Art in Autumn

Today was beautiful, both weather-wise and just...good-day wise. Slept in a little, got up and read a little (The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - READ IT if you haven't). Took a shower and went to downtown Weaverville to walk around the Art in Autumn exhibits. It's only the second year they've done this, and it's the first year I've gone. It was really, really great, and I hate that it's only for one day. They block off a big section of Main Street and have all these booths of arts and crafts...no extra stuff like games or hot dog stands (although the church was selling barbeque for a fundraiser off a side street).

The booths were all just fantastic. The one that impressed me most was this guy I've heard about before, and seen his paintings in a magazine, but seeing them up close was just breathtaking. I nearly cried looking at a few of them. The paintings themselves are absolutely gorgeous, but on top of that, the guy is paralyzed from the neck down. He paints all of these beautiful works of art by holding a paintbrush in his mouth, and I can't even begin to describe the perfection and the detail of what he does. It's really and truly astounding. I ALMOST bought a really small print of these two mourning doves that just struck me as especially beautiful, but even the little print was $60, and I just didn't have that much money with me.

I did buy some stuff, though. I bought some really beautiful hair barrettes, two for me and one for my neice. I almost didn't get them since my hair is so much shorter now, but it's still long enough, and they're really gorgeous. I also bought SEVERAL pairs of earrings...they're all fashioned out of antique buttons, and they're so cool. They were also way cheaper than a bunch of not-so-pretty-or-unique earrings at other booths. I wish this woman had a website, but she doesn't yet. Anyway, I bought some for me, my mom, my cousin, and my aunt. I just haven't decided who's getting what, yet. I guess I'm getting the pair that I'm wearing right now, though...but there's still one extra pair, so I'll get those, too. They're really neat...I wish I had a picture to put up here.

Even with all these beautiful art exhibits and crafts, the most beautiful thing I saw all day was in the form of this four or five year old girl I kept seeing on the street. The first time I saw her, she was dancing with what must have been her little sister and another girl about her age on the street in front of where they were playing bluegrass, and the child just took my breath away. Her hair was so long, it didn't seem possible that at such a young age, she could even have been alive long enough to have grown all that hair. Her eyes were sky blue, and she just looked so happy, and so beautiful, dancing there, as well as later on when I saw her giggling and holding hands with the other girl her age. Somehow that one happy child was just the perfect embodiment of a beautiful, end-of-summer day in this tiny town. But I think what really drew me to her was she looked so familiar...any of you who know me at all know that I have very vivid, memorable dreams, and once in a great while, I dream about a little girl. Sometimes she's just a baby, sometimes she's a toddler, but I always know that she's mine. Usually I'm watching her play. This little girl that I saw today...I was just awestruck by how much she reminded me of the little girl I dream about. I sat down on the rock wall in front of the eye doctor's and pulled out the little notebook I carry with me, planning to jot down just enough about what I was seeing to remember it, but somehow the jotting turned into almost a poem.

Children dancing, bluegrass on Main St.
Little girl, long long long dark hair, cerulean blue eyes
Smiling, laughing, dancing, just as I've dreamt her -
Little sister falls down, and mother hurries them away
The spell is broken; I am awake.


Anyway, I don't want it to sound like I was going to steal this child from her mother or anything, it's just that the resemblance to the little girl in my dreams was uncanny, and for a moment while I was watching her, it really was like seeing one of my dreams acted out.

I'll end with a little bit from the Prologue of The Time Traveler's Wife, since I love this book so much right now...and honestly, since so much of this book seems to fit my life at the moment.


Clare: I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. I go to sleep alone, and wake up alone. I take walks. I work until I'm tired. I watch the wind play with the trash that's been under the snow all winter. Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absense?
Long ago, men went to sea, and women waited for them, standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. I wait for him. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting.