Inspired

Change

A bowl of heritage apples, taken at the Mayne Island Saturday Market.

Once again, I’ve done a blog makeover!  I really wanted to challenge myself by learning how to format the design using Typepad but without all the Typepad plug and play headings.  I also wanted the design and materials for this new version to be completely my own, so I used various selections from my own art work.

It was a lot of fun to do, although the learning curve was steep for the first few hours!  Call me crazy but now I’m going to tackle Word Press and attempt to pull something together for a family member.

This weekend I wasn’t feeling great and today a visit to my doctor confirmed that I HAVE SHINGLES!  OUCH!  How does one get shingles you may well ask?  Well first of all, you have to have had the Chicken Pox virus as a child. It’s a reactivation of the same virus. (Check) Then it helps (or hurts) if you’re over fifty (another check).  Then it helps if you’re under stress…do you think two temporary moves, “camping” with family and building a house might put me in that category? (check).  It also helps if your immune system is compromised (check) and if you have trouble sleeping (check once again). 

It showed up on my scalp and forehead and I’m very sore and itchy.  Oh well, it’s not terminal and with any luck it will be gone in a few weeks.  Even as I’m whinging and whining here, I’m very aware that it could be much worse.  I’ll spare you pictures!

Play well, and be kind to one another,

Shared Focus - Reflection

This week’s Shared Focus topic was “reflection” so head on over here to see what we both came up with as a visual response, as well as our thoughts on the topic !  This photograph was taken while I was sitting on a wharf having brunch last weekend.  The different shades of blue’s caught my eye…everything from turquoise and baby blue to dark marine blue.

There’s so much going on in my life…and yet I feel I have so little to say.  Does anyone else find themselves in this situation?  My thoughts feel like they won’t all fit into this small space…they don’t fit into small information “bytes”.  No, there’s no life changing or life altering events happening…I just don’t know how to put these thoughts down in print.  Maybe they feel too precious or too personal.  Or maybe they wouldn’t be understood. Or maybe I haven’t yet found the right words.  I’m feeling very happy and peaceful but also as though I’m in limbo…neither here nor there,  I’m in an odd state of suspended animation.  As a result, I sit here to write but the words that come out seem not to be my words or at least not to reflect what I’m really thinking and feeling.  I’d be interested to know if any of you are having or have ever had, this experience. 

So yes, much of what’s going on for me these days is internal.  There’s an edge of excitement and anticipation that I’ve crossed a major threshold and am now waiting for new direction or insight, to know where this new path will take me.

“Reflection” was such an appropriate word for me to focus on this week!

Play well and be kind to one another,

Prickly Beauty

I found this giant thistle sitting small and insignificant beside a huge painted canvas at an art show this weekend.  The paintings were wonderful and the artist, very talented but it was this thistle that drew me.

Being of Scottish ancestory, I was brought up with the emblem of the thistle front and centre.  My mother and grandmother always wore thistle brooches on their coats and jackets and I had a gigantic (at least 5" across) thistle brooh to pin my fly plaid below my shoulder.  When you're five years old, the whole collection of highland dance parafanalia...kilt, fly plaid, sporran, lace ruffles and velvet jacket...was a little overwhelming and putting it all on was not something I looked forward to!

I recently discovered just why the thistle is such a popular symbol for Scotland.  It became the national emblem after the Battle of Largs in 1263, when it's said that a Norse attack force decided on a stealthy night attack; however their leader stepped on a thistle and his yell alerted the Scots, thus saving Scotland!  I'm not sure if it's true but it's a good story!

Summer is drawing to a close and I think it's safe to say that the long, hot, dog days are over...at least here in my neck of the woods! It's been a good summer and I've enjoyed it all...major changes, upheavals and all.  As with the thistle, there have been "prickly" times that didn't always feel comfortable but the process has led me to enjoy the moments as they come.  I'm aware that the thorns are there but I don't have to grab hold of them!

In the end, that's all we really have...a lifetime of moments and I won't squander those. With each year that passes, they're becoming far too precious.

Play well and be kind to one another.

