Thoughts and projects

 

Today I've been working on an art doll while listening to this

music. We're rehearsing it at the choir.

 I live on a very loud and busy street. We have a window facing the west so we can watch beautiful sunsets and at nights I can hear peacocks calling out from a neighbor's house.

Night time is by far the best, it's the only time close to something peaceful, because there are still noisy cars at night. But usually the temperature drops and it's  pleasant.

The picture on the right is a part of the doll's body, I was actually attempting to catch a view of the inside which is very pretty -as well as the outside of course- although the interior will no longer be visible once the body has been sewn up.

The picture on the left is the bottom part of the body and the faces are 2 of my favorites, I finally made up my mind and will use the one on top for this doll.

I'm always thinking about so many things while I craft,

Last Friday during Latin class this verse by Sor Juana came up:

En perseguirme, mundo, ¿qué interesas? 

¿En qué te ofendo, cuando sólo intento

poner bellezas en mi entendimiento

y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?

In hounding me, world, what do you gain?

In what do I offend you, if I only seek
To put things of beauty in my understanding
And not my understanding in things of beauty?

And it's been going around my mind for several reasons. The first one is that when I listen to 17th century songs in Spanish I can't help to think about her because she contributed a great deal to some of the most beautiful 17th century Mexican songs, which brings me back to beauty.

While I can't say that I fully understand the true meaning of her verse I do feel that I'm constantly seeking to understand everything I've seen and experienced in life. I also feel that I'm permanently drawn to beauty and I look for it everywhere all the time.

I need to see it, touch it, kiss it, and to understand it and put it into objects or words.

I love words, I need words to think and I would like to learn so many more and their meaning to be able to think and understand so much more than I do, to name all my feelings, so that I can say so much more and do it in a beautiful way.

To live a better life, a much fuller and meaningful one.

I draw most of my deepest feelings from my childhood, it was a time when I could feel very intensely. I had many hopes and dreams, the same ones I have today, I wanted to learn pretty much the same things, languages, music, poetry.

Sor Juana grew up not too far from where I did, but she had nicer weather (for my taste) than I did, because she was closer to the volcano Popocatépetl, and she also had the wonderful smell of the woods surrounding her. Sometimes I can't understand why there isn't a forest at my door and I feel perplex for a fraction of a second when I first open the door.

I wish Sor Juana and I had known each other during our childhood, I keep thinking she would have been an extraordinary playmate because children can dream and create freely. The days seemed so much longer when I was a little girl, and the sky was darker at nights and the stars so much brighter.

I hope for really long and fruitful days, like those of my childhood.
I have a collection of dreams in my mind that I dreamed when I was a child (while asleep) and I would like to put them into handmade books, I also have poems that need to be worked on. I don't know the process, I have so many unfinished projects wanting to take shape and surface.

I came across the next song while looking for blogs to link to my "Inspiring blogs" suggestions.
I liked the strings and the rythm felt exotic, like México must have been in the 16th and 17th century, a bit spicy, a bit classical, a blend of so many different expressions

This song left me with a dream-like feeling and I hope it may also make you dream :)