I am really sorting through the past, trying desperately to open some space in my brain for newness. I came across this article from way back, Artful Blogging Magazine which has since been retired. Back when blogging was just blossoming. New. I was there. So were a lot of you. I kept the pages because they seem antique. Maybe I will use them to paint on. Or something. Over the years I have disengaged with being published etc. I started to disconnect way back here. That's about the time I began teaching online. I have recently turned down some offers for publicity in many forms. All I can say is ... it's just not my thing. I was lured by attention once upon a time, and then it began to scare me, like most things do. That has never changed. But the reasons have.
Getting back to working on Alphabet Soup is a hoot, really. J was a way to sign it. For Jude, for Juggling, for Joy. And I see a magic-dot thing going on there. It needs a nine. Or maybe N will be for nine. N is still unfinished. Later.
There was a simpler joy back then, and I'm feeling it. In a new way.
A bit distracted. Currently at odds with the mice in the basement. Patching holes we did not know were there. Mending a life.
J for joyful Jude juggling ! Love that and the juggler has nine balls in the air!! My name starts with J as well so I feel it.
Hermitself – definitely! Amusing how so many of your subscribers have similar personalities. Makes me think we would all be friends in person or would we have ever given ourselves the chance to meet …. ????? That is a question to ponder.
I was just talking to someone about the danger of praise, and getting to like it…and then creating for it and totally losing one’s way. Much harder to find one’s way back. I have the luxury of not having to make a living from my art, so I can keep doing only the things that interest me.
Praise has become such a competition in this web world. It has turned the simple art of sharing into a business.
It is certainly a great gift to create without stress.
Ha! Big question!
Je souris en lisant tes derniers articles car les lettres correspondent ou pas aux mots en français. J pour joie, et joli joyeux jongleur vont bien aujourd’hui. Et dans mon cœur aussi.
Merci pour tes phrases courtes, désordonnées parfois, que tu poses ici aussi vite que tes pensées.
Il y a très longtemps que je n’ai pas posé des mots sur mon blog… De te lire me donne cette envie nouvelle. Merci encore Jude
thank you for reading, maybe M for merci.
I imagine few could resist the seduction of commercially-oriented celebrity and fame. It is a voracious beast.
“I” is for integrity, Jude you have it in spades. It is in every stitch and in all your writing.
“To thine own self be true”.
how difficult to see thine own self in all the games.
J is for Jude, a Joyful Juggler. We juggle many things life then one by one let the balls drop.
Is Soul-O a mouser? When we moved to 5 acres of gopher holes our cats had them gone in a year.
A lazy mouser.
Loving the Joyful Juggler!
We looked at houses recently, one was in a very small town with land and lovely trees to hide amongst. The realtor asked, “wouldn’t you be kind of isolated from such and such city? I replied, “Well, I’m kind of a hermit…”
Ha!
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I love my name. My mother chose it for me. A girl after 3 boys. At Christmas time. Sending Joy!
Yes, a great name!
When my partner and I moved into our home, she was unaware that we had a mice infestation and she almost moved back out the same night. As a city girl it was her first mouse rodeo, but I raised in an old farmhouse, where they were not liked but were commonplace. I bought a bunch of steel wool and filled every nook and cranny with it. Knock on wood, its worked for over 20yrs.
Glad you are finding joy, despite the unwelcomed mice.
I was a city girl turned country girl and my first night woke up with a mouse perched on my thigh. It got ugly. I hit the internet at 3am and by 7am had every nook and cranny packed with steel wool. That did it.
Debra…I’ve had many close encounters but to my knowledge haven’t ever had one on me. But if I did, it certainly be ugly….so I can relate.
Yes, we are steel wooling. I am used to them too. Just got a bit out of hand in the last months. Just found the entry point tho!
Yay! That’s a victory!
Hermitself … me too! 💙
Hey! H is for hey!
Hermit the Frog. It ain’t easy. I like the juggler. Reminds me of Oblio and Arrow.
Oh, Good ol Hermit!
Love your reminder…
I followed your link and pulled “The Wild Braid” off my bookshelf. I’ll read it again.
Grand really…and I am not much of a reader ..
I had a “thing” a few years ago, that made me disconnect from that part of the creative world, as well.
I reevaluated who I was, where I wanted to be in life, and realized “fame & fortune” was not where it’s at, for me. (Well, a little fortune would go a long way, ha ha ha)
Anyway…
I like things quiet.
I know you do too.
💙
Fame and fortune might take many forms I suppose.
It’s about health for me, I am learning.
Joy is buoyant! It keeps me afloat.
Your J+signature with the juggler bring a child’s joy, a beautiful gift.
rethinking signature…
you appear to not like resting in one place, with one idea, for very long, before you begin to, transfer, transform, transmute, transmigrate…looking for more meaning, reference, inference, do I need to go on?
I’m restless for peace
My yoga teacher ends each session with the prayer…Om, shanti, shanti, shanti…Peace. peace peace. the peace that passeth understanding. I hear you. Suggestion, if you can set aside the restlessness, you will find peace.
Peace is fleeting really. Probably that’s ok with me, I keep going.
I was attracted to your name because of a mistaken identity thing, someone else who was published in Quilters newsletter a long time ago..She made landscape quilts. It wasn’t you, but I started following you, and have been here ever since. you have an introspective nature, like me…and I’m also a hermit. You have all the earmarks of a hermit anyway. I like your style, your methods of sewing, your poetry, all of it. Thank you for being here and being true to your nature.
Yes H is for hermitself.
OH!! I got SO Excited when I read this; H is for Hermitself, I hollered out loud and immediately wrote it down!!!!
I’ve kept issue one, that one is special to me and the ones you have an article in. 🙂 Others I’ve cut up for collage (for the colors not the images) or to paint on. It’s nice paper. I love that juggler.
juggler self has resurfaced!
D for Disengaging – interesting how many of my friends are saying the same thing, we are retreating, disengaging – gathering strength?
Getting old? Ha!
I met you from a magazine article…maybe that one, or later…or? And here we are, still.
it’s become epic…
magazines were mostly the only way back then…
Oh! Your joyful clown 😍
Glad you are feeling…re-feeling…a simpler joy.
Like Dee, forever grateful to have found you ❤️
joy is imperative for good health.
sometimes you can just decide, which is a good skill these days.
Just deciding…practicing that as I get older.
Hi Helen!
Heeey Jen. ❤❤❤
That’s the magazine I discovered you in! So forever grateful.
yes, it was a doorway for many. including me. I am grateful for having been chosen.