PARK(ing)Day 2015 & 'POPE'MANIA

                 Photo: Conrad Stojak                                Photo: Chris Whetzel

First... Happy New Year to all those of Jewish faith!

Although I'm not religious, I'm always ready to welcome in a new year... especially after this year began with the unfortunate passing of my mother nine months ago. In Numerology the number 9 stands for completion, the wrapping up of things while preparing to begin anew. So sorry its taken this long to put pen to paper and fingers to a keyboard, in updating this blog.

Hopefully, you're still HERE with me and ready for what's NEXT...

PARK(ing) Day Philadelphia 2015!

When some 50 parking spaces are transformed into mini-parks or 'park'lets for passersby to learn something, have fun, or just relax.

Only today, Friday, September 18th, I'm more rushed than relaxed.

I had hoped to spend all day leisurely exploring this event, but because the city is moving towards shut-down-mode for the arrival of the Pope and The World Meeting of Families next week, my dental appointment planned during that time was rescheduled for today. Yup... PARK(ing) Day.

So now I'm racing against time... hoping to see as much as I can before my appointment, then more afterwards, but all before 4 PM when most mini- parks for pedestrians revert to metered parking for vehicles only.

First stop... "Wonderland Park" by Langan Engineering with Alice welcoming everyone to a game of croquet and tea with the Mad Hatter.

Then it's ... "Circus Park" by Johnson, Miriam & Thompson (JMT) where people pose behind cutout posters or dip into a plastic pool.

Next... play Tic Tac Toe and Jenga or make your own games from repurposed materials with help from Gilmore & Associates.

And here... Wulff Architects demonstrate how to transform a tiny backyard into a garden oasis with hanging plants and benches made from concrete blocks and pressure-treated wood.

It would be nice to see more, lots more, but now I've got to hoof it... to 1608 Walnut Street, where my dentist is located. Once inside the Medical Arts Building, I run for the elevator and push the button for the 11th floor. When the doors open, I exit and turn left, down the corridor towards the last door while looking over my PARK(ing) Day map and plotting my next adventure.

A sign on the door reads "Knock Hard. Door Is Locked." I think, "that's odd," but comply. A woman I don't recognize peers out from behind the door... 

a door made of solid wood. My dentist's door is glass and this hallway seems stuffy and stale.

I'm distracted... and on the wrong floor!

I apologize, re-enter the elevator and travel up two more floors to where the hallway smells sweet, like toothpaste.

An hour or so later, my teeth are sparkling clean and I'm back on the street talking with Applied Mechanics, a theatre group that creates interactive plays. I question the 'lone turnstile to nowhere' and I'm told... "It's audience participation... pass through the turnstile and be counted." Once through, I'm handed a white slip of paper with "221 #turnstile" hand-written in orange marker. Done!

Next it's Center City Kehillah, a Jewish organization here to wish everyone a Happy New Year and an opportunity to make a wish and have it posted. I pass on the wish part (too many to post) but accept a kind gift of Laffy Taffy and honey, tokens of a "sweet and happy new year."

And I'm happy to be able to relax at this "Garden Library" by Groundswell Design Group, also the creators of Spruce Street Harbor Park. How clever... hanging books, barrels as tables that offer protection from passing vehicles, and colorful chairs for sitting with a book or conversing with others. I'm told the books were purchased from a local used bookstore and I'm free to take home any publications that interest me. Wow!

And Double Wow! Look who's mingling among the hanging books... the Pope!

A crowd forms and now everyone wants a picture with his holiness despite being made of cardboard and propped up by a person who just arrived on a bicycle.

It's 'POPE'MANIA! And all the frenzy has me on my feet moving to 16th Street and JFK where I hope to catch a few more mini-parks before they're all gone.

Too late... there's nothing here at Love Park except for tourists and something green shooting up from behind the LOVE sculpture.

Electric-Green water! Curious, I shoot Love Fountain from every angle including one leading out of the park onto the Parkway with a glimpse of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the distance.

I can't believe how time escapes me... I mean REALLY, REALLY, escapes me... not just missing a good deal of PARK(ing) Day, but September's gone and it's now OCTOBER!!!

The Pope arrived in America, stopping in Washington DC, New York City, and Philadelphia and touched the lives of almost everyone, everywhere! Thankfully our city was ready for him.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art installed the Spanish version of Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture, AMOR, at the top of the art museum's steps to welcome the Pope in his native language. It will remain for several months in time to announce the opening of the museum's upcoming exhibition of International Pop Art.

