Midweek inspiration: The air is dry and sweet

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This poem reminds me of The Lovely Bones. If you've read it, you might agree, a little?

Link love

hat does one do while enjoying spring break with the family? Read, sleep, eat, laugh, watch Hulu+/Netflix, read, eat, nap, go for walks, see movies (The Hunger Games, finally) and chuckle some more (a 15-year-old boy reading strange Cracked.com posts has that effect). (The Hunger Games sidebar: anyone else have trouble getting "May the odds be ever in your favor" out of your brain? And the mockingjay four-note tune? I think I might be going crazy. But then, I also had this song from Smash going through my head today, so it could just be par for my course...)

And, what's a little time off without some wandering online? You know me, I love to share!

I've been thinking about this idea for a while, now (say, since poetry writing class in college), so was interested in reading about writing as therapy.

Dear husband sent this link my way, and I was reminded of a statement some silly fool (um, me) made about five, maybe six years ago. I think it went something like this: "I just want a phone. I don't want it to DO other things. I have a camera, I don't need a camera on my phone." (Cue laughter. Waves and waves of laughter.) Yes, I really did say that. I don't think you know, until you've tipped over to the smartphone land... and you can't ever go back! Of the photo apps in the article, I already had four, and proceeded to quickly download the panorama one and the frame one. Can't wait to play with panoramas!

Also a good thing to do while away from work? Figure out something you've been wanting to master for eons. For me, it's the fishtail french braid. I have watched a number of videos, read about it, tried it a few times (on poor sister-in-law, Kim, mostly), and finally! Finally! I watched the video below and it all came clear.



Here's my first attempt, for reals. It kinda went downhill after that, but I will keep practicing! (Need to build up my triceps for this one! Hurty elbows.)

If you know my family (well, OK, son), you know that he's a grilled cheese connoisseur. He knows the good stuff, the melty/gooey and the crisp bread. So of course, this story on grilled cheese ice cream for April Fool's Day caught my eye! What a hoot. It sounds kind of good to me... I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

This wind map has been making the rounds all over the web. If you haven't seen it, do check it out! Very beautiful.

And of course, there are Pinterest moments... No spare time is complete without a little pinning, am I right or am I right? (No comments from the peanut gallery, Shelby!) This recipe says pure SUMMER to me, and I can't wait until I can walk 50 steps out my back door to the garden and pick tomatoes to my heart's delight. 

And in other Pinterest news, I now have 65 boards. How did that happen? Well, one way is that I gathered too many pins in some pretty general boards, so I needed to gradually move pins to more specific boards (Sweet and its many variations, for instance). I have a bit more to do--all my various holiday pins are on one board, and need to be broken out by Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. All in good time. This Pinterest business could be a full time job. Ha. I have a feeling a few people have gotten that idea too... Did you see this story about a guy who claims he's earning upwards of $1,000 a week spamming Pinterest? Crazy.

We went shoe shopping today for Seth. Take a look: he's the black shoe at the bottom. THIRTEEN. 13. Big feet, that boy has. Now the biggest in the house. Boo-yah! (He's pretty sure this will translate into height, or he'll join the circus. I'm hoping for height.)

Hope your week is going well, spring break for you or not! Reality will resume around here soon enough, but for now, I'm off to watch Dimitri Martin with Seth. Yes, we're high brow, but you already knew that, didn't you?

Quizziness

eems like ages since I've done a quiz-like thing... saw this on my friend Janet's blog, and thought it sounded like a bit of fun on a Saturday night. I know, I should get out more!

1. You have been awarded the time off from work and an all-expenses paid week anywhere in the United States. The catch is that it must be somewhere you have not been before. Where do you choose to visit? Florida Keys.

2. Name three of your guilty pleasures.
*Revenge, that trashy ABC show. I can't believe I'm admitting it.
*Marshmallows. I buy every kind of silly seasonal shape that they now make. (We just finished a bag of bunnies and are now into the jumbo egg-mallows...)
*Queso, from a jar.

3. The best kind of Girl Scout Cookie is: I haven't had one in years, but to the best of my memory, Thin Mints are pretty good...

4. What do you value most in other people? Integrity, wrapped in tenacity. I could go on, but if those two things are present, I'm usually good.

