Musings On Love 3

A funny thing happened on the way out of the supermarket...

You've heard it said that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow.
They are so familiar with it that they can characterise all its differences and give it names suited to its forms.

So if Eskimos can do that, why can't we do that with love? Where are our dozens of words?
I would have thought we were familiar with it by now and could identify it's many shades and tones.

Instead we just say "I love you".

Currently in my life I could say "I butterfly you" or "I lust you".
How about you?

[current mood] Brazillian Cherry Jam & Old Men Talking About War and Love

Musings On Love 2

For one of my best friends who has been asking this question.

On the phone we ask ourselves, "What is a sign that our love is real, that our love is right?"
Are we expecting the correct thing? Does love take time and if so, how much time?
What about those stories of 'I just knew in twenty minutes'? What about the giddy, chest-pulsating excitement? Do we need that?

So is love a feeling of falling, losing ourselves, near-instant knowingness?

Or do we learn and discover our love through time and energy and choice?

It appears there are no rules. It works differently for everyone at different times. I'm learning that I can't uphold my parents' story as the one that will be true for me. I can't even refer to my previous experiences as what works... as they didn't really....

But I do believe one thing. True love is an action, not a place we find ourselves in.

[current mood] Chaos Theory & Chocolate Pistachio Tart oh yeah.

Musings On Love

A little task for me.

Each day, upon waking, draw a musing on love and blog it.

It's inspired by The Artist's Way 'Morning Papers' which asks you to write stream-of-consciousness for half an hour each morning for 12 weeks. It's also been prompted by a friend mentioning a 'Draw every morning for 120 days' challenge on Facebook.

I'm combining. A drawing for my blog and a musing on whatever is rotating in the morning after sleep. Will do it for as long as I feel like it. It may be something that happened or it may be a philosophical ponder of mine. Let's see what comes forth!

[current mood] The idea of Flat Whites for breakfast, lunch and tea & Kings of Convenience

Japanese Hearts

When I heard of the thousands of Japanese lives washed away in the recent earthquake-induced tsunami, I pictures the bodies being carried through the waves of water. I thought of those individual lives, each one a beating, real, full life of dreams and hopes and complexity, such as my own.

Often events overseas pale to our own daily lives, we're so caught up in our heads and can't empathise with the suffering of others.

I painted each heart. For each heart deserves its honour. Each warm, blooming, love-filled heart.
And then, like those hearts, I washed my art away.

Today's moody, misty and rainy morning started with the objective 'to do nothing'. I tried, but something always ends up being done. This was it.

[current mood] Fresh Juice & Aimee Mann

Dog takes on the Wheel Of Life

Bessie kindly donated a very chewed stick to Rach for the Wheel of Life. She spun 'high voltage agitation'. Rach said "Not surprising considering the Perth weather at the moment...we are all a bit frazzled."

Rach spun 'glum bum', which is fitting considering she just completed a bowel cleanse over the weekend but we both believe she was one segment off the reality...

'Empty'

Thanks for being my first (and hopefully not the last) photo of my wheel of life!

May it be a reminder of the unpredictablility of life and moods.

[current mood] Being in My Element & Caramel Tarts

The Wheel of Life

A friend calls, she's over the moon, she's dreamy, she's ecstatic... life is good. Her life IS good.

Next week...
Same friend, things are crap, a pile of poo, she's down in the dumps... life is shit. Her life IS shit.

Now it's time to bring out the wheel of life illustration and let her have a spin.
See how easily each day can be different? See how possible it is to get any of these 9 emotional modes? The thing is, you have to spin it every day, there are no guarantees you will land on 'zen' every day. We can hope... yes, we can not drink, eat mungbeans, meditate and watch birds.. but some days you just spin shit.

That's life. And it's really important to remember that whatever you are feeling today is highly likely to be gone tomorrow and a new reality will present itself.

So I've made a printable version of the wheel of life, and I implore you, friends, to pin or tack it onto a stick and give it a whirl!

Click for the print-sized wheel of life

We gotta constantly remind ourselves of the wheel we're on.

I'd really love for someone to send me a photo of it, printed, cut out, stuck on a stick.. cause I don't have a colour printer to show you. Please do and email it to me grow@seedpod.com.au

Lots of love, ladies and gents.

x

[current mood] Potato Salad for Ten & People Singing Me Birthday Messages.