Photo: Kimberly Paynter

At Dirty Frank's bar (13th and Pine Streets), artist David McShane added Pope Francis to a mural of some twenty "Franks," which include... Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Ben Franklin, Frank Perdue, Frank Zappa, even Frankenstein.

Photo: Audrey Rose McManus

Photo: Audrey Rose McManus

Throughout Center City, banners lined the streets.

Photo: Emma Lee

And here's the Pope waving goodbye before heading to Philadelphia International Airport on his way back to Rome.

Photo: Jewel Samad

Before leaving our city, Pope Francis was asked by Time Magazine's journalist, Elizabeth Dias, "We are so curious... this was your first visit to the US. What surprised you about the US and what was different to what you might have expected?"

"It was my first visit," the Pope replied. "I'd never been here before. What surprised me was the warmth, the warmth of the people, so lovable. It was a beautiful thing and also different: in Washington the welcome was warm but more formal; New York was a bit exuberant. Philadelphia very expressive..."

"Expressive"... what a great description for a city full of creative people.

Thanks to all those expressive and creative individuals responsible for making PARK(ing) Day Philadelphia 2015 such a success!

And thanks to the Pope for choosing to visit and bless our city!

Philadelphia... there's so much to LOVE/AMOR.

And on one last LOVE note... The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Association for Public Art partnered to bring "AMOR" to Philadelphia and said there's a possibility of keeping the sculpture here permanently should the city show enough love for it.

Enough love?... We're the "expressive" City of Brotherly Love!!!

Soap Operas & Faith

It's been a bit like an American soap opera around here... "As The World Turns", with me in a starring role.

With each new episode, cameras move in for a close-up shot and freeze frame of my face and blank stare.

Day after day, month after month, not much changes... same opening scene, same glazed look, same storyline until producers sense viewer interest waning and call for seismic change: a plot with a twist and new catastrophe.

Reality is... life handed me this script: "A Death, a Funeral, and a Flood," and I'm doing my best to play the part of the dutiful daughter who just lost her mother. Grief-stricken and empty, I sit, stare, and sigh as inertia sets in from the enormity of having to provide closure for a loved one, who until recently was very much alive.

Actually, it's been four months and 16 days since my mother died and I'm just hoping to hear the the final clapboard snap and the words, "Cut, it's a wrap!" so I can direct my own soap: "One Life To Live," based on my life and living it again.

But there's still the climax: the twist, catastrophe, the flood... not an onslaught of tears, or barrage of tasks demanding attention... but a real deluge!

"Lights! Camera! Action!"

(Sound of phone ringing): "Ring... Ring."

(Action): Daughter picks up the phone and says... "Hello?"

(Voice-over with sense of urgency replies): "HELLO! THIS IS LEO. I'M IN THE OFFICE. A PIPE BURST IN YOUR MOTHER'S APARTMENT AND THERE'S WATER EVERYWHERE!!! IT'S A DISASTER!"

(Fade to black)

(Flashback): To the deceased's apartment a month before the flood and the weeks of 14 hour days her daughter and son-in-law spent updating the place to get it on the market for sale.

(Action): Daughter and son-in-law tediously sift through papers, policies, and warranties trying to make sense of things, as well as sort through drawers, cabinets, and closets gathering items to save or donate and dispose: filling numerous dumpsters. They also scrub floors, sand and paint walls, and hire someone to lay carpets.

(Off location): Daughter and son-in-law make hundreds of trips to Home Depot and Lowes for electrical and plumbing supplies, new fixtures, shelving, and paint. In between, they shop for food, which only sometimes gets eaten.

(Deleted scenes): Husband misplaces rental car keys and loses one day. Wife loses a spiral notebook containing EVERYTHING essential to her mother's affairs and loses sleep for several days. Keys recovered inside vehicle, notebook never found.

(Flashforward): To daughter still holding onto the phone, obviously very distraught by the news of the flood and its destruction.

(Final cut): To a blue screen, theme music playing, logo of "As The World Turns," and the caption: TO BE CONTINUED...

First mom, then two weeks ago the flood and now...