5. Be honest. Do you sneak some raw cookie dough when you’re baking cookies? Whyever not?

6. Have you ever looked back at your life and realized that something you thought was a bad thing was actually a blessing in disguise? Oh my goodness, yes. Just thinking about the last decade, it's chock-a-block full of such blessings.

7. What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited? Really hard to choose. Amazingly, my first thought is that I haven't been anywhere stunning, but then I realize that I probably live in such a place of beauty, I'm inured to it. I do remember thinking that the scenery in Langkawi (small island in Malaysia) was pretty spectacular, back in 1994 or so... and I would also put Sydney Harbor quite high on the list... but I am also quite fond of the Oregon Coast, and the Eagle Cap Wilderness in Oregon is also jaw-dropping at times.

8. Are you more of a thinker or a feeler? On the spectrum, I'd veer more toward the thinker. That's what many, many tests have told me, anyways. So the crying at Hallmark ads? Go figure.

9. Name three things you are thankful for right now.
*My family, from the boys in the room with me right now, to all the more extended family, scattered across Canada and the U.S.
*My health.
*My Creator.

10. Have you ever participated in a three-legged race? Of course. What childhood is complete without that humiliation?

11. When you are at an event that plays the National Anthem, do you place your hand over your heart? Absolutely. And I usually tear up too, so what does that say about #8???

Feel like playing along? Please do, either in the comments or on your blog!

Friday night grateful moment

The Net of Gratitude

iving thanks for abundance
is sweeter than the abundance itself:
Should one who is absorbed with the Generous One
be distracted by the gift?
Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence;
abundance is but the husk,
for thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
Abundance yields heedlessness;
thankfulness brings alertness:
hunt for bounty with the net of gratitude.

-Rumi
as translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski

Midweek inspiration: The wind blew in and woke the deep

the wind blew in and it took no time to take it all, to take what’s mine

the wind blew fierce
took my youth
what I used to love
what I used to do

and all things haunted
by wrong and right
by time that moves and endless nights
a violent rescue, a brilliant feat
the wind blew in and woke the deep

woke it up and set it free

i thought it bad when first it blew
but when i saw the truth i knew
that all the winds of change can't scatter
is all that really, really matters

so from the form of rules and things
toward the breath of which God sings

I stood in awe and watched it blow
quicken my blood and wake my soul

the wind blew in and woke the deep
woke it up and set it free
-Summer Mayne 

When I first read this poem, I loved the meter and rhythm best; I read it again and fell in love with the words. Now, of course, I love both aspects.

I've known Summer for a number of years, through my brother and sister-in-law, and her energy is infectious. And her yoga teaching is legendary; if you're in the Seattle area, you should check her out! Thank you, Summer, for sharing your words.

Ten Word Tuesday

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Common Miracles: Week #46

f you've clicked over to this blog itself, whether you came in via RSS or email subscription, you'll notice that it looks a little different...

Such a silly girl am I, I thought I'd change the blog banner last night to something un-resembling a Valentine's Day theme... not really a hearts gal, for all my Sweet Tea and Sunshine-ness...

And so it began.

You know that thing they tell you about backing up your blog (if you don't, take my word for it)? Well. I didn't. And so, POOF, much of the formatting I'd customized a couple of years back vanished... After a brief pause, and a realization that no, indeed, I did NOT back up, I regrouped. No worries, I'll just pick a new blog theme, and we'll have a fresh look. Yep, that's what I did. And in the process, I found some really cool, fun templates, but they didn't meet my "needs," exactly... Hours later, I was texting Jen in the middle of the night for guidance and thinking of course that I HAVE to stay up until it's beautiful again.

What's the Common Miracle here? None, that I can see. This is a truly "first-world" problem, if ever there was one. I am happy to be back up and running, in a mostly clean and attractive format, and I will play and tweak and maybe even work on something Even Better over spring break... I just wanted to share how this new look came about.

But my common miracles for today include:
* Blue skies after the rain... and a sunset to top it off beautifully.
* That fabulous scarf, which continues to ward off bad days.