Queen Anne's Lace

I love Queen Anne's Lace and at this time of year it grows so abundantly in the fields and along the roadsides.  It nudges sweet memories...more "feelings" really, than actual memories...from the far recesses of my childhood.  As a young girl I was allowed to roam and wander freely and spent many a happy hour hidden in the grasses and Queen Anne's Lace of the nearby fields, gazing up at the sky.  I felt safe in these small secret "nests" and spent a large part of my childhood finding places like this to retreat to...places where I could daydream and wonder...oh, I "wondered" a lot!  (I don't think I've changed much either!)

I also had a favourite tree to dream in.  And piles of books...there were always a least three books in progress.  I lived more in my dreams and my imaginings than I did in the "real world".  I didn't have the words to express it at that time but as an adult looking back, I think I found the world a bit too loud, a bit too abrasive and a just a little bit frightening...I was a crab without a shell.  Not too surprising for a Cancer girl!  It's been a long journey over the years to feel at home in my own skin but I still like to retreat from the world now and then.  It's how I regroup and recharge.

Interesting what feelings and memories a wildflower can stir!

As a child, I was told that this plant was called Queen Anne's Lace because Queen Anne's Ladies-in-Waiting washed her lace for her and then laid it out to dry over the tall weeds.  There are many theory's about this but it's my childhood and I'm sticking to it (and this poem supports it...sort of!)

Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has washed her lace
(She chose a summer's day)
And hung it in a grassy place
To whiten, if it may.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has left it there,
And slept the dewy night;
Then waked, to find the sunshine fair,
And all the meadows white.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, is dead and gone
(She died a summer's day),
But left her lace to whiten in
Each weed-entangled way!

Mary Leslie Newton

 

I'm off to play this weekend...We're doing some boating, inter-island hopping, winery visiting, and connecting with old friends.  Sounds absolutely perfect!

Play well and be kind to one another,

Fields of Gold

At the peak of summer when the Queen Anne’s Lace is in bloom and the grasses are thick and tall, I love to walk in these fields.  It’s been exceptionally hot and dry on the west coast this year and there’s a crispness to everything that’s not normally seen until fall.  It’s been wonderful for outdoor fun and just relaxing on the deck.  The extra bonus for us is that it’s also been perfect weather for house construction too, as it keeps the mud away! 

The treatment on this photograph was experimental for me…and the end result wasn’t exactly what I was attempting to achieve.  I used “paint brushes” in Photoshop and digitally layered the painted layers with the photograph.  What I really wanted to do was to actually paint (by hand as opposed to virtual) the photograph as blocks of colour on paper, scan it and layer it digitally into the original photograph, but I don’t have either the materials or the room to start painting right now.  There’s been a groundswell of creative ideas bubbling up in me recently so I’m making notes and writing down idea’s for when I do have the time and space to pursue them. 

Today

…mmmmm…a marvelous massage

…picking out the doors for the house

…a picnic at the beach for dinner

…and idea’s are percolating for the next Shared Focus project

Edit:  At Lucy's suggestion I listened to Eva Cassidy singing Fields of Gold, and loved it much that I thought I'd include it in this post.  I have heard her before, but not singing this particular song. Eva's voice is so very lovely...the world lost an incredible talent when she died in 1996.  Thanks Lucy! 

 

Play well and be kind to one another,

Shared Focus - Wandering

This is a great moment, when you see, however distant, the goal of your wandering.  The thing which has been living in your imagination suddenly become part of the tangible world.  It matters not how many ranges, rivers or parching dusty ways may lie between you; it is yours now, for ever.”

Freya Stark

I’m very excited about a new project that I’m involved in…a photography collaboration called Shared Focus.   Although we’ve never met in person, my fellow collaborator… Martie (So Many Roads) and I have “known” each other for three years via blogging.  We share a common interest passion for photography and although our styles differ (I tend to digitally manipulate to excess!), we decided that a challenge was just what we needed to step outside the box and begin focusing our lenses with new eyes.  Check out our new home for this project at Shared Focus and our first collaboration, where the topic this week is “wandering”.

This post is also a contribution to Sunday Citar which is hosted by Tabitha at Fresh Mommy.

