Waz up 123

Yes,

My feet HAD to be marked

sad, but true...

All my social moments now?

Are about this dance,

learning it, practicing it,

talking about it...

and we have a new language,

to go with it

"waz up 123,

shake-it-and-a-uppa,

roar turn roar turn,

and rock on rock on rock on,"

We fall asleep to them

wake up to them..

(standing in the post office line,

mumbling them,

feet even moving a bit)

and my dogs and cats

have been coerced into participating

when my "feet marking" friends

aren't available...

It seems...I am certifiably?

Thrilled!

We practice and practice

and practice...

in the driveway

(this dance requires a lot of room)

following the only one

who really knows all the moves

and well...

when it is clear I am a liability,

always going the wrong way,

the sharpie comes out.

(Should have been two L's)

Didn't we all have things that

growing up,

we really wanted

to believe we could do

and probably tried

and it turned out so wrong

that even tho the embarrassment

didn't kill us,

we wished in that moment,

it had

and thats what is remembered

in every cell of our being...?

Mine, was in high school,

when I got an invitation

to participate in a beauty pageant,

(few know this,)

think it was Betty Crocker thing,

and probably randomly

came from a box of cake mix!

Picture hippie jock introverted poet me?

in a pageant!!

I did it, for my mom

cause she wanted the beauty queen

kind of daughter and the not

the very strange one she ended up with.

ha

I had my hair permed which

turned out badly,

my eyebrows waxed

which also turned out badly,

My talent?

was reading a poem I wrote

to "Nadia's Theme" while surrounded

by all of my adolescent paintings,

also a distaster...

And we had to dance,

on stage, in front of thousands,

in heels and a long flowing dress

never did get the moves,

always going in the wrong direction

and was finally asked to just help

with "things" back stage!

Stuck to being my hippie jock self

after that!

This time I don't want to help back stage

I want to dance!!

And after last nights rehearsal

and a complete run thru

(this routine is 6 minutes long,

an eternity when trying

to remember what comes next)

I announced...

"okay, this is possible

won't be pretty, but it is possible."

On the way out the door

my "tattle tale friend" says ...

"at least you found a use

for those man hands of yours"

thanks...

I may have two left feet but

my hands make pretty

good zombie claws!

Gotta take the gifts

where ya can find them!

Pam

In search of Steffani

So my trip to Taos continues to

take on more layers

and chapters and levels

and magic...

Magic that brings together...

art, technology, communication

the past, the present,

artists now and then

and random gifts...

Two new books about Georgia,

are on their way to me...

it was after writing about

the spiral staircase to no where,

that this image

of her orange ladder

to no where...

a supposedly familar piece,

one I didn't know,

shows up in a magazine,

where I am staying...

so simple yet seems to say

"climb, believe,

imagine a way to the sky

see what happens."

Okay, it is final, I love Georgia!!

I am an official fan!

(refer to previous blogs to catch up)

So I also, felt inclined to find Steffani,

(now that I found Georgia)

the woman who wrote the Taos note.

I had dubbed her "note girl"

to friends and fans...

(sorry, Steffani, I am sure

your much more than that)

Being a fan of Facebook,

many (non-users) have asked "why?

I don't get it...who cares?"

But Facebook is magic...

a phenomenon...

it connects,

brings home long lost friends,

ones, who we used to sing

the Sound of Music with, in a cemetary,

or run miles, side by side with,

maybe even sat inside a hollowed out

wash machine in the rain,

(actually, I am still looking for "them")

and sometimes, those friends

we didn't know

we were missing or looking for

and then there are those we

have just begun to be inspired by!

I have learned that there

are portable hula hoops,

that an old boyfriend is famous

and still so sweet,

a collection of class reunion pics,

I missed

and wished I hadn't...

and someone who even

wanted to be like me in High School?

(OMG, have you seen my H.S pictures?)

and most significantly this...

I found a note in a tree

written by an artistic woman

teaching in Houston,

created for herself, to be inspired by

and return to...

a woman, also not a fan of Georgia,

until she read a book

(the one I ordered)

and found herself in Santa Fe/Taos

searching for Geogia O'Keefe

like me...

With Facebook, I sought to find her

and say thank you,

(intially, it was thru her student...thanks Ryan)

That I have...

and she is a kindred spirit,

one I expect and hope to know well.

Randomness, creativity,

and the internet met

one another tonight

and assisted in an exchange

of amazingness... how cool is that... really?