* Great citrus... makes me happy in a glass or in a salad or just straight out of the peel.
* A few minutes of watching Seth play doubles tennis this evening, in the sunshine.
* Laughing with coworkers... problem-solving with coworkers. (A coworker helped me solve one of my blog issues, many many thanks!)
* Sending packages off into the international postal stream (it will be a miracle if this one arrives at its intended destination, for sure. This is the THIRD attempt; don't ask.)
* My first good strawberries of the season. Can't wait until I can put "local" in that sentence too...
* Gray fingernail polish. (Trust me.)
* My favorite salad (or, one of them--I have a lot of favorite salads!) available at a drive-thru lunch spot: greens and roasted pears and blue cheese and candied cashews and champagne vinaigrette. Perfect mid-day revival.
* Quiet. Absolute, peaceful stillness. Having less of that these days, I cherish it more.

Not a very original list today... but those were my pause-and-enjoy-it moments. My cherish-it-because-things-can-change-in-an-instant moments. My... OK, I'll stop with the over-hyphenation. You get my drift.

I hope you had some savoring moments today too.

To see how the Common Miracles project began, go here.

Friday night grateful moment

un! The day ended in sun! The whole grateful list could be summed up right there. But, of course, I can't possibly be content to leave it at that... 

So, if we HAD to have snow this week, which apparently we did, I'm grateful that it was so pretty and big-of-flake. AND, it was a quick wintery moment--GONE BY NOON. So, all the prettiness, none of the real hassle. Sweet. Now cross your fingers with me that the sweet and lovely apricot tree made it through unscathed--the blossoms were still there after the snow, but I'm fearful that the slightly freezing weather may have harmed the actual fruit-making stuff. (Very agricultural sounding, "stuff," eh?)

The "extra Seth" this week was bonus, and I'm so grateful for that time. He actually doesn't head off until tomorrow morning, so the sweetness continues for a few more hours. We've had some great conversations and time together, reading or watching Endgame (our new Hulu+ fix--a show set in Vancouver, B.C., so beautiful!) the past couple of weeks... a true joy that boy is. And, seven short days from now, spring break begins! Oh the joys of looking forward to things and having them finally come around.

 Grandma wearing Seth's fedora on our most recent visit.

I bought some birthday cards today--some special birthdays are coming up! One of them was for my grandma, who will be 93 in a couple of weeks. 93! I am so grateful to have a grandparent still around, in my advanced years. I guess I should thank my parents for having children while they were young, eh? (Thank you, Ma and Pa!)

I'm grateful for Chief. He has evened out a bit, not nearly as clingy and glued to our sides as the first couple of weeks after Darby passed. He comes in, he goes out, he comes in again. (He has a hard time making up his mind.) He stands and watches me cooking in the kitchen, and I encourage him to stand back a bit and that petting time comes AFTER dinner time... But he's sweet and constant, and strangely enough his barking has gone waaaaaay down since he's been an only dog. What's with that? Was he barking for an audience? Funny guy.

I spent the better part of today at a nonprofit learning session hosted by a local foundation. I'm grateful for opportunities to learn and grow, asking questions (not necessarily unanswerable ones, see above) in good company. Some information I had heard before, but I also learned many new things or ways of looking at things, and the woman who taught it was on the ball. I am always impressed at people's memories, when things click for them. She remembered quite often, after introductions of 25 groups (consisting of 2-5 people per group), which nonprofits were being represented by whom. And I have a hard time with names of people I've met a few times, even.

Conversation. Dialogue. Back and forth. It is not a common thing to be able to converse without judgment, without either person hijacking the conversation for their own agenda, and with honesty and a real desire to know truth. I am very grateful to have a precious few in my life who I can engage with, in that way. It never fails to make my heart happy.

Husband is a big part of my favorite conversations. We talk, debate, laugh, talk some more, laugh some more, continue with the debate... always interesting, and I know I (usually) learn something. I'd like to think he does too (sometimes). Seth told me a couple of lovely things about his observations of us this week that touched my heart, and his love of his step-dad (and vice versa) is something that really does make all of our lives immeasurably richer. I am so very grateful for our family time together.

With the weekend upon us, I can't help but be grateful for the sleep I am sure will come. My weeknight sleeps have been good, but probably not quite long enough. I'm thinking that the weekend sleeps will (hopefully) stretch out in their gloriousness, to catch me up and get me ready to go another round.

I hope your weekend is filled with the things you need to get you ready for another week! What are you grateful for tonight? May the list be long.

Peace.

