Sunday, October 30, 2011

Light going forward, thats certain....and to Occupy.



.... We began the day with pumpkin carving, little M has had the privilege today so it seemed to her, to draw out the face.

The pumpkin was a gift from Dad, grown in his lovely garden.

Like yellow jewels, we watched them form these last months, debating how much to water and when to feed them, which way to lay them, when to pick the smaller ones.

Golden!

We now have our lantern glowing and two large jugs of pumpkin puree in the fridge to make cookies with tomorrow and perhaps soup.

It is something, something is the only word.
How do I keep on describing this girls joy about things?  I will keep trying... I love trying: )

Her delight at making these this morning could only but put a smile across my face and bring me to some much more heart felt place beyond my morning grumpiness. I stayed up far too late watching a movie and this morning found myself pulled out of bed at sunrise, to get this pumpkin carved. I just about persuaded her to eat breakfast first.

 We ended up with a satisfyingly scary yet funny Jack' O lantern, that is for now the centre of Little M's world.


Other things to share with you for your halloween, and for entering what is the beginning of the darker months for us here in Ireland, 
Are these!




We made these lanterns last week. 

I hoped to post about it sooner. But here we are the night before the great event. 

 I made something like them in Art collage years ago whilst trying to make little hot air balloons. 
I was reminded of just how lovely they can be over here on Moment to Moment. I do get a lot of inspiration there!!!
You will get a thorough description of how they are made there too. 

We did it slightly differently.
So, Here is how we did it. 

Its basically papier mache!

You need

Glue
paper
balloons
brushes

 {We used pva ( a water based glue) and water mixed half and half, you could also make a flour paste. Make Strips of crepe paper and tissue paper, (we used warm reds, oranges and yellows for this time of year and to really make your lanterns glow) }

* Blow up your balloon to the desired size of your lantern
*turn it big side up and place it in a bowl to secure it
*paint some glue onto your balloon and start to stick on your strips
*make about three layers, with lots of glue, and you can add leaves too as we did. If you add a leaf be sure to cover it with another layer of paper. The leaves really are beautiful.
*Once you feel you have enough on there with a last all over layer of glue, leave to dry, if you put near a heater, it will really speed up that process.
*when dry, pop your balloon and gently peel away from the paper.
* put a tea light an a wee plate or flat stone inside it and there you have it, a little glowing planet of light right in your home: )


As I was making these I thought  how beautiful white ones would be for Christmas, with little golden stars stuck in between the layers. I am will make some, maybe even a string of them across a room or over a fireplace. Ooooooh: )

Little M has been lantern making for the Mairtinmass festival in school, where we will have a lantern procession in the woods together after nightfall. Its just a couple of weeks away now. 
It was so dark and stormy last year, it was a task to keep our lanterns glowing, but all the more symbolic, carrying light and this spark of warmth glowing through the windy darkness. It was magic, and I am looking forward to it again, even as I hear the wind rushing around our doors. 

Tomorrow we will walk after dark hoping the stars will make a welcome appearance. 
I feel this year is yet another step further away from the more commercial aspects of our festivals, with school influences and my own sense of connection with the deeper meaning of these points of reflection and celebration.  

I feel a real excitement about these simple lanterns and firelight and the walnuts in my bowl, and the apple games we will play. With neighbors to visit for a song and a treat, walk in the dark with a little hand in mine, that will be grand.

That reiminds me, I look across the wide ocean now,  dividing me from the America I love, to Occupy Wall Street and their message. 
Its such a liberated one, check out Milla's thoughts here at her blog. She has written beautifully as always, about her feelings with Occupy. I have to say at this point I feel a well of good feeling about it. I would like to join them in Dublin at least for a visit. Every time I open a page on You Tube or The huff post, I see some placard with some profoundly truthful statement, without anger, just stating things as they are. Its remarkable what they are attempting to do. I intend to watch more closely and follow it, but I get caught up making lanterns and living my life here as Mom, by the woods. But to all those who are occupying, I am grateful.

