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It appears I ran out of time tonight so I figured I’ll share some of my favorite videos. No common thread except that all of them are food for thought and for your soul. Multitasking and the Effects on Concentration Amanda Palmer @ TED Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology @ TED hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Ethereal is another supernatural young adult book. paranormal? I don’t even know what to call them. It’s just another one of those. It’s fast paced. It’s fun. Its characters are enjoyable. It’s a quick read. If you’re not sick of the genre and like to read something quick and fun, it’s a good one to pick up. And there are a few more where that came from so you can enjoy the characters and plot for quite a few books. And I read them all:
I will admit they sort of get progressively worse and also more explicit. So while the first was ok, the rest, eh. Here’s this week’s card:
It says: like all else, love begins with you. love yourself. This card uses a hearts template from The Crafter’s Workshop (as well as a few others.) and acrylic paint. Gratitude PostCards is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and the postcards I use here.
I was on a call this morning. It was really really early in the morning and the person we were waiting for didn’t realize the time had changed (he was in europe where the time hasn’t changed yet) and so he didn’t show up. Instead of hanging up, two of us stayed back and started talking about my values. She asked me what I would need the most in the world and I said only my kids and my husband. I have faith that if we’re together, we can figure out the rest. And then we started talking about more second-level stuff. Like what would I want assuming I had my family, shelter, food, etc. I said books. Books have been an integral part of my life for as long as I could read. That’s over 35 years. She asked me what it is about books that I like. At first it was the typical stuff: learning, the escape, the stories, etc. But then I realized it’s not that at all. I like books because they give me a sense of belonging. When I am reading, I don’t ever doubt my place in the world. Books don’t reject me. It’s a place that waits for me and accepts me no matter what. I can read on a good day, on a bad day, and every day in between. I don’t ever have to doubt myself, what I say, what I look like, what I worry about. The books are always there and they create a space for me that’s mine. Without judgement. I know it’s not like friends or family. And I am not comparing. I am just saying that books are so much more than an escape for me. They are not a fun past time. They are not simply a tool to learn. They are not silly. They are not something to do on the beach. They are not even just a path to sanity and quiet. They are my place of belonging in the world. And, for that, I am wildly grateful. My goal for 2013 is to make three sketches a week. If I make more, great. If I don’t, that’s ok. Trying to keep the pressure low while still encouraging myself to draw. Here are the ones for this week :
that’s it for this week. Sketching is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my sketching journey here.
After reading about it on Ali’s blog, I went to read this interview with Katrina Kennison. And there’s so much good there but this one section resonated with me above all:
It’s enough to be loving. I love that idea. I love love love it. I love it because, for me, it means I don’t have to work so much. It means I don’t have to fight and stress and worry. It means I don’t have to struggle so hard. This sort of made me think about my self-kindness goal for March and how it’s about doing the loving thing for myself. And while it’s magnificent for me and for my way of thinking, it’s incredibly powerful when approaching the world and others. I had a long and struggling day on Friday. I came into a call with a lot of energy and optimism and felt completely deflated, confused and small by the end of it. Whenever I am in these situations, I feel a strong sense of overwhelming sorrow. Sometimes when I am really sick, I can’t remember how it felt to be well. It’s like being sick consumes me and even though intellectually I know it will go away eventually, emotionally I can’t remember how being well felt. This is how I felt after the call. Like I would never be well again. Like I should just give up on this particular goal and stop the pain of learning/growing/struggling right now. I knew this was coming (even though a small part of me wished I was wrong, of course.) And I am trying to let myself feel it and sit with it and learn from it and not run in the other direction. Not take the easy route. But reading this passage made me think. What would be the loving thing here? How could I approach the whole situation in a loving way? Here are some ideas that came to mind:
And when I list all those, I feel lucky, blessed and grateful. Grateful that I have “time” to get it “right”. Grateful that there are people who will take time and effort out of their own lives to help me improve. Grateful that I am still choosing to learn new things and improve myself. And, above all, grateful for this new perspective. Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations: Before:
and here’s what the page looks like with all the gratitudes and celebrations:
There we go. Just another excuse to create art and remember the present that is my life. Gratitude Journal is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here. Here’s his next page. He was grateful for meme and poppy (his paternal grandparents) for taking him on walks to collecting leaves.
there we go. more next time. Nathaniel’s Gratitude Pages is a weekly project for 2013 with my almost four-year-old son. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.
