the dreaming Press.

We are the New Year.

 
Let 2010 be.  It is done.  I do not want to hear how bad of a year it was.  There are only two people I know who can get away with that excuse, the rest of you no.  No.  You mustn't put that upon a year. 

The last of the wine glasses, serving dishes & decanters have been washed with hot soapy water and tucked away in cupboards, much like the din of yesteryear-noise from the karaoke machine, people yelling "Happy New Year!" and dancing in the living room on makeshift dance floors.  It has all been carefully put away until the next coming of a New Year.

As I washed and folded the old year to make way for the new, I found myself thinking about the lackluster  event that New Year's is. And how cliched it is to hear the same old things about the old year that we always hear.  Isn't this New Year soon destined to be the old? And can we continue to blame the problems of our daily lives on a calendar year? Why not shift to seasons instead? A good winter, a bad winter.  This I can take.  But heavy is the head of the year coming into focus, the year crowned 2011.  This year is like a newly elected President taking over for a shoddy one having done two consecutive terms in office.  The expectations are rather high.

To sum up the New Year:

We place high expectations on it.  (On ourselves.)

We exclaim "This will be a great year!" (We will be great.)

We make resolutions. (We can change.)

We kick the old year to the curb. (We must have failed somehow.)

I propose we be the New Year.  Be the change.  Love ourselves & also those who don't know any better.  Forgive, because sometimes they only know half the story.  Forget, because sometimes they only see what they want to see.  Lead by example because sometimes, they let fear rule their lives.  (Give them a break, they need your understanding.) Finally let go of the ones who are no good for you. (Trust your instincts.) I've always lived by this rule.  There are some people who thrive on bringing you down.  Don't let them. Cut them loose.

So to make 2011 your best year may I humbly suggest:

*Point no fingers.

*To your own self be true.

*Take precious time for yourself.

*Talk on the phone or meet face-to-face.  In-person time is best.

*Be courageous.  Confront a wrong.  Put it right.

*Bake more!

*Think before you spend.

*Get adequate sleep.  Listen to your body and do not fight it.  8 hours would be perfect for you.

*Sing everyday, at the top of your lungs.  It is great exercise, and vents a lot of stress.

*If you buy something new, something old must be donated or thrown out.  Do not accumulate.

*Laugh everyday.

*Do the right thing, no matter what 'everyone else' is doing.  Even if it makes you unpopular.

*Vow to be better.

*Be more loving.

*BE the change and BE the best New Year you can be, for you and everyone you know. 

xoxo

 

 

 

Happy New Year today, and every day.

Me with my 4 year old daughter's guitar, I'm thinking of taking lessons this year.  I've been plunking around on it for a few days now.

Sitting here enjoying a big thick bowl of French Canadian pea soup & a small slice of toast I've decided now that (besides officially ruining my dinner with a late-afternoon snack) I steadfastly refuse to straighten my hair for awhile.  I am wavy naturally, and quite frankly am a slave to a flat iron.  Not for a couple of weeks.  I will go boho and love it.  Besides which, I found the Moroccan oil which has saved my parched wintery locks from cracking so I'll leave it be and let it stay hydrated and healthy for a bit.  I've always thought that straightening my hair was a form of exercising some control over my life so I'll let that slip a little, allowing the ideas of others to shape me somewhat for you never do know what amazing things will occur if you let it all go.

Pea soup is delicious, and quite filling.  I'd be enjoying it with my youngest daughter, had she not fallen privy to an afternoon kip, which followed an artistic breakdown (you know the kind) whereby the paper amphora she was colouring for me went awry-her little blue outlines went marginally outside their intended boundaries and lo! nothing could make that better.  So, while she cried large rolly tears of it'll never be right I rubbed her back while she lay on the bed slobbering and sobbing (much like I feel like doing the odd but not too-often time) and before you know it! she was snoring.  Sawing logs.  Peacefully and loudly and sometimes when things go painfully wrong it is only because we are well and truly tired, is all. 

