Where have you been?

Hey Hey.

Happy 2012! Okay, I know I'm a little late, but I've been busy. This sweet little pair of legs have been only part of my life's distractions. I won't bore you with all the details and excuses, but let's just say the holidays are crazy busy, and January didn't let up.

I have no idea why I have let this pleasure drop from my life, and who knows when I'll be a regular blogger. But I am here now.

I have "stuff" going on the next few days, but I thought I would make myself sit down and get my head back in the blog scene. It seems easy in theory to just put some thoughts out in cyberspace every week or so, but just so you know, it's not as easy as it looks.

Maybe I just don't have enough thoughts.

I will need to think on that.......

See you soon.

XO - LA

Questions and Answers

I have discovered that I love questions. I love even the way your voice goes up a bit, then back down at the end of the sentence when you ask a question. I love people that ask questions because to me it makes me think they are engaged in life.

But other people, really seem to relish in the answers. I love those people, too. Don't get me wrong. But I am starting to realize that the people that thrive on questions are more like me, therefore I "get them".

I am just back from a two week trip through France, Luxembourg, Germany and finally Amsterdam. I am obsessed with travel because it brings up so many questions in me. I am curious as to why people are in general appearance quite similar, but when looked at individually, are so unique. And what makes someone who they are? And just because who they are (or who we think they are) at this point in their life, the reality is that what we see in each other are just little snippets of reality, but since we are ever changing, do we ever really KNOW someone?

See, I just can't stop myself. (Well, technically, for your sake I did stop myself right there, but even though I didn't keep typing out my questions, they are still running wild in my mind. I just thought I would spare you........you got the point......)

I am reading a book right now, Creators On Creating, and Pamela Travers, creator of Mary Poppins, says this...
"...there are no answers, there are only questions. Fallible creatures that we are and being ourselves in question, we inevitably demand answers to ease the lack within us. All things must be capable of explanation, every effect must have a cause, each problem a solution. It is thus that we arrive at conclusion, for conclusion brings about the ending that we mistake for an answer. "That's finished," we say, mendaciously. "We can go onto something else." But nothing in life - nor, perhaps, in death - is ever really finished."

I guess that's why I live in the questions of life. I truly believe that things never get finished. I spend so much time trying to clear out the clutter of my life, but as soon as I clear out one closet or drawer, or seem to come to some understanding about something, I turn around and I find myself surrounded by clutter again. Perhaps if I can remind myself that life is full of constant clutter and unknowns, I can find comfort in the questions and the consistency of them, and worry less about finding the answers.

So, what is up with the picture I posted? Well, if you look closely at the building (a museum in Amsterdam), you will see that there is a man's profile in the structure. It almost looks like he's embossed in it like a coin is embossed. There is no Photoshop slight of hand with this picture, but when I was there, I never saw this with the naked eye. I'll be honest, I thought I had some sort of supernatural photo here! After studying it in awe, I suggested my husband go look at it. Immediately, he realized that I had caught the reflection of the man in the seat in front of me in the window when I snapped the picture. Yep, he's the kind of guy that likes questions answered. So, instead of feeling like he burst my bubble, I have to ask myself, "How in the world did I frame that so perfectly without even trying?.........some sort of creative Divine presence?.........was it so I could stop and take myself back to the scene in my mind and replay it rather than just skim over it as I hopped from one photo to the other as a reminder to slow down?........was it......was it.......was it.......

I can't settle on the answers, they just encourage me into more questions.

It's great to be home.

XO - LA

!!! So Much Fun !!!

Hey there.

Well, I promised a show and tell if things went well on Monday with my encaustic photo workshop. It was over the top awesome! But, I really can't do an actual show and tell because there is no way to capture my pieces in a photograph of them. I can tell you that I learned a lot (Thanks Michael West!) and fell in love with this medium and process. It has turned my photographs into something you want to touch. Just beautiful.

What I have shared with you is the actual photograph of the piece that I "encausticised" which was my favorite of the day. It's a picture I took at Point Reyes National Seashore in August. There was some debris on the beach that I cleaned up, so here is a little before and after. I started with a photo taken on my iPhone, then played with in Photoshop just a little. To be honest, there wasn't much that I wanted to change from the original. I added some layers of texture and took out the pile of backpacks that looked really unsightly. Easy-smeasy!

Have a super Thursday and let me know what YOU learned this week.......... I'm always looking for a little inspiration, so bring it on.

XO - LA

The Dalai Lama's Timeless Thinking

Of course, it is a day of reflection for many. This day, 10 years ago, stopped us all in our tracks. It changed each of us, at least for a few days. I can remember the feeling driving around Atlanta in the week or so following 9/11 as days of generosity. Road rage seemed to be at an all time low......people treated each other with love and respect. At least for a few days. Any chance we can regain that spirit and move forward with our hearts a little softer and more open?

I found this on The Dalai Lama's website. It was his statement that he released on 9/11/01. I find his words perfect, for that dark day .........and for now.

"The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it - and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again.

The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are. There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear. If we come from fear we may panic and do things-as individuals and as nations-that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others. This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come. We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment. Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause. Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates. Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them.

To us the reasons are clear. We have not learned the most basic human lessons. We have not remembered the most basic human truths. We have not understood the most basic spiritual wisdom. In short, we have not been listening to God, and because we have not, we watch ourselves do ungodly things.

