Just Keep Swimming

Aubrey: "So, how are you eating that apple so quietly?"

Me: "Because, this apple is a pear."


Aubrey: "So, why is that star so much brighter than the others?"

Me: "Because that star is Venus."


Aubrey's innocence is due to her inexperience. Time will take care of that. She has a particular wisdom however, that can be profound and inexplicable and she conveys it in the simplest of terms.
If I believed in incarnations, I'd be convinced she has spent many more lifetimes on Earth than I.

Recently she told me I'd feel much better if I spent more time in the water. I have. We have. She is right. It works like a think tank if you lie on top of it at night. It works like a shot of endorphins if you jump into it repeatedly with a toddler in the sunshine.
Note to self: Always jump in after Orion, not before, as he tends to land on or near your head...

Aubrey asked me if I ever worried that I might, in my efforts to encourage free thinking, inadvertently become just another shepherd, with a new flock of sheep blindly following me.
I explained to her that this is highly unlikely, given the tendency of my visitors to be 'members of the choir' already. It's also unlikely because I tend to tell people to think, not what to think. And, as I do my mental floundering openly, most will just watch at a safe distance, ready to run least I short something out.

Still I was amazed that she was projecting the idea this far. As I drove on in silent wonder, we passed a road sign for a crossing [XING] and she said, "Mom, what's a zing?"

On One Hundred Words:
I'm really happy to hear some of you are taking this on. It is indeed a very, very specific exercise. I wrote one fairly quickly---very likely a fluke. Possibly I started it at precisely the right moment after coffee, just after getting the email, so didn't have time to think about it. Likely I won't be able to do it again. I'm thinking of trying it again on Tuesday morning. (Orion will be back in day care---I will spend less time impersonating Aku from behind the sofa and more on art.)
This time it worked for me to expand a single moment in time, then go back and edit to get close to word count, then edit, edit, edit for repeats. If you've come up with an easy way to do that one, please share it, because that's the trick. I highlighted each line to look for each pronoun, over and over and over..... Then more careful editing for both. It was more fun than loading the dishwasher and more satisfying.
Is there some Microsoft Word trick to use for looking for specific words?
After the writings are posted I"m looking forward to hearing about your unique writing experiences.

I'm thinking that Orion might need a break from Samurai Jack, pure-hearted hero that he is. Possibly some Teletubbies are in order. (see photo)


I've made more toys. I'll put up photos shortly after I take some. I have a short list of things that MUST be done this week---sculptures to be shipped out, orders to be filled. And then because the darkness is lifting (Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming....) I'll be back there again, flying blind, in the studio. I feel it coming. I'm never wrong about this---not yet, anyway. I hope to show you some very cool stuff. Especially since you've slogged through the last couple of hellish weeks with me. Thank you, by the way, for your comments and emails. You are so very cool..

I spoke with an exhausted Ravyn from Balticon. When she gets home and the dust clears, we'll update the calendar for exhibits etc. upcoming. We'll be posting a video of Neil Gaiman's sculpture in motion.

Orion is getting very sleepy. I think to tuck the little fellow in and go do a bit of floating.