posted in Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Love, Memoir, Music, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Secrets, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Beatles '65, ghosts of Christmas past, growing up, listening to albums, love of music, music and memories, music nostalgia, the first time, vintage, vinyl, wax on December 20, 2007 | 10 Comments »
The first time I heard Beatles ‘65 I was 9 or 10. It was a big deal because it was my first LP, the FIRST vinyl 33 1/3 Long Playing record album I ever owned. Before that, I had a series of 45’s, neatly stacked in the small bedroom I shared with my younger sister. [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Life, Love, Memoir, Music, Photography, Practice, Writing, Writing Topics, tagged 33 rpm's, 45 rpm's, Ann & Nancy Wilson, Blood On The Tracks, Dylan, heart, Hope & Glory, Love Me Like Music, music and memories, musicians, records, songwriters, Top 10 Albums of all time, vintage, wax, writing about music, Writing Topics on December 10, 2007 | 27 Comments »
Blood On The Tracks, newly painted garage door on Dylan’s childhood home, part of the Dylan Days tour, Hibbing, Minnesota, May 2006, photo © 2006 by Liz. All rights reserved.
I’ve had music on the brain. Last week I watched an October interview with Nancy and Ann Wilson on A&E’s Private Sessions. The two [...]
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Posted in Culture, Death, Family, Growing Older, I Don't Remember, Life, Memoir, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Crayola, crayons, Goldenrod, Mahogany, memories, writing about color, writing practice on December 9, 2007 | 23 Comments »
I had a hard time choosing one color, the way I have a hard time choosing anything. When I looked over the list of Crayola colors, I realized I must have had a 64 box of crayons because it would have been impossible in my age range to grow up with a box with 80 [...]
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Posted in Art, Culture, Dreams, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Laughing, Music, Photography, Place, Poetry, Politics, Vision, Writers, tagged 1960's counterculture, 6 Faces Of Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, D.A. Pennebaker, Don't Look Back, Dylan Days, entertainment, film as art, Hibbing, I'm Not There, Minnesota, movie reviews, movies, Renaldo & Clara, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Tangled Up In Bob, Todd Haynes on December 6, 2007 | 26 Comments »
The 6 Faces Of Dylan, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, Uptown Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Buttered popcorn in hand, I viewed I’m Not There at the Uptown Theater a few weeks ago. I have to admit, when my friends and I plopped down in the [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Life, Life In Letters, Relationships, tagged 1970s, being a teenage girl in the 70s, Hallmark, humor, letter writing, old letters, Peanuts on December 5, 2007 | 44 Comments »
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
You.
You who?
You who, take a look at what a dork you were as a teenager!
Have you ever received a Box of Life from your parents? You know, the box they’ve been storing in their garage for the past two or three decades.
I got mine two weeks ago. It’s Box #3. Boxes 1 and 2, which I got [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Growing Older, Holidays, Home, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, tagged Amelia's kitchen, Family Recipes, Food, passing down family recipes, R3, Southern banana pudding, Southern cooking, Thanksgiving, traditions on November 21, 2007 | 24 Comments »
Old family recipes remind me of the good parts of childhood. The smells are familar and warm, enveloping me in a giant culinary hug. The tastes are like ancestral footprints, distinct to each family, passed down for generations. (They don’t call it comfort food for nothin’!)
My 5 siblings and I have started pulling together Mom’s [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Growing Older, Holidays, Home, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Place, tagged Amelia's kitchen, dumplings, favorite cookware, Food, passing down family recipes, Southern cooking, Thanksgiving, traditions, turkey on November 18, 2007 | 24 Comments »
I was sitting in Amelia’s kitchen with the smell of Southern style chicken and dumplings pouring through my nostrils, when it occurred to me I should be writing her recipes down. I’ve never been much of a cook. But all of my siblings carry on the tradition of Mom’s cooking. That was in mouthwatering evidence [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Gratitude, Growing Older, Laughing, Love, Personal, Photography, Relationships, tagged animal lovers, birthdays, cats, Mr. StripeyPants, Pants turns 10 on November 17, 2007 | 21 Comments »
When Liz woke up this morning, she mumbled something about Mr. StripeyPants’ birthday.
“What?” I said. “I missed his birthday?” I strolled into the kitchen and checked out the refrigerator door where Liz has the cats’ birthdays posted.
There (in Liz’s neat artist block print) was the following:
Kiev - ‘Kiki Bell’: Jan. 1, 1995
Chaco - ‘Wooley Pokes’: [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Body, Bones, Culture, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Gratitude, Growing Older, Home, Laughing, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Relationships, tagged birthdays, daughters, Family, Food, Gratitude, home & hearth, Mom's 70th Birthday, mothers, surprises on November 14, 2007 | 46 Comments »
Cutting The Cake, Amelia’s hands cutting the cake on the day she turned 70, Central Pennsylvania, November 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I’m sitting in Amelia’s kitchen. The smell of homemade chicken and dumplings spins across the room. My brother and sister-in-law stopped over for breakfast. Amelia made Canadian bacon, grits with [...]
