Sarah

Dedicated to my Grandmother, Sarah (The Piano Player)

Came from Holland just under 2 years of age. Great-grandparents and two siblings, all three children under the age of five at the time of their immigration to the USA. Ship: The Veendam.

Photo Restoration/Video: Jane Marla Ver Dow (2010)

Video Music: John Jarvis, Some Kind of Sunrise

Names of "Home Towns" In Holland (Providence) I saw printed, though letters switched or left off or added on through speech translation handscripted now in print or handwriting versions of the storycarriers. Here I will write them as Zeelandic Flander; Zuidzande; but most common I saw Cadzand. Speech we often heard Zuid-er-zee. I assume that meant land Zuidzande next to or on the zee (Noordzee/North Sea). Funny how sound and letters get lost over time.

Then, the waves and Sea...Now, still fighting the elements to work the land and to preserve home...that remains like Homeland, northwest Netherlands. The draw towards living near water remained in the hearts and Souls of next generations and there they settled along The Great Lake; Ontario. Farmland, rich and higher elevation this new place called, home.


I wrote this in loving memory to "the Grandparents I never met" and to include them on the day my parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Grandma Sarah passed at age 40 (Dad, 14) and my Mom's Father, William had passed (1945) prior to their wedding day, 1946.

God, watch over me and mine I pray
Your Ocean to cross so vast.
Dream You planted in my heart just as deep
Your Promise be true, what I sow may I reap.
Set my sail to horizon -America, there may
Mother Liberty open her arms.
Captain my ship as she sails on the Sea
Me a lad or babe, Mother praying over me.
Farmland rich for Your Hands did make.
My gifts all I bring, from Thee.
My hands able to labor and music I play
Send Your Love and Guide my way. Amen.



Happy Heart Day to my Lucier-VerDow Family, 2010

Photo Restoration: Jane Marla VerDow

I love doing photo restoration of old photos. At first I thought it was my imagination, but as I was doing the close pixel work on photos of people I knew, I sensed them there with me. Everything about them. How their skin felt to me, or smells of their day from work or food; simply put, I could sense them on a touch level.

What really intrigued me...when retouching the photos of Grandma Sarah, the grandmother I never knew or met or had the gift to touch, this feeling-touch sensation would still travel through my mouse click into my hand...then to my heart.

Same I sense with old books or old papers. Guess that's the real story behind my rare and old book searches and the interest ephemera collecting. I connect this way.



For more of the same: old photos and restoration in process, or family immigration stories

http://lakeontarioshoreline.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=16


Janie

Daydreaming

Very early photos taken by me, 1980's on my Minolta 35mm.
Just something I used to do, a hobby back when...high school and college years.

Updated to movie-video format, 2010 this winter day early February.

Today, searching for what next at a crossroads. How fitting. Then searching for the path..now in search of what else.

(To watch full screen click on arrows, right bottom of screen. To change resolution, choose 360 or 480)




Follow your bliss and be what you want to be.
Don't climb the ladder of success only to find
it's leaning against the wrong wall.
~ Bernie Siegal




Janie

Sunday Afternoons Winter Time

So what would I have done with a long Sunday, snow-cold afternoon lasts days of January along the Lake Ontario Shoreline back in the 60's...

Watch an old black-white movie on a Zenith black-white TV




Then, still today spellbound by Talent and Creativity


For more of the same visit my YouTube Channel. So far just a mixture of music I like, political or historical interests, movie or TV clips that spark my writing, comedy that reminds me not to take life so serious, storytellers and artists that spark my creativity. The variety can be viewed by clicking on Playlists. I update it at least weekly thru This Weeks Picks (Playlist) and by the Featured Video on the Home Channel Page.

I'm working on a few films of my own to post. Book trailers and others just for the fun of it. Stay tuned...

http://www.youtube.com/JaneMarlaVerDow

The Boxer

Referring back on this thread (October 16, 2009), college days and where this road on my path started.

"Service is the rent we pay for a room in Heaven." ~ Muhammad Ali

Time, energy...balancing the Spiritual-Material...

That's where I am on this day...both in mind and heart.

The question today? Still forming somewhere between head and heart.

But my thought-feelings:
Room in Heaven...doing the daily bread thing most days feels like earning rent money from Hell for a room in Heaven...

I'd prefer something in between...like more Heaven on Earth. Then again, I must be dreaming again.

My thoughts travel back in time to a conversation I once had at work while walking with a retired Priest. We talked of why I do what I do per diem and the obstacles he, too faced in his career. I remember he spoke of the Politics embedded. I remember my words back to him. "Isn't it sad how much the Powers of the World get in the way of doing God's Work?"

For today...
I settled for a day off from Hell to make my time-space on Earth today and my next tomorrows more like Heaven.

Forever Young

One of my favorite performers, Joan Baez. Loved her during the 60's listening from the farm and sorting through the World's images and realities of war and chaos...and today, 2009 still listening from the trees.

I love this performance. Such a gracious performer; Her Creativity, Art, and Appreciation shine through.




This next video is more from her performance in France,2000




The best performance of House of The Rising Sun by Baez featuring not only her voice but also her gift playing the guitar.





Album Titled: Day After Tomorrow. Released September 8th, 2008 by Proper Records

Celebrating Baez 50 years of voice.




Always, the search for peace. Honoring her contribution to the Cause. Thank-you, Joan Baez for sharing your gift.


Peace,
Jane




Don't miss watching this trip down memory lane. A gem.

The encore

Peace

Great when people of the world all come together on the same page, isn't it?

For more information go to: http://playingforchange.com

Orchard Songs

Recently I spent a few days stepping back into my orchards, especially the one I've come to know as my deer sanctuary. Named for the apples that remain there on the ground after frost and harvest time and for the deer who find them, but mostly for how content my heart feels in that shared space.

So for that and no other reason, I decided to share an older post. A time remembered in my thoughts or a reminder to you, the reader, to from time to time, take a step back. Read an older post on storytellers and writers for maybe that time, like this time is heart shared and only separated by this abstract concept called, time.


The beginning….
Songs of the orchard played in my mind as words appeared on paper.
I thought of Daisy and her home with Jim…

Nearing the ending…
At the depth of my heart I knew the Truth of my singing the folk songs in the orchards with the wind…

As I wrote…
Songs of days long ago lived then gone, never outgrown, continued to play in my head and I hummed along as words appeared on paper…



Songs of the orchard…closest I’ve ever found to poetry; truly, the inspiration for such…
words playing on canvas.

Winds blow then fade. One moment of time changes the world, or at least our perception.

There standing, sitting, being, holding her space-filling her space; Daisy.
Learned lesson, the one that came to me just watching Daisy, no words; she needed none:
Just hold your space-fill your space. Her message, so clear to me now.


So truth told, I learned about blank space in writing from her, and from holding my space while the winds did their own game. Filled in the space between with orchard songs. Daisy by nature didn’t use many words. The gaps between allowed me to just be, there with her.

So I learned most about words by time spent in listening and waiting. Let them be. Give them space and respect. Honor the life rhythm of each and every. Together, they find their own place and share.

Blank space in writing is where you, the reader comes…to sit and be.

Blank space, that’s where all the “what ifs” live.





From somewhere deep within, there was a voice calling me home. I had to listen. When a child of any age hears that voice, there’s no denying it, least not to yourself, especially when the call becomes a whisper.
Jane Marla Ver Dow
Dear Daisy, 2004



Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.
~ The Land Before Time

For additional Author places:
www.storytellersandwriters.blogspot.com

www.risingsparrowpress.com

Twitter/JaneVerDow