Let The Sun Shine In

Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. -- Ursula K. LeGuin

Sunshine Laws

Statutes that mandate that meetings of governmental agencies and departments be open to the public at large.

Through sunshine laws, administrative agencies are required to do their work in public, and as a result, the process is sometimes called "government in the sunshine." A law that requires open meetings ordinarily specifies the only instances when a meeting can be closed to  the public and mandates  that certain procedures be followed before a particular meeting is closed. The Freedom of Information Act ( 5 U.S.C.A. § 552) requires agencies to share information they have obtained with the public. Exceptions are permitted, in general, in the interest of national security or to safeguard the privacy of businesses.

Let the sunshine in, and expose these horrors for what they are. 
 

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

It's bad.  It's really bad.  It is really this bad. Take a deep breath.
Take a moment, but not too long -- We Have A Lot Of Work To Do.

Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

Part of being a spinner, knitter, weaver is connecting all the fibers, building something strong out of what appears fragile. 

Help reconnect kids with their families. 

  • Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) Family Reunification and Bond Fund - "Parents separated from their children at the border (and other immigrants placed in detention) can't get released from ICE custody to reunite with their families until they pay the full amount of their immigration bond. Bonds are set at a MINIMUM of $1500, and are usually in the range of $5-10K, even for asylum seekers without any criminal history."

  • Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is raising money to provide immigrant children "immediate shelter and beds, medical services, counseling and therapy to help them deal with the trauma of family separation."

  • State ​Legal Resources for Immigrant Children and Families​ from the American Academy of Pediatrics - ​The directory on this page provides a state by state list of resources and organizations that address the legal and advocacy needs of immigrant families. Click on your state on the map, to find local resources. 

 

Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

Don't know how to contact your governmental representatives?  Those people you vote for?  Now you don't have any excuses. Do what needs to be done.

Contact your elected officials.

Not sure how to have the most impact even if you get ahold of them? Bustle has some tips for you to help you make the most out of your effort.
 

Brigit's Poetry

 

“I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings. … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I’ve had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. … The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.”

-- Ursula K. LeGuin
 


With love, and structure, and organization, and determination, and holy righteousness, and power of ethics, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!  Happy Juneteenth and Happy Solstice.  

Let. The. Sun. Shine. In.

Mushrooms, Loss, and Wool

“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom...is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go." - Anthony Bourdain

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

I have more things in my world that I'm curious about, want to do, dig into, etc, than I have hours in the day to do... I started oyster mushrooms again, and they're doing their thing (MUSHROOMMUSHROOM!).  I have fiber things that I will wait until later to address.  I have various fun projects at work. 
 

 

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

Content Warning: suicide. If you don't want to read this section, skip to Ariadne's Yarn. <3 It's totally OK, I get it.  But I'm still gonna write about it.

So. Kate Spade.  Anthony Bourdain. Same week.  I'm not much of a fashion plate, but I know that a lot of people really liked Kate and her stuff.  It made me sad, for various reasons...  And then there's Anthony.  His death was a lot more difficult.  Where Kate made me sad, Anthony's passing felt like a shock wave, and another one, and another one, opening up layers of previous losses.  It was really hard. 

It's a reminder to me that grief never actually really goes away.  There's just a new normal, and that sense of normalcy can slip at any given moment.  And it's ok.  It's ok to be tender, it's ok to feel all the open spaces loved ones have left, it's ok to just let all the feels wash over and take a day or two days or three days or more, it's ok.

An early initial thought I had was that I'd start a business with bath bombs and bubble baths and other nice "self care" things.  As it turned out, the more I thought and read about self care, the more it dawned on me that self care can only happen in a community that creates space for someone to *do* self care.  Self care doesn't just happen.  If you have no one to take care of the other stuff while you take a break, that means that adding self care into that routine is just one more thing on the list... 

