Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer · 4 Comments

Note Card of the Week – Mother Plant

Note Cards from Love Letters Press
Note Cards from Love Letters Press

 

A plant of many names (Air Plant, Life Plant, Miracle Leaf), it has found a home in areas of Hawaiian jungle, and was propagated by me in a pot in my back yard. I’ve also heard it called “Mother Plant,” a name stemming from its easy ability to reproduce itself through multitudes of miniature plantlets that form on its leaves.

In my book, For the Archives, Volume 1: Love and Motherhood, the above photo accompanied the final vignette titled, “Taking a Pause with Peanut Butter Breath.” It chronicles an ordinary moment steeped in the bittersweet of deep Mother love.

In honor of Mother’s Day (May 11), I’m posting the “Peanut Butter Breath” post below.

I’m also highlighting the Mother Plant as my note card of the week, available at my Love Letters Press Etsy shop.

Here’s to Mother Earth, first and foremost. And to all the Mothers of the world, in their myriad of names and ways. Thanks, Mom.

 

 

October 28, 2011

Taking a Pause with Peanut Butter Breath

Dinner’s done, dishes washed, laundry folded, bed sheets changed.

Jeb’s completed his assigned 15 minutes of silent reading. It’s twenty minutes til bedtime and we still have drills and study for tomorrow’s geography, spelling and math tests.

He’s taking a pause, stretched out on my big bed.

He looks at me and pats beside him, “Mom, just come here for a minute.”

Seeing the hesitation on my face, he says with more earnestness, “Come on, I need this.”

Skeptics may suspect he’s trying to wriggle out of the multiple choice questions about his map of Nebraska. I don’t care. He’s thirty days shy of eight, and Jeb’s not going to be asking to cuddle up with me forever. Maybe I need this too.

I settle in at his side and he wraps his arms around me, throwing one long leg over mine.

We’ve been curling up like this since that first day when he moved from my womb to rest his wet cheek on my heart. All the days and nights. Each time our bodies found this comfort spot between us, familiar and grooved.

Except that his shape just keeps changing. The plump toes that used to graze my belly button, now stretch out towards my ankles. And that koala-bear body I could scoop up with one arm to adhere upon my hip, is sixty-five pounds and gaining. Nowadays, if Jeb falls asleep in the car, I have to wake him and walk him up the stairs.

Jessica Dofflemyer ~ all rights reserved

He gave up on me fifteen pounds back, but these days even the big guys in his life repeat the mantras.

“You’re getting too big now!”

“You’re heavy, I can’t lift you up anymore!”

“Whoa, you’re getting strong…be careful when you wrestle!”

But tonight, there is no rough house. Tonight Jeb asked for pause with me. He’s sidled up in my arms and as I embrace his frame I am amazed to find him delicate. He seems so small. Long, thin arms are hinged toothpicks. His fingers that trace my forehead, feathers. It feels as if I squeeze him too tightly he could break.

His eyes keenly scan my skin, noticing freckles and a scratch on my shoulder.

I feel the shape and weight of him within my arms. I soak in the delicacy of his boyish precipice. I am entwined in his limbs, these appendages that grew within me, cell by cell. This will all soon disappear.

In this, I am alone. He will never know.

Because I smile the mother’s smile. The one that holds the bittersweet. That we love with all our hearts. Body. Soul. Give to let it grow. One day the children will not need us. And this is what we want.

“Can you choke when you’re learning to swallow vitamins?”

His random question is close to my face. His breath, warm and without boundaries, exhaling peanut butter and honey sandwich across my cheeks. For a moment, I think to turn away, but catch myself.  Then breathe it in a little deeper.

 

Note Card: Mother Plant

Etsy_Stationary_motherplant
Love Letters Press on Etsy

 

Creating these cards makes me smile. Sharing them with you brings me happiness. Knowing that you may pass them on to someone you love, well, that’s just a beautiful thing.

All cards are hand-made, with care, on recycled paper.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Trailing the Thread

The Way it Is

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

~ William Stafford

I’m still following the thread as For the Archives continues to evolve.

