In which I say hello

I've always loved books with chapters beginning with "in which." Maybe I'll try that for a while.

Well hello!

It’s January and I love a fresh start. I’ve learned to let it be ok to start again and again and again.

You may know me as The Ruins Fairy. The Golden Door mosaics by Rachel Sager. The Ruins Clock mosaic by Deb Engellbaugh. Photo by Blair Barthels.

1. Why?

I am here to play.

And I’m here because of you.  
Because you you YOU — with your words and shovels, 
your hammers and hardies, your forges and tongs, 
your pencils and tweezers and questions, 
your feathers and pigments and brushes, 
your spreadsheets and call trees and post-its and calendars,
your homemade soups and pink aquatic snails, 
your duct tape and copper wire and rusty bits of metal
your lenses and pond water and broken glass and rain boots,
you with your nippers and hardies, your shuttles and looms, 
your knives and your jigsaws, your Holland beaters and slop buckets, your brooms, 
you with your needles, and awls and scribes and punches, 
your scratchers and pokers and folders and shapers and smoothers, 
and you with your puns and poems and prayers, your deep dives and diatribes, 
your fables and musings,
your tender brave revelations — 
because you! all you brave generous souls 
who see me and make me feel seen, 
who hear me and want to hear more, 
you remind me over and over and over -- whether you’ve met me or not --
to thrive: I’m listening.

I'm listening to all the ways you show me with all the things you make and share that we are woven together in this gorgeous beloved "inescapable network of mutuality." 

I'm spinning out a thread.  

A red dog daisy in the wild.

Things I picked up by the Monongahela river during lunch the last time I worked in an office. I’m sure nobody noticed I was 20 minutes late and my shoes were splattered with mud.

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