Anthony Bourdain traveled all over the world, and in his own backyard, and wherever he went, he seemed to make friends and have conversations, and created a comfortable sense of small world community.  Sometimes you need the world to stop coming at you, and it's your community - if you can reach out to them for help - who can help hold it at bay while you do what you need to do to recover. To take a shower or bath, to sit and stare out the window with a cup of tea, to cross those errands that you need to do *for you* off your list, whatever it is that in your moment of need that you need to do.  Your community can help you create your healing space.

The other thing I am reminded of - and I learned this the hard way through significant burnout a few years back - is... check on your strong friends, who are doing all the things, rocking their worlds, who seem to have their acts together, ducks in a row, and cats herded & all going the same direction.  Everything can look amazing on the surface, but as I wandered the work halls way too late at night, making sure everything looked amazing, putting out fires for people, making sure everyone else was taken care of... I wasn't doing that great at all.  I wouldn't have told you either.  Because I was invested in maintaining the image of everything being amazing.  But I'd have been relieved to have someone make time for lunch, or even just notice that I was carrying a lot of weight.  

Reach out, check in, connect, get a great handbag, and eat good food with old and new friends. 

And if you need it - National Suicide Prevention Hotline - Call 1-800-273-8255. Text HOME to 741741 in the US.
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

Y'all.  Not only am I knitting a silk & baby camel scarf that is the softest thing in the entire world, yes, even softer than kittens, but my drum carder arrived in the mail today!  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I will probably not regret the drum carder.  I *may* regret that I just bought five pounds of unwashed Black Welsh Mountain sheep wool. Time will tell... But... for $8/lb... When usually it's $2-3/ounce... well... what's a girl to do?

 

Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.
 

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks - on your body or on your heart - are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.” 

- Anthony Bourdain.

 


With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

Super Meta!

Hello! I'm back!  Kids & computers & homework sometimes... take over my preferred access point.  As is the way of these things...

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

So, in the midst of a bit of sanctioned overtime, something that I've been thinking about in my lol "spare time" lol, has been the conflation of 'making a living' and 'working for a living.'  When you decouple the need to make money in order to make decisions about how you choose to live, the choices become very different. Medieval peasants got *waaaay* more time off than most workers (Congress aside - no really, I'm not kidding!). The industrial & information revolutions have been brutal on the work/life balance.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that my brain's counterpoint to ridiculous hours is "Yeah... but I'm SO glad to have indoor plumbing!" Dear brain... one of these things is not like the other...

I think somewhere I feel like I get stuck is with the 'not good enough's'.  Not that I'm not *good* at what I do, but for everything I do, there's always someone *better.*  And my logical brain knows... there will always be people better at, more interested in, more eloquent about anything I might find a joy or curiosity in and that's fine, and it doesn't mean that I'm not also still good enough, but some times it feels overwhelming. 

My lovely therapist said the other week, 'it's hard to be inclined to medicate people who are really high performing but... sometimes also you think about what they are accomplishing despite the things holding them back (anxiety/depression) and... what could they be capable of if that was treated?'  It's really less a question of what if you could be more productive, and more the question of... what could you do if you weren't afraid/worried/anxious All The Time.  What could you do if you could turn off that internal self critic that's so involved in keeping you down?  It has not lead to one outcome or another, but... things to continue to consider. Happy belated mental health month.

Anyway.  Redistribute the wealth, take care of the poor, from each as they can provide and to each as they need, universal healthcare (not "insurance"), and... yep. I'm apparently *that* lady, these days.
  

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

The girls have decided they want to learn guitar this summer.  I guess I'm going to pick up my guitars as well.  And probably M2's violin, and maybe M1's cellos. Maybe. We'll see.  Good intentions are sometimes outweighed by the time/space continuum addressed above.  But there's something satisfying about creating space to make beautiful sounds.  Or beautiful shapes (yoga/gyrokinesis), or art.  Or spinning & associated follow up projects...

Create and protect your space, my lovelies!  You not only *deserve* it, but it is your inherent right.
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

I FINISHED MY SCARF!  It's really more a scarf than a wrap... but mostly, it's *DONE.*
So pleased about this. And so, now... I'm (spinning stuff, of course, AND) also knitting up the silk & baby camel into a scarf.  Just a trad rectangular scarf-y scarf. It's SO soft.  SO SO soft.  It's hard not to just sit and pet it.  So soft.
 

Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

Part of the joy of my work is getting to discuss, in gory detail, the granularity of aboutness.  There is a reason ontology is a whole branch of philosophy.  So this week it has been about:

  • using the correct term to describe the thing, and not one broader that *might* encompass potential future things but doesn't generally describe the actual thing itself very well; and

  • in actually identifying when you are trying to understand a collective grouping of individuals with shared experience, *what specifically* are you trying to understand (the answer is segmentation, but we'll see if that gets legs...). 

Part of what organizing a life entails is, sometimes, understanding the frameworks upon which they operate. Further, understanding that those frameworks are (often) optional and how you can make adjustments to the optional/chosen frameworks. You can't change gravity - that's going to just be a thing, but you can make changes to other things (hello-goodbye, self-limiting beliefs).  

I love climbing around on the jungle gyms of frameworks and identifying things really specifically.  Sometimes it can be frustrating when I can't get to a shared point of view with someone, but by and large, getting a chance to look at and poke around in the under-pinings of our shared, mostly overlooked assumptions is something that I love almost irrationally.

I feel like this "should have" something I end it on, and I don't know what that is, so for now I'm going to leave it dangling in the wind as a thought that I've been to before, and will no doubt return, gifted as I am with Ariadne's ball of yarn in this labyrinth of life... <3
 
With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

Who Are Your Song Bearers?

Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah
--Leonard Cohen

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

Once upon a time, there were no lights but candles and lamps at night.  There was no tv, cellphones, video games in leisure time... People found ways to enjoy that time and one of the ways they did that was music.  Once upon a time, music was a community thing, not reserved for the stage, or the school auditorium - it was participatory & shared in families, and with friends. 

Who are the song-holders in communities now?  How/does music pass down from generation to generation? Songs are sort of like stories - what are we missing when they disappear? And more importantly - what are we missing out on within our communities when we no longer share participatory music within and across our communities?  And by participatory - I don't just mean participation-by-receiving.  Going to a concert is receipt of music, passive participation in the act of creation.  

I love participating in the act of creating music with other people.  Alone it's... a little hollow, to be honest.  Though sometimes, late at night, alone in my car, with my kids in the car, sometimes just gonna sing along with whatever is on, or whatever's in my head.  When I'm playing with others, I don't care if the people I'm playing with are particularly good. I care very deeply that in the moment they are enthusiastic and authentic about participating with their whole heart with joy.  Broken strings, missed lines, missed notes, messed up harmonies, whatever. The music, like water, flows around it and keeps moving. 

It seems like what I hear these days is, 'oh, I... haven't played in a while... I've lost a lot. I don't play as well as I used to'  Yeah.  I feel that.  Me too. And. Come play with me. We can be joyfully terrible together.  

I miss having people to play with. On the upside, kiddo #1 wants to learn guitar this summer.  I am trying to figure out if there's an instrument I can be terrible at with her.  I guess... worst case, this is the summer I try to pick up fiddle...

But... open invitation. Wanna sing some songs? I'm game.  Seriously.
  

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

The world needs to slow down so I can get my song on. This seems to be the year that I'm finding a lot of joy in the arts & crafts.  Spinning, weaving, and music all day? Yes please. Alas.  That's not the way the world works. 

Boundaries.  Setting down the workaday, making time and saving energy for the other stuff.  That's... a project... Creating space. To do the important stuff... 
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

Just a few more rows (COMMITMENT) on the scarf now.  And I wrapped up the pretty blue stuff and started working on some natural blue-faced leicester - it's so soft.  It's going to be a beautiful something some day! :)
 

Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

 In my work life, there's been a bit of politics.  It's the nature of trying to coordinate many people's frameworks into one that works together.  People's world views are how they've mapped their mental models to the world.  When that mental model is challenged, the resistance can be... significant. Asking people to recognize the flexibility of their maps is always an exercise in tact and diplomacy.  There's a reason that ontology has its own branch of philosophy!   

