Next to love, balance is the most important thing.
John Wooden
I named my rock piles…
The Light Spirit
with a big-hearted base.
The Little Universe
Light and dark
sun and moon
sand, stone and feather.
The Bird Bath
a little white bird
found a place to land
and a bath
to cool in
The Running Man…
it’s precarious,
running.
one foot touching down,
one mid-air,
one arm forward,
one back.
Gravity and momentum
briefly
in balance
propelling you
forward
through space.
Everything changes, even stone.
Claude Monet
Balancing rocks, and finding rock balances, or cairns, of others is one of the pleasures of living near a rocky beach. Last month, while visiting Mackinac Island, I found a book called The Rock Balancer’s Guide by Travis Ruskus. It’s a meditative approach to rock balancing. I’m just learning. Some of the stones I find here, on Lake Michigan, called lightning stones (or Septarian), often appear to have images of familiar things etched into their surfaces. I love finding them and using them in a stack. It makes each rock pile like an ephemeral message from me to the universe. And great fun. You should try it!
There are a couple of updates to my schedule I wanted to share. Firstly, I'll be scaling back my blogging to once a month during the summer to dedicate time to updating my website galleries, creating prints for my physical gallery, and fulfilling commitments to others.
Secondly, for anyone near Saugatuck, Michigan, I'm organizing a one-day bookbinding workshop in late September 2024. More details to come.
I will see you again on July 19, and on the third Friday of every month through the end of October. Thank you so much for being here.
Deer’s Leap