Life is High Adventure. Leer

In May I took two of my children and granddaughter on a road trip north up to Riverside, CA. my birthplace and resting place for my father Leer Roux Larkins. I decided it would be a good time to go and just sit , have some libations and say "cheers" to my daddy and his life and what an impact he had on mine, needless to say inspires me. It is never to late to follow the path that you really would like to see come to be. My father was (and is,in my mind) an artist, photographer, sculpter, painter. Among other things lover of community , wisdom, music, and as he would say "fine things". He loved and was loved and adored by many and I might add.....very disliked as well (have to smile about that one). The cemetary that was to be his final resting place was a place he spent many years documenting , cataloging, etc. for a project he had been working on as well as for historic reasons. It seemed only fitting to have him there. He passed in 1993 at a spry 82 years old . I went in the office to find his marker because I was a little turned around and they had to pull out these old, yellowing, books that they kept there records for this building because it is so old. Mind you all hand written as you will see in the images. I had forgotten how historical this place was and as much as I enjoy cemetaries this mosoleum really was a little spooky feeling and at the same time peaceful. Lots of energy in those cold marble halls. His older grandchildren were able to meet him for the first part of their young lives but not my youngest. So for him this was a meeting for the first time in our meditation as well as of course my little granddaughter who told me (as though a medium) "grandpa Leer says don't cry....." as she was touching his stone in the wall of the mosoleum. We wrote some notes to him and quietly I felt his presence as I do often with both of my parents. I have been truly blessed to have a wonderful Legacy!

6 months and counting--#1 Daddy -Daughters

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything .... I guess it is about time. I am going to start with a project that was envisioned by Bro. Dawud. Daddy/Daughters is his vision of showing the importance of father/daughter relationships , not only his own but men and families he shares his time with. I thought this would be something that I would enjoy considering that I honor my father with the highest regard. Many times the father is not present in so many families either by choice or circumstance. I could probably go on for way to long about this subject, but wanted to post a few of the images and let them speak for themselves. It was surely an experience to see these little girls interact with there fathers and the different relationships that occur. There are not a lot of them as I wanted to get permission to post any images at all , since this does involve children. We can not be to careful as I do want to be respectful . I did want to say that I was honored to be able to be a part of their lives for a moment.

Embracing Challenge

Reasoning with a fellow sister we spoke of doubt and fear and how they go hand in hand. These two feed each other to not allow growth in so many areas of our/my existence. Embracing "Challenge" was what she said, I like that.

Someone told me I should post some of my other work that I have , and so here are some quick flicks of some things hanging in my home from the past few years. Embracing challenge!

. This will hopefully inspire me to create some new pieces and share as well.

Tail Feathers

in the
muted gray
beauty
of the female spirit
many times
silent
observer
humble
talents unseen

I pluck
and claim
for my own

I too deserve
to be
in the light
to shine
and
Shake My Tail Feathers Proudly!

Hello May

May is here. Soon the sun will stop playing peek aboo around here, which means summer is coming. I look forward to enjoying it, with friends , family and for myself! Hurray for May!!!

My Mother's Day was spent with my grandbaby and daughter at the San Diego Zoo...a special day for my daughter as well, taking her little one to the zoo for the first time. It was pretty amazing to watch her "seeing" things for the first time and oohing and aahing at everything.

Part of the weekend was spent at the Art Fest in Little Italy. It is always a great inspiration to see others work and always gets me fired up to do something.

Heavy Guilt-

I had to take a picture of the Street Art done by Space Invader. I watched a docu-film called "Exit through the Gift Shop" with my son that I learned of this artist and new right away who's it was. The film had many street artist that I did not know of and some I did who are pretty amazing artist and social activist. Space Invader is from Italy I believe.

A beautiful day that ended up with a trip to Urgent Care...boooo, but all is well.


The next few days also consisted of the following..... reflections of life and coming of age ( I don't even know what that means).

Of course the t.v. , media, was all about Osama Bin Laden, mmmmmm.....