Morning Mind Modes

20 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Bike Life

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The inchworm hangs from the tree with bokeh

On my morning bike commute to work, I’ve noticed that my mind tends to operate in several modes. Usually: Morning Mind God of Destruction and Morning Mind Gratitude.

Morning Mind God of Destruction, as you can imagine, sounds something like this: Use your blinker! WHAT is WRONG with you? I can’t believe that other cyclist just did that -he’s definitely not long for this world. LMA buses are the worst. What am I doing with my life? The best thing about today will be when I can finally go back to bed. I will STARE you into submission! Hungry already.

Young fronds

Morning Mind Gratitude: Riding my bike through the woods every day, in a city, is magical. Hi. Hi! I love when drivers wave at me. It feels so satisfying to know what projects I’ll be tackling at work today. I wonder what’s for lunch. Should I stop at Whole Foods for some kombucha? I’m so lucky. I really should learn a blessing to direct at irate drivers so I can check that goal off my list. Hey, there’s that singing cyclist again!

What forms do your morning minds take?

Bike handle decoration with beads

Welcoming Spring at Wake Up The Earth

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Community, With Friends

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I appreciate how, when taking part in something annually, you can be awarded opportunities to meet that activity/event anew.

Friends carry a float at Wake Up The Earth

This year, we watched the Wake Up the Earth parade from what we thought was the middle of the route (later, we learned differently.) My partner sipped his coffee and I fiddled with my camera, trying to appear invisible to an intensely compelling group of children-on-stilts and their cheerful parents. The tall crew had gathered and were waiting to join the parade from the end of Paul Gore Street, right in front of the Connelly Branch of the Boston Public Library.

Kids on stilts wait for the parade

Stilt walker boy practices with pink flamingo puppet

We heard the drums first. Then the kids, most of whom had been walking in place so as to be prepared to join mid-stride, struck out.

Participants announce the parade with Wake Up The Earth signs

Kids on stilts join the parade!

My partner and I didn’t see it, but apparently this was repeated further along the route as three separate parades -each originating from and representing different neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury– merged into one then continued together down Lamartine Street, landing finally at the festival.

Woman and man hoola-hoop in parade

Baby dressed as flower with her dad

The Dudley Square contingent hoist banners

Littlest cheerleeders

Young martial artists demonstrate their form

Littlest stilt-walker with his mom

National Poetry Month Lament

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Writing Life

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graffiti: In a second

I am not a farmer. Barely a keeper of house plants, but I’ve heard some things and I’ve read other things about letting a field go fallow. Or planting a cover crop of rye or clover. Whatever the process and the terms, the analogy of letting lay to inspire a future season of fertility -if one is feeling generous- is a suitable fit for what happened to the postcards I send out annually in celebration of National Poetry Month.

They are in a fallow field. That field being my mind.

You see, for possibly a decade, I’ve mailed poem postcards to family, friends, and folks I’m cultivating for friendship. I call them poemcards. I started small -a few poemcards in the month of April, containing a short poem and the inscription: Happy Nat’l Poetry Month! xoxPhoebe. Every year I added more addresses, scoured anthologies, until finally I was stretching to send out nearly forty postcards in a month. Handwritten or cut-n-paste, it took a lot of effort.

This year: nada. The desire was more a soft wind; every time I turned my head, it was gone. Between the busyness of work and life, Ladies Rock Camp Boston, and a slow recovery from winter, the seeds of my annual celebration drowned.

So. A lament, then a hope for next year. In the meantime:

Dispatches from Ladies Rock Camp Boston – April 2013

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Boston Moments, Community, Learnin'

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Some stories are so good, a person trips over herself trying to tell them. How to begin?

Hilken and Nora kick off Lady's Rock Camp

With my mother and her newly acquired electric keyboard? How she surprised me with an affirmative to my inquiry, asked slightly in jest: hey, Ma, want to do Ladies Rock Camp with me this spring?

With the brief essays we wrote for our applications, mining our memories for favorite musicians and artistic influences (me: Stevie Wonder; mom: Yanni.)

Sly Juice on the keys during dress rehearsal

With my learned love of alternate learning opportunities? Like libraries. Like volunteering. Like skillshare.

With forty-plus women, in support of girls, signed up for a three-day rock and roll bootcamp? With Girls Rock Campaign Boston, bursting on the scene in 2010, educating girls ages eight to seventeen in the ways of music and self-empowerment.

Lady's Rock Camp opening circle

The story, on paper or on screen, holds more than I can give words to. More nerve. More verve. More vulnerabilities. More inspiration. More risk-taking. More generosity. More skill. More dancing. More surprises. More support.

Disco ball

Song writing workshop

Guitars

Dance party - first night

Dance party with DJ Sit N Spin

Band coaches

Screen printing band t-shirts

Maids of Mayhem in band practice

First time on stage

Phoebe on vocals, Tonya on guitar

Getting prepared for band photo shoot

So I’m not going to attempt to tell this tale linear. Here are some impressions. Here are some photos. Here is a challenge for you to sign yourself up (or your daughter, your sister, your mother, your friend), and find out. Tell your own story.

Maids of Mayhem on stage at T.T. the Bears Cambridge

However this thing begins, you can be sure it ends with gratitude.

Oh. And a video. Rocking out to Maids of Mayhem!

LRC Maids of Mayhem 4-2013 from Phoebe Sinclair on Vimeo.

Librarytour: Little Free Library in Cambridge

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Community, Librarytour

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A friend introduced me to Little Free Libraries, small book-lending boxes that exist worldwide for reading-enthusiasts, champions of community, and the just-plain-curious. No less than a year later, such a library appeared five minutes from my house. So, in addition to the amazing Boston Public and Minuteman Library systems, I’ve a hyper-local option that draws my eye each time I wander past.

Inside the library-box

Who’s spoiled? (Hint: me.)

I heard about Cambridge Street Little Free Library on a community listserv before I saw it in person. Winter tends to tame my wandering and ground my bike, so it’s wasn’t until the weather warmed and I returned to my wheels full-time that I located Little Free Library #3884.

Back of the little free library

Even smaller than the microwave-oven sized box in JP, the Cambridge Street library is vividly painted and planted in a giant flowerpot.

Planted in a giant flower pot

Little free library marker

While I snapped a few photos, another pedestrian noticed and decided to loiter by the box after I departed. I mean, how can you resist?