Day 27: 30 Day Journal Project

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” ~ Rumi

These lanterns are used in a ceremony of remembrance. Names of loved ones and messages for them are written on the sides of the lanterns.

In my journaling for this page, I wrote about singing with other women in Threshold Choir. The choir sings annually at a Hospice Service of Remembrance as well as individual services throughout the year. But most of our singing is done in twos and threes, singing a cappella, at the bedsides of those people who are on the thresholds of living and dying.

Our goal is to bring ease and comfort to those for whom we sing: people on the threshold and their loved ones and caregivers.

“Andante con espressione” means at a moderately slow, walking tempo with expression.

Yes, I know I wrote just yesterday that I would like to be more metaphorical in my images and here I am today using lamps to illustrate a quote about being a lamp.

But I already had both lamp pictures, and I especially love the floating lanterns. I’ve been waiting for just the right project for them.

I looked through my paper to find background material for this page, using the sunset colors in the floating lantern picture.

When I came across “You are the light of my life” I tucked it into the pile to see if it would work on the page.

Our apartment is on a corner and often in winter Rem will light candles that I can see in the window as I arrive home. In this and so many other ways, he is a lantern in my life.

Thanks for checking out my page today. Only a few days left of #30DayJournal project!

 

Darkness & Light

Rem and I set up our Dia de los Muertos altar last weekend.  Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a not an event from the culture either of us grew up in but we borrow or share it with our neighbors here in San Rafael and San Francisco.

Each year the altar is a little different. It seems like each year we have new names to add to our garland of hearts.

This year we included sweet Ruby and I found a photo of a much younger Rem and a young Ruby to display.

In addition to our altar, we attended the San Francisco celebration for the first time.  This included a Festival of the Altars in Garfield Park and a Procession with traditional Aztec dancers, artists, activists and community members.  I like the description on the Dia de los Muertos SF site about the event:

Dia de los Muertos is a traditional Meso-American holiday dedicated to the ancestors; it honors both death and the cycle of life. In Mexico, neighbors gather in local cemeteries to share food, music, and fun with their extended community, both living and departed. The celebration acknowledges that we still have a relationship with our ancestors and loved ones that have passed away.

In San Francisco, Day of the Dead has been celebrated in the Mission district since the early 70s with art, music, performances and a walking procession, which help us contemplate our existence and mortality — a moment to remember deceased friends and family, and our connections beyond our immediate concerns.

So – a holiday that remembers and honors our loved ones that have passed away, and uses both food and art in the celebration. This is Pan de Muerto, or “bread of the dead,” a sweet bread yeast bread, from our altar last year.

At Craft Gym in late October we made Papel Picado or perforated paper, used as decoration for different occasions but for Dia de los Muertos, it usually depicts humorous and whimsical skulls and skeletons.

Rem and I have some beautiful papel picado that we bought on a visit to Tijuana with much more detailed and elaborate designs.

Artisans using traditional methods use chisels to cut through about 50 sheets of tissue paper at a time but machine made versions are also available.  I cut mine with scissors and did one sheet at a time.

In our celebration of Dia de los Muertos, I notice the contrasts: skulls that are made of sugar, bright, festive colors instead of the more familiar dark ones used around death and grieving in our culture.

Candles glow on our 2013 altar.

This past weekend I paid a visit to my dad’s grave. It was late in the afternoon and from the path below his grave, I could see the piece of abalone shell set into his gravestone, catching the rays of the setting sun.

I hiked up the hillside  and cleared away stems and dried up flowers from the site, arranged some fruits and vegetables of the season, then scattered the dried flower petals around. I still feel deep sadness and miss my dad terribly, but I also honor his memory in many ways, including lighting candles on an altar for Dia de los Muertos.

After shedding a few tears, sharing some current events and singing some songs, I took a final look at his grave.  The colors of the abalone shell, glowing in the last, diffused sunlight were beautiful and reminded me that even as our days become shorter and we’re entering the darkest part of the year, there is still light and beauty to be found.

Thank you for your visit. Thank you, Rem, for sharing your photos.

 

 

 

Day 7: Lemon Custard Ice Cream

I’m ending the first week of 30 Days of Creativity with a delicious dessert: rich, creamy Lemon Custard Ice Cream.  I saw the recipe at Good Life Eats who adapted it from Tartelette.

Before I went to work in the morning I put together the base – in two parts.  The first part is a combination of lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar.

The second part is 4 egg yolks (guess who had scrambled egg whites with spinach and mushrooms for breakfast – yup, me!) combined with warm milk and heated again until thickened.

Heavy cream is added and the  two bowls go into the fridge to chill and I go off to work.

Before going to Jazzercise I blended the two mixtures and tasted the creamy results.  Oh, my.

