Cloud Foldings

Thoughts of a cloud, unfolding... Words and photos are mine unless reblogged or otherwise stated. I can be contacted at shespeaksclouds at gmail dot com ^_^

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Eron called me over to see the 'sparkly water' in the canal. I guess that's how long it's been since we were by the sea. Once, watching the gold on the water was just part of my day...

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Graffiti in the university district...

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The Willamette river was found today and picnicked by. The sky was clear blue, the air cool but kind. No map, no complaints from children about the distance we traversed by foot. Just a sense of direction and suddenly the sound of water calling us close. Life’s quiet beauty on a sunny winter’s day.

[yama-bato]

"Making art is like having a conversation. I like to speak simply. I like to speak the truth.”

- Wang Nong

http://www.touchingstone.com/ShowJune06.html

(via yama-bato)

[windypoplarsroom]

Kawabata Ryushi

"A Hundred Children" 

[magnoliajones-deactivated201406]

via XuXudidi et plus encore

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Things I need to do this year...knit socks! :D

[memuka]

Paper cranes folded by Japanese children in memorial of Sadako Sasaki at the peace monument in Hiroshima

Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, near her home by Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan. She was at home when the explosion occurred, about one mile from Ground Zero. In November 1954, Sadako developed swellings on her neck and behind her ears. In January 1955, purple spots had formed on her legs. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with leukemia (her mother referred to it as “an atom bomb disease”). She was hospitalized on February 21, 1955, and given, at the most, a year to live.

After being diagnosed with leukemia from the radiation, Sadako spent her time in a nursing home folding origami paper cranes in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese legend that one who created a thousand origami cranes would be cured by the gods. Her wish was simply to live. However, she managed to fold only 644 cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died on 25 October 1955 in the morning. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako.

After her death, Sadako’s friends and schoolmates published a collection of letters in order to raise funds to build a memorial to her and all of the children who had died from the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Park.

At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth.” Every year on Obon Day, which is a holiday in Japan to remember the departed spirits of one’s ancestors, thousands of people leave paper cranes near the statue.

[thefilmfatale]

The best 2013 films that made under $100,000

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Not every notable 2013 film found the audience it deserved. Here are a few that slipped by with too little attention.

Managed not to hear about any of these...

[nothanksdeletingthissoon10102020]

Success is somebody else’s failure. Success is the American Dream we can keep dreaming because most people in most places, including thirty million of ourselves, live wide awake in the terrible reality of poverty. No, I do not wish you success. I don’t even want to talk about it. I want to talk about failure. Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss. You will find you’re weak where you thought yourself strong. You’ll work for possessions and then find they possess you. You will find yourself — as I know you already have — in dark places, alone, and afraid. What I hope for you, for all my sisters and daughters, brothers and sons, is that you will be able to live there, in the dark place. To live in the place that our rationalizing culture of success denies, calling it a place of exile, uninhabitable, foreign.

Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” at Mills College, for the class of 1989. (via vulturechow)

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First amercian rainbow ^_^

[artchipel]

Nothing changes until something moves.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955, German-Swiss-American)

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She be knitting again...

[anpham-blog]

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Dumpling night...

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Kinda relevant to this new year... Today my boy turns 15 - that's 15 years of mamahood for me. Back then I took a chance climbing through an unlocked window. Chance, choice, everything has consequences. What is more new than starting the year in a new land? All of us, in for the adventure...

[maumaukii]

The snowman who loved the Sun

by DAIKI SUGIMOTO

[did-you-know]

There's a resort in Japan located on a mountain peak from where you can see a sea of clouds floating below you

Located in Japan’s Tomamu Resort,  on the island of Hokkaido, the Unkai Terrace is a unique scenic spot perched high atop a mountain peak that is often above the clouds, offering tourists breathtaking views of the white, fluffy sea beneath them.

Source

[cloudfoldings-blog]

Clouds...

[archiemcphee]

The Mexican city of Toluca is home to an awesome stained glass wonder called the Cosmovitral. Constructed in 1910, the Art Nouveau-style building was originally designed to house the city’s first permanent market. It functioned as such until its closure in 1975 when the market was relocated. After its closure artist Leopoldo Flores persuaded the city government to convert the building into an art space.

"Flores envisioned something magnificent for the space. He saw a huge stained glass mural encircling the entire building and running across the ceiling. Below and within its confines he proposed a botanical garden. The art would show the relationship between man and the universe, the flora that which places man in his ecological environment. The name for the project which has also become the name of the building would be Cosmovitral. An amalgamation of the Spanish words for cosmos and glass, the project would take four years from development to completion.”

Although the ceiling wasn’t completed until 1990, the Cosmovitral opened to the public in 1980. Today its botannical garden contains over 500 plant species from both Mexico State and around the world. The building’s spectacular stained glass centerpiece is called the Hombre Sol or “Sun Man”.

Visit Kuriositas to learn more about and view more photos of Toluca’s astonishing Cosmovitral.