Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

why I decided to learn juggling at 30 with 2 jobs and 3 small kids I can't remember, a need for meditating while in action?
never had a talent for anything to do with balls. you know me , the last kid to get picked for a game. closed my eyes when the ball came at me. not much hand eye coordination. so consequently I never learned to catch.
determination, ryhym and good balance were the only things I had going.
bought the klutz book and started my juggling adventure.
ended up with a cool way to exercise, a mind focus game, a thing to teach all my children and their friends and then spreading the craze even to my grandchildren.
never did light the ends of the flaming clubs I bought. told myself that if I could juggle them three times around without grabbing the "wrong" end it would be OK to ignite them, but it never happened.
now the balls usually need dusting before tossing but like riding a bicycle you don't forget. once the cycle of balls gets moving, muscle memory kicks in.
music always make juggling easier. something about the harmony of the balls and the melody of the music.
and the one best thing from learning to juggle? may sound like a strange superpower but after retreiving about a million dropped balls I can tell where something will go when I drop it. sounds weird huh? very handy talent at my age. only have to get down once to find things.

As one who can't so much as dribble a basketball, I've long since classified any activity involving the manipulation of spherical objects as lying as far outside the realm of what I'm capable as watchmaking, or cardiac surgery. I did once get it into my 17-yr old head to teach myself Russian, and managed to master the Cyrillic alphabet well enough to sound out some words nearly as skillfully as a somewhat below average Russian 6-yr old. My former boss, however, devoted the first few months of his retirement teaching himself to ride a unicycle, & by all accounts (his, anyway) was moderately successful. Hats off to you and him for conquering your respective mountains! All I can do is hang my head in envious shame & mutter "bl'yaht" to myself, hoping that I've got it right....

In my case, there have been millions of balls in my life.....my whole neighborhood were into games with balls, so I was sorta pushed into sports with balls...there was baseball, football, basketball, and volleyball growing up....I would throw a rubber ball against the front steps until I dropped just to track and catch the bounce...until one day I missed the steps entirely and broke the glass out of the storm door....that would not be the last glass-breaking episode...luckily my father was good at repairing things, and seemed to understand that's what boys do sometimes....but I always thought juggling was cool, but somehow never gave it a whirl...was probably playing baseball....I did not need mom or dad...I joined a Little League team, hooked my glove onto the handlebars of my Columbia bike and never missed a game. I also thought learning another language would be great...but once again probably bowling...I was on Ten Pin teams, and a Duckpins as well....Ducks are kinda unique to this area....Truth is I went Duckpin bowling yesterday afternoon....despite cancer treatment and this deconditioned body. I bowled 3 games...it was like riding a bike, I guess

my departure from balls came at 56 year old, when I decided I wanted to start painting....Though i never had a painting lesson, nor a drawing class, ..it looked like fun, and I decided I needed more fun things to do....so I've been painting a long time now...never producing fine art...but art just the same....I love the process...conceiving an image in my mind and trying to bring it to life....I've noticed a connection actually between, painting, writing and hiking...You never know what's around the next bend.