preparing for twenty-twelve

There is a moment during the last couple days of each December when it dawns on me that a new year is about to begin, which means.... I need to find the perfect calendar book.  Choosing a calendar book feels like a pretty substantial commitment.  Somehow it has to be exactly the right size and shape, have enough space for me to write, have a binding that I consider to be functional and durable (read: no metal ring bindings!), and (most importantly) be representative of all of my hopes, dreams, and ambitions for the coming year.  Truthfully, I spend more time finding the perfect calendar book than I ever do thinking about New Year's resolutions (perhaps because I know the calendar book will actually last the entire year). 

In 2010 I had the perrrfectttt hardcover Georgia O'Keeffe calendar book that I loovveeeddd.  Somehow looking at page after page saturated with the chaos of life felt a lot less intimidating/nauseating/unbearable opposite something like this:

So, I would have continued on with Ms. O'Keeffe (despite a deep-rooted belief that the new year requires/deserves new art, new energy, new life), but in 2011 the powers-that-be only published an O'Keeffe calendar book with a metal ring binding which obviously cannot withstand 365 days in my life/purse without getting horribly misshapen and squished!

After several hours of shopping last year (in actual stores, not on my couch) I more or less gave up and ended up with this.  I was mildly satisfied with it, but it just didn't live up to everything I want my calendar book to be...

Which leads us to 2012..

After about ninety minutes of browsing the interweb I found the One!!  I feel very good about this.  In August I almost bought a print of this for our new house, but instead bought The First Supper by Jane Evershed, which I think looks stellar above our kitchen table.  

The painting's called Unity and it's by an Oakland artist named Monica Stewart.

Here it is:

May we all find a source of inspiration, hope, optimism, and joy for the coming year.

(Even if it's just a calendar book.)

hold me together

For all of us wandering around with a little baby Jesus inside!!!

(That's all of us...)

breath of heaven

hold me together

be forever near me

breath of heaven

breath of heaven

lighten my darkness

pour over me your holiness

for you are holy

feminist non-fiction

I just stumbled upon this list of 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time on the Ms. blog.

It's worth sharing.  I'm not too concerned about the ranking of the books (although I agree with bell hooks as #1!), but I think it's a good, fairly comprehensive list of some of the most influential feminist writing of the past several decades.

It's a necessity for me to surround myself with people and ideas
that inspire, challenge, motivate, and comfort me.
Many of the books on this list are on my bookshelf for that reason.  Enjoy!

consider the lilies

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly God feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  And why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will she not much more clothe you-- you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'  For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly God knows that you need all these things.  

But strive first for the kingdom of God and her righteousness 

and all these things will be given to you as well.  

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  

Today's trouble is enough for today."

Matthew 6: 25-34

This is a reminder to myself.

And to you if you need it.

do not be afraid I am with you

I would not be who I am without you.

I would not be where I am without you.

I would not know that I am loved by God without you.

I am not afraid because you are with me.

So much love and gratitude for you, Kim McElaney.

I am perpetually inspired and blessed by your presence.

rejoice rejoice

Second Sunday of Advent.  Emmanuel.  Rejoice.

Thanks to Emily for the link from her blog.