Here are some snapshots from our week: love this face by David.
we went canoeing for the first time (for all of us but Jake).
and then watched the ducks.
another canoeing shot.
and proof that I was there, too.
nathaniel was at a birthday party for one of our neighbors and he won these blow-up toys.
he loves them.
we went to the library and while I was sitting and reading, I noticed he found his way to the computer and just got cozy.
here’s david’s pile. he has hardcore physics books, tintin comics, some kids’ fiction and some fun nonfiction. my boy has a wide range.
then we went to the park where the boys threw balls around.
i was too lazy to really process these right.
so some of the color is off but i still love them!
mostly seeing the joy.
and how grown up he is.
and how cute he is.
look at that boy.
caught!
the Nathaniel decided to tackle david.
so of course i snapped and snapped.
and snapped.
then it was family photo time.
nathaniel telling what he loves.
tickling.
and more tickling.
lest you think it’s always laughs, there’s random crying for not getting exactly his way.
but thankfully we return to laughter.
and here we go. so grateful for my life. i hope your week was lovely, too. Weekly Diary is a project for 2013. You can read more about it here. Before this week’s art here’s the important reminder: Please remember, this is personal and hand-made and thus imperfect. If you want perfect art, do not buy mine. Also one more reminder that these are pretty small. 5.5inches by 5.5inches. That’s about 14×14 centimeters). You will just get the original piece of watercolor paper with my art and signature in the back. No mounting, no frame. I don’t want to misrepresent anything. I will put a paypal button under each (you can pay with credit card or paypal.) the button doesn’t update so you will have to click through to see if it’s sold out. I will try to update them as quickly as I can and remove the button if it’s gone, but just in case. Each piece will be $35. That’s US dollars. If you have questions please leave a comment and I will reply as fast as I can. With that here’s this week’s art:
it reads: celebrate this wonderful moment. SixBySix is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and other details here.
In 2002, I quit my job to join Teach For America. What followed was some of the most difficult months of my life. I felt so sad, so lost, so frustrated during those months that it stained everything else about my life. As all of it was happening, I remember thinking that I had to make sure to write it all down. I knew that after many months, or years, I’d look back on it and tell myself that it wasn’t as bad as I thought. My memory would fade. So I wrote it down. I wrote that I wanted to remember how bad it really was. What it was doing to me and why I decided to walk away and how it wasn’t a lightly-made decision. Because I wanted to erase the likelihood that I would look back and reprimand myself for not being tough enough to make it through. While I might still have some bruised parts from having walked away from it, I can tell you that writing it down allowed me to really lock in the experience. It’s been ten years and I still remember it vividly. It was hard. It was terrible. It made me a shell of the person I was. I can go on and on. The important part is that I can still remember that feeling and connect to it right now because I took the time to lock it in. And, today, I want to do that same thing but for the opposite reason. For reasons I can’t specifically put my finger on, I have been feeling really good lately. Nothing amazing but just content, happy, relaxed, safe and loved. I have been going through my crazy-busy days and not stressing and not panicking and not yelling. I have been growing and learning from my experiences. Looking at things positively. I have had no refined sugar for two weeks now. I have been exercising daily. I am connecting with my kids and spending time with them. I have set up a regular date night with my husband. I have been taking time to connect with friends and work mates. I am doing ok at work and not stressing about things. I am just doing the best I can and letting myself off the hook when I need to. For me, all this adds up to feeling good about myself. Showing up in the world in a positive way and assuming the best and being grateful. And, it will change. I know it will because everything does. Tomorrow I might wake up to a huge problem at work. I might lose my job. Something could happen to my kids or husband. Something could happen to me. It might even not be that big a thing. My supervision could go badly and my perspective of myself could completely shift. I could have a fight with my husband or yell at my kids. Someone could yell at me. Etc. etc. Big and small things happen every day. Emotions shift, feelings change. Since I know I am feeling joyful at this very moment, I wanted to write it down and lock it in. So that I can remember this feeling and connect with it when I need to. Put it in my catalog of good experiences. So that I can not just know but feel that it will come back around again. So that when things go bad and I look back, I don’t tell myself it wasn’t as great as I thought it was. So that I don’t let my memory distort it. It was great. It is great. I am grateful and I am locking it in. If you’re in a good place right now, too, I hope you’ll lock it in with me. And if you’re not, maybe this can also remind you that you’ve been here before and will come back around to it again. and here’s this week: it starts with the back of the physics show catalog. We have Nathaniel’s big buddy’s valentine and David’s swimming ribbon for freestyle.
then comes a blurry photo of this picture of David reading his story:
and in the back is the feedback he got for his story (I will also add a printout of the story itself.)
and then the page is:
This week is David’s birthday celebration at home, at school, painting his transformer, the kids’ valentines (paper airplanes) and playing out in the backyard to celebrate the sun finally coming out. See you next week! The Savor Project is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and other details here. |
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