really.

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.

Rachel Naomi Remen

how are you? really. how. are. you?
(let it out.)

five (really) good things. today.

drinking a big glass of fresh-squeezed citrus in anticipation of a plane ride (full of germs)

laughing out loud with a friend on the phone today (can't wait to see you friday!)

looking out my window and seeing a bright blue sky

seeing the tulips get taller each day as they prepare to bloom in a few weeks

folding into child's pose and breathing deeply

*******

what are your five (really) good things?
name them...go ahead...take a moment and think of five...

feeling...

tired tonight. recovering from sunday's migraine complete with dizziness and blotches of wavy blurriness and the echoes of a bit of pain from my wisdom tooth pulling a week ago...

hopeful about a shift in the way i look at certain patterns in my life...being honest with myself about how repeating these patterns hasn't been working and deciding it is time (to try) to be honest with others as well.

happy about new designs that are making there way from paper to three dimensions.

melancholy about how much i miss her...found a picture this weekend that i have often passed by because it just isn't a great picture of me...but she looks beautiful...and i can't believe how healthy she looks...just nine years ago...how did she die six years later? how is it that it has almost been three years...the missing, the ache, will never leave...this is what i know to be true.

excited about an upcoming trip…chicago for the weekend and then indiana the next few days. "home" for the first time in over two years.

quiet about a few things…just needing a bit of space as i shift and push and breathe.

blessed to have friends (a couple near and few far) who get me…who really get me. (thank you)

*******

i guess tonight, i feel like i am gathering up the feelings…the bits and pieces of this life and living it…really living it.

my heart is open as i walk…as i dance…in my life.

perspective

the sun shines;
her heart opens (slightly).

*******

tonight,
i take a breath
and another
and i read this again
and again

my sacred life sunday.

springing

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
Joan Didion

do.

Somewhere
among
wanting,
hoping,
hiding,
breathing,
resting,
healing,
dancing,
realizing,
giggling,
sighing,
believing,
and
knowing,
I sit
quietly
doing.

Over the weekend, we tackled organizing the little room, my studio. It has been an 18-month on again, off again attempt to find what works for me.

Three trips to IKEA in 30 hours and lots of patience from Jon later I had a project table.

One wisdom tooth extraction and many mugs of tea and several bowls of cottage cheese and cups of pudding and a couple days later, I began to play.

The year of the do.
This is what this is.

inspirations. february 20.

the jewel-toned costumes of the tudors

the vintage linen pool

christine's wise words

anna maria's drawing room

frankie's truth shared here

the colors of the world of cath kidston

soaking up the inspiration of creating vintage style

possibility

blue.3 {self-portrait challenge}

blue is (also), to me,
safety (inconsistent)
truth (truth)
warmth (distance)
clarity (aloof)
freedom (isolating)
coolness (wide)
creativity (muggy)
connection (puzzling)
music (quiet)
hope (cyclical)

blue is, to me,
home

blue is, to me,
breath
truth
possibility
a pause
cocooning
opaque
peace
constant
shelter
rebirth

blue is, to me,
home

blue.1 here
blue.2 here
other interpretations of blue here