Like 2009  for example, the tired out year of 2009.  It too was fresh like pea soup.  Full of zing like a hot buttery slice of toast.  Why now are we so eager to toss her out the window and embrace the possibility of 2010? When perhaps, likely it will end much the same...being tossed out the window to make way for 2011! Then 2012! Each year is what we make it, no?  Well each moment is what we make it really.  So that said, let's not burden the shoulders of 2010 with too many loads to carry.   If we are so tired of 2009 let us bid her adieu respectfully & lovingly, as she so carried us through...be it thick-or thin, happy-or sad, healthy-or wishing for health.  After all, anything that happened then could easily happen next week.  Will it then turn into "one of those years"? 

I say take your power back.  Make 2010 what you want it to be and blame nothing on the year.  For the year ain't nothing but a number.  But you, you can wake up from your nap refreshed and ready to tackle another paper amphora or whatever-it-is with GREATNESS. Nothing fails my friends. We are up, we are down. Our downs have built-in light that we see only once we are past it.  I will leave you to ponder the destiny of your year.  Carve it out, paint it up, photograph it, sing it, play with it, and truly live it.

I'll leave you now.  I'm going to string some fairy lights around a tree because I already miss the glow of our Christmas tree.  Then I'm going to read a new book-The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold.  Drink my tea.  Count my blessings.

xoxox Happy New Year today, and every day. xoxox

Embracing (with gusto!) my greatness...!

Wrap your love around a new idea. 

I myself, am dedicating myself to greatness! I want to put more effort into individual things that I do, and not try to do too many things. 

Better to do one or two things with greatness, than to try to do a million half-heartedly.  Accomplishment can mean different things to different people, but to me if one thing is done well, then that is worth all the effort.  Multitasking is a word I despise, because to me it means you have too many balls in the air and you are bound to not catch one of them. 

I have no resolutions, save that one.  Greatness!  That sums it all up right there. 

Full attention on the things, people and jobs before me.  (One photo, not ten.  One phone call, not ten emails.)

No empty promises (I've never been good at those anyways, but it doesn't hurt to throw that in there.)

No time wasting.  (Love that good doctor! So wise.)

Embracing the new, seeking a challenge, making the world a different, and better place.  (Encouraging, cheering and helping.)

Contributing from my core.  (Authentically so.  Drawing from the well's of inspiration around me.)

Being great.  (Be great with me! Challenge yourself to the same.) 

Leave 2009 a place of hope.  2010 is for greatness...measured in leaps and bounds! Heart-pounding, palm-wringing, anxiety-ridden BOUNDS! You will intuitively know the right path for you.  Shake it up and get off course, explore a horizon you've not seen. 

Oh the same/old is comfy, but it doesn't smack of greatness, does it?

Go get em, kids! See you in '10!

xo

for the mere creation of pretty things~

Beads from a New York City shopping trip last summer {they've yet to be worn, only photographed and featured as part of a dressing-table tableau, pictured with a postcard featuring Arabic script-from Paris Parfait.}

I often quote Kahlil Gibran, because he stirs my soul like no other writer.  Yes, Hafiz comes close.  As do the writings of even the very soul-stirring Anais Nin.  But! I must quote Kahlil now-for we embark upon something new {yet again} here at 'sweet indigo life'...something extraordinary.  That something is the art that dwells within...the art I've hidden and yet so frequently hinted at.  I'll continue here with my strivings and reachings...one day I'll perhaps be good at what I do.  Until then...thank you for cheering me on.  I seek the beauty alive within each breathing & dreaming moment;

Kahlil "On beauty":

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."
And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say,
"We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."
And in the summer heat the reapers say,
"We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves,
and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."
All these things have you said of beauty,
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

***

Surely this awakens something within you!  Read it twice, thrice.  Read it until it resonates within you.  For we look not to the exterior to find the beauty we seek-we look within the enflamed heart & the enchanted soul.  For there, all beauty reveals itself.  This little blog-gallery is my online tribute to that which I find beautiful.  Accompanying my amateur photography will be my revealings...my musings on that which I found worthy of posting.  Let this decade shine as one we are truly truthful in...let yourselves shine to the best of your ability. 

xoxo

post-script...Please accept my apologies now for any broken links if you've linked to my old blog.  If you would kindly update your links I'd greatly appreciate it.  I did think about this before I did it, but since my need to morph usurped the need to maintain the links, I did as the butterflies do...morphed away!! My intention is purely to cleanse my space, like a much needed rainstorm ionizes our air...like a sage brush smudges our air...I'm ringing in the new.  Thanks for understanding. xox

Two thousand and ten stars to wish upon~~~~~~*

 
I wish for each of you two thousand and ten dreams come true.

