I saw this great photo and story on another blog and just had to share it.

“Rocco Morabito won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography for this photograph – “The Kiss of Life.”

Apprentice lineman J.D. Thompson is breathing life into the mouth of another apprentice lineman, Randall G. Champion, who hangs unconscious after receiving a jolt of high voltage.

Morabito was driving on West 26th Street in July 1967 on another assignment when he saw Champion dangling from the pole.  He called an ambulance and grabbed his camera.

Champion recovered.”

Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995

I came across this piece by Tracey Emin, a leading member of the group known as Britartists or YBAs (Young British Artists).

If you click on the picture and read the wiki about it, you’ll discover that the title is to be taken literally. I assumed it was a euphemism for sexual partners, but it’s about more than sex, it’s about who nurtures us. One of the names appliqued on the tent is that of Tracey’s grandmother:

I used to lay in her bed and hold her hand. We used to listen to the radio together and nod off to sleep. You don’t do that with someone you don’t love and don’t care about.

It got me thinking about the names that would be inside my tent – those people that shared that intimate space with me. How have they impacted my ability (or inability) to be intimate with others?

The image on the left is what art-reproduction companies are marketing as a representation of Botticelli’s famous Birth of Venus painting, so reports Ten Apples and a Flat Sponge.

I bought this book after keeping tabs on Kelly Rae via her blog and store on etsy. Her paintings resonate within me and remind me that deep down somewhere, I am a creator of beauty. Her “inspiration & techniques to give your creative spirit wings” do just that.

I’ve welcomed my children to join me in the creative process of painting and collaging and stamping. We even made wire wings, following the directions on p. 74-75. But what I truly long for is a weekend of solitude with just me and my art supplies. With no other obligation than to create to my heart’s content.

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

(I previously posted about the books I’ll be reading this year. Next on the list is Sex on the Brain.)

art by Kelly Rae Roberts

“…Try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s Joan of Arc’s birthday (c.1412):

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”

I am committing to reading 10 good books this year. I read a lot, but mostly non-fiction related to work, and I seldom read more than 60-70% of a book. I get agitated when I feel that writers are repeating themselves just to fill up pages.

I enjoy reading articles and blogs online, but have come to realize that they just can’t cover subjects to the degree that a good book can. I am narrowing down my list of blogs that I will tend to, focusing on ones that either educate or inspire me. More on that in a future post.

For now, these are the TEN BOOKS I COMMIT TO READING THIS YEAR:

Life is a Verb by Patti Digh – which I bought myself for Christmas. I follow the author Patti Digh on twitter and her blog is fantastic! “37 days to wake up, be mindful, and live intentionally.”

Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts – another book I bought myself for Christmas. I adore Kelly Rae’s creations and one of her lovely prints adorns my foyer. Her book includes a lot of her art as well as others’. “Inspiration and Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings.”

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein- this was one of my favorite books as a kid, and my daughter is in a real “giving” stage right now. She made ornaments and handed them out to strangers last month. I got upset when she gave her Christmas presents to people a week early, but she cried and said she couldn’t help it because she just like to make people happy. She’s a sweetie and I think she’ll enjoy this book.

Driftless by David Rhodes – I heard a spot on NPR the other day about this book and knew right away that it was going to make my list. Why? Because it’s set in my home-state of Wisconsin. Read an excerpt.

Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body by Lilian Calles Barger - Sounds right up my alley.

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine by Sue Monk Kidd – she probably doesn’t remember this, but Julie Clawson and some other women recommended this book to me when we were at the Emerging Women’s East Coast Gathering in Virginia Beach in late 2006.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - gotta have some good fiction to even things out. I heard positive things about this book a few years ago, and I own the book. ‘Bout time I read it!

Now onto books more geared toward my day job:

Sex on the Brain by Daniel Amen, Bonk by Mary Roach, and TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis by Ian Stewart.

And if I’m really on top of things, I may even post book reviews!

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid

look     the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you’re quite dressed
you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they’ll stare!
oh but you’ll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we’ll dance and sing
“Noel Noel”

“little tree” by e.e. cummings, from 100 Selected Poems by e. e. cummings. © Grove Weidenfeld, 1959.