Oscar's Creative Poo

Oscar is a pretty smart dog. Some people think he's well behaved too.
But I'm quick to tell them that he uses his 'smarts' for evil.

Last week he opened the pantry and took out several bags of foodstuffs. I came home to see a floor of empty bags. The labels included: Raw Almonds, Prunes, Dried Apricots, Organic Raisins and Millet. There was also the remains of a red cabbage.

I thought it warranted a Facebook status...

I felt inspired by the response...

Hence I have created an artistic impression of Oscar's poo over the 24 hour period post pantry-feast.

It's on a scale of 1:10
(far far larger than regular poo)

I actually laughed at each one.

[current mood] Fizzy Lifesavers & Canyons

Two Monday Stories

Story One

So many people I know are snowed under with work. And yet we keep on doing it. It's something we can't currently seem to escape. And there isn't enough time for things like playing, resting, chatting and blogging!

I'm learning how to reduce the load:

1. Decide what's important in your life.
2. Say NO to what doesn't support your greatest needs.

Sounds simple doesn't it..... but what happens is we forget in the moment of question and base the decision on something that isn't actually that important (money/cred/fear).

Megan: Do you want to do this work?
Nat: [Sees dollar signs glitter in mind's eye] Yes.
Megan: Great!
Nat: Oh crap... I just said yes.

So the trick is to create a 'rule' - whatever will become learnt off by heart and give you space to remember what's important. (eg: I don't take on new work without referring to my to do list and considering for 24 hours.)

..................

Story Two

I went to a party on the weekend. The theme was Where's Wally. I thought there would be one Wally and I'd be the background. Was quite wrong.

But amongst all the red and white stripes and glasses I noticed a different coloured Wally. He was Greek Wally aka 'Woggy' (he said).
It was a meeting of hearts and I thank the Wally party for this 'breaking of the pattern' to draw him to my attention.

As I skipped away into the night I tripped and skidded across the pavement. With hands and knees grazed and bleeding, I was suddenly seven years old in the playground.

But this time I laughed rather than cry....

In so many ways we don't change but we do grow up.

[current mood] Chilli & Oscar trying to talk to me

A bloat of blog posts

You got a week out of me... best I could do for continuous blog posts.

A daggy game I like to play with friends is inventing new collective nouns.
And after realising I had a collection of cardigans in the back of the van I wondered what I'd call them.
And I came up with a few more for collections I have.

And then some things I experienced on the weekend...

Could you suggest some more of your own collective nouns for me sketch?

[current mood] Frittata & My Chickens Clucking

Grateful List

Yesterday I read about 365 Days of Grateful. A case of 'wish I'd thought of that'! This woman took a polaroid shot every day of something she was grateful for. Her photography is retro blissful so it worked better than you can imagine.

I want a project! I've thought about putting all this blogging into some kind of book. I try to picture what this book would look like, full of photos, drawings, scribbles... some kind of inspiration kit - or just personal entry point into my mind... and heart... or are books out of date? A waste of trees? Or it is worth taking my cyber-space into a form? Any ideas for what this book by me could be?

But for today I'll just reflect on some things I was grateful for. I've at least learnt one thing in life - that gratefulness is the purest form of happiness. It's pushed outward and then turns inwards. Try it.

It rained all night. It's pouring! Aptly, other aspects of my life are 'pouring' too.

I awoke to a flattering text or two.

Having my first tea out of one of my new tea cups inspired a tea party with 5 courses of tea each in a different set up cups and accompanied with appropriate nibblies.

I filmed a group of kids with down syndrome who are putting on a performance of 'The Wiz'. It was the first day of making a little documentary of their journey. I got lots of hugs and some great moments on camera.

On the way home I picked up 2 pineapples outside a farm. Gobbled one up with friends.

I stored my scarf on a small boy. He looked so cute I decided he'd be good babysitting material.

I temporarily lost a thong on the windy sandstorm beach and then the other took flight and I watched someone get their daily exercise trying to catch it.

I was given lots of ideas and inspiration for my travels to India at the end of the year.

[current mood] Breakfast tomorrow & The Music Paris Just Gave Me ;)