So do you have a story?

There has to be other's?

Who is your artistic hero?

I welcome your sharing...

and do you ever wonder...

would she...Georgia

have been on Facebook,

would DH Lawerence

have had time to blog,

would Vincent have stopped painting

long enough to have a website

and what if he had felt supported

by his fan page?

...well, that is a whole nother blog!

Thanks for reading!

Piper Rain

Thrill the World...or Not

Good grief...

how can I still succumb to peer pressure

at this age?

Yet, it seems I have and because of it

I, once again

find myself doing something

I have NO business doing.

Kind of like paddling on the ocean while

being “swimming challenged”

okay, so this is not as dangerous or foolish....

no wait,

it is definitely as foolish...!

Maybe more so!

So last night,

with very convincing friends

(the same ones that talked me into paddling)

along with this “secret desire” in my heart

(that ultimately fails to occur)

I find myself on a dance floor

with sixty other people

with the same “secret desire”

but for THEM...

it actually appears to be happening.

This is no place I have ever been before,

(or should be for that matter)

I am trying to learn dance moves

I cannot begin to remember,

follow or execute.

It is soon very apparent

that holy crap....I SUCK...

Not that I didn’t already know this

but I thought maybe,

just maybe,

something magical might happen

Michael Jackson’s spirit would over take me

and I would be sliding across the floor

as if on the moon.

hmmm...not so much!

The moon in my mind, maybe!

It is a call to “Thrill the World”

on Halloween night.

Where we will supposedly dance

this very complicated number down

main street for Fright Night...

Because I am so in love with the idea

of participating...

I am torn between giving up the “secret”desire

or giving up every hour of my life

for the next three weeks...

to be a part of it!

Tough choice!

Like most people my age,

we grew up with MJ

(I thought I would actually marry him...

which is more ironic then my trying to

learn his dance moves)

I loved his genius and brilliance

and was sympathetic

towards his social challenges,

seeing him at times

to be

just too bright for this world!

So why wouldn’t I want to

for a minute in time

honor him, be him, move like him?

Well pretty sure none

of THAT is going to happen...

and after my friend,

tattled on me to the instructor

(who is adorable and super talented)

that I wasn’t coming back

she said, I couldn’t leave,

and to just have fun!

Hmmmm!

Soooo, I guess

there will be no sneaking off

to the lobby NOW

and I am going to just

have to learn how to dance for the first time

in my life...

So,

if you don’t hear from me for awhile?

I will be doing my booty bounce swim,

my zombie march,

my roar and claw

and my favorite “waz up.”

Pretty sure...

I won’t be THRILLING the World

or even Havasu

but hopefully my friends will be

cause I tried to learn something

I, again, have no business doing...

but if I can paddle on an ocean

that I am terrified of ending up in...

at least here?

I won’t drown

or encounter a shark.)

And the worst that can happen...?

is I might look really dumb

while having fun!

So what the hell...here it goes!

Stay tuned.

I will let you know!

Check it out...www.thrilltheworld.com

In search of Georgia..continued

While Taos didn't call my name

Santa Fe and New Mexico

seem to be yelling it...

Years ago in California

while being twenty something,

a red haired vixen of a women,

gave me a job, in a frame shop.

I knew little about art outside

of Minnesotas' wildlife stamps

and had to become slowly educated as

the posters passed by me, in their

various forms of framing options...

Many of which were large flowers

with capital O'Keefe at the bottom.

I didn't get her or her work

never thought of her much after that

...really!

But the red haired women?

She became a friend for life...

and lives in Santa Fe!

After Taos it seemed appropriate

to go to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum

in Santa Fe,

my traveling companion Ed

(a long time fan) is excited...

while I am quietly ambivalent.

There are quotes all over the walls,

her writings, are what

finally, truly

move me,

she speaks of her work, her life, her art

and I am drawn in...

a window onto this wondrous woman

is opened...

and I see her for who she was!

But the "museum movie"

leaves us feeling flat

I say again and again

"she had to be more interesting than that

she JUST had to be!"

It seems she was!

It is sunset

on my friends' patio,

Alicia, who is as spicy and feisty

as her hair color,

gives me a sense of "family

and sisterhood"

that only a "multiple decade friendship"

can do,

you know,

the one and only person

who knows you better than anyone,

who can jibe, poke and make fun

of the things no one else can

get away with...