I hope you each get two thousand and ten hugs this coming year.

I've posted my favourite photo from this year.  I still think it could have been much better, but I like it none-the-less.  I'm allowing more light into things...my photos, my life, my work.  I know that the coming year will be what I make of it.  For those who were my biggest cheerleaders {and you know who you are} you will get that back tenfold.  I thank you.  For those without the ability to cheer-I encourage you to do so-"for when you give of yourself you truly give." {Kahlil Gibran}

May you find a hobby that feeds your soul so much as photography feeds mine.  The joy it gives me...the challenges, the exhilaration, the sheer bliss....I wouldn't trade that for all the tea in China.  No siree! I wish you find the same joy in whatever it is you do. 

Invite the following to become part of your Two Thousand and Ten...:

new foods

new people

new experiences

new light

new journeys

new routes to usual places, change it up

Also...make the following a regular part of your new year....:

a new flavour of coffee!

health

happiness

love

a new style, go for it!

buy less $$$ save more $$$$$$$

cut that hair!  right off!!!

new makeup shades please, we are tired of your same old...kick it up a notch! (me included)

sit up straight!

hug a stranger...with a genuine reason to...get outside your comfort zone

offer advice that is 100% truthful....do it gently....so the recipient knows you come from a place of LOVE

wash & detail your car....you'll want to take a drive just because

Same blog, new style coming in 2010.  Happy New Year!

xo

Sunlight on ribbon eggs.

Tonight it's meatloaf.

It's baking right now.  I think broccoli will join in and a little rice.  Mushroom soup gravy.  Meals like tonights come with my particular brand of lazy.  I am worked out, tired and am facing the de-Christmassing ritual this evening. 

Later on we have "Louvre Me-Louvre Me Not" nail varnish for the toes.  A brilliant purple shade.  I must multitask while I lounge watching tv you see!

Julian is playing Diego games with the children, it resembles something of a bingo game.  They are loving it.  Anytime they have his undivided attention (90% of the time) they are happy little ones. 

Why it just may be a night to finish another chapter of Tom Sawyer.  I love the little boy humour, the ways we thought when we were children that we have long forgotten about as adults.  Thank you Mark Twain.

And Sunday will bring it's own particular magic, the kind filled with drives in the country, hot coffee and kids video games.  We spend the majority of our downtime now househunting, and getting our current house ready to be appraised.  How did I end up with so much junk?  :)

xo

Happy New Year Friends~!

Due to unexpected business, I have no new photos to show you yet.

So you get an "old" New York cheesecake photo.  Go ahead, forget the calories! Grab your fork and dig in. :)

Wishing you all the best year ahead for so many reasons.  I just love all of you and can't wait to meet each and every one of you.  May you find love, money, happiness, health, joy, a good night's sleep, a good first impression, all the luck of the Irish and keep that spring in your step.  I'll be with you every step of the way.  Bounding along beside you with my unbridled enthusiasm!!!

A longer post later on....I promise.  I'll show you some new and exciting things.  Things that are so "'09"!!! xoxxo

p.s. Sorry but, I accidently erased my entire email inbox.  Then deleted it.  Then did some other crazy thing thinking I was cleaning up my computer.  I then realized it lost the last three days worth of stuff that I hadn't even read yet.  In my zeal for clean, I lost your letters.  Could anyone who sent me something in the last three days or so please resend it?  Thanks so much.  Sorry to be a pest. xo

Resolutionless and damn proud.

 p.s.  I'd love it if you clicked here.  (You'd be rocking out to my latest musical recommendation-insert sheepish grin here.) Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene goes wildly solo.  I'm lovin it. :)