Category Archives: Communites of people

When Art Strikes

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“All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up.” ~ Ranier Maria Rilke 

Three years ago, at Arts in the Park  in Steamboat Springs, Colorado I came across an artist whose photography really struck me. Ever since I laid eyes on his work, it has been on my mind. The visceral response that I have to his images is very intense. Finally, after visiting his exhibit booth for three summers in a row, I decided I could not be without an image from this artist. 

What in this image has such an impact on me? 

  • Reflective qualities of the water
  • Illumination of the face
  • Dramatic peaks in background
  • “Twin” cormorants communicating their special language to each other
  • The disparity between darkness and light 

I’d be interested in knowing what title the artist would attach to his image. Most painters give their paintings a name. It seems that photographers ought to do the same. The title of the work often gives the viewer reason for further contemplation and insight into the emotions of the creator. Sometimes the title of a piece of artwork becomes synonymous with an artist’s name. 

Perhaps I’ll contact the photographer to inquire if he were to name this image, what title would he give it?  But, in the meantime, I am going to name the image myself.

  “Twin  Avians Basking in All Things Fulfilling” 

Kenny Tong, www.KennyTong.com  I will enjoy your photography for many years to come. I know you can think of a better title for your stunning photographic image. Let me know if you name it, so I can write it down and substitute it for the one I’ve got.  And do return again toSteamboat Springs,Colorado!

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All Things Beachy and Beautiful

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“Truth makes on the ocean of nature no one track of light; every eye, looking on, finds its own. ” ~ Edward G Bulwer-Lytton

This weekend, there is a place where spirit and beauty will  come together for a  special weekend event that will be worth the trip to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The charming Beach Rose Inn, in Falmouth, Massachusetts will be host to an exhibit “A Passion for Light – Paintings by Timothy R. Thies from Private Collections and New Oils by NJ painter, Judy Stach.” 

Timothy R Thies always painted from the light of his soul. His paintings are in collections across the country, and they will be gathered for this exhibit to celebrate his life as a nationally known landscape artist. Cape Cod was one of Tim’s  favorite places to paint. He often gathered artists together for painting workshops when he came to this coastal area, an inspiring  place for artists wanting to experience  painting en plein air. Tim studied and painted with the best artists of our time. To read the article in American Artist Magazine, in tribute to his life as an artist, please visit http://bit.ly/rrcehF. 

Judy Stach, an artist whose career has really taken flight in recent years, resides by the seashore in New Jersey and Florida. Friend and student of Timothy Thies, her beach scenes were recently selected to grace two covers of the New Jersey Shore Magazine this summer. Judy’s impressionistic landscapes, waterscapes and coastal living scenes will be featured in this show appropriately located near the beach! For more information on Judy’s art, please visit her website at http://bit.ly/nlDB3T. 

The opening event for this exhibit is Sunday, July 17 between 5 -7 pm. If you are unable to make the opening night, the paintings will be on display until July 31. The beautiful Beach Rose Inn is a favorite place for artists to stay and gather. http://bit.ly/mYCDUJ.

 Fulfilling the duties of curator of  the show is  Kristen Thies of West Wind Fine Art, LLC. http://bit.ly/qEWu9G.

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A Way Around Nashville

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“If  Nashville wants to put up roadblocks, we’ll build a by-pass” ~ Alan Shephard, Sr. 

There are ways around everything in this day and age of independent publishing! Alan Shephard, Sr., has seen enough talented country western musicians to know that Nashville doesn’t have them all. This radio DJ, lyricist, light and sound man and radio co-host for WBTN  decided there needs to be other ways for gifted artists to be found. He is fulfilling that need through his newly formed Independent Country Music Association, LLC.  

Independent Country Music, LLC is helping to promote independent country western artists who have talent but need a break in getting started by setting up a database where musicians can be located, getting promotional CDs of it’s members out to other radio stations around the world and providing assistance with setting up concerts. 

All in the same spirit of how other independent publishing associations are helping writers, filmmakers, photographers, professionals and non-profits become visible in the marketplace. I support this idea! For more information on ICMA, please visit the website http://www.icmanet.com/.

Roadblocks are only roadblocks if we don’t work around them. With any independent publishing project  persistence,  courage and creativity will help you attain your goals. Alan Shephard seems to have found a helpful way to detour the traditional path.

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Looking Out for Others

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“In my life, I had two Mothers, Macedonia who gave me birth and America who adopted me.”  ~ Stoyan Christowe 

Have you ever made friends with someone who is a stranger from a strange land, yet they reverse the role and make you, the American, feel more at home? 

Two and a half years ago, I moved from my 35 year Vermont residence to the West. I came to this town, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, site unseen and had no idea what to expect. Within a few months time, I met a woman, about my age from Macedonia. Heretofore I had never known a soul from Macedonia, and was not even sure where the on the map the country lies. 

Two years into our friendship, my friend told me a story of an immigrant orphan from Macedonia, Stoyan Christowe, who arrived in 1897 in my “adopted home” state of Vermont. He started a new life and eventually became a Vermont State Senator, journalist and author. http://bit.ly/n94kTO . He lived out the rest of his life in America and during that time, he six published books including “This is My Country.” 

