What will happen next?

Image credit: Paolo Morello, Paestum

Surrender to the way things want to happen next, even though this often involves a vast and terrifying loss of control. Trust the magic that was born into your soul.

Mertha Beck,

~ Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

Insiration Monday- Kick my but

Do I need a : PUSH : at the back

Do YOU?

Beacause 

Life is taking over our lives

and

other people's lives take over ours

and

time goes

as we check e-mails and messages

and the fridge

and watch tv

and

...

you know how it goes

...

SO

Do you agree?

:: All images (and more...) :: 

from here

Morning Prayer

{Photo found on TUmblr, some time ago}

The land does not cease to give.
But the people do grow full
and forget to give thanks.

We fill up our hollow bones and trade heritage for a set of keys,
a power line,
a sadness not filled up by all the gold from these Mountain springs.
We do our best to bring the forests and mountains down to find our gold.
Still,
it cannot fill the sadness,
save to build our homes and fill them with lights,
to fuel our cars and grind down the keys that will drive us to cemetaries
on days when we are told to remember the leftOnes,
our mothers and fathers.
But we do not go and ask for wisdom anymore.
We cannot bring ourselves to look down at the graves
and ask the soil to give us answers.

And so, the land continues to give,
while we forget to give thanks for the fullness of these hollow bones.

{source}

To be happy about...

Anna Spiro blogging again. I love her idiosyncratic shop and her eye for happy places.

 

 

Minimalist with maximalist-gold-undertones. How ingenious of you, Dustjacket Attic!

 

 

Creativity,

ZsaZsa Bellagio

 

 

 

In the mood for...feather light

I fell in love with these soft images. 

I am in a mood for softness and lightness. 

I love everything in this photo. The wedding dress, the lace curtain, the color turquoise.

Feathers...and that turquoise again...

I like that cushion in an otherwise plain chair.

Paris, raw wood and ah! those lillies!

I can imagine the fried zucchini and spring onions, the pasta and cream...yum!

Summertime!

All images via decor8.

What helps me? Answering Jennifer Louden's questions

One of my favorite people, writer and  Comfort Queen Jennifer Louden, wrote this article, that I find stimulating for each and everyone of us.

I believe we can all ask ourselves the same questions, and find different answers coming out, or very similar ones, at that. Believe me when I say that my answers, when they are put to paper, very often surprise me when they compare to what I expected myself to answer.

Jennifer's questions follow (go here to read her answers)

What helps me in my business?

What helps me in my business isn’t any different than what helps me in my life. I’m sure the same is true for you. Like:

:: who do you grow with? my husband and our family. I believe that if you are inclined to married life, choosing/picking/ following, whatever leads you to sharing your life with the person who is your life companion is key to finding your life's purpose, to chase your deamons or making peace with them.

* what do you excel for? Being a good example for my kids is motivating me to be a better person. I can see patterns in my behavior from my experience as a child, that I put aside, and reach for ways to be closer to my children, being more open, more supportive, more present for them.

:: who do you allow to support you even when it’s messy – really messy. Realtives have traditionally been a safety net for Greek families. Not all are blessed with loving relatives, but C's family is blessed with some loving, caring relatives. I admire my mil' sfamily for their close knit ties, and I want my children to grow to be tight together like a fist. 

* more of letting that messy support in. Asking for help has been for me an exercise to humility. I am a shy person, and this is often mistaken for pride or distance. I need my time to feel comfortable in the presence of people. I have been through the letting too much out after keeping too much in. Finding this balance has been a challenging and yet rewarding part of my life. 

:: Pleasing myself first and then asking “How can this serve the people I love to inspire?” This is very hard for me but I’m clear it’s the only way I will have the energy to continue to create. Serve yourself first.(Jen's words). That was one of Jennifer's lessons that I found hard to follow, yet in a way freed me

via

* who guides you beyond your limits? Oh, it will have to be life. I have shifted from a place of seclusion, what seemed like a destiny to academia, to retail sales which is the exact opposite, in terms of  introvert-extrovert.

via

:: do you allow yourself to be a learner? name where and when. That's tough, isn't it, saying "I don't know how to do it', when you are pressured to save face in business at all costs. And yet, I find saying "I don't know" a relief and a beginning, beggining a healthier relationship with a customer, dealing with coworkers, even dealing with my own kids. I have read alot, I ahve tried some more. Most of all, I remain a learner in front of God. I have learned to say, "Show me the way, cause you are the way, the light and the life."

via

* how do you grow in awareness? Learning to take a break. Stop and think about what I'm doing. I have always loved having penpals from different places of the globe, and that hasn't changed since I was a teenager. It evolved into blogging, and I am thankful for that. Opening up to the best possibilities, opening up to beauty makes me aware of the beauty I am capable of. 

:: who do you want to create with? have you asked? Hard one. Funny as it is, I can see women getting together to knit and craft in the States or the UK, and here simply isn't done. Unless one is my mil' s age, when women used to get together with their cross-stitching for morning coffee, it just isn't part of the culture anymore. There are places in Athens that younger women get together and sew. They are young, have lived abroad, and kind of link their two experiences together. Our company does workshops and we only recently hosted one. So yes, baby steps...

But right now, I am encouraged to create by my children. They way they approach making things as a natural part of their lives. They don't research that much or collect patterns. They pick their tools and go for it. And if they are not Ok with the result, they do again. I think this is a quality one loses through formal education, work and control in general. So, i love creating with my kids around, because they take me out of my "should" corner and into their "can" place.

* Blog posts like this on knowing what you want (you cannot please yourself if you don’t know what you want.) More of that, in a next post.

