Daybreak. December 17, 2020. 6:45 to 7:20 am. 24° F. Feels like 9° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford CT
how easy it can be to find your own quiet place
January 12, 2019 by 23 Comments
Q: Is the image based on something you saw? How did it come to you?
“More than being based on something I saw, I would say it comes from something I experience often. I was trying to capture the feeling of being immersed in a book to the exclusion of everything around you. I think my love for reading comes more from the need to connect with my inner reality than from the desire to escape the external one. Proust described it perfectly as “that fertile miracle of communication that takes effect in solitude.” …
My first time in New York was in 2010, when I spent three months there, during the winter. My most vivid memories are connected to that first stay. I remember big blue skies, ice-cold feet, hot black coffees, fresh bagels, and huge pizza slices.
The gif was animated by the talented Jose Lorenzo. I often collaborate with him—I love the way he brings my images to life. We didn’t want the image to be too frenetic. For me, it was important to maintain that feeling of peace and timelessness that happens when you’re reading. I also wanted to show how easy it can be to find your own quiet place in the city without having to go far out of your way.”
~ Anna Parini, in response a question from Françoise Mouly, on this week’s cover in The New Yorker, which shows a rare moment of calm amid the bustle of a new year. Parini, who has contributed illustrations to the magazine since 2015, grew up in Milan but is now based in Barcelona. Mouly spoke to Parini about New York’s wintry charms and the process of creating an animated cover image.
(Source: Anna Parini’s “A New Leaf”, The New Yorker, January 7, 2019)
Christmas Eve (3:44 a.m) … and Magic
December 24, 2018 by 32 Comments
And Lindsay captures it wonderfully in her photo above and in her post titled “Snow Falling” – while I sit here in darkness, early this morning, watching snow fall on Christmas Eve:
“There is something absolutely magical about snow falling. I am always in awe of the eerie silence that falls around the house as it lightly touches down on our roof and the ground around us. I love how from somewhere it picks up little hints of light so it resembles glitter falling all around you…It was magnificent. It was glorious to be able to lean up against the window and just watch the big flakes fall luxuriously down around us. Something about snow makes me feel like a little kid all over again.”
Inspired by: “—light snow, silence, the empty streets, the fog, thrilling cold—so much beauty. Like breathing pure oxygen.” ~ Susan Sontag, from As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks 1964-1980
Peaceful easy feeling
February 18, 2018 by 50 Comments
53° F on Friday.
39° on Saturday morning.
Spring!
So when it started at 7 pm last night, it felt anything but that. A December feeling in February.
Large, wet flakes, falling softly.
I turn off the television. Enough Mueller, Trump, collusion, and spit from the talking heads on Cable. Dirty. Ugly.
Light from the street lamps paint the fresh snow with a soft amber glow. Magical. “This voice keeps whispering in my other ear…I get this peaceful easy feeling…”
I watch from the window inside.
Mother and Son build a snowman, Eric is days from his 24th birthday. They’re giggling.
Flashbacks. Rosy cheeks. Over sized mittens. Snow pants swishing. Arms swinging up and down, angels in snow. What’s this portrait missing? Rachel who couldn’t make it home for the weekend. And Zeke. Yes, Zeke loved the snow. Snow flakes melting on his velvety reddish brown fur. Barking, and barking and barking at Dad who chases the kids and pelts them with snowballs. Who you protecting these days Bud? [Read more…]
Lightly Child, Lightly.
February 8, 2018 by 20 Comments
Let me seek then,
the gift of silence and solitude,
where everything I touch is turned into a prayer:
where the sky is my prayer,
the birds are my prayer,if
the wind in the trees is my prayer…
— Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
Notes:
- Quote: Thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels. Photograph Gif: via Nini Poppins
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Lightly Child, Lightly.
December 28, 2017 by 21 Comments
You wake up on a winter morning and pull up the shade, and what lay there the evening before is no longer there – the sodden gray yard, the dog droppings, the tire tracks in the frozen mud, the broken lawn chair you forgot to take in last fall. All this has disappeared overnight, and what you look out on is not the snow of Narnia but the snow of home, which is no less shimmering and white as it falls. The earth is covered with it, and it is falling still in silence so deep that you can hear its silence. It is snow to be shoveled, to make driving even worse than usual, snow to be joked about and cursed at, but unless the child in you is entirely dead, it is snow, too, that can make the heart beat faster when it catches you by surprise that way, before your defenses are up. It is snow that can awaken memories of things more wonderful than anything you ever knew or dreamed.
– Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale
Notes:
- Quote: Thank you Whiskey River. Photo by werner neururer (Austria) with Walk in the woods
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Lightly child, lightly. (Winter. Last Call.)
March 30, 2017 by 8 Comments
In the postcard I keep of a field in winter,
a child’s head is tilted back,
her mouth open to snow.
The awe is held still, says oh and oh and oh.
— Allison Benis White, from Please Bury Me in This
Notes:
- Photo: just charlaine (via children of the universe). Quote: A Chateau of My Heart
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
and if you have mittens, you will be in fine
March 14, 2017 by 25 Comments
“Snowmageddon, heading for the Northeast. You guys who live in the Upper Midwest or the Rocky Mountain Region laugh, laugh at a foot of snow. You laugh at it. You mock it. Because that can happen in May! But tomorrow here in New York City and up and down the East Coast, there could be more than a foot of snow. The Panic is on. People are buying entire cows to make sure they have enough meat. 18 flashlights. Canned soup that will last for 80 years. You get the idea. Weather forecasters hysterical, many of them breaking down. Already many schools are closed. People have been seen weeping. Here’s the tip of the day. Overreaction is never a good thing. If it snows tomorrow, build a snowman, have some fun. It has nothing to do with Global Warming. And if you have mittens, you will be fine.”
~ Bill O’Reilly, Tip of the Day (March 13, 2017)