In 2010, when I first created this blog, it began as an experiment of posting a blog a day for 40 days. The process was so rewarding, I simply continued on after the 40 days were through. What has transpired over the past three years has been the creation of over 800 posts, thousands of images, an e-book, and an immeasurable amount of learning about the creative process.

For the Archives has been a labor of love and a gift in my life. I am deeply appreciative to each of visitor that has taken time to read, comment, share, and participate in this chronicling of the everyday.

One unexpected gift that has come from this Archives project has been the creation of note cards. Yes, in this technological world of cyber communication, I have held ever-dear to a tangible means of communication: the simple letter. Something you can hold in your fingers. Words written by hand.

Over the past year, I’ve been taking some of my favorite images shared here on the Archives, and creating handmade note cards on recycled paper. One thing I love about these cards is knowing that an ordinary moment captured on film, is highlighted in a way that makes it extraordinary. Couple that with a handwritten note sent by someone who cares, and there is art, love, and beauty being passed through many hands. This is a wonderful thing! Sharing these cards has given me a lot of happiness and pleasure.

2014-04-19_Love Letters set widget
note card set from Love Letters Press

So, in a desire to open the sharing circle wider, I have delved into the realms of opening a shop on Etsy. Love Letters Press is now officially open, offering individual note cards and note card sets for those interested in gifting some love and communication the old-fashioned way.

Etsy_Stationary_custom

This is all new for me. But so was blogging here on the Archives over three years ago. You’ve got to start somewhere. In those early blogging days, I said I was following a thread.

Little did I know it would unravel to this point, but what a fascinating unfurling it’s been!

In honor of the shop opening, I’m offering a little gift of 10% off all purchases. But for all of my friends here at the Archives, I want to extend an additional 5% discount to each of you, as a thank you for all that you offer in this forum. Simply use the code “archives5” at check out to redeem.

Your feedback is welcome! I hope you enjoy the cards.

Here’s to evolution, and that infinite thread we follow.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer · 6 Comments

The Best Things in Life…A Free Book for You

With recent holidays behind us, the gift giving may have settled and many of us may be on to thank-you cards. I’d like to offer up a combination of the two.

Inspired by the spirit of giving, and offering this with a gratitude to every person that has taken time to pause here at the Archives, I am happy to give everyone a chance to download my book for free.

“Volume 1: Love and Motherhood” is the first in a series that began here at For the Archives. It’s a collection of 33 posts and 15 original photographs, compiled from my first year of writing on the blog.

For those of you keeping up with the story as it’s been unfolding, that was over three years and 750 posts ago. I was a single mother with a six-year old. There was no Bohemian in my life yet. Just Lego guys, a good dose of loneliness, and an optimism to find some magic in the everyday routine. I was trying to scrape together enough money for rent, and waking at 4am to jot down prose. I was typing out words about sorting my ‘junk drawer,’ playing Foursquare with my son, and seeking the silver lining in a broken heart.

The book has been available through Amazon since October and for the next three days you can download it for free.

Vol 1_Book Cover

Looking back to when I began For the Archives, I am reminded of the intention I had to start sharing my words with the world. I wasn’t sure (and still, sometimes, am not) if my perspective mattered. But I felt strongly that there was beauty in the process of expressing my experience, no matter how simple or mundane. That, somehow, found within that sharing, was a gold that had the ability to lift the ordinary into the profound.

Further, it was my hope, that if someone read my recounting, they too, would be inspired to see the world around them – in all of its seeming ordinariness – and find a sparkle of magic. And that through that heightened perspective, they  also would be encouraged to express themselves with their own, unique art form.

We are all artists creating our life’s masterpiece.

This book is a reflection of that first year when I took a chance to share my little creation-in-the-making with whoever wanted to see it.

So feel free and take it. If you like, share it with a friend.

From today until January 9th I’m giving it away.

And stay tuned. I’m working on Volume 2, soon to be released. It’s the love story of when the Bohemian entered stage right.

Gratitude and gifts…Enjoy!

PS Anyone can read an e-book even if you don’t have a Kindle device. Amazon has a free app that can be downloaded in less than a couple of minutes and the link is in the side bar on my book page.