There is a frenetic energy. There is also a stillness. There is a shape propelling into infinity. There is a cluster of dots, bound so tightly together it makes a heart ache. Here, in this painting, the creative freedom of dreams is restricted only by canvas size. Darryl “Barking Dog” Brown paints to create works that “connect us to the spirit world, through which we may learn to live a more sustainable life on planet Earth.”
Posts filed under Around town
Zen and the Art of Community-Supported Agriculture
Celebrating, preserving, and sharing our areas rich Agro-Centric heritage is one of my favorite interests. A somewhat new land preservation project has gained my interest over the past year and is ongoing at the corner of Scio Church and Zeeb Road. Follow me on a journey of one family’s dream passed on. This is yet another food-farm venture of Tantre` Farm’s stewards, Richard Andres and Deb Lentz.
Kids in the Community: The Seelie Court of Ann Arbor’s Faery Artists and Events
What have our fairy friends and their artists been up to during the pandemic? To brighten everyone’s spirits, I wanted to track down some fairy fun this spring for the young ones. Might we see more fairy doors pop up around Ann Arbor? Maybe you’ve seen glimmers of whimsical fun around Ann Arbor in the chalk drawings of the ephemeral and adorable characters dreamed up by Ann Arbor’s David Zinn. It’s almost time for the return of Shakespeare in the Arb, and we’re celebrating with a production of the fairy-packed fun of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Ann Arbor is one of the best places around to find events and artists who work on a fairy theme, but like the fae they can be hiding in plain sight. I went searching under every rock and leaf, even a few book jackets, to find you the best fairy-themed events, artists, and authors in Ann Arbor to find while we’re still in need of a little fun.
CW Kids in the Community: Winter 2022: Kids Volunteering Opportunities To Give Back To The Community
Kids are back to school, but the community is still struggling. Many activities are up in the air even now. One of the ways we can create meaning out of the suffering around us is to volunteer to help others. We all know people or know of people who still have jobs but struggle to afford enough food or utilities. The environment continues to need our help. There are many ways that volunteering can help us help others, which can also support our own mental or physical health.
Leaps of Faith: 2 Dandelions Bookshop
As I walked into 2 Dandelions Bookshop on Main Street in Brighton, I was greeted by two women with smiles as cheerful as the color sprinkled about the store. As I noticed their outfits, I couldn’t help but mention, “I love that you both wore yellow for the photos.” Jeanne Blazo and Jeri Kay Thomas looked at each other’s outfits and laughed while simultaneously explaining that it wasn’t on purpose. They “just wear it a lot.” I knew then that these long-time friends were in sync and that I would enjoy learning about them and what they created together.
Crysta goes Visiting: Winter 2022
In this column, Crysta Coburn writes about crazywisdom-esque people and happenings around Ann Arbor. Winter 2022 features local woodworker Chris Blackford, Ann Arbor Writer Shandra Trent, and Jerome Stuart Nichols with The Butters Hygenics.
Bringing Youthful New Leadership to Jewel Heart: The Crazy Wisdom Interview with Spiritual Director Demo Rinpoche
Rinpoche has an impressive resume of lifelong monastic and religious studies starting at age five, when he entered Drepung Loseling Monastery in Mundgod. He officially joined the monastery in 1987 where he spent nearly thirty years of uninterrupted education in meditation, debate, memorization, philosophy, and composition under the Dalai Lama’s direct supervision. After completing his studies at Drepung, Rinpoche received the highest monastic degree of Geshe Lharampa from Gelugpa University in India in 2011. He continued his studies at Gyume Tantric College and was a visiting scholar under the auspices of the Dalai Lama at Sarah College of Higher Tibetan Studies in Dharamsala. At the request of the late Gelek Rimpoche, Demo Rinpoche came to the United States, where he received his master’s degree in Inter-Religious Engagement from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 2018.
Jewish Family Services: Providing Services to Vulnerable Individuals and Families of All Faiths, Races, Ages, Incomes, and Abilities
“When the Covid shutdowns started and Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County was providing food for more people in the community [than before], JFS asked if we would make phone calls to clients and just kind of check in and see how they were, and did they need anything,” said Phyllis Herzig. (Herzig is a member of JFS’ Board and has had a close association with the non-profit social service agency since its founding in 1993.) “So, I made some calls, and I called this one woman, told her I was calling from JFS, and she started crying and went on to say how grateful she was…she was so lonely and JFS was showing that it cared.”
Leaps of Faith: The Thrift Depot
This column is a look at two brave souls who took a leap of faith to open their own business. What follows is a personal profile of Josh and Jen Maxam who are following their dreams and thriving despite the odds—and Covid.
Crysta Goes Visiting, Fall 2021
In this column, Crysta Coburn writes about Crazy-Wisdomesque people and happenings around Ann Arbor. The fall 2021 issue features Fangs and Twang, Ann Arbor Mentality Podcast, and artist Lavinia Hanachiuc.
