From Free Will Astrology
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope that one day you will learn how to give all the extraordinary love you have to offer. Another one of my greatest desires for you is that you will cultivate, earn, and seize all the freedom you need in order to become yourself completely. To my great pleasure, you’ve recently begun to tune in to the possibility that these two goals might be extremely fun for you. During the coming weeks their hold on your imagination should heat up considerably. In 2007, I hope they’ll become your modus operandi, your Weltanschauung, and your raison d’être.
Before deciding upon a photo to post on my blog, I did a quick search through my flickr photo stream for anything tagged with snow. I was amazed to discover that I only have ONE photo of snow in my whole archive on Flickr. Apparently, after moving away from Toronto I lost all interest in pictures of the white stuff. I’ll try to remedy this over the next few days while Vancouver is blanketed in an endless sea of white/brown/black snow.
This morning I left my house and walked out into a magical wintery landscape covered in clean white snow. There was hardly a soul around, unusual even for the ungodly hour I make my way to work, and it made for a surprisingly quiet walk to catch the bus. The air was cold and crisp, and every snow covered inch of my street glowed and sparkled under the mixed light of street lamps and the slow breaking light of dawn.
A little night music
This morning I feel as if I could use a little extra sleep, even though I went to bed at a reasonable hour last night. Sometimes I think I feel more tired after going to bed early, than I do when I don’t get enough sleep. As long as I don’t yawn too much during my mid-day meeting, I think I should be okay.
I was looking through my flickr archive from a year ago and found the above photo. It was taken on a night outing with Vandigicammers at Jericho Beach.
Water
A few weeks ago I mentioned an article in Ascent Magazine on Finding Contentment in Everyday Life. It has now been partially published online, and I thought I would quote the first paragraph here. I love Eileen Delehanty Pearkes description of water as a metaphor of contentment.
I often dream of water. Water breaking up after a long hold in winter ice. Water rushing gently with me in a canoe, swaying across its current. Water pooling to rest, then tumbling downward again. Clear water. Weed-choked water. Burbling water. Deep blue, aquamarine, glacial-green, summer-brown, snow-melt white. Water takes many forms in my night wanderings. Always, the water is moving, changing and transporting itself, mirroring my own efforts toward self-realization. Always, and strangely enough, the water seems contented to be in whatever state it is. It moves with acceptance along a varied path.
A little birdy
I forgot about posting this photo to my blog. I was contacted a few months ago through Flickr regarding the use a photo of Yuuki for a cell phone ad compaign. I was a little surprised they wanted this because it’s not really a great shot and the image quality is poor, but apparently it was perfect for their campaign. I gave the go-ahead, and the above image is the final version of the ad.
The new found fame hasn’t completely gone to Yuuki’s head, though he is saying he will charge for autographs…
My weekend was a mixture of good and bad. It was a very busy and social couple of days, but underneath it all I was feeling quite upset (but not depressed). An unresolved situation was back on my mind after weeks of feeling like I’d moved on, and I realized it was time to deal with it properly in order to find closure. And I did.
(Sorry internet, you don’t get to hear more about it than that, unless we talk in person.)
Ten Great things from the weekend/week…
1) Meeting Chris for dinner and conversation on Friday evening. She is back in Vancouver after a year long absence in the UK.
2) Hanging out at Kai’s place on Saturday morning for our semi-regular creative projects session. I started making origami Christmas decorations for my apartment.
3) Getting Bill and I back to the aquarium to use our memberships almost eight months after we bought them. (When my sister was here!!!)
4) The unexpected gift of beautiful weather on a Sunday that was supposed to be stormy.
5) Walking with Zoe along the seawall and through the Arbutus Corridor on Sunday, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.
6) Finally hearing the sultry tones of Stefanie’s voice coming over the line from Germany, after months of trying to coordinate a phone call between us. I wish we could’ve talked for hours.
7) Laughing and crying on the phone with Kathy.
