Awesomeness

Question anything that has you thinking
you are anything less than awesome.

~Janet Whitehead~

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward

Rhythm is the basis of life, not steady
forward progress.   The forces of creation,
destruction, and preservation have
a whirling, dynamic interaction.

~Kabbalah~

Have you found your rhythm?

Haiku for a Gray Day

Spring is in the air
The snow drops and crocuses
Brighten a gray day.

Accentuate the Positive

You may feel like dwelling on your limits
or your fears.  Don’t do it.  A perfect
prescription for a squandered, unfulfilled
life is to accommodate self defeating
feelings while undercutting your
finest, most productive ones.

~Marsha Sinetar~

Weekly Photo Challenge: Kiss

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions -
the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile,
a kind look or heartfelt compliment.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge~

Kisses kept are wasted:
Love is to be tasted.
There are some you love, I know;
Be not loathe to tell them so.
Lips go dry and eyes grow wet
Waiting to be warmly met.
Keep them not in waiting yet:
Kisses kept are wasted.

~Edmund Vance Cooke~

kisses are a better fate
than wisdom.

~e.e. cummings~

It is the passion in a kiss that gives it its sweetness;
it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.

~Christian Nestell Borce~

A kiss is a rosy dot
over the “i” of loving.

~Cryano de Bergerac~

A compliment is something like
a kiss through a veil.

~Victor Hugo~

At the first kiss I felt
Something melt inside me
That hurt in an exquisite way.
All the longings, all my dreams and sweet anguish,
All the secrets that slept within me came awake,
Everything was transformed and enchanted
And made sense.

~Hemann Hesse~

Don’t waste your kisses – give them freely to those you love.  And, remember Victor Hugo’s words, A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil, so applaud others often!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest.

~Henry Van Dyke~

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one;
stronger than magician ever spoke,
or spirit ever answered to,
in the strongest conjuration.

~Charles Dickens~

For those of you who follow Artist of the Everyday, I’m quite certain you’ve noticed my posts have been few and far between for the last while.  As you know from earlier posts,  my mother died a month ago, and  we’re moving from Seattle to Santa Fe in six weeks.  Given that death of a family member and moving are big life-stressors, I’ve decided to take a break from posting; or it might be better to say, I’m giving myself a break.  I’ll  still write when I comfortably find the time, but am taking the pressure off myself to do it consistently and often.  It’s  time for my inner critic  (the voice of should) to take a breather as well, so I’m sending here on a little holiday and, if I’m lucky, she won’t return!

The last photo above was taken from a park bench.  The girls and I walked down to the waterfront a few days ago, and I decided to sit and do nothing, to follow my breath and enjoy the view – something I haven’t done much lately.    It occurred to me that taking time to just “be” is what I need to be doing more of  these busy days, to keep myself healthy on all levels, emotionally, physically, spiritually.

The top photos are of the house we’ve called home for the last three years.  We’ve been happy here and will miss many things about the beautiful and vibrant city of Seattle; however, we are so very excited to be moving to Santa Fe and into our dream home (middle photo).   I look forward to sharing our journey with you in the coming months.

Smiles

Smile in the mirror.  Do it every morning
and you’ll start to see a
BIG DIFFERENCE
in your life.

~Yoko Ono~

Just smiling goes a long way toward
making you feel better about life.
And when you feel better about life,
your life is better.

~Art Linkletter~

Let us meet each other with a smile.
for the smile is the beginning of love.

~Mother Teresa~

Sometimes your joy is the source
of your smile, but sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy.

~Thich Nhat Hanh~

I got the idea for this post yesterday afternoon when I was deconstructing my “Inspiration Board” in my art space.  As you might know, I’m in the process of moving so that means packing, which means less time for writing the blog.  As I was taking this quote off the board, I thought it would be perfect for the blog, and since I had a photo of me smiling into the mirror, it would make for a quick and easy post.  Unfortunately I never wrote the post yesterday, and I like to think there was a reason, other than not managing my time well.  It just so happened there were more smile quotes in my inbox this morning from Jonathan Lockwood Huie’s “Daily Inspiration – Daily Quote”.  I  love synchronistic events!  And, I had fun looking for beautiful smiles in my photo library.  The hard part was choosing a few since I had so many!

I’ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.

~Author Unknown~

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along
life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

~Joseph Addison~

Share your beautiful smile with the world.