the dreaming Press.

reach for new heights~

 

 Christine Mason Miller's bejewelled wrist & graceful hand. Photo taken earlier this year in Petra, as part of Tara Bradford's Journey To Jordan photography trip.

These last couple of days my heart strings have been tugged on quite a bit.  I've welled up.  I've teared up.  I've sniffled a few times.  A few people have really cracked me open.  Wide open. I wish to thank them for that. They make me long to reach for new heights, stretch myself further, go the distance with my life. Read and see if you agree with me, I'm sure you will.

First, Relyn.  Relyn blogs at Come Sit By My Fire.  She posted a list of prudent advice for her daughter Sloane.  Go read it, you'll want to print it out and share it with your daughters, your sons, and your best friends.  Relyn has a warm heart and always blogs her personal truths.  She has been one of my biggest inspirations.

Second, a woman I don't even know.  At all.  But my mother knew her.  My friend Maithri knew her.  Here is her blog.  She recently passed on but left such a glowing legacy I had to share her with you.  She will gobsmack you with how richly she lived her life.  Go read, go cry.  Go be envious like I was.  Leave her space wanting to reach a little higher.  Thank you Tessa, for your inspirations.  I know your words will continue to ignite a living passion in others like wildfire.

Thirdly, and I say this with a lump in my throat.  Life is fleeting.  Life is beautiful.  Cherish those you love and hold them dear.  For it is but a blink in the twinkly night sky.  Blessed are we who have known the love of a most wonderful mother.  If you still have yours close, make sure you tell her how much she means to you today.

Okay, had to get that out there.  Life isn't always bowls of cherries ya know! If anyone has extra, or is feeling inspired to help, please check out my friend Maithri's organization to see where you fit in.  Who knows, I may bump into you in Swaziland one of these days.  Tessa donated proceeds from her art to PDI, it was a cause that touched her heart.

xoxo

Gillian

p.s. i love you :)

Monday mania, moonmilk and men who sang songs that mattered.

 

First thing I'm going to do is link you to Moonmilk, one gallery of the many works of Ryan McGinley.  If you don't know him, do check him out. Entrance Romance is a nice short film also.  The whole site is great. {However, if you aren't sure that you like art with people's naughty bits showing...or if children are by your side as you click through, perhaps you'll like to peruse his site later.  With a cup of tea and some cheese and crackers.  On. Your. Own.  Hey, it's art.  No rules.}

Secondly, I'm going to tell you that when you eat too many of these, you get a tummy ache.  {Oh that was paired with chocolate fudge, do you think that made it worse?} 

Thirdly and lastly, I want to tell you a funny joke.  Because you don't get tame rabbits out of wild ones, my mother always says, and this joke is one of my late grandfathers funnies....it is a tad cheeky.  To kick start your Monday...!

'What did the Englishman say when he came home and discovered his wife in bed with three blokes he knew from the pub?'

wait for it....

"Aaaaallo, allo, allo!!!"

I laughed for ages after that one, it struck my unbelievably childish funny bone. If I got it wrong Mum, my apologies.  I am a terrible joke teller.  Terrible! I can't remember a joke to save my life.

Do pop over to Alessandra's, she was kind enough to host me yesterday at her place, I guest posted on Gypsy Girls Guide. 

Enjoy the best of your Monday, carpe diem kiddies!  A songie.

xo
  

The charmingest of balconies.

I captured this on my phone the other day while walking through The Beach area of Toronto, my friend Christina and I walked "The Underwear Affair" and our team of two kicked proverbial ass.  Indeed we did. 

I stalled briefly after accidently turning my phone off, I wanted a picture of a yellow front door that I saw...I have a thing for them because my front door is yellow.  Yellow doors are the happiest of doors to go through, you see.  But when my phone gave me a hard time, I gave up and we completed our walk amidst all the jiggly and some not so jiggly buns out walking for the same cause. I never got the picture. 

But the neighbourhood we saw on our walk was so cute, charming and full of life.  There was even a fat ginger cat sunning himself out on a dangerous ledge without a care in the world. It was Christina who noticed him, "Look at that cat!" she said laughing.

As we passed the homes, which we both fell in love with...I wondered to myself, who lives here? You know me, whenever I walk by charming cosy homes I'm just itching to walk up and bang on the front door...invite them out on to the porch to chat.  Small talk I think would work well.  Then we'd progress to something a little deeper, a little more meaningful.  I wondered what music was in the cd player here at this home, the one with the most charmingest of balconies? 

