Giddy with the Prospect of Spring

Cleveland Crocus Emerges!

Reducing the Noise

I just spent about an hour unsubscribing to 20 -newsletters and retail email lists that clutter up my email inbox. I also un-joined 3 underused ning sites.

I retained a subscription with the 4 e-newsletters I actually read; feeling light and free about this.

Context is Everything & the Near Future

If you hold your leg in a room full of twenty people, it's not the same as holding it when you are alone by the sea.

The body enjoys participating in the possible which becomes narrowed down to the probable, which fast becomes the actual or what we call the present. . . Perceiving the "probable future" transform into the present invites us to be there right then. There is no point in being only in the present because the body lives and breathes the future. We may live in the present, but we breathe the future.

-Julyen Hamilton
(from an interview in Contact Quarterly by Nancy Stark Smith

The video below (with Hamilton, Stark Smith and someone else) is better with the sound off.

R&R

R&R
Originally uploaded by Jenita McGowan.

Every day on Public Square.

How we remember

At my grandmother, Jeane Morrison's, funeral this past weekend I met a first cousin twice removed who keeps and updates a family tree on my grandfather’s side of the family. I learned some new information about my great-great-grandparents (my cousin’s great- grandparents) that I didn’t know before. I also learned that my 93-year old grandfather has 4 living first cousins who are all about his age.

My newly discovered cousin lives next door to the “Old Morrison Farm” where my great-great-grandparents lived and my great-grandfather grew up. He also said he has a civil-war era diary written by my great-great-uncle. My cousin is going to send me the genealogy charts and maybe some scanned family photos including one of my great-grandparents wedding.

At the Woodland Cemetery in Ironton, most of my grandmother’s family is buried, the Murdocks, Johnstons, Fishers and now Morrisons . I believe my grandparents will be the last of our family to be buried in the family plot in Ironton. No one lives there anymore and we are all so scattered. Things are just different now. Instead of visiting the cemetery to remember relatives, we’ll use software to download our family trees.

Grit

Red Line Rapid. Steel toed and plasticized.

Red Line Sunrise

Practical commuter shoes belie the heels in your receptionist's tote. You turn pages of daily devotions. I glimpse your tender scalp through feathered hair and a cloud of perfume.

Roller Skating and Energy Efficiency

Tomorrow the City of Cleveland is hosting a kick-off event to the Year of Energy Efficiency. The Cleveland Conserves Energy Efficiency Fair will be 11am-2pm in Cleveland City Hall Rotunda. The event will feature businesses, nonprofits and City-based departments related to energy efficiency and conservation.

Of course, since I'm involved in the planning we had to make it just a little wacky and fun. The Little Hollywood Dazzlers will also be performing. They are a group of 5-9yr-olds who dance on roller skates. They are led by 71-year-old professional skater Maurice Cooke who is passing on everything he knows to the youth.I am an avid believer that rollerskating brings people together.

Below is a preview of the Little Hollywood Dazzlers. Stop on by the event is free. You can learn about how to give yourself the gift that keeps on giving: energy efficiency.