After a particularly rough period of her life, artist and gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner embarked on an unusual daily practice, that quietly taught her some very big lessons.
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Tying the Devil: A Turkish Practice for Finding Lost Things
In response to Kathryn Schultz’s very moving ‘When Things Go Missing, Reflections of Two Seasons of Loss’, Yesho described a unique Turkish practice for finding lost things.
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An Unusual Memorial for a Loved One: Hair
Hairstory Studio in downtown Manhattan calls itself “part think-tank, photo studio, art space, and production house…challenging beauty stereotypes through the art of cutting, coloring, and styling hair”. Each month it welcomes a handful of people for fresh cuts, color, and portraits. And to tell their story through their hair. We find Oakley’s to be the most deeply personal and unexpected.
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Practice Losing Farther, Faster (Elizabeth Bishop)
The other day we came across the shorn trunk of huge tree that had been taken down by the Parks Department. We looked close and tried to count the rings but got lost in the swirls and changes in its three-foot span. It is one of those everyday losses that reminded us of others, and of the Elizabeth Bishop poem “One Art”*, in which the antidote to loss lies hidden.
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A Principle for Dealing with Everyday Losses +
When we wrote about navigating loss during th holidays, 80+-year-old skydiver Karrolyn Belkis pointed out something we hadn’t thought of: we feel loss daily. Things we love disappear, whether it be a person, an ability we had, a familiar place, a tree, a friend…something we rely on broke or fell apart or got lost. In answer to…
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Song for Monday: ‘Throw it Away’ (Abbey Lincoln)
Chris Eldredge recently sent this crazy-beautiful song by Abbey Lincoln (below). “These magic words in a magic book” seem perfect for re-entry to Improvised Life after the challenges of the past few weeks. Lincoln’s lyrics could be Improvised Life’s anthem and are a fine way to enter a Monday morning.
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object lessons: some sh*t just doesn’t matter
The other day, I accidentally knocked a treasured cup off a table and watched, in the slow motion of a car accident, as it crashed onto the stone floor. It was gone in a moment, an object whose beauty I’d enjoyed daily since my friend Suzanne Shaker had given it to me over a decade…
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haiti: when there is nothing, there is something
The past few days, we’ve received emails and phone calls from friends recounting news reports from Haiti of solutions improvised in the most impossible of circumstances. A New York City search-and-rescue team used ceiling tiles to splint a broken leg. An Israeli surgeon used a ballpoint pen to perform a tracheotomy. A nurse at the airport…
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