:: Owning my gifts. (be brave: own yours.) Ha! Such puritans, we learn to hide our gifts instead of using them to their full potential. The concept of our talents being God's gifts to me is relatively new to me and I discovered it through blogging friends. I am encouraging my kids to go for what they like. Acknowledging that my talents are God given is one sure path to happiness.

* how do you stay on your own side especially when despair and fear come a calling?

Prayer. How can I stress this highly enough. To remain on your side, to remain connected to your true self, you must be connected to your power source. God is the ultimate power source that works for each one and all of us. Because He is Love, He knows how to adapt His attention to our needs, let us swim and throw a life boat in when we need it most. 

Ultimate self-care is key to being present for others, too. So yes, I now take that catnap, stop to hug my cats, eat black eyed beans wven when no one else wants them, and hve a banana for breakfast when it feels right. Stay tuned to the Source.

:: where does love hold you to your best self and where does self-hatred bend you to improve? Being accepted by yourself for all your weaknesses and dark corners, your lies and secrets is a big first step. Know thyself for who you are. Get cleaning and arranging your soul without blame. Loving after thyself like you do a little baby. Important. Self-hatred has kicked in more than once in my life, but, apart from some venting, it only did me harm. So do what you have to do with love.

* what are you devoted to? This is the essence, really, where do our loyalties rest, where does it all come to. I believe for me it all rests in my love for Greece, the spirit of freedom and independence it stands for in the entire world, the unsubmissiveness, the raw edge. SO I'd say, all in all for me, life is about being free to live your life. I am devoted to Freedom.

via

I learn so much about myself with the help of Jennifer's questions. 

I encourage you to visit Jennifer Louden  and bet you to be inspired to a more loving, inspired, kind life.

Inspiration Monday

Wrapping Your Presence in Rainbows
by Marney K. Makridakis

People have often told me that I tend to see things through rose-colored glasses, and I take it as a compliment.  I know that the idiom tends to have a negative connotation, but I tend to think of my own rose-colored glasses as being one of my most helpful tools for creativity, productivity, and happiness.  Seeing the bright hues in any situation allows us to focus on what we want, rather than what we don't want.  And having a clear vision of what we want is, I believe, the first step in actually taking action to get there.

I recently was reminded, however, that taking off the rose-colored glasses can be pretty amazing, too.  I experienced this quite literally, when looking at rainbows through my polarized sunglasses.  Typically, these sunglasses tend to make everything more vibrant, including the beautiful rainbows that are so frequent where I live.  The sunglasses make rainbows really pop into an even more spectacular sight.

But the other day, my husband commented on the vivid rainbow, and oddly enough, when I had the sunglasses on, I couldn't see the rainbow at all.  Once I took them off, then I was able to see it in all its breathtaking splendor.  Now, I'm sure there is a scientific reason that explains this phenomenon – why the color frequency in this particular rainbow was so dramatically different from most rainbows I had seen.  But, science aside, the experience reminded me of how important it can be to take off the rainbow-colored glasses from time to time, and see exactly what really is.  What really is can be even more breathtaking than what might be.

So which is better – to see life for what it can be, or see it for what it is?    I think the answer lies in making a choice to fully experience the powerful elements that each perspective has to offer. Balance, of course, is necessary, since we can't become so focused on what is that we forget the value of seeing what can be.  And perhaps even more bravely, we can't become so attached to our rainbow-colored glasses that we forget what can happen when we really allow ourselves to actually be with what is, and feel the gravity, and resulting power, of our lives' truth.

I believe that making brave choices, even the very act of choosing to become comfortable with this type of duality, is easier when we utilize creativity to support our choices.  "Choice" and "Intuition" are two of the ARTbundance™ Principles that trainees in the ARTbundance™ Certification Training Program have been studying, learning how to help their clients develop intuition, so that they can innovatively use it to make many kinds choices in their life.

I'll close with some words from a poem that I wrote for an early issue of Artella magazine:

I gathered embraces and cuts
grace and guts
but one is not more lovely than the other
I gathered it all.

A load like this never gets lighter
but if you feel it for true
let the weight ruin you
dare to feel the pinch
if you feel it
and really feel it
you'll sing so fast, you can run
dance so loud, you can rhyme
and close your eyes so light,
you can fly.

Blessings to you and your gorgeous, rainbowtacular flight!

---

Marney K. Makridakis is the founder of Artellalandand the inventor of the ARTbundance Philosophy, which uses ARTsignments™ to change lives through the power of creativity.  

Don't miss this FREE class!

A quick reminder to all my friends:

If you haven't seen my sidebar and haven't signed up yet, I am inviting you to join us for the Complimentary ACT in Action TeleParty on October 28, 2010 . 

That is this coming THURSDAY OCTOBER 28TH,
 9:00pm Eastern

8:00 Central, 7:00 Mountain, 6:00 Pacific

The class will be recorded, so even if you do not attend-though I strongly advise you to attend -why miss the fun?- do sign up!
We are going to be, oh so encouraged and inspired, each of us in our own creative process. 

Hear you there (and let me know what you think!)

Clocks-Time- Spring

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic

Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly

we do not
wind it up it has no weights
springs wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.

(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)


From dark to light...May time...optimism for the day...photos via Design Sponge, Oh Joy and Bo with words by e.e.cummings (9).

::Follow and Lead::

(embroidery pattern: Magpie Patterns)

(Quote from his grace, Uncle Beefy)

Attic, dear

Our attic won't be dealt with until next year. We have lots and lots to finish at home, before we begin another project. This article from Design Sponge is bound to be useful, though. Check it out if you are planning an attic makeover. Fabulous!