 I wish them well with my heart, and imagine along with them a real live way of living harmoniously together. And when I IMAGINE this, I feel very good. 
Occupy for me, is all about trust in change, letting go of what is not working anymore, believing there is a truth that we can all live by, that we are made for a more loving way. And all the voices of doubt aside for but a moment, just the thought that it could be, is enough to make one see the light. That is realistic.

I believe this! 

What do you believe? 

















7 comments:

  1. ooooooh I like what you said....about embracing a more loving way and letting go of the old not-working ones. It's funny, I was having serious discussions with a friend circle this morning about halloween....we don't typically have "Halloween" here...I think partly because so much of the festivity is to do with the season - and as ours is Spring, it doesn't quite work so well. Some of my christian friends are absolutely against it citing "paganism" (which they do not really understand anyway) or that it's "American". I just wanted to tell them to live a little and enjoy any celebration how minor - celebration in tradition is happiness and happiness brings light. Keep well. xx

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  2. This is so beautifully written - I feel so much of the sentiment you are describing. We have been making our lanterns here, too. :)

    We have an Occupy group here and I feel such solidarity with them, and am so glad to see the movement growing. If my little ones were not so young I would likely have pitched my tent among them already. I plan to join them in their marches, though. I am so glad to see the changes of this season and the changes people are initiating in their communities and the world.

    Take care and happy Halloween! :)

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  3. Lovely photos. I like the joy that comes across from the act of pumpkin-carving, and people (especially kids) love to sink their hands into the innards of a pumpkin. On a walk yesterday I took some photos of pumpkins I happened to see in windows and on doorsteps. They take on a personality of their own.

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  4. Lovely photos indeed! and I like your way of writing...so familiar to me!...things you cannot explain, really.
    Happy to have met you on this ever more surprising, mysterious, infinite Web.
    ciao from cristina in Italy

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  5. oh i love your little illuminations...both the lanterns and your own thoughts! i'm going to have us make those lanterns for sure, and i really like the leaves...i also like your idea for christmas ones! i'm just imagining how lovely a home would be, with lots of those little lights.

    occupy oakland has been front and central for everyone in the bay area. the general strike yesterday was huge. i worried last night if, in the future, fern would be mad at me for not taking her to it. but, like you, while i feel supportive and heartened by it, i am so busy being a mama, keeping the homefire burning, and nurturing us slowly, that going to the protests has just not been on my radar. (i have to admit as well, that i have lost a lot of faith in protests, so i don't have much oomph for them...especially since i don't see the trajectory for occupy).

    happy halloween, dia de los muertos and november to you! i am loving the darkening days and i look forward to how your creative spark grows in the coming months. xo

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  6. Ach Ladies, thanks for stopping to comment, Teeny, I often think of you there in the sunshine and us here, It makes the distance feel wider, but more amazing that we can connect here: ) Its so lovely to have met you. Forestdweller, we must be in the same book, if not the same page, I feel such a kinship with your writing, and the way you express these days.
    I would like to see those pumpkin pictures Hkatz, I will look for them , when I venture over for my medicimal dose of your fabulous words.
    Thanks Christina in Italy!!!! I imagine you there too, in another culture so rich and full and beautiful, and your illustrations of all that. x

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  7. Hey Mary, I understand your loss of faith, its so disappointing to wrk for something you believe in and find no change for such a long time. It reminds me of johnny cash lone of "kicking against the pricks" Itts a great song. But I also feel, we cant give up, and in our way of nurturing these young ones, choosing to live our own lives as we do, carving out our own spots of loving kindness, deciding to live as we do, WE are protesting against the norm, saying no. Fern might be cross for a minute when she is about 15; ) but so filled with mother love is she, and I imagine will be a girl of great inner strength, that she will know why.


    xx E

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