Manic Mondays # 4::Carving Order into the Chaos

I have adopted a flexible routine. It keeps me grounded. It enables me to focus on following the inspiration to creative production. I have decided, also, to reject negative energy, in favour of positive light. I do not need to get the last word. I have come to see that I am not my mind. I am soulful, I am spirit. I am light. I found a fabulous website last night called The Happiness Project. It led me to devise my own person commandments. And my own framework for happiness.

I remain committed to myself, in continuing my own Project 365. I have come to see that one must commit to oneself on a spiritual, personal level, before one can contribute in any meaningful way to others, to society at large. This realization makes me feel alive inside, and stable/grounded on the outside. I do choose ~ it does start with me.

Sacred Life Sunday:A Day of Rest ~family, relaxing, quiet time

This picture speaks for itself. What else, for a Sunday, but sacred rest?

Project 287 :: Week 1 In Review

What is Project 287?

Foto Finish Friday :: The Ones That Didn't Make It

I have decided to make Foto Finish Friday a chance to feature and 'finish' my own photographs, rather than someone else's. I will choose from the many photos that I took for my Project 287, that did not 'make the cut.' The photo below, I took on the W. Georgia side of the Vancouver Art Gallery. It's part of the main feature of the grounds, there ~ a lovely stone-sculptured fountain that has several sides, depicting a nymph-like creature, climbing up the rocky slope. Creator, Alex Svoboda used as his inspiration for this magnificent piece the legends of the Celts, Gauls and Britons, the forebearers of of the earliest British Columbians. He carved this magnificent piece from 18 ft-high black marble, which came from Carrara, Italy. The design centred around a motif of water, and the fountain commemorates the union of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island with the mainland ~ 1966.

*8 Things ~ Not to Miss in Your Twenties

1. Spend time with your girlfriends ~ Don't let your boyfriend or love interest monopolize all your time. Now's the time to enjoy your youth, your freedom [from heavy-duty commitment and responsibility] and your friends. As time passes, and you grow older, and grow into family life, you'll find less and less time for yourself and for time spent with your friends.

2. Start saving your money now ~ Its never too early to begin saving. Saving = good. Spend-thrifting = bad. Think of saving as paying yourself first.

3. Live by yourself [i.e. on your own] ~ It may seem lonely and solitary, at first, but it will prove a invaluable experience that will pay dividends later in your life. Make sure that you can meet the challenge of self-sufficiency, before entangling your life with someone else's.

4. Use birth control ~ Its definitely not as glamourous and easy as it seems to go through pregnancy and raise a child. If you want to get pregnant so you can have someone to love you unconditionally, then get a pet.

5.  Travel,  work abroad,  spend time living abroad ~  Now - when you have none of the heavy-duty family responsibilities - you can afford the time, energy and cost of such an trip. Do it ~ you won't regret it.

6. Pay cash for everything, and if you can't, don't buy it ~ You will have hundreds of companies [department stores, banks, etc] convincing you that you need to get a credit card, a loan, or a line of credit from them. Ignore them. Refuse them. Bankruptcy and/or a poor credit rating will follow you around for longer than you can imagine. Don't mortgage your future opportunities for the present's tempting frivolities.


7. Forgive your parents for whatever you think they did wrong ~ They did the best they could. Parenting looks easy, until you get there. And, really, you'd end up wasting so much time and effort being angry. Get over it.


8. Take the career path that YOU want ~ Its likely going to make some waves when you tell your parents that you don't want to study X, but you want to study Z. Or when you tell them you have no interest in learning the family business. But, in the end, its your life. In the future you must live with the consequences of the choices you make now. Choose wisely and for the right reasons.

Wishcasting Wednesday ~ Money Wishes

This week's Wish Prompt ~ What's Your Money Wish?

Want, when, worry. Imagine a hidden civilization with no words in their language for these words ~ want, when, worry. Interesting. A people with no desire to accumulate. A people with little roots. A nomadic people that spend 6 months of the year in their handcrafted boats. How do these people value each other, I wonder? Not by their depths of accumulation. And what, then, does this say about money? It says, to me, that money has become far more than a means of exchange in our modern society. Its become a symbol of power, and the measuring-stick by which we measure others.


