In Harmony

“When we feel,

 a kind of lyric is sung in our heart. 

When we think, 

a kind of music is played in our mind.

In harmony,

 both create a beautiful symphony of life.” 

― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

Work

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."
- Steve Jobs

Splendor

“One must wait until the evening

 to see how splendid the day has been.” 
― Sophocles

Understanding Life

When I was 5 years old

my mom always told me that

happiness was the key to life.
When I went to school they asked me
what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I wrote down, "Happy".
They said I didn't understand the
assignment. And I told them
they didn't understand the meaning
of life!" - L'eco di Bru

Symphony of Color

"Mere colour can speak to the soul
in a thousand different ways."-Oscar Wilde

Covent Garden London

"Our world a symphony of color 
everywhere, everyday."

Cousin's Crane Making Party

This past Saturday we gathered at my house to continue making cranes for my daughter Aria's upcoming wedding next June.  Several of my cousins who live out of town and out of state were here to help us make origami paper cranes, each crane representing wishes for a long and happy marriage.

We had a great time sitting around the table, laughing, eating and drinking and making lots of cranes.  Several cousins brought their own colorful papers  which differ from the planned colors for the wedding but all the cranes look  so pretty together that I think we can blend them all into a cohesive and beautiful arrangement.  Hope Aria will be pleased.  Here's a peek at our crane making party and brunch.

While we folded the papers we reminisced about the times are mother's gathered together to make cranes for our weddings.

Cousin Pati from Vermont made us laugh so much. Everytime she got to a certain point in folding the crane she would say: "Look I made an Iris."  "Noooo Pati" we'd respond "keep going we're making cranes not flowers!"

We watched "Tea for Texas" a family video about our grandmother and grandfather's Japanese tea garden in Texas. There are scenes in the video where all our moms were sitting at a table making cranes two decades ago for my cousin Jan's wedding. 

My sister in law Barb brought samples and instruction books

Cousin Nancy from the bay area

Nancy and Jocelyn were also busy writing "haiku" poems* to go with the days activities. I include them at the end of this post. 

*The form for writing haiku is three lines of thought. Line one has 5 syllables, line two has 7 and line three  has 5 again. Our family loves to write haikus for every occasion. It's tradition with us!

My sister Jocelyn

Cousin Jan from San Diego

We listened to music by "Los Panchos".  The spanish words and tunes reminded us of our mother's time in Texas.   For me the song "Sin Ti" has special meaning as it was one of my moms favorites and Sin Ti means "Without You". 

My cousin Nancy brought these for me as a little hostess gift. They are new gift items sold at the family Jingu home in the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio.  

Time for brunch!

Sisters Peg and Ann

Sisters Pati and Jan

The two Barbs

After brunch, time to get back to crane making...

Ohhh Joce don't work too hard!

Pati says:  "Hey look it's another Iris!

Stefanie did some sample stringing together of the cranes. They looked so pretty!

We had a great time making cranes for the wedding!

Cheers Aria!  

Haikus   by Jocelyn and Nancy in honor of this special crane making family gathering:


"Los Padres music
Tea for Texas inspires
Sin Ti memories"

"Many steps to crane 
Mimosas flow like water
Pati makes iris"

We sort of veered off track of the wedding colors so here's the haiku for that :

"Origami cranes
Forget the brides color scheme
Bead at the bottom."

A Visit to the Zoo in Madison

Day 3  The morning was spent visiting the Henry Vilas Park Zoo.  This is a delightful gem of a  zoo!  It   features 800 animals in a very accessible lovely setting.   Highly recommend this zoo if you are in the area.  (especially easy to manuever on a short time table with little ones.)

Open daily 9:30-5pm and it's FREE!  Located near downtown Madison and open year round.

Love that giraffe behind us.

Even the polar bears were out exploring

Aria's favorite animal...

A nice open play area for the kiddies

Just across the street from the zoo is the Henry Vilas beach. 1501 Vilas Park Dr.

After we leave the zoo we take a short driving tour around the lake and University to see the nearby homes and the Unitarian church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Then back to State street for brats and beer at the Brat House of course!

After lunch we are headed to Spring Green to tour Taliesen, the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. I'll talk more about that and other activities in Madison in later posts.