Peace be with you. Namaste.

I started this blog & enjoyed posting to it very much.

I am no longer posting here, it seems.

I was about to delete it, but I like these first few posts on here.

So I will leave it, for now.

I don't expect I will post here any more though.

Thank you all for finding & reading my blog.

I wish you all peace. Namaste.

Two Roses - A Poem

TWO ROSES 
by Louise Wheatley Cook Hovnanian

A rosebud fair in a garden grew, 
Tiny and pale and shy.
The sun shone out of a sky of blue, 
And the soft winds floated by~ 
But it wrapped itself in its petals cold, And seemed to say, "I will not unfold." 

A woman came in the sunset light-
"O shy little rose," she cried,
"Why don't you open your eyes, and smile? 
Is it laziness, temper, or pride? 
The spring is here, and the world is glad, Why do you look so pale and sad?"

A day went by, and the rose still hid Its face in its veil of green--
"You poor little thing!" she said to herself, 
"It is very plain to be seen
That you never can grow to be big and strong, 
Unless I help the work along."

With trembling hands and in eager haste She opened one by one
The fragile leaves. "It is all very well
To wait for the wind and sun, 
But gentle methods are often slow
My way is a better one, I know. : 
"Don't think me meddlesome--it's because I love you so, you see.
~ .
I cannot trust in the wind and sun-
It all depends on me!"
And she forced each delicate leaf apart Till she reached its glowing, golden heart.

As the stars came out she stole away Through the garden's fragrant gloom.
"It won't be long," she gaily cried, "Till my rose will be in bloom.
And then how happy it will be
To think it had a friend like me!" 

But when she chanced that way again, : Instead of her rose she found
poor, stiff thing whose withered leaves Were strewing the muddy ground• 
A storm had beaten, the wind had blown, And the calyx stood on its stem alone. 

She bowed her head. "Will I never learn," 
She whispered, "Dear patient One! I pray for wisdom, another time, 
To wait for the wind and sun-
To trust that the power which made the rose 
Will see that it lives and thrives and growsl" 

Another rose in the garden grew,
Tiny and pale and cold.
"It is love," she said, "and not self-will, That will help my rose unfold.
Have I not courage, God above,
To do what is best for the thing I love?" 

Humbly she knelt, and with gentle hands Loosened the earth at its feet; 
She carried water to quench its thirst; She whispered, "O rosebud sweet, 
We know not when God's time may be~ But I can do my part, you see."
Silently, sweetly, hour by hour,
In God's own way it grew--
How it warmed at the touch of the summer sun
How it laughed when the soft winds blewl 

"Help me," she whispered, "Love divine, To know it was Thine before it was mine!"

Then the moment came when she saw the last 
Of the shy pink leaves unfold, 
And the air was filled with a perfume rare
Straight from its heart of gold.
And it seemed to say, "O tried and true, I am glad I had a friend like youl" ~.

I have a passion for Trees & Art

I don't think I've blogged this - but need to!

I'm now a Citizen Planter for Casey Trees of Washington, DC!  I've planted trees at the Smithsonian National Zoo, Rock Creek Park Cemetery, and Wangari Gardens - all in Washington, DC.

I look forward to planting trees in the Spring!

The other thing I absolutely love is inspiring children to love art. Thanks to the Greater Reston Arts Center, I teach art to children at my sons' school. I show them an artist, talk about their life, tell them what made this artist unique, then introduce new kinds of art supplies and techniques to the children to work with. Some children are hung up on "I've got to do it just right and make it beautiful." Those students, I find, sometimes have trouble just beginning.

This is key: I tell the students, "I don't care what it looks like. I just want you to try. Make it look ugly. But do SOMETHING. I want you to try a new art technique." And then those kids, once they have permission to make something ugly, actually end up making something that I think is extraordinary. And this is what inspiring children to love art is all about.

Here are some links of the things I mention above:

Casey Trees of Washington, DC
Smithsonian National Zoo
Rock Creek Park Cemetary (wikipedia)
Rock Creek Cemetary
Wangari Gardens  |  Wangari Gardens in the Press
Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE Art)

Honoring Sandy Hook Elementary's Beautiful 26 - 26 Acts of Kindness

I came across this today - A beautiful way for each of us to honor those 26 beautiful people from Sandy Hook Elementary. http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/26-random-acts-of-kindness I will be doing my part honoring 26. Share what you've done at: http://www.facebook.com/26Acts

Elections Elections Elections!

