We went over to our New Bedlam Farm this afternoon to visit Rocky and walk around and plot our lives in our great new home. It was beautiful to sit near Flo’s garden, and look in the windows and figure out where we are going to put and change things. It feels right to be there, and I will put up a New Bedlam Farm Album on Facebook shortly. Busy photo day.
Had a sweet afternoon visit from George Forss and his long-time companion, the artist Donna Wyndbrandt. George and I went out to take some shots of the view from Bedlam Farm (he said if he had any money, he’d buy it in a second). We spent a couple of hours together and it was, as usual, a privilege to watch him study and frame a shot, and then use his own inventions and creations – his old hybrid cameras, some of which he saved from people’s trash – to take his wonderful photos. Forss is the only genius I hang around with much, and it is always a privilege to be with this interesting, funny, gentle and creative man. He sees things I cannot even imagine, and he is gracious enough to tell me what he is thinking and doing, and I love to watch him and listen to him. And I love to photograph him photographing things. Afterwards, George and Donna and Maria and I sat on the porch and had some ice tea. George is building up his Facebook Page and Donna is working on a blog.
George invited Maria and I to his galley Monday to watch the Cambridge Memorial Day Parade with him, and we are going. George is coming back to work on his panoramic stitching – a dozen or so shots stitched together with computer software. I’ll put an album of his visit later tonight. You can visit George on Facebook. I am so grateful to know this remarkable man. You can also see his work at the Park Slope Gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y. At the top of the page is the Washington Square photo that I bought and is now hanging in the farmhouse living room.
The mystic prophets wrote of the inner spirit, the creative spark the Kabbalah says God gave to each human being as a gift. The only thing human beings had to fear from him, says the Kabbalah, is failing to heed the spark, ignoring the inner spirit, the interior light, and living a life of fear and selfishness and emptiness. Only then, he said, would he become angry and bring trouble to the world.
Sometimes the natural world – animals, flowers, light – offers us radioactive jewels of experience, reflections of a beautiful world, reminders to find the light inside of ourselves and let it emerge, and to honor and respect it, even when others don’t. These jewels are the spiritual heart, the mystical fuel, the force that pulls us to a stronger and better place, if we trust it and are open to it. For most of my years, I never saw a single radioactive jewel of experience and now I see them almost every day. These jewels light my heart and power my spirit.
Maria and I were taking a quiet walk when Mother excitedly ran up to us and brought us a gift. Mother was having a riotous time torturing this baby chipmunk and chasing it around a stone wall. Maria got it, and brought it out into the woods where Mother had been sniffing around. He was quite pleased to get away from all of us. Mother is still looking around the pillar.