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Posted in Bones, Growing Older, Life, Nature, Place, Poetry, Seasons, Writers, Writing, tagged 94stranger, Dylan Thomas, poem about self, poet, poetry garden, rainring, red Ravine Guests, rediscovery on November 9, 2007 | 29 Comments »
By 94stranger
Garden
It is not I the first to say
each soul is like a garden;
each death a garden
where we may no longer walk.
My garden has its walls; a hidden door
beneath the ivy, where the passer-by
would hardly look.
Inside is grass and sweetly- flowering shrubs,
a fountain and a small pavilion too.
You will not find the master
of the garden [...]
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Posted in Body, Growing Older, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged feelings of being lost, ground, letting go, lost, Practice, Writing, writing practice on November 5, 2007 | 7 Comments »
I don’t often lose things. Keys, gloves, hats, mittens, I usually own them for life. I don’t know why that is. I tend to be pretty grounded and track on a minute by minute basis. It’s changed as I’ve gotten older. I have more spaciness. I attribute it to hormonal shifts in the brain and [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Bones, Culture, Death, Family, Food, Great Places To Write, Growing Older, Holidays, Laughing, Life, Personal, Photography, Practice, Random, Relationships, Spirituality, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged 1 Year Birthday of red Ravine, All Souls' Day, anniversaries, birthdays, celebrations, Day of the Dead, Food, Halloween, Happy Birthday To You, rituals, writing relationships on November 3, 2007 | 25 Comments »
Day Of The Dead Birthday Celebration, detail of Halloween bouquet, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
We went out to dinner at Mysore Cafe in Uptown to celebrate a friend’s birthday last night. It was All Souls’ Day, day after All Saints’ Day, and both days following the Celtic rooted celebration [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Home, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, daughters, grandmothers, graves, grief, haunted, loss, mothers, trains, writing practice on October 19, 2007 | 20 Comments »
I’m more haunted by the things that haven’t happened, than I am by the things that have. Half worn radials rumble over the railroad tracks near Winnetka and Bass Lake Road, wipers slap another day of dreary fog and rain; I drudge up the things that haunt me. Porcupine quills in tender skin.
There were no [...]
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Posted in Art, Body, Doodling, Growing Older, Laughing, Personal, tagged clothing, fashion, fashion trends, sweaters, tunics on October 17, 2007 | 26 Comments »
Green Sweater and Tunic, my current fashion obsession, pen and
pencil doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I was one of those girls in high school who latched on to a particular look and didn’t drop it for a couple of years. My devices back then: painter pants, waffle stompers, and any one of my [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Essay, Family, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Practice, Vision, Work, tagged abstract art, Albuquerque, artists, becoming an artist, Black Market Goods, painting, red Ravine Guests, Sharon Sperry Bloom, the creative process, the practice of art on October 16, 2007 | 44 Comments »
By Sharon Sperry Bloom
Under Your Voodoo, 27″x 22.5″acrylic on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by Sharon Sperry Bloom. All rights reserved.
Vloop, 18″x 24″acrylic on stretched canvas, painting © 2007
by Sharon Sperry Bloom. All rights reserved.
Untitled, 20″x 16″acrylic on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by Sharon Sperry Bloom. All rights reserved.
War, [...]
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Posted in Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Poetry, Relationships, tagged Alissa King, childhood, mother, mothering, red Ravine Guests, single parent, turning points, zoo on October 1, 2007 | 20 Comments »
by Alissa King
The Note on the Refrigerator
When I have memories of my mother, they are other
peoples;
other people’s mothers, other people’s memories.
A perfume like violets, and the cadence of gypsy
music,
vials and colored glass bottles, pearl strands and
glittery earrings
arranged upon an upturned mirror; gold brooches,
delicate curios.
And there is tinkling laughter, and a swishy, glittery
dress.
This creature is surely [...]
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Posted in Art, Authors, Bones, Books, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Growing Older, Life In Letters, Love, Money, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Place, Politics, Random, Reading, Relationships, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged Charlie Orr, closing Independent bookstores, history of Orr Books, independent bookstores, Natalie Goldberg, Orr Books, support Independent bookstores, Ted Kooser, Twin Cities Independent bookstores on September 7, 2007 | 37 Comments »
Ranked by local Twin Citians as 15th on a list of top independent bookstores in Minneapolis, Orr Books was one of my favorite independents. For almost 40 years, the tiny, quiet store resided in the largely urban Uptown section of Lake Street. The parking was terrible, but the staff was knowledgeable and friendly. And I could [...]
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