Our loyal G4 Power Mac computer with dual processors, after 16 years, died quietly in his sleep, taking his knowledge and all our data (emails, addresses, downloads, documents, bookmark favorites, photos, and I hate to think what else) with him.

Technically, he was never in 'sleep mode', but instead shut down for the night.

Nevertheless, he's eternally at rest and I'm left with MORE DRAMA.

I know... I know...

BACK UP!  BACK UP!  BACK UP!

SH*T HAPPENS.

And... "NO, I DON"T WANT ANY CHEESE WITH MY WHINE."

Lately, it doesn't seem to matter what I know or want.

Right now I'm down on both knees with arms in the air in full surrender... pleading for strength and faith to get past the chaos in order to find some calm in the present.

"No, I am not auditioning for the part of a parishioner in the soap: "Guiding Light."

Nor do I practice religion. But I do believe in things much greater than 'ourselves' and call this power or energy, 'The Universe', where most say God.

God, Faith, and Life are common threads that run though several books by Anne Lamott and her words resonate with me. Here are a few excerpts from 'Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers'...

... "Life unspools in cycles, some lovely, some painful, but in no predictable order. So you could have lovely, painful, and lovely again, which I think we all agree is not fair at all. You don't have to like it, and you are always welcome to file a brief with the Complaints Department. But if you've been around for awhile, you know that much of the time, if you are patient and are paying attention, you will see that God will restore what the locusts have taken away."

... It's all motion and stasis, change and stagnation. Awful stuff happens, and it's all part of the big picture."

... "Praying "Help" means that we ask that something give us the courage to stop in our tracks, right where we are, and turn our fixation away from the Gordian Knot of our problems. We stop the toxic peering and instead turn our eyes to something else: to our feet on the sidewalk, to the middle distance, to the hills, whence our help comes- someplace else, anything else. Maybe this is a shift of only eight degrees, but it can be a miracle."

Perhaps it is a miracle that after asking for 'HELP'... 

our computer, dead for days, RESURRECTED ITSELF!!! (Possibly with help from above).

I can't explain it, but 'HALLELUJAH'! All data has been RESTORED!!!

For how long, I don't know, but I'M TYPING AS FAST AS I CAN and will be sure to... BACK UP!  BACK UP!  BACK UP!

But first let me back up to a revelation I had shortly before the 'rise' of our computer.

I dreamt of 'The Universe'... of its blurred-out features except for its hand, which was clearly massive and held an eroded pipe full of water.

I could sense that 'The Universe' had been clenching this pipe for a very, very, long time.

Holding tightly... so my mother wasn't the one to deal with a water disaster.

Still holding... so my husband and I could arrange her funeral and Celebration of Life Event without everything coming to a halt.

And still holding strong... so we had time to organize mom's possessions, clear out her art studio, make sense of her paperwork and tackle her affairs without having to traipse through 4" of water while doing so.

'The Universe' held tight until the moment it believed I was better able to handle things.

THEN IT LET GO.

The rest you already know... the apartment is a disaster.

What you probably don't know is how strongly this dream changed my perception of the situation. Feeling supported and spared from what could have been far worse, even if just a dream, left me with a sense of peace and tremendous gratitude.

HELP! THANKS! WOW!

I'm told not much has been done to the apartment. There are still holes in the walls, dirt covers the floors, carpets are ripped up, and the furniture is skewed.

For now... TO BE CONTINUED...  The 'Days of our Lives'.

'Days of our Lives' theme music here.

XOX... Dyan

Condolences & Love Notes

Last month my mother passed away unexpectedly and while my world continues to spin off kilter, sometimes seemingly moving in reverse, or standing still with little progress, I remain grateful for all those who have touched my life during this difficult time.

It isn't easy expressing condolences; few people know what to say. Sorry helps... but stories told from personal experience are often more meaningful and have powers that heal.

Printed with permission is a copy of an email I received Thursday from a good, wise, college friend, Hannah, who graciously said... "By all means, please share. With all the nonsense that cyberspace can bring, this is the epitome of its incredible usefulness and beauty - connecting us all heart to heart."

From: Hannah

Subject: Condolences

Date: February 12, 2015   8:43 AM

To: Dyan

Hi Dyan

Looks like you and M have some very challenging weeks ahead of you, but I know you're up to it! Probably sounds cliche as anything, but just take one thing at a time and try not to get overwhelmed by the big picture. These are the last acts of love you can perform for your mom.

