I want to invite you to collaborate in creating a security blanket for one of the affected children.

Have you heard about Craft Hope?

“Craft Hope is a love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those who need them. It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world.”

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Their latest project is creating handmade blankets for survivors of the tornadoes and we’re joining in.

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I have a very modest goal to propose: One child’s blanket put in the mail by the June 15^th deadline.

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We need 30 6-inch squares. Would you like to make one or a few?

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• Squares must be approximately 6-inches square. Perfection not required!
• Yarn must be cotton or cotton-blend and machine washable. Two examples: KnitPicks‘ selection or yarn such as Lily Sugar’n Cream from a local shop.
• Squares can be any color you like.
• Squares can be crocheted or knit in any pattern you like. The simplest squares are very welcome, as are fancier stitches or patterns like granny squares. Anything!

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Let’s plan to finish our squares by June 11^th.

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(Local folks are invited to a gathering on June 10th. Click here!)

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I (or a few of us) will attach them into a colorful, made-with-care blanket soon thereafter.

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So, will you join us?

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Comment, email, or RSVP on Facebook and tell us how many squares you plan to make.

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Thank you.

I’m a big late in announcing the winners for my giveaway, but things like a sudden trip to the ocean delayed me!

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And that’s a good kind of delay.

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Well, the results are: Everybody is a winner!

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Chel has some Divine Chocolate coupons on their way to her!

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And Leslie and Jen will receive both those and year-long subscriptions to Yes! Magazine!

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I hope everyone enjoys their prizes. Thank you for playing along and most importantly – supporting Journey to Confluence!

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(If you haven’t become a backer yet, there’s still time. Spread the word!)

“The yearning for community is worldwide. What can we do to turn to one another?

The simplest way to begin finding each other again is to start talking about what we care about.”

-Margarate Wheatley, from Turning to One Another

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I have much more to write about this topic (and this book) in the coming days, but for now I’ll share just this.

What do you care about? Try talking with someone new about it this weekend. Experiment. See what new connections, questions, ideas might start to grow.

More here soon…

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And there’s still time to become a part of a wonderful project and enter my giveaway at the same time! Click here and spread the word.

To be alive: not just the carcass

But the spark.

That’s crudely put, but …

If we’re not supposed to dance,

Why all this music?

~ Gregory Orr

She makes environmental art.

by Gwyn Michael

And her art tells stories about the beautiful and the tragic things in our world. Her art is a voice for the earth.

“I see environmental art as reflective work that may employ a range of art forms to heal and celebrate our bonds with the earth. I am exploring the point of confluence where art merges with environmental restoration.” – Gwyn Michael

And now, she is embarking on a huge journey and project that we can be a part of!

Journey to Confluence is an exploration of the past, present, and future of the American landscape. Click here to watch her video and to become a supporter of the project! I know you’ll want to and your support can be in any amount.

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As promised, I have a pretty darn nifty giveaway to share with you! There will be lots of winners. Here’s how it works:

1. Become a backer of Journey to Confluence by pledging $5 or more. Come back and let me know you did and I will mail you FIVE $1 coupons from Divine Chocolate. Each gives you a dollar off one of their amazing chocolate bars and doesn’t expire until 06/15/11. Divine Chocolate is Fair Trade and you will love it. Give $5 to the project, get $5 in coupons back!  –or—
   
2. Become a backer of Journey to Confluence by pledging $10 or more. Come back and leave me a comment letting me know and you’ll be entered into my drawing for a year’s subscription to Yes! Magazine. (I can’t recommend this magazine highly enough, by the way.) I’m giving away TWO subscriptions, so there will be two winners from the $10 or more crowd! (I’ll send you five Divine Chocolate coupons, too.)

I can only offer these prizes to folks in the USA.

The winners will be announced Monday, May 2nd, so enter by midnight on May 1st.

I hope to get TONS of entries, so spread the word!!

“We have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn from trees, that vigorous and pacific tribe which without stint produces strengthening essences for us, soothing balms, and in whose gracious company we spend so many cool, silent and intimate hours.” ~Marcel Proust

“There is a language older by far and deeper than words. It is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone. It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory. We have forgotten this language. We do not even remember that it exists.” ~Derrick Jensen

“Let there be peace in the sky
and in the atmosphere,
peace in the plant world and in the forests…”
~Atharvaveda



post inspired by Gwyn Michael

After a bit of hibernation, it’s time to wake this blog up. Don’t you think?

More soon…

The 7^th Phoenixville Firebird Festival was the event and I can honestly say it was one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of.

Leading up to the festival, volunteers from the community build a giant wooden phoenix (firebird). The materials for the bird are donated and mostly used pallets and fences!

I helped out a little during the building process and I’m so glad I did. It was satisfying work and just increased my connection to the huge sculpture.

So, how huge is the bird, you might wonder?

This year it was 28 feet tall!

And the focal point of the festival is setting that giant phoenix on fire and burning it to the ground!

There’s much more that goes on at the festival, including music performances galore, fire jugglers, an art bazaar, food, dancing, drumming, and the clay birds project, too.

The clay birds were what I was most involved in this year. In the month before the festival, local people gather to make their own clay bird. Each is unique, formed by hand.

I was delighted to lead people of all ages in the technique of making their birds.

What happens then? All those clay birds (175 this year!) go under the huge phoenix. Hundreds of pounds of flaming wood collapse on them as the firebird burns and the blazing heat fires them.

The next day, we dig the birds from the ashes, completing the story of the phoenix who burns in its funeral pyre only to be reborn and live again. Each person keeps the bird they made. What a powerful symbol!

I hope this conveys a little of the magic and wonder of the festival. It’s an amazing event celebrating the winter solstice, transformation, and community. It has special meaning here in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, a town which has risen from its own ashes and continues to rebuild and renew itself.

This year, 6,000 people came to be a part of it all. It was a wonderful crowd.

So, having said all that, please enjoy some more photos of the 7^th annual Phoenixville Firebird Festival!

Can’t wait for next year!

I designed, drew, cut, and mounted it, so there is a lot of love built in from start to finish.

But this piece of art is special in another way, too.

100% of the proceeds from the sale go to help neglected or abused donkeys find a safe, loving home at Apifera Farm in Oregon.

The Giacomo Fund is named after a beautiful senior donkey whose memory inspires artist Katherine Dunn and the other residents of Apifera Farm to fulfill the dream of opening their farm to even more donkeys in need of loving care.

To read more about The Giacomo Fund and Apifera Farm, click here.

“Finally Home”

is an original papercutting by Emma Peabody, signed on the back.

6×6 inches, ready for easy framing

$30, includes shipping anywhere in the U.S.

Payment is quite simple and is through PayPal.

100% of the price goes to The Giacomo Fund.

To purchase, comment here and I’ll quickly respond by email.

Thank you!

Edit:   SOLD! Thank you!