Pour the cold ice cream base into your ice cream maker and watch it turn into a sweet, lemony ice cream.  I put it in the freezer so it could get a bit firmer and had a dish after dinner.  So good!

We’ve made a custard style vanilla ice cream in the past and it was delicious but this particular combination: the bright  hint of tartness, bits of sunny lemon zest and the richness from the heavy cream and egg yolks  really stands out as a wonderful dessert.

Update: I’ve added links (above) to Good Life Eats where I saw the recipe that I adapted and to Tartelette where Katie Goodman from Good Life Eats saw the recipe she had adapted.  When I went to Tartelette I saw that with the *changes I made, I had pretty much made it back to the same as Helene at Tartelette but without a pinch of salt.

* Changes: I didn’t use any half and half (I didn’t want a container of heavy cream and another of half and half in my fridge) and I omitted the xantham gum that Katie added to keep the ice cream from being too icy and hard.  I didn’t have any xantham gum in my pantry and maybe my freezer just doesn’t freeze as cold because it wasn’t a problem with the batch I made.

 

Lemon Custard Ice Cream

Ingredients:

finely grated zest from 3 lemons

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

1 cup milk (I used 2% milk as that is what I have)

2 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar in a glass or other non-reactive bowl and refrigerate for an hour or two (or in my case, all day).

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks slightly.  Heat the milk in a large saucepan on medium until it is just starting to simmer and pour slowly over the yolks, beating until well combined.  Return the milk and yolk mixture and heat gently until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon. I strained the mixture at this point because there were some lumpy bits, but that is optional.

Combine the thickened milk and yolks in the bowl with the heavy cream.  Chill at least an hour but several hours would be even better.

Combine the lemon juice and sugar mixture with the cream mixture and pour into your ice cream maker.  Process as directed by manufacturer.  Get ready to enjoy this luscious treat!

Last year on Day 7 I created Refrigerator Word Magnets.

Thanks for stopping by!

Doodle Heart Background

Here is a technique for the doodler in you.  You need oil based metallic pens – I’ve used both a Zig Painty pen that I’ve had for ages which is gold on one end and silver on the other.  I’ve also used Sharpie Paint Pens.  You also need watercolor markers.  I have a beautiful set of 48 colored markers from Stampin’ Up that have a writing tip one one end and on the other a wider brush tip.  Finally – you need some white card stock to draw on and to finish, a piece of colored card stock and some adhesive so you can mount the decorated paper on to the colored piece.

In my examples, I wrote out the words of a song for the center of the page and did the Doodle Heart Background all around it.  It could also be used for a card front or to frame a photo or poem.

I’m a member of the Threshold Choir in Marin.  As it says on our website: “The all-women Threshold Choirs honor the ancient tradition of singing at the bedsides of people who are struggling: some with living, some with dying.”  The songs are from our repertoire: the one with the red background, “I’m Sending You Light”  by Melanie D’Amore is a healing song we sing at every rehearsal to send healing out to those we name and hold in our hearts and I did that one for my father.  The other song  which we sing for caregivers and is called “In These Hands” is by the choir founder, Kate Munger, and is for my mom.

I cut a piece of white card stock large enough to write out the song with lots of empty border left around it.

Be sure and work with your card stock on another layer or two of paper to protect your work surface because the paint markers might bleed through the page.  Now with one of the metallic pens, draw a bunch of hearts to fill in the space around your message.

I kind of skipped ahead here and didn’t capture all the steps in pictures along the way, but after drawing these hearts, go back and draw two or three smaller hearts inside each one. Then go back and add dots and dashes and curlicues in all the layers.

Add larger hearts around the original hearts and lots of flourishes and swirls inside of all the hearts. You want to make all the heart touching each other. Go in the smaller in between spaces and add more curlicues and scrolls; have fun! Go all the way to the edge of the paper.  Doodle away.

Your song or poem or greeting should now be surrounded by metallic gold or silver hearts filled with layers of doodles.  Take the colored markers and start coloring in all the layers of hearts and swirls.

I like staying with colors that are fairly analogous or close together on the color wheel. Try and keep the colors balanced by moving around the design with one color of pen and doing a bit in one area before moving to another section.  After coloring several hearts with one color, switch to another color of pen.  Fill in the whole page.

Cut a piece of card stock in a coordinating color that is just a bit larger than your decorated piece.  Adhere the decorated piece to the colored piece and sign the back.  That’s it.  Now it is ready to present to a person dear to your heart, with love.

The songs:

I Am Sending You Light

by Melanie D’Amore

I am sending you light.

To heal you, to hold you.

I am sending you light.

To hold you in love.

In These Hands

by Kate Munger

In these hands great blessings.

From these hands great healing.

All around, all around,

All around these hands peace.

Thank you for the visit, do come by again.