Thursday 13: 13 links re: Pinterest in the news

irst off: this is not an opinion piece. How you use or have used Pinterest (if you do) and how you feel about copyright issues isn't my business--until you take a photo of mine or a recipe of mine and claim it as your own. Then we'll talk!

But with the general vibe on the interwebs the past month or so, and the posts getting pinned around Pinterest as well, I felt like I needed to do a bit of investigation. (Work tends to get in the way of daytime pinning, go figure, and evenings I've been trying to disconnect a bit more, so I definitely feel a little late to this whole conversation.)

Second, the whole thing seems a bit anticlimactic now, anyway (see #11). Maybe. We'll see if the developments in recent days really do to protect the copyright of those who want it protected, in the way they want it protected.

However, what with my overt proselytizing of the gospel of Pinterest, I felt that I should, at the very least, share some of what I found.

This past weekend I finally read and researched the latest in regards to Pinterest's Terms of Use and how various artists are handling the issues that have come to light most recently, namely:

1. This is the first article I read: A Lawyer Who Is Also A Photographer Just Deleted All Her Pinterest Boards Out Of Fear. My mom forwarded it to me from a friend who had posted it on Facebook. 

2. Which led me to: How Pinterest removed all my pinned images in minutes (#1) (There is a follow-up #2 post you can link to from #1). I understand this artist's perspective that she doesn't want her stuff pinned, and was hopeful when I read it that Pinterest would GET that and assist her and other artists.

3. And then there are a few people who disagree about how big a deal this whole copyright conversation is, as this TechDirt article details.

4. That opinion is shared in this post: Copyright isn't the issue, you are.

5. And of course, the TechDirt article (in #3) pointed to a couple of posts by the copyright librarian at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Her articles are here: Using Copyrightable Materials and A few clarifications on Pinterest/Copyright/TOS worries.

6. I appreciated these tips on: How to use Pinterest without breaking the law.

7. Pinterest, change your terms or we're leaving. Pretty straightforward.

8. My favorite sentence of this post, The genius of Pinterest's copyright dodge: "...the most likely outcome of this saga is not a Grooveshark-like end to Pinterest, but an admission by many publishers that they simply don't care what anyone does with their images, as long as it helps drive users back to their sites."

9. What people are talking about: Pinterest and copyright issues. Even more on the topic. Tired of it yet? I was getting a little filled up with it all!

10. Visual inspiration from Pinterest. This post doesn't address specific copyright issues, but I learned a bit about how to better use Pinterest, and by the time I got to this piece, I was tired of even thinking about these issues! (Specifically: Skitch, and I second her ideas about private boards--can I get a holla, Corinne?--and RSS feeds.) (My gifted florist friend Corinne has competitors follow her and glean ideas from the places SHE gleans ideas from, and so there's this feeling like she's doing all the work, and others are benefiting. Private boards would be great!)

11. Finally, after weeks of controversy and not really meeting the issue head on, Pinterest addresses issues with a copyright infrigement legality statement. And another piece on the same topic, but from CNET here. We'll see if the artists that don't want their work on Pinterest will be pleased with this outcome. And I'm curious to see how big the clean-up is to the past pins... will our boards be depleted? Probably not mine, as I rarely post to my Pretty Pictures board. Most of the bloggers/sites I pin from are asking you to pin and spread the word on their craft, recipe, etc.

Which leaves me with two more items to fulfill my Thursday 13, and I'm sick to death of this topic. What to do?

Oh, I know! How about two images from Pinterest that I found recently, and adore... seems only fitting. Both are crocheted items, and made me smile.

etsy shop

etsy shop

That's all from this peanut gallery today! I hope you're having a lovely Thursday, and if you're not a Pinterest fan/freak, I doubt you've made it this far. But if you are, I hope it's been at least a little bit helpful. What with the last post, Pinterest's statement and resolution to the issue, it might all be moot. But still, the more you know, right?

For more Thursday 13s, go here. Happy Thursday!

(We have snow. Just had to mention that. On March 22. How nuts is that? My poor apricot tree with it's frosty blossoms...)

Mid-week reminder: Grace in the turnaround

s I continue to explore my word for this year--grace--I was delighted to discover this image, tucked away, forgotten, on my iPad. It was the perfect reminder I needed for today... this week... this year.