I don't mean to come off sounding like I'm whining about it - this is one of the things I generally really enjoy about my work. Frameworks, ontologies, perspectives.  I'm getting better as I get older about trying to make sure the folks I'm working with understand that their perspective is (probably) valid... from their perspective.. but that it fits into this other perspective in *this* way. 
 
With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

--Susan
 

Forging New Boundaries

“Don't look around for the path you are meant to follow, forge it yourself.” ― Toni Sorenson

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

Forging. I've binge watched and caught up on Forged in Fire.  The whole process of transmuting raw metals into something functional is just really fascinating to me.  AND. I would totally watch a show on weaving or spinning or knitting that was done in a similar style. Showing the interesting bits, the detail, the delight as something starts to take form... You know? It's all about the process of creation and evolution of something from a raw material into something that is beautiful, that may (or may not!) be functional. But yeah.  Forging. It's a thing in my world that I find totally riveting...
  

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

So an idea I've been chewing on this week, last week around boundaries is the idea that boundaries not only delineate where others need to stop, but it also delineates the space you need to fill.  Like - a boundary issue can be that someone has encroached on space that you are meant to fill and they are blocking you from filling that space, but there's also a responsibility on your part to step INTO that space and fill it as well.  There can be no one in your space, and a boundary transgression can happen because YOU are not in the space that you are meant to be filling. 

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies, keeping ourselves "small" because we have self-limiting beliefs from old patterns in our lives that we need to let go.  We all have spaces we need to grow into so that we are fully embodying the reaches of our own boundaries.  
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

Knitty-knitty-knitty-knitty.  A row is still a significant commitment, but I think I'm closing in on Done Enough. And then we'll see how badly I messed up the pattern... 

Spinny-spinny-spinny-spinny.  I'm really pleased with the way this yarn is turning out.  All soft and fluffy and pretty and lofty!  The question is, what to make with it though... It might be a pair of gloves.  But with as light and lofty as it is, it might be a hat or a knit scarf... I'm pretty sure this will be some sort of knit project, but time will tell!
 

Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

So, this week I *finally* rolled over one of my old 401Ks from an old job. I've had this on my list to do for literally *years*.  And now it's done. I had a whole handful of other phone calls/appointments that had been piling up behind it because every time I needed to make an appointment or a phone call, I'd think, ugh, that thing, I need to do that too & then I'd put them all off and the list was growing.  NOW what I need to do, now that the roll over is taken care of, is make all the rest of those calls/appointments.  But, the hard one is over, so now it's just a matter of settling in with the calendar and phone and just push through them... 
 
With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

--Susan

Emergence and Wraps 

“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
― Erma Bombeck

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

The mushrooms are back! I saw a tiny little Amanita panthera that had been knocked over by some oblivious soul in front of our house and a whole forest of little mushrooms in the shrubs at work. I'm looking forward to seeing what else starts popping up! Time to go for walks  around the campus! 
  

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

Boundaries. Boundaries, boundaries. Boundaries. Reflecting all the bits and parts that have become attached to things. Reclaiming space. Rewiring the brain and stepping  into new frameworks that fit better... Some weeks, it's how it goes...
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythologyand stories all tie together.

I think I'm over the part where I was stuck on this scarf! It's still a commitment to do a row, but I haven't had to tear it back you... Granted, no guarantees what happens next time I pick it up but you know, details!

I wore my big white wrap to work Thursday. Normally it's not something I'd do, but I needed to wrap myself in something so completely *me*. 


Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

Short thoughts because kiddo #2 was up until 1:30ayem doing homework... which means it's later than that now.  I've been asleep on the couch for hours and sleep... more sleep... is calling me away. When I try to open my eyes, they feel full of sleepy sand. Note to self: brush teeth before crashing out! LOL! 

Sometimes arranging a life means working around the schedules of others and allowing things to happen and just be what they are as they emerge.  And it will be all still be ok. 
 