A film is currently being produced about the life of Stoyan Christowe by the Macedonian Arts Council. http://bit.ly/pPj1SC. I look forward to seeing this film and I hope it well captures the feeling that Mr. Christowe expressed about his native land and his adopted country. 

Today, I celebrate my Macedonian friend’s birthday. She made such a positive difference in my life. She helped me to assimilate into a new community nearly effortlessly. I can think of no better way to say Happy Birthday to her than to tell her how deeply grateful I am for her kindness and her help. 

After many years of living in the U.S., she and her family have returned to her Motherland. Although the distance between us is now great, I can not help but feel our two countries of the United States and Macedonia, have grown just a little bit closer by the fulfilling friendship and bond my friend and I have formed. We hope to continue our friendship for many years to come. 

Happy Birthday, Vesna!

Enter my Universe

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Ok, so after yesterday’s blog, She Writes Home, I am in the doghouse!  So many of my friends, family, acquaintances and business associates e-mailed me back to say the details of what I have been doing in Colorado are too flimsy!  

  • “What have you been up to?” They inquire.
  • “We don’t hear from you enough!” They say.
  •  “We read All Things Fulfilling, but we want to hear your voice!” They demand!
  • “We still don’t understand  all of the  hullabaloo about “non-traditional” publishing that you write home about! We want to know more!” They state! 

Ok, ok, I will reveal! I do admit I have been on the fast track since I arrived in this State of Colorado and I do owe an explanation. I will  give you all a good glimpse into my world – especially for those of you who are green to independent publishing!

Who Can Attend?  Anyone around the world who is fluent in the English Language! 

Where?  STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE! ON THE WORLD-WIDE-WEB 

When?  RIGHT NOW! 

How? CLICK ON THE LINK AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS !http://bit.ly/oIkV2g.

Hope you will enter  my universe and join in on an event that will open your eyes to a new world that is changing the lives of so many people all over the globe! Come along on this  fulfilling  journey of  possibilities and entrepreneurial spirit for every individual, business person and non-profit organization, no matter where you reside.

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She Writes Home

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“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” ~ Anthony Robbins

 

The other day, I began to think about the consequences of the digital world with regard to personal communication. I think back to my college days of long ago – leaving my family and my high school friends behind. Long distance calling was not cheap, nor was it a daily or weekly occurrence, so I wrote a prodigious amount of handwritten letters to my friends and family, all about the fulfilling life I had rebuilt for myself  some 500 miles from home in the Green Mountains of Vermont. 

Sometimes I tried to be creative. I’d send my family and friends a token from Vermont. A pressed, dried wildflower or single frond of fern, tucked flatly in the envelope. I often walked to the college grounds, through the woods, from my off campus housing. I was always on the look-out for large treasured pieces of peeled birch bark to be used as an alternate source of stationary. Sustainability was not the buzz word back then, but, I did realize on some level that I was recycling and re-using a natural resource. 

Sending handwritten letters on beautiful stationary, envelopes sealed with stamped wax, have nearly gone by the wayside. Now with instantaneous digital communication, people reserve handwritten notes and cards for special occasions – Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Birthdays and Anniversaries. E-Cards have reduced the need for “Belated” cards because you can deliver electronic cards, PDQ! 

It has been a while since I have sent a heartfelt letter through the mail home. Next time I do, I’d like to enclose a sprig of prairie grass, sagebrush, New Mexico privet or maybe a small branch of Apache plume, will do. But I am reminded by the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins: 

“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

On second thought, I think I’ll just send an e-card, that way I can design the page with any flower or plant that I want. http://bit.ly/q89tj7.

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Finding Community

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“If you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?” ~ Jiminy Cricket

Finding fulfillment in our lives has varied meanings for different people. City life is an ideal existence for large populations of people but for some, urban living would be enough to make a person go crazy and drink…literally, in every watering hole across town. Others enjoy living in tiny little hamlets, such as the town we mentioned yesterday, Moscow, Vermont. Adaptability to environment is far easier for some than others. Creating a satisfying life for oneself in any environment means embracing where you are and becoming involved in the lifestyle and opportunities that the area has to offer. 

There is a book, hot off the press that speaks to this issue of finding personal fulfillment in the places where we live. Mary B. Kurtz’s book, At Home in the Elk River Valley: Reflections of Family, Place and the West is a personal story about living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, an interesting mix of resort and ranching community. http://bit.ly/iDBj3N. 

Mary’s book addresses the topic of living in places by choice and by chance as well as her children’s struggle as teens and as young adults to find their own identities in the world after having grown up in a community of such diversity. The book also touches upon another subject that young people and even adults are concerned with in this day and age – the necessity of sometimes having to leave the borders of one’s own native state in order to find viable work. 

Through this book, readers may discover something about themselves and their own communities. It is a book about values, balance and perspective in life. Mary’s insight into the ranching lifestyle and how communities change has relevancy to the lives of each and every one of us, no matter where we live. 

