It started with these all-weather wicker chairs that we are no longer using. Originally, there were seven and I made patchwork cushions for them out of moth eaten wool clothing and kilim rugs.
I could not part with the beautiful textiles and decided to re-purpose them into a patchwork rug. It was an almost impossible task; but I was determined.
I have enough to make two of these, but only the energy for one. Maybe tomorrow!
When it comes to finding happiness, there is help with Rick Hanson’s new book, Hardwiring Happiness.
Our brains hold negativity making us more efficient at learning from negative experience and less adept to learn from positive ones. But our brains are constantly changing in structure, so if we learn to concentrate on the good, we can actually change our brains to well-being and psychological healing.
Hanson teaches us to transform experiences into lasting improvements by using the HEAL method:
Have a positive experience
Enrich it
Absorb it
Link positive to negative thoughts and feelings to soothe and replace them.
It’s a way to bring a confident openness to life and a sense of mastery over your mind; taking in the good, sensitizing your brain to positive experiences, and making many little happy moments last over time.
Pick one thing to do each day that makes you happy. Keep it simple. Stick with it over several days. Add more positive feelings and experiences each day. Recognize the value of each and bring it continually to mind. Do the practice and you will be happier. It’s guaranteed.
For sometime now I have been contemplating the right action for all of my old journals. They begin when I was 19 and end around 2007:
For the longest time I was going to burn them; then I was going to stitch each page while leaving it as a book. Now I have made the decision to make them into a functional table. Of course, it turns out to be a lot more work than I had imagined.
First. I had to find a way to contain them. I found this at the TJMax store HomeGoods, along with a tray for the top:
It took me a whole day to remove the bindings:
Here is the process:
Cutting and stitching the pages
Layering the pages in the basket
The layers will alternate diary pages with tee-shirt remnants
The beginning and end of one of the books- the viewer will be unable to read these after they are inserted and layered into the piece:
I’ve got my work cut out for me
From Left to Right:
To-Go-Bag
Day-Bag
Travel-Bag
Yoga-Bag
Fold-Over-Bag
Wine-Bag
Bottle-Bag X 2
Grocery-Bag
Two-Strap-Shopping-Bag
This year, as we light the first candle of Hanukkah on Thanksgiving, I am going to give my granddaughters something truly unique: a book I wrote for them about Memory Quilts.
The idea came originally from my son who wondered if I could tell his children family stories as part of my writing?
That lead me to the grandiose idea of a storybook full of family stories, but good sense told me to start small and so I began with the story about my personal memory quilt.
Maya and Hailey will each get a copy of the book and a personalized book mark made from fabric that relates to the story. Isn’t that cool?
Vol. 77 No. 12-The Jewish Criterion– January 30, 1931- Page 25 (view issue)
Lillian Barniker, aged 16 years, daughter of Mrs. L.B. Cohen of 5626 Callowhill Street died on Monday, January 26. Surviving her, besides her parents, are a sister, Sadie, and a brother Jerome. Funeral services were held from the late residence on Tuesday, January 27, Rabbi B.A. Lichter officiating, and interment made at B’nai Israel Cemetery.
Vol. 77 No. 13-The Jewish Criterion- February 6, 1931- Page 25 (view issue)
To Our Dear Classmate, LILLIAN BARNIKER, Who Passed Away, Monday Morning, January 26, 1931
From this Earthly Garden of beautiful flowers, God in His Infinite Wisdom has plucked the fairest flower of all- a Lily- whose purity and grace He must have coveted. For he has seen fit to transplant her to His Heavenly Garden. Her likeness to a Lily was so obvious that her earthy parents named her The Lily. And she has indeed led the life of the purest of lilies.
Lillian Barniker our beloved president has been called to her last reward. She has left her Conformation Class a monument that time nor tide can destroy- a monument built of Good Works, on a foundation of virtue, ornamented with purity and grace.
We, the Confirments, extend to the bereaved family our deepest sympathy and our prayer shall be that God will give them strength to hear the heavy burden which He has laid upon them.
The 1930 Confirmation Class of B’nai Israel
I began this blog in November of 2010. I have posted 430 times and received 51,620 views.
Bubbe Wisdom:
Why call it Bubbe Wisdom? Bubbe is Yiddish for grandmother. When I was growing up a Bubbe was an old woman whose domain was her kitchen. She was known for her “bubbe-meises” old wives’ tales based on rumor, myth and superstition. Bubbe was dearly loved by all but never taken very seriously by many. I have taken on the name Bubbe determined to redefine it into something more appropriate to our times.
Wisdom is the application of perception and knowledge coupled with a profound comprehension of truth resulting in the ability to consistently produce optimum conclusions with a minimum of time and energy. For the seeker in me, wisdom is the new “bubbe-meise”.
In a recent New York Times article, Judy Collins put words to my aspirations: ““We’re never going to stop moving or growing. We’re never going to stop reading, we’re never going to stop looking for younger friends. We’re committed to being fit, to being intellectually challenged, and to our art.”
Follow Bubbe Wisdom for fresh contemporary discernment of body, mind and spirit.
For the record, the bills for my emergency gallbladder surgery this past December keep coming. To date of the total $7906.11 billed, my Highmark insurance paid 75% leaving me with an outstanding bill of $1989.86.
With this recent unexpected surgery expense, I was very eager to read Stephen Brill’s comprehensive article about our healthcare problems: Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us. Brill follows the money to explain the too many inherent inequalities in our system and how Obama Care does nothing to address the underlying issues behind these skyrocketing health care costs.
Brill discusses many important ideas in detail including how changes in Medicare could actually lower overall costs and bring some fairness to the system; how we need to tighten antitrust laws to keep hospitals competitive; why we need to exercise our right to tax not-for-profit hospitals who make high profits and limit non-doctor excessive salaries; and how to create and require a process that uses actual and thoroughly transparent costs; limits profit margins on drug companies, CT, MRI tests and other outpatient services, to name only a few of the actions that stood out for me.
It’s sad but true, one-fifth of our economy, our largest consumer product, does not operate in a free marketplace. When are we going to do something to stop that?
BubbeWisdom