Lori

Lori

  • Joined: April 18, 2015
  • Articles: 274
  • Comments: 228

Disagreeing with Virginia Woolf

herbs and notebookDuring this winter vacation I read Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” a book that has been on my reading list since forever. Big round of applause for this minuscule achievement! Right. Thanks. Moving on.

The basement writing space

basement office4It’s probably a weekly if not daily discussion in my family: we need a bigger house, but no, what we have is perfect for us and we can adapt it to our changing needs, but still, one more room would solve all our problems, and yet why move when this is still working well for us most of the time and a small house (about 1150 sq ft, if you’re very curious) is what fits our values, though look at this house that’s for sale. It goes on and on, and it’s mostly just talk. We are happy where we are and moving is not something we’ll ever undertake too happily.

Of mice and sleep

winterberries2This hasn't been an easy week at my house. Sickness and sleepless kids. Not fun at all. But it is Friday and we do seem to see the light at the end of it all.

Time of the night mære

crepuscular1.jpgAs we advance into the darkest days of the year, I start to feel the grip of anxiety and fear. It's often my children who make me feel real, heart-stopping fear. I am afraid for them. Before children, I was almost fearless. It was youth, maybe. Youth is crazy and doesn't think much, and you can blame a lot of unrealistic behaviors on it. Now, as a mother, I can barely watch five minutes of a horror movie and I get nightmares.

I had a nightmare recently. It was an epic one. It will go on the list of the ones never to be forgotten. My nightmares have always been very vivid and cinematic.

Art, ritual, adornment (or what’s in my bag)

what's in my bagArt, adornment and ritual are what distinguished modern humans from their predecessors. Somehow our species developed a taste for seemingly useless, wasteful habits. Why would they waste time painting caves, give away resources by burying the dead with their earthly possessions, and paint their skins or wear amulets and beads that were hard to come by and costly to produce? Somehow our race arrived to the conclusion, very early, that there is more than the eye can see, that the world is a place of magic and wonder and we are not only flesh and bone.

Style inspiration: Janis Joplin

Janis_Joplin-3
Janis Joplin photographed by Jim Marshall (via Janisjoplin.com)
I have been reading a lot of articles (and watching documentaries) about Janis Joplin in the past few days. That wild hair, the bell sleeves, the unending strings of beads. Everything that you think of when you think hippy. I've always felt attracted to that style. Although recently I have been moving away from the ethnic and ethereal embroidery and lace and toward the black and grey chunky, boxy and oversized, the hippy esthetic still pulls me like a magnet and I think it will always be, in one way or another, a part of me.