happy new year!

May 2013 bring you enough comfort to ease your mind, and enough chaos to feed your soul. May your great expectations all come true, and may you be ambushed by greatness you never expected. May the darkness of the next months bring you enough peace, rest and gentleness to prepare you for brilliant inspiration. May the quiet of winter let you hear the subtle beat of your heart's true desire, may you find whatever means necessary to follow it with all your heart, and may whatever direction it takes you be towards love.

Here's to another great year, my friends! 

snow meets sea

Last night it snowed big feathery beautiful snow on the Connecticut shoreline. It doesn't happen that often. And even more rare, it stuck around and didn't turn into slush with coastal rain. I ran down to the beach at sunset. 

Shebi Arus

Khadija hosted a 3 day retreat at my home-away-from-home, the Dervish Retreat Center of Ithaca, NY.    The weekend was full of whirling classes, meditation, good eating, and woods walking, leading up to an informal sema ceremony on December 17, the annual worldwide celebration of the passing of the poet Rumi. I could only capture a few photos on my beat up phone. Thank goodness there is Instagram to pretty up terrible pictures!

Top photo: Karen in the foreground. She is healthier than ever, and turning so beautifully! 

Sheikha Khadija correcting posture during the sema rehearsal. 

The 10 women whirling students pooling available white clothing to share.

Many breaks to walk in the woods with the staff and the resident puppy.

Putting the beds to bed.

The angelic kitchen staff, Vicky and David.

And the heavenly meals they make.

The sema beginning.

The turn.

The resident peacocks.

And the resident sunrise.

more facebook foolery

The facebook puppet show is still going with (almost) daily updates to my cover and profile pictures. Today the moon has finally become full, and there's a new addition with my old fiddle, and growing sprouts. Where this is going may be as much a mystery to me as you! But it's a heck of a lot of fun along the way.

An updated video, going up to day 34:

  Polly Sonic's facebook puppet show from ply snc on Vimeo.

searching

I'm wandering on with this watercolour on brown paper exploration. This one, photoshopped the black in part way, and left it in the speckly phase cause it felt pretty cool.