My Pocket

Mondo Beyondo 2009

my inspiration ladder

In list form (because I love lists):

Things in 2008 I loved:

- Feeling  reassured. Exploring letting go of anxiety and worry, making that my little everyday homework.

- Growing into a nearly fully fledged acupuncturist ~ this summer I will be pretty much ready!

- Learning photography as I went along with my new Canon Digital Rebel.

- Moving into this beautiful place where I feel so at home.

- Getting my first permanent job! In a little bookshop.

- Working on a secret project that I can't tell you about just yet. :)

- Consciously living the last year of my twenties and deciding to own the choices I've made so far. 

Things in 2008 that were hard:

- Going to college every other weekend.

- Getting tired at work.

- Having little spare time.

Things in 2009 to love:

- Having lots of patients to treat and loving it. 

- Growing as a photographer and expanding my creative business

- Feeling even more at home in my body ~ strong, flexible and at ease.

{I will have to add more to this list later. My imagination is not nearly as juicy as I'd like it to be so I think it's bedtime.} 

Thank you so much all of you who have dropped in even though I've been quiet this past year, I really appreciate it. I don't know what will happen in this place, perhaps I will change it considerably or move out altogether, but something will surely happen. I want to continue writing but not in this way. I'll see. 

For now, just wishing you bright days and endless skies. February can be such a lovely month. 

from the core

 

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Jack London 

Thank you all for this year - I hope you had a memorable one. Mine feels like it flew by and it has involved a fair amount of hard work. I wish you a marvellous 2009 - may the most audacious of your wishes come true. (As well as an unexpected adventure or two thrown in for good measure.) 

My word (words!) or intention for this year is from the core. Last year I chose the word vitality, which I loved. It changed me in ways that are still blooming inside. More on that later when I’d like to write up my Mondo Beyondo list for 2008. For 2009 I want to focus on living from the core. To make more deliberate choices, to feel grounded and centered, to give more to everything I do, to see more clearly, to have more structure, to be more me. What is your word for 2009?

December 10th

am on floor (studying for exam). back soon. xx

December 4th

long hot showers for dark days ~ bliss

a door a day

stars

time for Darlene's December Views again ~ yay!

Watering the fruit trees

Those of you who are scattered,

simplify your worrying lives. 

There is one righteousness: 

Water the fruit trees,

and don't water the thorns.

Rumi

Just came to say 'I like you' and offer something sweet and colourful because you deserve it today. 

I'm seeing what it's like to water the fruit trees. To wake up in the morning and decide to smile, just because. 

Will be back with more words when my life has calmed down a bit ~ so much of it in so little time. Wishing you bright colours, cheeky westerly winds to tease your hair and warm woolly blankets. 

I like you.

xx

love in search of a word

Music is love in search of a word. 

Sidney Lanier

Music and fire is all I wanted to write about today, or well, it wasn't so much a choice. These photos wanted to come out and they are not my usual motif. I do love music and it follows me through my day, whether I sing to myself or listen ~ Edith Piaf sang La Vie en Rose to me this afternoon in the bookshop, I sang along to Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire (it always gets me, so much longing) and I hummed 'I don't give a damn ~ I'm happy as a clam' all morning shuffling books in the library (Nobody Knows Me at All, The Weepies). 

The photo above came out that way and I love it, it's like the jazz is still there in the colours, reverberating in the air. (and you can just tell she's loving it, no?) It's in a French pub somewhere in the south of France where we visit D's mum and husband every year or so.

Don't worry about saving these songs!

And if one of our instruments breaks,

it doesn't matter.

We have fallen into the place

where everything is music. 

