Christmas Is Always Filled With Magic

This is a photograph of the "N" Guage train that Gregory and I used to put up in the hutch in our home at Christmas time. When we moved to the condo, we decided that we did not have room to properly display it and gave it to Whitney, one of our God-Daughters. She was the eldest so that is why she got it and not Emily.

For a while, at Christmas time the train lived at the home of her parents, Cheryl and Larry, and therefore both Emily and she got to enjoy it. When Whitney got married, she took the train to live with her and Nick in Washington D.C.

Maybe when I am ready to pass on my new "Z" Guage train, I will give it to Emily so they are even when it comes to model trains!

While we love both Emily and Whitney, Whitney is significant to Gregory and me in one additional special way. Cheryl and Larry were trying to decide what to name her and it had to begin with "W" in memory of one of their parents. They were having a terrible time coming up with a name they both liked when Gregory piped in, "Whitney." They both loved the name and the rest, as they say, is history!

Whitney and Nick are visiting with their parents this holiday and this painting was dropped off for me at the condo's front desk. I am tickled to have it as a holiday gift. It is so significant in many fond memory ways of Gregory and my time together, of experiencing Cheryl and Larry's kids grow up, and more.

 

Uncanny

Yesterday I attended a play in Boys Town. Before the play I had dinner at a Thai restaurant in the neighborhood. As I was waiting for my dinner, a woman stopped at the window near my table and peered into the restaurant for a few minutes. She was somewhat disheveled, dressed in many layers, had two worn shopping bags, and appeared to be a little "off."

She came in and requested a table for one. She looked at the menu for a while and then got up and came over to my table. "Can you buy me something to eat?" she asked.

"Of course," I replied. "I would be happy to do that." She smiled at me and returned to her table.

After she ordered a noodle dish and three egg rolls, I went over to her table and gave her $20.00 saying, "Enjoy."

"Thank you very much," she countered.

The uncanny thing about this occurrence is that from the moment I saw this woman heading towards the window of the restaurant, the scene played out in my head before any of it happened and I had already decided that I would buy her dinner.

Yes, there is magic and compassion available to all of us!

Living Life on the Edge

"Living life in such a precariously artistic way so as to make it difficult to negotiate, to navigate, to find your way through it." This is the summary review of last night's dream.

I was with Jan and Jake, and it was the creation and sharing with me of their art pieces that caused me to border on life in such an unbalanced, unfamiliar way so as to feel the need to escape the light headless of confusion and dismay.

In the discussion, presentation, and experiencing of their art; life unfolded in ways usual as well magical; but also disturbing at the intense need to understand and interpret in new ways.

Don't get me wrong, its not that the art was not beautiful, it was ... just perplexing in my need to understand life at a deeper, never before visited or even imagined level!

I apologized, partly explained, and escaped promising soon to return.

For me, it included all of the art of nature and the path on which it led in my attempt to get home. It was negotiating my way through natural land formations, fallen trees, rivulet carved passageways still wet with evidence of the river, jumping over streams, foraging forests, climbing ledges not knowing if I would arrive still on the path. All the time my home there above me on the horizon.

Advance was possible but could I backtrack if necessary. In other words, on and forward only. The nature of experiencing nature in this way was finding the path being so arduous that one wondered if one would ever arrive.

Now awake, only visions without words on this side of my awake brain hold sway while the details of the exquisite twists and turns, layered beauty and truth, the unexpected use and juxtaposition of materials in Jan and Jake's art, slowly dissipate.

Only the memory of nature's beauty, the smell and feel of the air of my journey, and the physical strength it took to navigate my art, lingers as I write this for description but the details diminish.

So knowing that if I was to capture any small piece of the wonder, I popped out of bed and am writing this at 5:30 am.

I return to bed, knowing that I will quickly return to sleep, but wonder if I will ever return to the exalted experience of this night's dream.

As my dreams returned I was rehearsing for a supernumerary part in an opera. When the diva raised her hand, I brought her the nut shaker and rehearsed shaking a few nuts into a soup spoon to hand to her. When she raised her glass, I rehearsed returning to her with a pitcher of lemonade with which to fill it.

I was aware on waking that the exaltation had not returned but rather the mundane!

Fairy Doors

I love this concept. Magical. In Ann Arbor (and other places) Fairy Doors have been showing up around town. They have become a legend to be enjoyed, admired, wondered about and studied.

While I was in Ann Arbor, I only got to see one at a boutique on Main Street. These photos show what it looks like. The owner of the shop told me that theirs is the only Fairy Door with windows so you can see what is inside. Many of the items you see inside have been left outside other Fairy Doors and brought to the store. 

For more information:

http://urban-fairies.com/TOURMAP.html

You can also Google Fairy Doors to see articles, youtube videos, and forrest preserve managers that are "cracking down" on them being installed in local forest preserves because of the danger to the trees!

Fairy Door a seem from the street

A peek inside the street door

Inside the shop are these two windows

A peek in the windows reveals many wonders

Many of these items were left outside the other Fairy Doors around town and brough here as kind of a Fairy Door Museum and an Homage to Magical Experiences (my name!)

The photos below show a Fairy Door and Windows that have been installed in my guest bathroom in the condo for a couple of years now.

Three Quotes

These came across my Facebook yesterday. The first is very comforting, the second is very true, and I believe in the third!

Michael's Museum Celebrates Five Years at Chicago Children's Museum

THANK YOU Chicago Children's Museum

for your amazing stewardship of the collections of Michael's Museum.

Spreading the JOY and MAGIC makes my heart swell!

Here's to another five years and more!

A Tiny Gift

Jenny Schrider, museum designer extraordinaire, was designer of Michael's Museum: A Curious Collection of Tiny Treasures, now a permanent exhibit at Chicago Children's Museum on Navy pier since May, 2011.

At Gregory's memorial (Click to visit post about the memorial. Opens in a new window.), which was installed last week at the museum, she presented me with this gift. The inside, pictured above, features a wooden pop-up table with a house of cards (each card measuring ½" by ⅜".)

On the outside she wrote: "Michael, This started as an expression of the magic you possess and became some sort of prototype for a flea circus trick! With your wealth of experiences so genuinely present in you always, Gregory for sure lives on in the "Magic" that is you! Much love, Jenny

Santa Sighting

On my way to the condo from my car, which is parked in the building's garage, a new garage employee was arriving at work. As I passed the office, just as she was entering the door, she forced this greeting through her deep almost screamed giggling: "Oh my! Oh my! You look just like Santa!"

"You are not the first person to say this, so thank you and Merry Christmas," I replied.

She carried her giggling and big smile into the office with her, me unable to hear her, but probably sharing her experience with the worker whose shift she was relieving.

I always feel a sense of JOY when I can represent something as magical as Santa Clause. BELIEVE!

(This photo was taken four years ago at a shopping mall on Michigan Avenue. One is the real Santa. Don't be fooled by the red and white costume!)