Do they listen to the Rolling Stones?

Do they smoke shisha?

Do they tuck or untuck? (Shirts and bedsheets) 

Do they feel happy or sad?

Favourite colour? Smell? Feeling?

How are things at work?

Are they in love????

Are they truly living?

I walked along with my friend, and wondered how she was coping.  You see we were walking in memory of her boyfriend, who she had lost in April of this year to cancer.  I feel for her going through this journey as she herself tries to live again.  She is the bravest and sweetest girl you could ever meet.  I looked back to myself at her age, and I had been with Julian already nearly three years.  Which is precisely the amount of time Christina had with Jake.  Several times while walking I had a lump in my throat.  Theirs was true love, cut short.  I'm usually pretty Zen about the cycles of life and death but I do not hesitate to tell you that they were both royally ripped off. 

Now I don't know about the charming home with the balcony, whether they listen to the Stones or not.  But Jake and Christina did.  She told me their song.  In particular, the line they shared: wild horses, we'll ride them someday.

Go live while you are alive. Sieze every opportunity, kiss everyone you love and tell them so, and please don't forget to listen to the Rolling Stones. 

xoxo

olivia & the sky

Olivia & the sun; SX-70, 600 film with vintage filter; cropped and edited :)

{you can give me film yet I still mess with it}

Olivia out in the sun blowing bubbles yesterday while we spent time washing & vacuuming the car. The day turned out fine after our initial bumps in the road. 

If you ever wondered how busy moms cope while carrying on a blogging habit, visit Bird Tweets for some insightful questions she asked busy blogging mothers.   

Sunday is sunny again, good for the soul sunny.  This day calls for homemade banana bread with chocolate chips & spring cleaning while listening to classical cranked up high.  I'm watching this totally sweet movie I picked up tonight, it looks endearing and funny.  (Have a most endearing and funny day yourselves.) xo
 

Sweet evenings.

Popping in with a thank you to all of you for the birthday wishes! I am lucky to have such amazing friends in you.

Ah sweet evenings, & Sunday tea. We eat a mixture of things for our Sunday tea, cheeses, meats, pickles & homemade soup with bread.  It is the favourite meal for the kids, because we plunk it all down on the table and everyone takes only what they like.  It is a hit!

I happened upon this birdhouse while looking for something to shoot for the 365 photo project.

I wonder what these little groovy birds had for dinner tonight? A camper house like this one is sure to keep the Hep Cats outta sight, man. ;)

Okay that was corny.  A song, from my parent's dating years, "their's" actually.

But, (back to the birdhouse now) I imagine a beehive sporting birdie-chick and a skinny-pants wearing young fella enjoying a meal together, on this the tenderest of winter Sunday evenings, inside that sweet little "camper des birdies".

Off to read and bathe now...just a soak in the soaker tub followed by hot tea and flannel pj's.  (Ah the bonus of being married, we get to sleep in comfy jammies!) xo

For the love of sentimentality...everywhichwhere.

Letters from a friend.  Dating back 15 years or so.  On my mantle.  In my new home.  Cherished.  Much like the old Christmas card that popped out of a cookbook the other day quite pleasantly with it's HELLO!~ All Our Love, Grandma, Grandpa & Emma xo (Don't you just love when that happens...signs, signs are everywhichwhere...)

{Emma was their dog.  I suppose they are all three walking on some ethereal beach somewhere, waiting patiently (with all the knowledge we could ever hope for) for us to unite once more.}

True friendship is love.  It is support and a listening ear.  I wish upon each of you the gift of one true friend.  If you are fortunate to have more, all the better.  I wish for you all... people in your corner who:

• encourage
• bring out the best in you
• love unconditionally
• bloom when they are around you, and likewise you when you are around them
• are generous with praise and gentle with criticisms
• have time to talk even if it is for five minutes
• never take from you your possessions or try to take full credit for your ideas
• never make out that they are someone they are NOT
• never deliberately use you or try to hurt you
• are someone you would aspire to be like

If you need to let go of a friendship, do it with an open heart, and do it gently. After all, you could be on much different wavelengths, and have simply outgrown one another.  That in itself is no crime.

On this misty grey Monday filled with *magic* I leave you to ponder your own friendships.  Like a garden, one must tend to them regularly. Happy gardening!! xo