Weathering an Avalanche: Reflections On This Pandemic Year
I am writing this on the one-year anniversary of the first case of Covid-19 being diagnosed in Michigan. It is also the one-year anniversary of my mother’s memorial service. It was held here in Ann Arbor, at the church where I serve as a pastor. Her service was live cast on Facebook, a first for our little congregation. Family and friends tuned in from Hawaii, California, South Dakota, Arizona, Texas, Ohio, Maryland, and Florida. It was the first time in my 18 years as a pastor that I fully understood the value of live casting worship, an experience I and many of my colleagues have often considered too personal and intimate…too sacred maybe…for livestreaming on social media. It seemed so…televangelistic.
Crazy Wisdom Kids in the Community: Socially Conscious (And Distant) Kids’ Art & Personal Development Programs After the Toughest Parenting Year Yet
It has been a challenging year for group events, to say the least, as many kids’ programs around Ann Arbor went virtual or were suspended. The situation dragged on so long, I decided to create my own after-school program for half-grown kidlet—a mashup of virtual art programming and trying to get her out of the house and off her screen. Surprisingly, she adapted quite well to being home, so the biggest challenge was getting her moving again. I started thinking: what about all the other parents out there who are sick of researching which programs are still running or don’t have the brain space to plan enriching activities anymore? What if we came up with a plan for this year that didn’t depend on virus numbers to succeed? Here’s what I came up with. It’s pretty simple, though I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, as I was, with some unique programs out there right now to choose from.
Local Food, Safety Precautions, and Friendly Faces: How the Ann Arbor Farmers Market Survived (and Continues to Thrive) During the Year of Covid
I first met Stefanie Stauffer, Manager for the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, while picking up food at Argus Farm Stop. I had seen her at local food events, but this was our first “hello.” I asked her if she was interested in talking about the virus and how the market has handled the challenges. Luckily, she agreed. We later had a Zoom meeting and began carving out slices of topics the public seemed curious to know. Both of us have similar backgrounds. We run small farms as well as have a vested interest in serving all people in our area with healthy, reasonably-priced food grown and produced in our own communities.
Leaps of Faith: This That, and the ODDer Things
Claire Broderick waited with the world, trying to grasp the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though she wanted so badly for 2020 to be the year she would manifest her dream of opening a retail shop filled with her collection of what she calls “uniquities,” there was reason to pause. In the meantime, she kept dreaming, researching, and collecting. Adding a taxidermy octopus here, reaching out to a bone jeweler there. She knew how important it was to persist and keep planning.
Ann Arbor's Little Free Libraries: The Book Sharing Movement Goes Big-Time
When Kathleen Wright, a beloved Ann Arbor elementary school teacher and self-confessed “bookaholic,” first heard about Little Free Libraries (LFLs) in 2014, she and her husband knew immediately that they wanted to install one outside their home on the Old West Side. “I thought it was one of the most marvelous ideas I had ever heard of,” said Kathleen.
Crazy Wisdom Kids in the Community: Remote Programs in 2021
What programs and groups are available for kids to connect during social distancing? It’s a problem that has continued to evolve this year as conditions shift, especially for younger ones. I was concerned when after a long spring and summer in semi-quarantine, my daughter seemed a bit sedentary and missed her friends. We enjoy being home, but we’ve never been home for months on end before. So, I started looking for programs that were flexible which we could join now or through the winter.
The Whimsical World of David Zinn
If you are observant enough, careful enough, curious enough, there is an entire world underfoot waiting to be discovered. It is a world nestled in ours but unlike ours—an illusionistic wonderland etched in chalk by Ann Arbor’s neighborhood “chalk man.” It’s a reality only visible to those who are looking for it amongst the jumble of the mundane. But in this world, if you are lucky enough to stumble across it, one rule remains the same as ours: things will not, cannot, last forever. Artist David Zinn says that’s the point.
On Forest Bathing and the Kindness of Trees
For as long as I can remember, I have been a tree-loving, tree-hugging kind of gal. At 4’11” tall I had a small body and strong arms that made it easy for me to climb trees. For years, I could follow my two children up any tree as high as they could go. But somewhere along the way I gained some weight and fear of heights, and my tree-climbing days were over. Nevertheless, I have never gotten over my deep reverence for trees. It should be obvious to anyone that they are higher life forms.
Nocturne
One Halloween, the night when barriers are said to dissolve between dimensions, as perhaps they do every night, my friend Marin and I took a ceremonial walk after dark through Bird Hills Nature Area. We stopped to read poetry and tell dreams at places we knew in the forest.
Cashiering As A Spiritual Practice: Working the Front Lines at a Grocery Store During Covid
I am pretty sure I coined the phrase “cashiering as a spiritual practice.” I don’t know any other job where I could get this much practice to be my best self with scores of unique people every day. Of course, it’s easy and rewarding to serve someone who is competent, friendly, and polite. The actual spiritual practice happens when someone is not blessed with these qualities. How do I feel when a customer is on her cell phone during the entire transaction, never making eye contact, and barely a thank you? What are my thoughts when someone is overtly rude, demanding, or both? What if someone is looking down on me, as they perceive my “station in life” beneath theirs? How about the customer whose eyes are burning a hole in me because she is in a hurry and thinks the long line is my fault? With humility, I realize I’ve been “that impatient customer” before, too. See how many opportunities I have to practice every day?