For more information on this easy to read, poetic memoir, please visit http://bit.ly/ji9KtU

or http://bit.ly/msK6Ez.

Wings and Roots

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“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. “ ~  Denis Waitley

 

 

Last week’s blog entitled “A String of Summer Memories” elicited a response from one of our most loyal readers, Marie. She voiced her concern about the over-scheduled lives of children in this day and age and the effects it has on children’s ability to know how to entertain themselves and to discover and create themselves. I would concur.

Marie’s remark about creative play led me to remember a scene that I witnessed in a parade years ago, in the tiny hamlet of Moscow, Vermont on the 4th of July.

My happy memory involves not a group of children creatively playing, but a group of over-the-hill women who truly understood the concept of finding their own fun. Dubbed the Women’s Lawn Chair Marching Drill Team, they joined in the parade toting their lawn chairs, in celebration of Independence Day. Just as their own self-created, wild and crazy fun got a little out of hand, they’d tire and stop with precision, perform some drill team exercises, and take to their seats. Their movements were orchestrated by the live audio-broadcast of radio station WDEV. It was a fun spectacle to watch, and it made me remember how important and fulfilling it is for aging people  to have fun, too ! 

For more information on Vermont’s shortest 4th of July parade, please visit http://bit.ly/iKGIUF.  Moscow, Vermont, with a “downtown” of  less than a city block,  located in the heart of the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, has grown in population more than 14% since 2000, please visit http://www.bestplaces.net/zip-code/vermont/moscow/05662.

 I send my Best Wishes to All of you on this 4th of July. I am proud to live in a country that was born out of the independent spirit. Right now, it is ever more important to keep that kind of energy and attitude alive! It begins with me and it begins with you!

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Transient Society is Rich with Stories

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“All things are subject to change, and we change with them.” ~ Anonymous 

With each passing decade, we have become a more transient society.  People are much more willing to go where work takes them and staying settled in the town where one was born has become less common. College grads seeking work, realize that finding work often depends upon looking outside the boundaries of their native state. Michigan is just one state grappling with this issue. http://bit.ly/iXIuQS. 

 If you take a look at person’s Facebook page, you can often see their birthplace and along with their current state of residence,  begging the questions –Why did they move? How did they get there? What opportunities led them to their new place of residence? Is their life fulfilling in their new “home?” 

Because we have become a transient society, it is ever more important to write our family histories and leave “love letters for future generations.”  Independent publishing has provided a way for ordinary people to share stories that are meaningful to their families and to others. People who are considering independent publishing often make the mistake of thinking only their family and friends will be interested in their publication. Not so, the world-wide web allows us to connect with individuals who have walked the same walk, shared the same interests throughout time and in place, and are looking for connection through hobbies, life experiences, occupations and through relationships in the six degrees of separation in a very transient world. 

Next week, on All Things Fulfilling, we will be sharing a book that is hot off the press. It addresses an issue of concern that many families share in this day and age – finding a way so the next generation can continue to live in the same environs that they were raised in, and still be able to make a viable living and a fulfilling life. Travel with us next week as we review a book about family, place and the West. 

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A String of Summer Memories

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“Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.” ~Author Unknown 

Yesterday’s blog writing about summertime in Steamboat Springs, Colorado set-off a string of magical childhood memories of growing up in ‘burbs of Baltimore in the 1950s and 60s. When I return to that time and place in my mind,  it is so fulfilling that I enjoy remaining stuck there; not rushing back into present day life. 

Our neighborhood was outside Baltimore City limits, developed as part of the post WWII surburban boom. The community was filled with children to play with. In our family, as was the case in most others, kids were shooed out the door to play and not allowed to spend much of the day in front of the TV. Had we spent the amount of time in front of screens as kids do in this digital age, it would have given our mother apoplexy. Instead of being inside, our summer days were filled with: 

  • Spontaneous BBQs and games of softball with neighborhood families.
  • Running through the neighborhood playing flashlight and catching fireflies (lightning bugs as we called them).
  • Basking in the sun until our skin turned a lovely shade of toast.
  • Playing in the stream that bordered our family’s multi-acre wooded property.
  • Gathering green moss and piecing it together to make moss mattresses, in the woods, resembling patchwork quilts.
  • Doing swan dives, cannonballs and back-ward flips off the diving board in our family pool.
  • Listening to hits of the 1960s on my treasured transistor radio. It came complete with a wrist strap.
  • SummertimeVacation Bible School at the church my Dad built. http://bit.ly/jA0Cpp.  
  • Selling colorful tissue paper flowers, we had made, outside the neighborhood store
  • Taking a drawing class at the YMCA (I was no better at drawing than playing the clarinet). Some things are just not meant to be! 

Childhood times may be gone, but they need not be forgotten! Have you ever considered independently publishing your life story as a “love letter to future generations?”   Begin telling your life’s tale today! Don’t know where to start? There are companies that can help you along the way.  http://www.telling-your-story.com/seminars.htm

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