The message we hear from all sources of truth is clear: We are all one. That is a message the human race has largely ignored. Forgetting this truth is the only cause of hatred and war, and the way to remember is simple: Love, this and every moment. If we could love even those who have attacked us, and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack with attack, what then will be the outcome? These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are questions that we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at all. If we want the beauty of the world that we have co-created to be experienced by our children and our children's children, we will have to become spiritual activists right here, right now, and cause that to happen. We must choose to be at cause in the matter.

So, talk with God today. Ask God for help, for counsel and advice, for insight and for strength and for inner peace and for deep wisdom.

Ask God on this day to show us how to show up in the world in a way that will cause the world itself to change. And join all those people around the world who are praying right now, adding your Light to the Light that dispels all fear.

That is the challenge that is placed before every thinking person today.

Today the human soul asks the question: What can I do to preserve the beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the anger and hatred-and the disparity that inevitably causes it - in that part of the world which I touch? Please seek to answer that question today, with all the magnificence that is You.

What can you do TODAY...this very moment?

A central teaching in most spiritual traditions is: What you wish to experience, provide for another. Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience - in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that. If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another. Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to you for love.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."

-His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama

Practice Kindness.

Easy enough, right?

KINDNESS

Kindness

kindness

XO - LA

Pop Goes The Orange

So, what's up? I spent the morning at Scott's Antique Market and I'm always amazed with what I see. I come away feeling equally inspired and feeling like I must waste a lot of my time. Really, you should see what people are up to!

I did see a lot of beautiful muted vignettes though and thought how lovely all those things would look with these pieces that I did a while back. There is something so calming about having lots of white and off white with just a POP of color in play. I never really knew how much I liked orange until I noticed that it has a presence in my decorating quite often. And I'm not talking Halloween Pumpkin Orange......that would just be gross. I'm talking more of a chocolate-orange.

I guess I will spend the weekend playing with my photography a bit. I'm so so so excited. (why? you ask) I am doing my first encaustic workshop on Monday and it will totally open up my approach to showing my photography. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it. Probably even have a little show and tell time next week. Well, only if they end up show-able. If they are butt ugly, we will just pretend that I didn't share this with you.

I have a challenge for you. What new thing will you learn next week? All the studies show the importance of life long learning......so, what will it be for you? Perhaps reading about a totally new subject, or going to a museum. Maybe it's going into the foreign territory of the kitchen and whipping up a souffle. I think it would be a great weekend to learn to ride a horse or milk a cow. Who knows, the sky's the limit (oh, that's a good one.....learn what stars are above you head tonight!)

Let's all try to turn off the "same ole same ole" for a couple of hours and dive into new territory. Don't worry if the souffle falls, just enjoy yourself........it will probably still taste good.

XO - LA

Summer's Past

It's hard to believe another summer has come and gone.

It is still a little strange that I don't have the "back to school" excitement in my life. It seemed to give me a little rhythm in which to flow. Now, my weekdays and weekends all seem the same. The weeks and months and years all stack up to a decade of time that just whooshes by.

I sound old.

I did make peace with my mom's sewing machine over the weekend! BAM. Yep, I now have no excuses as to why I can't do all the little projects I have dreamed up in my head. Pillows Pillows Pillows. What is the obsession with pillows? I usually toss them aside because they really just get in the way..........but they bring such zing into a room. (Then onto the floor.) And I can also make clothes for my favorite granddaughter. Don't you know she will be thrilled when I offer to make her prom dress in about 15 years!!! Such idle threats. I had to use a magnifying lens to thread the needle..........15 years from now I will need a telescope. Who am I kidding.

So, on to the change of seasons and the changes of life.

Ch Ch Changes
Turn and face the strain......... David Bowie......... I love this line from that song:

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same..........

Happy Post Labor Day

And as far as I'm concerned, wear those white jeans! Rules are just an invitation to boring......

XO - LA

Finish Line

I swear, I am the most project oriented person I know. I think it's because I love love love to be working towards a goal of some sort.

I love to pass the finish line.

I'm not the kind of person that likes to do things at the last minute. No, I like to ponder and poke at stuff. Like, for weeks or months...the same project gets examined over and over again. I always think to myself, "I can't wait to actually have no projects going. I can't wait to just have time to do whatever just comes up for me." You know what I do with that kind of time? I come up with a project! Seriously, is there help for people like me?

So, this past weekend I had some free time to let my mind wander. Where did that get me? Into buckets of paint. I decided that it was time to paint all those ugly black frames that I had. Out comes the drop cloth, the sanding paper, the paint brush, the rags, the painters tape, and the most amazing product ever. (note to self, learn how to put those cute little things in the blog where people say what they want you to learn about and it comes up in a different color type and you push on it and it takes you to the website of the thing you are interested in telling people about) The product is Benjamin Moore's paint, Aura, that is low VOC and a primer and paint in one. (We repainted all our kitchen cabinets with it last snow storm, but that was a whole other project!)

Where was I? Oh, yeah, frames. So, all that stuff was spread out all over the basement for a few days. Thank goodness I had the grandkids yesterday so I had to finish the project and clean up the play area. And the frames and photos looks so much better!

This weekend, I'm supposed to learn how to sew. Actually, I know how to sew, I just don't know how to play nicely with the sewing machine. I hate bobbins. Why doesn't someone who is working on the cure for cancer spend just a little time figuring out a way to sew without having to use the damn bobbin!

What about you, any projects for the long weekend? If not, I have a few ideas.............

Have a great Labor Day, be safe and wear sunscreen!

XO - LA