Treasures & Miscellanea

I found this treasure in my post-holiday sales scavenging.  Or rather, I should say, my beloved found it for me.  He has an eye for these things.  We had gone to a local bookstore to find calendars for the new year.  This is now my 2010 office calendar. 

It's different than what I normally have to look at while I work.  Usually it's something with beautiful nature scenes to mark the passing of time.  But this spoke to me.

I live and work in a very conservative place.   (My "foreign correspondents" are, I'm sure, laughing at this  blatant understatement.)  There's not much in the way of diversity around me, so I was very pleased to find this lovely piece of work that represents a blending of cultures and religions in the most harmonious way.  The artwork is by Michael Green and it appears to be primarily a merging of Celtic Pagan and Christian imagery, incorporating such phrases as "Blessed Be" and "I am that I am; I am that by which all else is known."  But flipping through the first few months shows that all of the major holidays are listed, including holidays from faiths that are more commonly ignored in other, more "conventional" calendars.  For February alone I can see listed Imbolc (Pagan/Wiccan), Nirvana Day (Buddhist), Maha Shivaratri (Hindu), Chinese New Year (complete with a mention of what year this will be - that of the Tiger), Losar (Tibetan New Year), Ash Wednesday (Christian), Mawlid al-Nabi (Islamic) and Purim (Jewish).  Those who know me best know what such a beautiful and useful tool like this means to me.

But, of course, what struck me first was the artwork.  It is stunning.  You'll just have to trust me on this, or please, by all means, check it out for yourself. 

Now I'd like to direct you to the following link, which is the Writer's Almanac for January 8, 2010.  Here you'll find a poem that gave me goosebumps (and more than a brief philosophical pause, as my mind wandered into the implications it presented) and a writer who is starting her new novel on this very day. 


http://www.elabs7.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=923737&mlid=499&siteid=20130&uid=a01b149d4e

 There is much more I'd like to report on, so I should be back soon.  I've got a day to myself coming up and writing is definitely on the agenda.  Until then, be well!