Moments of Truth

Today the rain fell and nourished the parched dryness

of a rainforest without rain

and with leaden grey skies, my energy stalled and stumbled.

I curled up indoors; listening, creating and contemplating

and writing down words that inspire.

You know the ones…

…when you hear them or read them, you think:

“this is important…I must write it down

and read it each day until it

becomes a part of my very being”.

In moments like these, I know I’ve been blessed with truth. 

The light gets brighter,

the sounds gets clearer

and the words fall over me

like a blanket of comfort and ease.

Words that have inspired me in the past day or so:

I want to unfold. I do not want to remain folded up anywhere,
because wherever I am still folded, I am untrue.
-Rainer Maria Rilke

and…

the teacher asked us to “notice what’s true” for us about our bodies, our minds, our emotions.  Without judgment, we were invited to just be present to the quality of our experience and claim it as the truth for us in that moment

- Christine Valters Paintner, Abbey of the Arts

What is your truth in this moment?

I'm currently  "unfolding" into a new creative adventure that I'm very excited about...a photography collaboration, which begins this Sunday! 

Really, I AM...

excited that we’re building a new home and I keep thinking that I’ll post a picture or two of the shell…the bones of the structure…but then I take a photograph of something soft and poetic that speaks to the heart of me and that’s what ends up on these pages.

Something like this…

or this…

 

Rain screen paper over plywood walls and interior studs just don’t have the same magic.   I spotted these vintage slips and little girl’s dresses while wandering down a street lined with antique shops in Victoria last week.  I was mesmerized by the light shining through the sheer fabric of the clothing and immediately wanted to capture the sweet tenderness that it evoked in me.

But…I didn’t. 

I left the shop and walked up the street and back down again.  I knew I had to go back in and ask the owner if she would mind if I took a photograph…even if the answer was no.  Happily she enthusiastically said “Sure!  Take pictures of whatever you want”.

…so I did.

Thank goodness I didn’t let shyness and insecurity stop me from taking a risk because I love these sweet dresses!  Very seldom am I timid about asking for something but once in awhile it surprises me and pops up when I’m least expecting it.  Does this ever happen to you?

And so you’ll understand what I’m talking about with the house…

…exciting yes, but not the least bit poetic!  This has all happened in just over 5 weeks so with my fingers and toes crossed, we may very well be living in it by mid October.

Speaking of poetic photography, Maddie at Persisting Stars is offering a five week e-course in September.  Maddie’s work is simply lovely and I have gazed longingly at her talent for several years.  This course…Bones of a poet ~ photography and the wonder of seeing…puts expression before technique.  It will “experiment with techniques that break photographic rules and put us in the path of happy accidents”.  I love happy accidents!  If this sounds like it might be of interest to you, head on over and join the fun.

Sunday Citar...What If?

 

 

I’ve dreamt in my life,

dreams

that have stayed with me

ever after

and changed my idea's;

they’ve gone through and through me

like wine through water

and altered the

colours of my mind

Emily Bronte

 

Dreams require much of us…

they require a freedom to wander down unexplored pathways, 

and the gentle ease to unravel and exhale a heart held taut. 

We’re required to lay worry down

at the foot of a wise old tree

and shed layers of doubt and disbelief

that are worn like clothing long outgrown.

 

Oh, we think we don’t have time for dreams

but really…

we have nothing but time.

We have millions and billions and trillions of moments each day

that are filled with wanting and worry and weariness

when the truth is, that every heart beat can birth a new dream.

What would happen dear ones,

if we nourished a dream like an infant in the womb?

What if we cradled it and sang to it

and believed with all our heart

that this dream will grow in strength

to the magnificent fullness

of our hearts desire?

Our dream come true.

What if?

 

see more Sunday Citar here

 

The Dance

This is the second of my new "inspiration" series. 

Can you hear the beat of your soul?  The rhythm of it's song?   Don't worry that you don't know the steps to the dance, just listen and soon you'll feel it.  Your feet will begin tapping and your heart will begin singing. It will be your own unique dance that swirls and twirls you into the joy of your soul's longing.

Listen...can you hear it now?