
i've had a lifelong relationship with Red. i had a red cotton jacket when i was maybe 6 or 7 years old. That i loved. it was flannel inside. And then, one more red...i think when i was going into 7th grade and we were school shopping at J.C. Pennys. I was desperate to have a red faux leather vest. i somehow got it but never wore it. Ever. i don't have any memory of that story. and then...for the rest of my life until just recently, my relationship with red was "I don't do red." but not entirely true, i did like a very CERTAIN red...my kids had a name for the red i liked...Scab Red. She likes scab red. But i didn't even "do" scab red much. and then Jude and Spirit Cloth and clothmaking and threads and i looked at red and how just "so much", like a single strand of floss, was really very BeautyFULL. This is one of the shoulder pads of a blouse that i somehow had in maybe the early 70's. i never wore it. just had it. it was wonderFULL, the designs on it...like microbes. i don't know what happened to it. But always, this shoulderpad somewhere with the sewing stuff.
Acey said, Red. ok. i thought and thought i don't really have much or maybe Any red, but then Bing!, i remembered this shoulder pad and this morning went to look for it in that huge ziplock bag of scraps, the bag that's as big as i am, really, that i'd left out in the truck bed in case of Evac until yesterday, i thought it must be in there somewhere and when i looked...
there it was. Right on top. Sitting there. Waiting.

She says, Acey,
"Find something vibrantly red and create a modest self-regulated stronghold for representation of things you value and know to be true." ....things you value and know to be true....such interesting and laden words......
"give yourself time to hold yourself steady in contemplation." hold yourself steady....hold yourself steady
"tune out the noise until you're able to start remembering what that feels like: authentic inner silence"

by the time i got this far with the pics the RAIN was descending heavy, the light had changed, everything had changed. RAIN meaning, right now, SAFE.
this far today, "things you value and know to be true". The magnifying glass=science. The Carnelian stone=Earth. The string of Czech beads=Art. the Found Magic of the Angel=Spirit.
Science, Earth, Art, Spirit.