Ice comes and goes

This is the first winter I've experienced so much ice, here one day, gone the next...or perhaps staying for several days and nights.  Snow has happened here and there, and seems to disappear faster than the ice has.  It's like the start of the year, when a fog turned roads into ice rinks on New Year's Eve..perhaps a forerunner of the rest of this winter. The nice thing about snow, at least when it's fresh, is that there's dryness to the atmosphere.

Ice on highest elevations as I look over Lake Tomahawk on a day that didn't get above freezing and was windy.  I didn't take a walk, just dashed out of my car to take a picture, then back into warmth.

Anyway, lots of fogs here in Swannanoa Valley, between mountains that are old, a valley that's given shelter to American Indians before the Spanish arrived, before the settlers came from across the Atlantic...so I am just the latest arrival.

Late afternoon sun shines into one of my favorite places to meet friends for coffee, The Dripolator

Last month I celebrated having joined a little congregation here in the valley 10 years ago.  I've never been more happy and felt more at home with these people.  There have been many who I see come and go as their lives change.  And here I am still.  At home.

 Today's quote:

Be the most ethical, the most responsible, the most authentic you can be with every breath you take, because you are cutting a path into tomorrow that others will follow.

Ken Wilber

The mountain wears down itself

These tumbled rocks are part of the mountain, the Black Mountain range, which are the oldest mountains in North America (according to some geologists).

The shallow water constantly flows, rubbing the rocks against each other as it goes toward the Gulf of Mexico eventually.  The rocks look pretty big, but those big ones will some day be as little as the pebbles, and more big ones will come tumbling down.

Weekend Reflections.

Today's Quote:
We have all built up a toolbox of unique tools to help us navigate life, we just need to use them.

Patton Cemetery Est. 1794

 Trustees: Mrs A. B. Whitt, and P.P. Thomas
 Also known as Patton Meeting House Cemetery, per "Find a Grave," which notes that of the 120 memorials added, 98% have been photographed.

A friend lives up Patton Cemetery Road

 It isn't that big, and has lots of weeds in the summertime, so I was happy to go take some photos after most of the leaves had fallen.

 I enjoyed looking at graves, but it was late in the evening, so I felt I'd better come back on a morning to look in more time. There are homes all along the road, and people were fixing supper, watching TV, and might have noticed my car parked out by the road, not to mention the elderly lady walking amongst the stones without much purpose.  Fortunately I wasn't taken for a ghost, nor had any disturb my short visit.

 For a change, all these photos were taken by myself.  I often use photos that are posted on Find A Grave Sites.  I'm sorry that I sometimes forget to give credit for them.

 No, I don't think any of my ancestors' bones lie here.  But I have looked at the other cemeteries in the area, just to see the graves, the notations, and to honor the lives of these neighbors.

Alphabetically there are Biggs, Buchanans, Byrds, Coggins, Craigs,  a Cunningham,  a Patton Deweese, Fenders, Fosters and Fox, Gilliams and Graggs, a Grant and 3 Hemphills, Kirkpatricks, Lewis and Lytle, Mc Millans and McElreath, Melton, Mitchell and a lot of Pattons, some Penlands and Pickens, Porters, and a Randolph, Rhymer and some Seawards, Shufords and Stevensons, Stepps and Thomas, Wests and Wilfongs and Youngs. Source HERE.

Don't think I have anyone that I am related to there.

Today's Quote:

There are many things to be grateful "for" but, as I ripen with the seasons of life, the many reasons blend into a sacred mystery. And, most deeply, I realize that living gratefully is its own blessing.

Michael Mahoney

 

Ah, modern dance!

 Isadora Duncan, 1877-1927

Isadora Duncan in a Greek-inspired pose and wearing her signature Greek tunic. She took inspiration from the classical Greek arts and combined them with an American athleticism to form a new philosophy of dance, in opposition to the rigidity of traditional ballet.

With her two children (who died in a car accident while young.)

Duncan wrote of American dancing: "let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance."^[38] Her focus on natural movement emphasized steps, such as skipping, outside of codified ballet technique.

Duncan also cited the sea as an early inspiration for her movement.^[39] Also, she believed movement originated from the solar plexus, which she thought was the source of all movement.^[35] It is this philosophy and new dance technique that garnered Duncan the title of the creator of modern dance.

 Duncan disliked the commercial aspects of public performance, such as touring and contracts, because she felt they distracted her from her real mission: the creation of beauty and the education of the young.

To achieve her mission, she opened schools to teach young women her philosophy of dance. The first was established in 1904 in Berlin-Grunewald, Germany. This institution was the birthplace of the "Isadorables" (Anna, Maria-Theresa, Irma, Liesel, Gretel, and Erika^[19]), Duncan's protégées who would continue her legacy.^[20] Duncan legally adopted all six girls in 1919, and they took her last name.^[21] After about a decade in Berlin, Duncan established a school in Paris that was shortly closed because of the outbreak of World War I.^[22]

In both professional and private life, Duncan flouted traditional mores and morality. She was bisexual^[40] and an atheist,^[41] and alluded to her communism during her last United States tour, in 1922–23: she waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in Boston, proclaiming, "This is red! So am I!"^[42]

Anna, Lisa,^[67] Theresa and Irma, pupils of Isadora Duncan's first school, carried on the aesthetic and pedagogical principles of Isadora's work in New York and Paris. Choreographer and dancer Julia Levien was also instrumental in furthering Duncan's work through the formation of the Duncan Dance Guild in the 1950s and the establishment of the Duncan Centenary Company in 1977.^[68]

 The 1968 film Isadora, nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, stars Vanessa Redgrave as Duncan. The film was based in part of Duncan's autobiography. Redgrave was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Duncan.^[76][77]

Thanks to Wikepedia HERE, for a very detailed and somewhat confusing article about her.

ISADORA DUNCAN, DRAGGED BY SCARF FROM AUTO, KILLED; Dancer Is Thrown to Road While Riding at Nice and Her Neck Is Broken.    (headline Sept. 15, 1926, New York Times.)

 I probably didn't learn her name until I'd taken part in many Physical Education classes of Modern Dance in the 50s.  Yes, we wore leotards, and no scarves.  No we didn't wear the lovely costumes or head gear of the maidens posed in the photo below.

Go check at Sepia Saturday to see what this is all about, and what other Sepians have come up with!

I do appreciate the mobility of my body, which modern dance stresses, rather than the rote practicing of routines in ballet.  And when I see a good modern dance performance with groups of people, or even just a couple...I remember how it was to run, jump, turn, bend, sit, lie, and stretch based on what the mood was saying.

Today's Quote:

Numbing yourself prevents you from confronting your issues and keeps you from ever finding resolution or peace.