dan dan +

geranium / a big sky over a tiny harbour / Miss D & the brilliant green / seed heads with blue sky / Thursday after school art with Bee / poplar / dan dan noodles & favourite reads / smoke bush

I equate happiness with contentment, 
and contentment with complacency, 
and complacency with impending disaster.
Hugh Laurie

via 66squarefeet - Hugh Laurie to Gavin Edwards, The New York Times

yes

pigeon breakfast meeting  / vintage pillow case / our front garden red pine tree / great blue heron / colour palette - bark + lichen / from the crescent beach / early morning sky with crow

My life is full at the moment. I'm not using the word "busy" anymore. Busy sounds dull to me.

I have moments lately when I wonder if I'm biting off more than I can chew ... but I keep saying yes ... to everything.

This week I'm finishing up preparation for yet another workshop - this one is happening Wednesday and is part of the Fiber Arts Festival hosted by world famous rug hooking maven Deanne Fitzpatrick. I will be speaking to a church hall filled with (45+) rug hookers about Design. Ideally in my mind (and intentions) I want to help take the mystery out of the design process and help the participants approach designing their own rug patterns with confidence and enthusiasm. This is probably the hardest project I've worked on yet because it's a multifaceted presentation - there's actually a lot of writing involved - I'm preparing an 8 page document/handout, a design road map for everyone to follow along with and to take away for future reference. Hey who am I kidding ? it's also my map for giving this presentation + there's a visual component as well as at least 2 hands on design exercises planned. Yikes.

It's funny ... the thing that frightens me the most about this next workshop surprisingly isn't the public speaking aspect. 45 people ... Hello ?!? The thing that is the most nerve wracking for me is reaching the point where I feel confident that I'm as prepared as I need to be (I wonder does one ever reach this point ? - this giving workshop presentations is all so new to me). It's about arriving at that place (hopefully by end of day tomorrow) where I know I'll do a fantastic job. I'm not there yet. Fingers crossed though ... I think I'll get there.

5

5 from yesterday's early morning walk with Winnie Dixon along the crescent beach

good things

good things come {3} - uh huh !! they really do - it's so true - 8x10 giclee print available here - Susan Black

religion

our back yard / Miss D & I on the crescent beach / out into the harbour from dinghy beach / a beautiful tangle / crow in flight with crisp blue sky / Nessie Ness / Cavallini  October 2012 flora & fauna / miniature moss & lichen forest / a very long journey / napping Oliver / nasturtiums & geraniums

Sometimes I need only to stand 
wherever I am to be blessed
Mary Oliver

I often feel very guilty for the time I waste taking photographs (this mornings upload - 181 images), the time I spend each morning before beginning my work day in iphoto & photoshop fussin' & tweaking, bumping up the contrast, here and there or subtley cropping this and that. I feel guilty daily about the time I spend here uploading & documenting my recent visual discoveries here on my blog. But this morning as I was doing all of the above I remembered (to remind myself) that I am consciously shifting my focus in life, shifting away from the things that trouble me & anger me. Shifting away from the things in my life that feel completely futile and often make me sad ... helpless & discouraged. I'm shifting my focus instead toward wonder & amazement & beauty & awe. All of it found so easily, daily, hourly and always at my fingertips.

Capturing all of this, savouring it, loving it, honouring it has become my new religion. This place is my church.

A wee noontime lunch break afterthought addition to this post - I was a bit of an REM freak superfan in the late 80's, I had a HUGE crush on Michael Stipe - I saw them live (Norman didn't we go together ?) at the Forum when I lived in Montreal, the Indigo Girls opening for them - sigh - memories, so much religion ... also.

explorer

 still life with cosmos

Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness. 
Mary Oliver

I've remembered recently that I am at heart an explorer. I knew it once before but I'd forgotten. For my soul and my spirit to feel alive, to feel calm, to feel astonished, to feel comfort, to feel happiness, to feel value & to feel truly alive I need, I must, be exploring my world. I need to constantly seek out & find the breathtaking in my world. It's there, it's everywhere, but sometimes I forget to see it ... sometimes I forget to look for it.

Recent travels with my girl Winnie each early morning, just the two of us alone on the beach at low tide has reminded me of this ... to pay rapt attention to what you truly love in this life is balm for the spirit.

still life with nasturtiums & sweet peas

kind & generous

periwinkle love / seaweed / Miss Winnie Dixon / a gurgling creek / Dee girl / another perfect puddle shot (we pass this perfect puddle on the way to the beach) / Winnie / barnacles & more

Wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day
Kahlil Gibran

thank you for the recent comments left here. thanks for being kind & generous. thanks for reminding me what I already love about this place. this blog of mine. thanks for the encouragement & support. it's exactly what I needed to fall in love all over again with this place, with these photos, with this blog of mine

thank you !

I heard this fabulous Natalie Merchant song on the radio yesterday (talk about the songs of my youth) & was reminded of just how very far I've come & this place, this blog I love so much, really is the cherished, well worn map of that journey

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude
A. A. Milne - Winnie the Pooh

this morning

a perfect puddle / crow / Missy D on the beach / the crescent beach / annual dahlias / home stretch / our harbour / starling with cloud / pink blossoms / low tide / my best girl D