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Yes, Martie and I have started our photography collaboration at Shared Focus back up again…hop on over to check out this weeks theme of Faces…and see whose faces are shining back at you!.
To all of my American friends…have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! (we had our holiday last weekend, when we celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday).
Many blessings,
Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?
Georgia O’Keefe
Tell me now,
do you let yourself soar?
Do you glide and swoop
and ride the currents
of discovery?
Do you risk falling
and failing and rising again?
Or are you tethered down
with weights of
fear,
ropes of
worry
and heavy blocks of
mistrust.
And tell me too,
how light could you be
And how high could you reach?
And with your very brave heart,
how far could you fly,
if only
you let yourself
soar?
Kate Iredale
The theme for this week at Lens Us Together is “Things With Wings”.
.
The Tzutujil Mayans in Guatemala
speak of simultaneous Twin Realities:
the dream world and the awake world.
These worlds are likened to the opposing wings of a butterfly, angel, or bird.
The dream world is one wing, and the awake world is the other.
The past world is one wing, while the new world is the other.
Between worlds is where we are at this time.
They believe the wings must connect at the Heart Center for us to bridge these realities.
When I saw this flower (an Iris), I saw wings…angel wings.
Who knew there are angels in disguise
at the garden center?
Sending heart felt blessings to each of you,
pink lilacs in my neighbours garden
For Today: Friday, May 21, 2010
Outside my window: the weather is changing faster than I can keep track of…sunshine to rain…to blustery wind…to sunshine…to rain…you get the picture!
I am wearing: comfy chino’s, a white t-shirt and white cardigan
I am creating: a website (no, not for me). Working with html and CSS is just a tad too detail oriented for me (understatement)…I can only do small bit’s at a time before I start pulling my hair out! Next time…if there ever is a next time…I’ll get Dreamweaver and a good book to teach me how it’s done. I’ve been trying to teach myself how to do this by googling my questions on the internet and it’s coming together but very, very s..l..o...w….l…..y.
I am going: to visit friends this weekend…old friends. They live on the same Island, but a four hour drive north. (it’s a BIG island). My friend was present at the birth of my son (can it really be, she whispers incredulously) 33 years ago. We were both young mothers living in a small northern town and she was the Maternity nurse on duty that morning.
I am intending: to do some (house) painting when I get home next week.
Around the house: Molly is sleeping on her bed and Bob is working on his computer. A small bird (a tree creeper?) is popping in and out of the birdhouse outside and bunnies are hopping and nibbling (and multiplying??) all around us!
One of my favourite things right now…is walking…I love walking around my neighbourhood. The lilacs are blooming…the scent is intoxicating…and of course I have to stop and inhale every one that I pass. I love the old gardens that are mixed in with the newer ones. They were planted so many years ago and are a little wild and disorganized in an English-country-garden kind of way. I love breathing in the salty scent of the sea as I walk along the rocky shore, and feeling the soft earthiness of the mosses in the woods.
A picture thought for today:
white lilacs and…
…the view from a bench perched over the ocean, close to my home.
Happy blessings to each of you dear friends and have a lovely relaxing weekend!
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Happiness…does it seem illusive at times? Fleetingly glimpsed perhaps and difficult to hang on to? Or are you one of the blessed ones who wake up happy and very little throws you off balance?
If you’ve been coming here for awhile you’ll know that I’ve spent much of the past five years most of my life, on a quest for the knowledge and tools to own, solidly, a deep inner peace. I feel I’m well on my way there but I really want to bump up the “happiness factor”. Happily, my physical well being has improved a lot recently (I’m now sleeping much better and am able to take wonderful, long walks) so I’ve decided that it's time to focus some of my creative energy on a project I’m calling “Choose Happiness”.
I truly believe happiness is a choice, even though it may not always seem like it. Every minute of every day, even in the darkest of times, we can choose a more joyful thought. Dr. Bruce Lipton’s (The Biology of Belief) work on cellular biology has proven that our thoughts control the functioning of our cells, effecting our health and aging on the most basic level. It takes a little training for new neuron pathways to make the synapse connections but happiness can be a learned behaviour…yes, really
.
You’ll notice some photographs popping up now and then with the focus on happiness. That will be me training those neurons to jump to new synapses with happy thoughts...what better way to focus on happiness than with creativity! My intention is to string together a series of happy images that can be "draped and worn” metaphorically speaking, like a cheerful scarf or a precious necklace.
And no, sadly, eating cupcakes isn't the magic elixir to finding lasting happiness…but appreciating their tiny, exquisite beauty and sharing them with a friend really does make me feel happy.
In fact just taking these photographs of cupcakes made me happy!
Sweet, happy blessings dear friends,
Grey.
I know that life isn’t just black or white…but is it really all just shades of grey? How about adding a little glitz, glitter and glamour to the grey?
(Shades of Grey is the theme this week at Lens Us Together…interesting challenge! I found it quite difficult not to put just a tiny bit of colour in the photograph.)
Quick post tonight…sparkling blessings to everyone.
What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
Leo Buscaglia
While visiting my dad a few weeks ago, I happened upon a wonderful “find” in his basement. I came home with not one, but two antique typewriters! This one is an old Underwood that dates from around 1937.
Can you even get ribbons anymore for these beasts?
Picture if you will, a secretary in prewar dress, efficiently pounding the key’s (and they did need to be hit hard!). Maybe someone like this?
Or perhaps more like this!
Enduring blessings to each and every one of you,
(secretarial pictures from the internet)
The theme last week at Lens Us Together was “prepared” and…well, I wasn’t all that well prepared so I’m running late…we were away here, for a late anniversary get-away.
When I'm away during the winter months, I try to prepare by taking a few creative “tools" to play with. Some years my suitcase is more art supplies than clothes but last year I kept it simple.
I took a smallish sketch book/art journal, a watercolour paint box, a few brushes and pens, and a glue stick…picking up magazines and used books along the way for ripping, tearing, cutting and pasting. It was very low key, without any real direction, except to let myself play.
I finished a background on every page and started the layering and journaling on nearly half of them. Although I packed a few magazines with me and found some old paperbacks in Mexico, the biggest challenge by far, was finding English text in Panama.
It was an interesting challenge...limiting myself to just a few materials and finding out how I could use them in ways that work. It pays off to be prepared before you leave because you just never know how difficult it may be to find materials at your destination.
These few items didn’t take up a lot of room in my suitcase and provided that needed fix for creative play while escaping the intense mid-day sun (and through a week of downpour in Bocas del Toro!)
Creative blessings to each of you…and don't forget to let your inner artist out to play! (and the emphasis is on play!)
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac
The theme this week at Lens Us Together is Journey and as it happens, I'm on a journey this weekend to Minneapolis (I know, I just got home last week). I’m here for a conference…the mid-year gathering for the course I’ve been taking...which is about the journey within. The biggest and most adventurous journey of my life has been the journey of the heart and spirit.
Each day is a journey…each moment a journey…and the ultimate journeys which bookend this life journey, are both birth and death.
Thank you to everyone who takes the time to drop by, as you journey through your day.
And may the blessings of the earth be on you – the great round earth;
may you ever have a kindly greeting for people you pass
as you are going along the roads.
An Irish Blessing