The strumming and the flute notes

rise into the atmosphere,

and even if the whole world's harp 

should burn up, there will still be

hidden instruments playing.

~~~

Stop the words now.

Open the window in the center of your chest,

and let the spirits fly in and out.

Rumi

This photo is from a couple of nights ago when we lit a fire for the autumn equinox and people kept appearing out of the night with guitars, a didgeridoo and drums, singing and chanting and clapping. The rain fell out of the dark, drops would linger on the guitars for a while and the fire would reflect in the wood. I loved seeing the fire live there in that shiny surface and tried to capture it. I sat close, close to one of my sweetest friends and she sang a startling Indian song of celebration into the night. 

Brian played his banjo for me on our visit in France... It's such a gift to have someone practice their playing nearby. 

Living in this community with so many talented musicians we also get to hear live music often. We've in turn lived upstairs from the guy with the didgeridoo, guitar players and a man with a rare string instrument that made such tender melodies. Every year there is a summer and a winter celebration concert with the students performing ~ singing solo, in choir, band and dancing. 

However, for me, music is first and foremost that friend that in the morning gets me grinning, dances a spontaneous happy dance in the kitchen with me, has me wiggling my hips when nobody's looking, puts extra skips in my step just because and lullabies me to sleep at night:

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. 

Berthold Auerbach

ps. the typepad update has finally given me access to colour buttons to use as and when I please. and I do please. :)

pps. thank you  thank you  thank you for your welcome back ~ i've been so touched. really. you are precious friends to have. xx

ppps. this colour is called purple moon, gotta love that!

the treetop home

Hello beautiful :)

I'm here again. It took me awhile, are you still there? 

I'm feeling different so the place is now different too. So many adventures since last I wrote.

Skinny dips, 

barefoot walks, 

climbing trees, 

night swimming, 

colourful skirts, 

watermelon slivers, 

blushing night skies, 

sunburnt shoulders, 

summer showers, 

slow boatrides, 

dog friends, 

patterned swoshy dresses, 

my uncle that I've missed so, 

peaches and cherries, 

me and d snorkeling in our birthday suits, 

nibbling blackberries along the lane, 

covering a wall in sky butterfly blue, 

carrying teetering mattresses and drawers while we giggle. 

What adventures have you been on?

We moved to this beautiful space tucked in high up in the treetops. Glowing green leaves and mossy rambling rooftops just outside our windows. Bright and spacious inside with room for guests and all our books. There's an enchanting tree by our living room that loves leaving gifts when we leave the window open to it, spreading its curly leaves on the sill and over the floor. It's a magical tree, you know, and if you look closely you can see it doesn't have just one type of leaves - it has two. 

I have also begun a new job. I am now a bookshop keeper, as well as being a librarian. I spend most of my time wrapping up books in boxes and sending them off all over the world. It makes me happy imagining all the people unwrapping their book parcels, isn't it one of the best things to receive in the post?

I'll be back soon, just wanted to say hello. And wish you a bright breezy nearly-autumn day ~ September is my favourite month for planning what the autumn will hold. What new are you bringing into your life?

bright adventures

Just popping in to let you know I am still here. Thinking of you and hoping you are enjoying this favourite season of mine, the season of lush green and tingling possibility. I love how nature decorates her forest halls with fresh leaves, filling the ceilings with whispers of love for the wind, and scattering sun speckles all over the floor, spreading perfume in the breeze from lilacs, bluebells and cowslip, lavishing warmth and early morning birdsong.

I think I will take that break after all. I think it will do me good to have one less thing to feel guilty about in my life for the moment. This place was never intended for that. Oh, I'm sure I will be back, no doubt about it. But for now I'm allowing myself a rest and learning how to be the most that I can be, without becoming overwhelmed.

I leave you with a Swedish hymn that is a favourite of mine and that my grandmother also loved so it is special to me in many ways. Forgive my translation that does it no justice and the fact that I can't play it here, but know that I am singing it for you, on a path not so far away. Wishing you bright adventures on your journey.

Now, the valley’s bosom is green
Now, fragrant meadows and knolls
Come, come with us a-wandering
In joyous spring time

Each day like a golden bowl
Brimming with wine
So drink my friend, drink sun and scent
For the day it is yours

Far away from the grey of town
Happily we steer our way
Following the white ribbon of road
Towards bright adventures

With open eyes let us see
The riches that is life
That grows and simmers everywhere
Where spring goes to bloom