Healing Handcrafting

Tag Archives: presence


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What’s Been Up

A whole hell of a lot.

A groundswell of change has been occurring in slow motion but with enough energy that it’s required steady and devoted attention.

Not the kind of change that is noticeable in a dramatic way; but the kind that is developmental and familial, deep and personal.

It’s the kind of change that would be easy to miss with too much busyness and distraction. And I haven’t wanted to miss a thing.

The most normal kind of changes- aging, children driving/exploring/graduating and heading to college, personal and professional shifts and expansions, body and health related adjustments- they are all so deeply a part of everything, maybe even mundane, but they are also amazing. Passing through these thresholds while awake has taken a lot of energy and it drew from a well connected to my creative life.

I feel the well filling again.

In the air this morning is a distinct shift towards autumn. Where I live, it is always this way: each season has three months allotted to it but those months that connect to the next season have an in-between feeling. It’s hot today, but the light is different. It’s moody. The insect sounds are distinctly different than just a week ago.



I’ll share in other posts what creative explosions happened at the end of spring and early summer- incredibly fun and meaningful things that have impacted the ways I want to create in the future.

Today, I just wanted to say hi.  

~ bradie

song on repeat lately: More Than This, Roxy Music


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Things that made me smile today…

I wish I had pictures of all of these things but I was driving when I saw some of them, or it just would have been weird to bust out my camera…

  • handmade signs asking drivers to slow down because of geese in the road
  • the kind and lovely person who helped me understand my new progressive lenses
  • asking this wonderful man what he’s up to and him saying something like, “6’3, no good, and logging”
  • a joke that flowed off a dear person’s tongue as seamlessly as water over a smooth rock
  • signs indicating that in a family barn, you’d find coffee, snacks, art, and vintage stuff… I love Vermont so much
  • the Green Mountains
  • hearing how excited someone I was talking to is about an upcoming trip she’s going on with her family
  • listening to the birds around my studio- I think a couple of pigeons were yelling at each other
  • thinking about this fantastic play I saw last night that my friend is in
  • seeing signs all over the place that suggest that love, compassion, and a welcoming attitude are preferred by many
  • my cat resting in the garden
  • the smell of peonies
  • an about-to-bloom poppy
  • the sounds and sights of bees doing their thing
  • the smell of catmint

we need to notice the things that make us smile,
call to our hearts,
help us feel connected to other people, even if we don’t know them,
and to ourselves, even when we’re tired, sad, scared, or sick

Until next time,

bradie