Think of it. What's the first question people typically ask, when meeting someone for the first time? What do you do for a living? Which really means the following. How much money do you earn? Why do we want to know this? Does it assist us in sizing up the person that we've just met? Do we rank people, according to the amount of money they have in their coffers? How sad. Because he who dies with the most toys, still dies.

I wish for a more inclusive society, with respect to money. I wish for a day when all people have what they need, not necessarily what they want, to live life. I wish for a day when I no longer have to juxtapose in my head the fact that in Canada's richest city, a poor and homeless chap called Richard lives at the corner of Hastings and Main, possessing not much more than a hammer with which to defend himself. I wish for a day when people no longer confuse financial wealth with life fulfillment.


I wish .... what's your money wish?

Photo: I took this one in Dorset, UK, last year ~ when it comes to money we all seem like sheep, don't we?

Treacle Tuesday # 1: Brownie-Bear

Welcome to Tuesday. I have created a challenge for this day of the week that I call Treacle Tuesday. Its my vehicle for honouring the most precious and cherished things in my life ~ people. Why treacle? Well, because it comes from the Latin word for antidote to poison. And because of its sweetness ~ as the by-product of sugar refinement. I've come to realize, in my heart of hearts, that I need to remember and honour the people that have graced and blessed my life, in the past and in the present. To always hold so close to my heart and soul the graces and blessings that enrich my life and have molded me into myself ~ that's a real antidote to the poison of negative energy. And, so ... here's the first Treacle Tuesday post.

My pets, of course, they're animals. But, they're each, always, also people ~ full-fledged family members. And, so, this week I honour the last of our Afghan Clan ~ the end of an era. The painting below ~ commissioned by me after his death ~ was done by Laura Pelick.

Dear Brownie Bear;

We cried for you, when you had to go, to that place where we could not follow. We felt so blessed to share life and love and everything in between for the 10 years you lived. We really called you Blazer, after a favourite vehicle that I drove shortly before we brought you home. I'll never forget that day, in November of 1996, when we drove to Fargo, ND from our home in Winnipeg, with the two kids and the two Afghan Hounds we already had in tow, in our Chevy Suburban.

Daddy got a speeding ticket on that trip. Its hard to believe your small size then, when I reminisce about your early life. You had taken a very long flight from Connecticut, where your breeder lives. You came from the Dragonfly kennel. Your pedigree lists your name as Dragonfly Lawrence of Arabia. I love that movie, Lawrence of Arabia, and that's why we chose that as your registered name.

I smile and laugh to myself, when I think what a cocky little pup we brought home from the Fargo airport. You loved to pick on Gitane, tug on her long, black coat with your sharp teeth. And you also took to sleeping in Gypsy's kennel. Surprisingly, he allowed you. I remember with such fondness, the time when he came to his kennel, to lie down, and found you, curled up in a tiny red, fur-ball, at the very front of his kennel. He very gently and carefully stepped into the kennel without disturbing you, turned himself around, and sat down, in that sphynx-position. How precious!

We cherished you in your later days, especially because of your status as the last Afghan remaining. You tolerated so well the move to Vancouver, in the cab of a U-Haul truck, with three humans sitting on the bench seat, and yourself scrunched on the floor of the passenger's side of the cab. You, a big, fully grown Afghan Hound by then, had to share foot space with Logan and me. We rode like that for 33 hours ... all the way to the westcoast. You adapted to apartment-living so well. What a good dog! You understood everything we said to you ... you never begged when you saw us eating our meals ... and you never ran away when we let you offleash at the Kitsilano Dog Beach.

We love you always, Brownie. You gave us so much. And we feel so much joy at the blessing of your life, devotion and love. RIP. I know you live on, beyond the veil. I feel your spirit in the wind around me, sometimes. I shall hold a place in my heart for you. That's where you live ... forever.

Love,

Mummy