Breathe

My youngest daughter sent me a text with this photo she'd taken, saying I probably had a quote for it. The photo was a pretty heart shaped leaf with some very good light on it. I manipulated it a bit in one of my phone apps and had to wait a few days for the quote to arrive in an email from a friend. The words are good reminders.

I think I like the gold version the best. But that might be because I have a different set of words on the blue photo that I will be writing more about later.

I Really Should....

I'm going to try and live out this weekend with a sense of wonder. 

It feels like I have misplaced it somewhere.

I really haven't.

It's only temporarily hidden from me.

That much I know.

I try to love, as well as I know how.

I think I live gently.

But boy, 

do I struggle 

with

gracefully letting go

of things not meant for me.

(The quote in the second photo is from Buddha's Little Instruction Book)

Fun is Transformational

I took my big camera out this past weekend and walked on my trail ("my trail" is actually a fire line breaking up two pieces of property, the piece that is not ours is "company land" where timber is grown) this past weekend. My cousin had gone through with his tractor and cleared it out a bit. I was looking for things I could take blurry pictures of to use as layers in my "thangs." But I also got several good focused photos.

I love how the trees are reflected in the water in the photo above. The tree that is down makes me think of a body with long legs.

I really wanted to put a quote on the picture but I never could get it where you could read the quote well. I tried several different things and finally gave up on the idea (at least temporarily!).

Tonight I skipped my workout class and came straight home from work and took a nap. I was tired and didn't feel well. I got up a little while ago and thought I'd get all the photos off my memory card and onto my computer. That made me want to play a little bit. And the photo above is evidence of my play.

My blogging/writing tribe has been trying to write more on our blogs and we have been using prompts to help us do so. Our latest prompt was "fun." This is one of my ideas of fun.

And now that I have written this, I will hurry back to bed and hopefully will wake up rested and ready for another day.

Speaking of another day, the quote I wanted to use with the photo (in either form) was this:

Here dies another day
during which I have had
eyes, ears, hands
and the great world round me;
and with tomorrow begins another.

Why am I allowed two?

(GK Chesterton)

Today Is My Birthday!

I might have been inadvertently "outed" this morning on Facebook, in my birthday wishes.

I'm not going to fret too much. It would take a curious person who would think to google "Annie Oddflower" to find me (or perhaps someone who would wait to ask me next week at work, not having thought to google for the information). As most of my blogging friends know, I have been waffling around with the idea of outing my own self, so if it has happened, so be it.

What better time to "come out" than on my even numbered birthday that is two years away from a certain number birthday that I can't yet say out loud?! How can I be so close to that number?! It might just be time for me to be braver about letting little annieoddflower be seen. Acceptance of all our self is very important to good mental health! And as far as pieces of me go, annie is benign, and sometimes wise sometimes poignant, sometimes witty. She surely isn't one of the darker shadow sides of me!

I am off to enjoy my day, beginning with getting outside (in the cold!) with my camera to see what I can find.

Oh, the "brave" angel is from a Kellie Rae Roberts collection. I found her on sale at the local Catholic book store.

Also, if you are a real live day to day person in my life who has found me, speak up! I don't like people sneaking around me and I can figure out you've been here in my statistics log (though I don't normally like dealing with statistics)!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Getting back into the groove of work after two long weeks off for the holidays, most of it spent in the quiet of the country, is generally a bit of an adjustment for me. Then, about the time I was settling back in, we had a snow day. It was a Friday so as soon as it seemed safe we loaded up and headed out to the country. We arrived to see our house and yard and the woods covered in snow. That was a fantastic weekend. I've been hoping for a couple of years to get to see a good accumulation of snow again and this was my hope come true! 

Then, the next week, we had two snow days! We stayed in town that time, and I got a few things done around the house that needed doing. And I returned to work joking that I reckoned we ought to get three snow days this week! But alas, it was not to be so. 

I recently told a couple of real life friends that there is a darkness that feels a bit like a black bear that is always pursuing me, and I am always running, trying to stay a step or two ahead of it. I would not say it is depression. But it is something. I wish I could turn and kill it once and for all. I'm grateful for friends in my life who can hear stuff like that from me and a) not think I am nuts for expressing myself that way, and b) not over worry about me when I express myself that way.

It has been a problem, for a couple of weeks now. I think partially the problem is that I am longing for light and spring time, ready for the season to change. And I have some real burdens on my plate at the moment. I am sometimes weary from trying to stay ahead of that bear. I try to remind myself that the feelings are temporary and will pass. 

I'm telling this because I have decided that I think the black bear is trying to tell me that I can do better and he has my back. I think his name is Awareness. But everybody knows "ignorance is bliss."

Sometimes the scary things we tend to run from are not the scary things we think they are. Sometimes if we'll slow down, just a little, and take a chance, we'll discover the scary things are there to teach us something.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!