Category: B&W

Life & laundry

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Laundry

As I came through my front door on Tuesday afternoon I was greeted by the latest issue of Ascent Magazine and its headline on the cover, “the yoga of everyday bliss: finding contentment in life & laundry.” It was a well-timed line for me to read as I was stopping by my apartment to pick up my clothes and head to the laundromat.

The article is a very good read, focusing on finding contentment in everyday moments rather than seeking out a short-lived happiness based on particular circumstances. This is refered to as Samtosa, “a state of contentment that relies on no particular situation….unlike the happiness, joy or elation that (I am) more familiar with, is a constant state of mind…. No matter what is happening in life, the state of contentment is possible.”

Right now I feel…content.

Waiting for the bus

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Waiting for the bloody bus to come

In the mornings when it’s not raining, I love to watch all the overhead avian activity, as the sun comes up and I wait for the bus. None of the birds I see are very exotic but I take pleasure in witnessing how they make a start to the day just as their human counterparts do the same.

Often there is a large flock of pigeons gathered together along the telephone wires near where I stand, and I watch as they jossle for position or preen their feathers, letting loose ones fall to the road below. Sometimes there are tiny sparrows sharing the wires, and if I listen carefully I can hear their shrill cries above the noise of cars zooming by. There are also gulls flying overhead, on their way to somewhere, and many crows returning to their daytime territory after a night in Burnaby.

The birds have shown me that humans aren’t the only ones with a busy morning commute. And I wonder if they sometimes feel as we do, like staying in bed just a little longer and hit the snooze button.

Prayer position

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Kristi

Ten good things from this week:
1) Booking a getaway to somewhere I’ve been wanting to go for a long time. I’m very excited.
2) Seeing all the colourful leaves on the trees as we drove to and from the ferry on the island last weekend.
3) Catching up with Simone and Jacquie over dessert at Sweet Obsessions.
4) Wandering around at lunchtime with Christopher, freezing our behinds off as we searched for a hotdog vendor to feed us. The delicious Japadog was our reward.
5) Listening to the heavy rainfall outside my window as I lay in bed reading a good book.
6) Calling Hendrik at home and the humour of neither of us recognizing the other’s voice. The funniest part about it was that we’d talked as recently as that morning.
7) Going through my stuff and selecting all the photos, papers, and random bits and bobs I may use in the workshop I’m taking this evening.
8) Finding in my closet a brand new shirt I’d forgotten I had recently purchased, and wearing it with pleasure.
9) Fighting my Wednesday afternoon lethargy, with a long walk, a workout and then a twenty minute nap.
10) Enjoying (what seemed like) a bottomless bowl of thai yellow curry for dinner with Mandy.

Woodland elf

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Woodland elf

This weekend I was away on the second annual Travis Smith birthday sleep-over extravaganza on Vancouver Island. As I reminisced about last year’s event I was reminded of this photo, featuring Noriko as a woodland elf with giant leaf. It was the first time I met her and Jason, and they have since relocated to Toronto. When I think about this and other more personal things, I am amazed by how much can happen and change in one year…

Bigger Plans Than You Have For Yourself

gate

This week in Leodom, brought to my inbox by Free Will Astrology:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) – I was sitting in San Francisco’s Cafe Gratitude, meditating on your horoscope. In my notebook I’d doodled a giant hand reaching down to earth from the clouds. It was holding a silver platter that bore a book whose title was “Fresh Instructions.” This gift was being offered to a half-lion, half-human creature that represented you. Shortly after I finished this drawing, a woman came through the front door of the restaurant and sat at a nearby table. Her t-shirt had a message that was the perfect caption for the image I’d made: “Maybe God has bigger plans for you than you have for yourself.”

Embryo

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Embryo

An accidental double-exposure, taken with my diana clone camera. The shutter tends to stick sometimes just after I’ve switched between aperature settings.

It was a very “arty” weekend for me, checking out some of the work on display for Main Street’s studio tour, called The Drift. As always, I was inspired by a visit to Arleigh Wood’s place, and I really liked the work of Carly Louth on display at Soma.

[Please excuse me while I play around with the template a bit. I’m so tired of the old one, it makes me want to poke my eyes out when I see it…)