(like the graying hair your not really

trying to hide but

hope... no one mentions either?)

We agree, that we have been at

one another's shoulders

for all the big moments in life,

first job,

first house,

first fire,

first mouse...

(don't ask!)

Thanks to Ed our exchange

and charm and adoration

is captured shot by shot!

And is a gift!

Also, gratefully and perfectly,

she has the Georgia O' Keefe

Lifetime movie

recorded

and we wonder and murmur over it's

supreme storytelling,

(while running down the hall

to write down various lines!)

This artistic woman of strength

and iconic character

becomes my hero, my muse

my guide,

in a matter of three days!!

It started with a symbolic trip to Taos

and Mabel Dodge Luhan's lodge,

a note in a tree,

a question where to go and be,

Georgia everything...

and the spirits of significant friends.

Am I am being

led to make a change?

...I am listening...

waiting ...wondering!

Funny, I didn't even know

I was looking for Georgia,

yet there she is at every turn

this woman who not only painted

the New Mexico sky...

she actually, became it!

So I am thinking,

what are we without

our hero's and friend's?

And when they call our names

isn't it true...

our only answer can be

"Yes,

I am on my way!"

Pam Reinke

In Search of Georgia

Is there a place you have heard spoke

of again and again,
in stories and tellings
so much so,
it takes on a mythical quality
and you wonder what it holds
for you when you finally arrive
on its threshold???

When we drop down into Taos
from along the Rio Grande river
it is sort of as I imagined,
a town nestled in the breasts
of blackened shadowed mountains
with far reaching skies and churches,
pueblo this and pueblo that.
Georgia O'keefe's beloved home
and her artistic inspiration.
We are in search of her and
the magic!

I anticipate and fear
a voice might call out,
"welcome home
pack your bags, your moving"
(my friend, suggests there
might even be residents with signs

saying as much.. oh dear.)
There is neither.

Yet at the lodge of Mabel Dodge,
I sit, I write where many
famous guests gathered
D.H Lawrence and Gertrude
and Ansel,
the same soil under my feet.
I walk where the poets walked
and there is a hum
in my ankles.

And there is a labyrinth!
The ancient meditative maze!
I can barely contain my delight!

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol
of the circle and the spiral into
a meandering but purposeful path.
The Labyrinth represents a journey
to our own center and back again
out into the world.
It is a moving meditation of prayer.
It is a walk.
A metaphor for life’s journey.
A sacred space and place that
takes us out of our ego to
“That Which Is Within.”
A labyrinth has only one path.
It is unicursal.
The way in is the way out.

My first walk having been in Maui,
which I directly went and got a tattoo
to permanently
mark the experience!
It was that profound!!!

The intention is to ask a question...
walk in with it and walk out with
an answer or a better understanding
of what is being sought!

Mine is
"what shall I do,
where shall I go?"
(granted, maybe a little too lofty for
a Monday as a tourist
but IT IS Taos...)

The answer seems is so simple
too simple
"be the artist, poet you are
and know you are supported
by all those who have come
before you...just do what you do"
hmmm, okay anything else?
yes, build a labyrinth in your back yard
and that spiral staircase to nowhere,
the one you've been waiting to do,
it has greater relevance than
you imagined."
okay, hmmm?
.... thank you...i guess.

Yet... along the path to the lodge
we discover a note
tied to a branch with a
filament of iridescent ribbon...
a surprising treasure
that makes me feel instantly ten
it reads,
"you are an artist,
act like an artist...
show your work
and please return to Mabel
where magical things happen."
Steffani Zachry Holubec 7/09

I am stunned and look for others
but there is only this one,
one confirmation!
What a gift.
(Thank you, Steffani!)

Wondering, is this everyone's
question here?
Thus this answering note?
Or was this some kind of magic?

Past the twin steepled churches
and rushing Rio,
under the ceaseless New Mexico sky,
it is clear, I won't be moving here,
that I found more than Georgia,
maybe some of the intrigue...
and it looks like
there is a plan for a labyrinth
and spiral staircase to nowhere,
to be added to my backyard.

And more simply...
I need to keep doing and being
what I am doing and being!
And maybe tie a few notes
of my own to a tree or two!

(...oh and there won't be
any tattoo for this one...
i think I got it
deeper than skin this time.)

So... if you are an artist

act like one!

Pam PiperRain

photos by Ed Earley