8) Walking along the Main Street strip with Kirsti on Saturday evening, after checking out the Petri Dish one year anniversary event.
9) Deciding to reach out and having my gesture openly and willingly accepted. It was a relief to my overwrought emotional state on Monday.
10) Making the most of the brief bits of sunshine on Sunday by taking pictures with my holga.
I decided to submit my photos to two of the upcoming themes at Jpg Magazine. If you’re interested in voting, click on each photo and it will take you to the Jpg site, but you must be a member to vote.
Little birdy feet
I had a rather traumatic start to my day this morning. I was woken up about forty-five minutes early by the noise of Yuuki falling from his perch and crashing to the floor of his cage – not an unusual occurance for him. Normally he recovers quickly from this sudden attack of clumsiness, but this morning it sounded to my sleep-fogged brain like he was taking an awfully long time to sort himself out. I got up to uncover his cage and take a look, and when he didn’t seem himself, I reached in and brought him out. This led to a panicked flight around the room that ended with a crash landing down the side of the bed, and a lot of freaking out from both of us. I was stressed, he was stressed, so I put him gently back into his cage where he sat on his perch in a disheveled feathery lump, feet splayed wide, and one eye closed.
Now convinced that Yuuki was going to die, I started to make plans for calling in sick at work and wondered what time the bird hospital on Broadway opened. I lay in bed watching him, knowing there was nothing I could do except hope for the best. Over a ten minute time span he slowly perked up until he was moving around at his normal energetic pace, and when he went over to the toy bells to bang around and make noise, I knew he was fine.
The whole experience reminded me a bit too much of what happened with the lovebird I had before Yuuki. I woke up one morning to find her very unwell, and despite a visit to the emergency animal hospital, by the end of the day she died. I’m very relieved this wasn’t the scenario I had to go through with Yuuki this morning. I’d like to have the little guy with me for a long while to come.
Yuuki’s photo set on Flickr.
You are here
Five great things from the week:
1) Monday afternoon’s long vigorous walk in Pacific Spirit Park with Christina. We were treated to hints of golden light through the trees near the end of our walk, and the sun followed us as we drove home.
2) Dropping by Jamie and Maja’s for dinner on Sunday evening after our long ferry ride from Salt Spring Island. Unsurprisingly, Jamie makes really delicious cookies, but did you know he also barbeques a delightful pork skewer? (Meat cooked by a vegetarian….yum!)
3) Getting sucked into a really good book and reading the whole thing in a few short days.
4) An unexpected trip to Daiso with Hendrik, and laughing with him over the hilarious hamster stationery.
5) Savouring the tantilizing taste of White Truffle Chevre on Leslie Stowe raincoast crisps purchased from Salt Spring Island Cheese for our snacking pleasure. It was to die for.
The view from here
You are made whole again in silence.
Solitude shatters the illusion that you
and I are separate.
~ Nana VearyThere is a great difference between loneliness and solitude. In loneliness we feel cut off from other people, from the whole of creation, and from our inner wisdom. With solitude we have the opportunity to reach beneath conventional reality to a deeper truth, that of the interconnectedness of all beings, of all life.
Our education has taught us to actively seek out information. We’re taught that growing and learning is a process of acquisition and expansion. We have not been taught to simply be or to sit still and listen. Silence can feel so frightening we rush to fill it up rather than sitting and listening to it. We all need periods of reflection, time to integrate and absorb. Otherwise we become like a filled glass to which water is still being added. The glass overflows, unable to hold any more.
Let’s begin now to stop and empty our mind of chatter. Sit quietly and observe the breath. Don’t allow thoughts to disturb you. Just watch them come and go. With practice the thoughts will slow down, become further and further apart. Maybe then the still, small voice of the spirit will be heard. It is always present. We must learn to listen.
Taken from, “Open Mind: Women’s Daily Inspiration for Becoming Mindful”
I read this passage shortly before going to work this morning, and immediately thought of posting it here for Neil.