9 February 2013 Journal Page

This is the last page in my Joie de Vivre journal. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey.

My journal is always my sanctuary. It's my place to explore, expand, process and document. It's also my place to remember. I appreciate that I can pick up my journal, flip to a page and remember how I felt and what was happening that day (even when I didn't document what happened that day on the page.)

"You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are." -Sandra Cisneros House on Mango Street

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A quick reminder that I'll be selling my collage grab bags here on my blog tonight (Tuesday) at 7 p.m. PST. A post will pop up with more information at 7 p.m. tonight. Thanks for looking.

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I posted this yesterday afternoon to facebook. I thought that it was extremely appropriate and in case you didn't see it or haven't read it, I thought I'd post it again here:

KEEPING QUIET

Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth let's not speak in any language, let's stop for one second, and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines, we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victory with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. Life is what it is about; I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go.

-Pablo Neruda (1904-1973),"Keeping Quiet" Extravagaria (translated by Alastair Reid) Jonathan Cape, London, 1972, pp.27-29 (original Estravagario, Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires,1958)