I remember going through my Dad's belongings with my brothers and sister - we had many laughs as well as tears. He had the oddest way of storing things. In a box with old gas station receipts and matchbooks, I found an essay my mother had written in high school about her baby brother, my Uncle Joel. It was amazing (she got an "A"). I was able to send him a copy to enjoy, and many years later read it at his funeral.

Clearly the most bizarre find, in a box labeled "kitchen" (years after my mother passed away my Dad had moved from his own place into a house with his female companion, and many of his belongings went straight into her garage), in amongst the plastic containers and utensils was... get ready... a package of calves liver! Desiccated and perfectly preserved! I have laughed over that for years!

Hopefully your mom's treasures will yield far more "normal" surprises! On that note, wishing you and M strength, fortitude and a sense of humor as you proceed.

Love, 

Han

I share her words with you as they put things into perspective... that death is universal; no one is spared, that humor can be found in the oddest of circumstances, and that you too, may find comfort in these words when needed.

"Every death is about someone's life. Until you are in the process of 'ending the story', you don't always know the quiet and everyday things that went into that story. As children, we very often don't hear about the lives our parents lived as they became our Moms and Dads", as said to me this morning by my husband, Michael.

Here's a glimpse of my Mom and Dad on their wedding day and the special surprise I found while searching for my mother's Will and funeral directives.

"Love Notes" written by my dad to my mother.

Some of these notes were stapled together and numbered consecutively while others were loosely stacked. Oddly, they were all written on the backs of pink bank deposit slips! Was this a literal decision... deposits of love? Or chosen for their color, pink, associated with affection, or for size, perfect for short poems, or perhaps because the paper was free?

I questioned posting these private notes and making them public, but remembered today is Valentine's Day... perhaps the one day a year where sentimentality is not only appropriate but also encouraged... a day to profess one's love for another.

With both my parents now gone and their remains soon to be reunited and kept with me, I leave you with... my last 'acts of love' to them... for now.

And this last love note to my mother, written on the back of a calendar on her 52nd birthday, just two days before my father died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 57.

Mom chose not to remarry.

Like swans... mates for life.

January & Mom

January, from Janus, the Roman God of beginnings and transitions, depicted with two heads, one facing the past and the other looking to the future. For most, January holds high expectations and promise for a great New Year. For some, January can be the cruelest of months with its frigid temperatures, bleak skies, and mountainous heaps of snow. I suppose it depends upon which way the winds blow.

This month, ten days into the New Year, the winds were not so favorable.

My mother passed away unexpectedly.

As we dig out from one snowstorm, then another, hope springs eternal.

I leave you with a glimpse of a great woman: smart, independent, artistic and caring... my mom, Edna Levine.

Here's a portrait mom took of herself with her Canon AE1, while studying photography in college later in life. Her lifetime was heavily invested in art: printmaking, ceramics, large paper pieces and so much more.

Here are a few of her handmade paper pieces... taken under plexiglass with an ipad... not optimum conditions, but you can still get a feel for what she accomplished.

So much to say... too emotional to say much else.

Best to leave you with the words of a poet.

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

 I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

~ Mary Elizabeth Frye

Edna Levine

1927- 2015

Forever remembered with love. 

Christmas Lights & South Philly

"Silver bells, silver bells... it's Christmas time in the city. Ring-a-ling, hear them ring, soon it will be Christmas day. City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style, in the air there's a feeling of Christmas. Strings of street lights, even stop lights, blink a bright red and green, as the shoppers rush home with their treasures." ~ "Silver Bells"... lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

And it's here in South Philly, a residential neighborhood without a shopper in sight, that Michael and I are being moved by the spirit of Christmas.  We're standing on the 1600 block of South 13th Street, known in Philadelphia as The Miracle of South 13th Street, just off of Passyunk Avenue.

Here are some photos so you can enjoy the lights, statues, and decorated windows on these row homes without  "Jack Frost nipping at your nose."

"I'm dreaming of a White Christmas... with every Christmas card I write... May your days be merry and bright... And may all your Christmases be white."   ~"White Christmas"... lyrics by Irving Berlin.

To hear Bing Crosby sing "White Christmas" go here and "Silver Bells" here.

And for a fun crazy twist on "Jingle Bells" sent by Joey 'D' go here.

"HAPPY HOLIDAYS!"

From 

"Here and Next"