I am completely grateful to all the women suffragettes who did all the (dangerous!) things they did in order to give me the right to vote. I stand there, every time I go to the polls, just moments before I press that "VOTE" button, and I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I have this right; that I live in America, and that women suffragettes knew it deep in their heart that they had to work hard and fight to give the following generations of women the right to vote. It's incredible.  I am so grateful for this right and freedom.

Having said all of that, someone on Facebook, and many on Twitter have said they were astounded that in this day & age, that so many people were still in line 2 1/2 hours later in Virginia after the polls had closed. I wrote this response on Facebook on a friend's wall, and this really is the gist of what I'm thinking today (and late last night as we watched the election returns roll in). So I wanted to share:

In regards to the long lines in VA, I have voted in every election since Ross Perot, I mean Bill Clinton. I have never never had to wait in line behind more than 11 people. I've watched the polling stations upgrade their equipment slowly over the years, but its always been the same amount at each station. The last 3 elections I've voted at have all had the same 4 electronic stations, and about 8-10 paper stations where they feed your ballot into a machine that reads it. 


I think that this election we just witnessed (and this is Jodi-observation / Jodi-reasoning here; I have not yet worked to find data to corroborate what I'm about to say) -- shows that so many more people went to the polls this year than ever before. And that is very remarkable. I think we must have at least tripled all the people (in numbers) who have voted previously. 

If you go to Starbucks in the morning, and watch the line, you will see there are lulls when the employees can wipe counters and empty the trash. When people continue to come in the door and come in the door and come in the door .... The line gets incredibly long and the employees simply cannot keep up. I think the voting stations simply could not keep up with the influx of people -- the demand to vote. And this is a good thing - for now. Next time, we need more volunteers to check people in, and more voting stations for people to click on "VOTE."

I think it what happened yesterday. I also think the checking of the ID twice slows it down; not necessarily the voting stations. If we had more people checking IDs, perhaps the line would move a bit more. I stood in line yesterday for 45 minutes. My husband went just before I did (I went when he came back) and he stood there for 1 1/2 hours. 

Maple Leaf Wreath

Today, I had my kids + a visiting child all go outside and collect leaves from this tree:

This tree used to look like this:


[picture to be uploaded]

The leaves have fallen off a bit in the last few days. So the boys all collected the most gorgeous leaves they could find.

I melted candles in a pot on the stove:

[picture to be uploaded]

[picture to be uploaded]

And dipped all the leaves into the melted wax.  And laid them out to cool.

Then, I roughly sorted by color, and put them on a wooden wreath that I had from last Christmas. This is a flat wooden wreath form. And last Christmas, my boys cut short sprigs from my boxwood bush out front, and we made into quite a nice wreath for the Christmas season.

After Christmas was over, I pulled out all the boxwood, and stored the wreath with the string still wrapped around it. Today, I put the leaves on:

Roughly in color order. And then I hung it on the door. Some of the leaves fell off due to their slippery nature of being waxed. So I had to take it off the door, re-position some of the leaves back to where they should be. Then I flipped it over and duct-taped the back.

[picture to be uploaded]

And then, I hung it on the door again. For all to see!

[picture to be uploaded]

A fun project. It looks really beautiful!  It's about a week until Halloween; so I'm hoping it will last until after Thanksgiving. At which point, I will take off all the leaves and re-do this same wreath form once again with the boxwood from my front bush.

I love no-cost solutions and sustainable ways to decorate. Don't you?

(That tree will have wonderful foliage again next year ... and the boxwood is such a strong bush & loves where it is - it will keep producing too.)

"Let Love Rule In Me"

Another video I made with Alex Cook's inspirational music. I love his music so much!

This was a collaboration - So many folks sent in their artwork and photographs. And I compiled them all and set them to music from Alex Cook.

Alex's website is:  www.stonebalancer.com 
You can find him on Twitter:  @AlexCookMusic

I'm on Twitter too!   @JodiBeatty