With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

--Susan

Whirling, Spinning, & Sweeping

“the most
beautiful tide

is the sweep
of your heart
against mine.” 
― Sanober Khan

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

Work. WAIT. I mean - yes - my brain will probably be on work for a while, but I've been up to some other things as well.  Last weekend, I went to a broom-making class with one of my favorite people ever, Jaina.  We made turkeytail hand brooms.

There will be more broom classes to come, I think.  Probably a few more short classes before we get to do a long broom.  It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday, plus there was a ferry ride & those are always delightful for stepping away from the swirling, whirling of day to day life that can really drag one in...

Photo credit goes to Adrienne Adams who also took the class with us.  I am so glad & grateful she captured this picture of us together. <3 

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

So yeah - making space to do something when things are swirling, whirling around is... sometimes it feels like adding more things to the swirling and whirling, but can also be a way of forcing one to create the space and boundaries needed to get some distance and perspective. Or at least put some space in the time where one can step away from whatever is immersing life. 

Not only did I go up to Lopez (ended up spur of the moment being an overnight trip at that because the latest ferry that would have gotten me to the class on time left the dock at 6am and that just *wasn't* going to work for me, so I went up Saturday afternoon!), but this week we're going to go see a Mark Lanegan concert.  It's been a long time since I went to a concert... It's been a longer time since I saw Mark in concert. I'd listen to him read the phonebook, so it seems weird that it's been this long but there you go.  Resolved to fix that in the midst of all the other things going on!
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

I am still knitting the scarf.  I have knit and frogged (unknit) the same four rows about four times now.  I don't know why, but I canNOT get the stitches to count out right (darn lacework). And at over 270 stitches, a row is a *commitment*.   So, I'll be frogging the last two rows... again, next time I sit down to knit.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 
 


Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

Creating space in the midst of everything - creating the boundaries for Medusa's Garden, creating room for curiosity, creating room for creativity - especially when things feel like they're spiraling out of control - helps bring things back into perspective, helps reground things, regroup things.  And eventually things will stop their whirling and spiraling and spinning and swirling long enough for you to catch breath... 
 
With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

--Susan

Work On The Brain

“The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.”  ― Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

Phix's Curiosity: what sparks my interest

Watch this space to see what's sparked my interest this week.  A random grab bag of delights!

OOoooh, work stuff. Some fun enterprise content strategy stuff is starting to twitch like Frankenstein's monster.  It's an utter delight and is making a part of my brain that I was wondering if still worked light up like fireworks on the fourth of July.... It has the potential to be a perfect storm of really interesting stuff to think about with really interesting people to work with.  The. Best.
  

Medusa's Garden

When you need every one and everything around you to just stop.

The thing is - when my brain lights up like this, getting it to stop is... problematic... sometimes... Yes. I'm that person that when I'm focused on something, I won't actually hear you over the churn in my brain.  I'm sorry.   My brain is in that state right now.  And has been All Day Long.  I'm a little afraid that stopping now will mean I don't get back to what is on my mind and yet... I also need some sleep and also to come back to this.  I am crossing my fingers that when I come back to it, it'll still be available to me in as crisp a vision as I have of it right now.  

I told someone today that my primary work challenges right now are the Laws of Physics & the Time-Space Continuum.  Now - where did I put my Time Turner?
 


Ariadne's Yarn: playing with threads

What I'm up to with fiber and possibly how mythology and stories all tie together.

Knitting the wrap.  I spend more time counting stitches in this pattern than knitting them.  It's frustrating. This is why I don't do long patterns.  My count is always off.  And my stitches always seem to be off.  Maybe this weekend I'll be able to make some good progress on it, but... We'll see!

Mythic Librarian: the art of arranging a life 

Thoughts on ontology and ways to organize a life.

Part of the advantage of when my brain lights up like this is that I'm able to create good visualizations of structures.  Sometimes in order to see how all the pieces fit, it helps to actually draw the puzzle pieces and see how they all fit together.  

Having a fresh perspective because you re/arrange the pieces is such an enlightening way to shift things around.  It makes me just... delighted. :)
With love, and structure, and organization, and curiosity - may Ariadne's ball of yarn guide you through the labyrinth safely until next time!

--Susan

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