seeds of thought

I was cleaning out my email inbox and found all these little nuggets of blog seeds that I had sent to myself from the my smart phone over the last year or so.

Emagene hates sweet potatos
Loves music class!
 
Grocery aisle

Her: 2 generations older than me, picking her trusted brands: 

demonte and huntse 

Me: picking my trusted organic brands: Muir Glen and Eden
Same tomato-y outcome
 
Birds- rain forest -spring
Dog is antsy I'm antsy
Just sitting and waiting 
 
'nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I'm possible.'"

 -audrey Hepburn

Right now march 26, 2012
 
I'm watching the washing blow in the wind
Listening to the contented peeping of free ranging chicks
Wearing freshly washed flip flops
Not wearing shoes because they need to be washed again
Amused by the ramblings of my 2-year old
Watching the sun tea turn deep amber
Waiting for news about the man's job
Wondering how how many gallons are being pumped through the 

sprinkler in the name of cooling,learning and over-watering

 June 3, 2012

Look around you and see what excites you; explore that.
 
What if everything excites me? Gardening, livestock, sustainably 

using the land I live on, animation, theatre, lighting, 

photography, traveling, doing nothing, doing everything, 

dancing, connecting, yoga, sitting under trees, sitting 

in trees, snuggling, painting,  

12/18/2012

it seems that my inner mind is distracted refereeing battles. 

My Self now and my Self 10 years ago are constantly waging war 

as to which life style brought me the most fulfillment. 

Nothin highlights inner struggles quite like a seasonal shift 

into winter with its focus on the home hearth and self, the 

passing of loved ones or a meteor shower. And I have all three 

at my disposal tonight! 

Ah! My self of ten years ago would scoff at my self now. Giving 

up a room above a pub in a busy neighborhood of London for a cozy 

house on the outskirts of town surrounded by chickens and my own 

child. The me now wishes I had saved some of that money I spent on 

fun and paid more toward student loan avoidment. The me now giggles 

because it seems fairly standard for women entering their mid-30s 

to write a letter to their 20-year old self.  What would the me now 

tell the me back then? Don't leave London! You'll never make it 

back across the border! You'll get stuck in America!  Maybe. I 

may say smart things like keep up the focus. Give up the awesome 

trip to spain to be the 3rd AD on that low budget film. Maybe. But 

I think I would mostly say: Good job following your heart, living 

your dreams, exploring what you had access to, and keep on going. 

No regrets! Create learning opportunities and your perseption will

keep changing for the positive. 

Sticker Commitment

We hoard stickers.

They call to us in shops but we never seem to know where to put them. Gone are the days of binders and locker displays. Now is about the bumpers. As you may have heard, I drive OLD cars. Thus putting stickers I love on them means the sticker is destined for the junkyard. Soon. Like using disposable diapers, I might as well just throw the money in the trash and save a few steps in the middle.

Then my male companion (aka husband) bought a '08 Mazda 3. We had procreated and couldn't fit tiny baby in big carrier into tiny backseat of our '96 Geo Metro. Hence the change of paradigm. This also meant: No More Sticker Commitment Issues!

Best part of the transition (possibly why I wanted to write about this): the Man didn't get over his sticker issues until he realized we were driving our Oklahoma-license-plate-adorned car into our homeland! How can we let everyone know we belong here?!? By adding the HeartInOregon.com, Red Square Cafe, and Portland Timbers stickers which have been hiding in the Wife's purse of course!

So, naturally, as we drove into Oregon last July, along Hwy 26, we pulled off at a State Campground, walked through old growth forest, breathed deeply, and added stickers to our car!

Isn't that what you're supposed to do on holiday? ;)

How do you DO life?

Recently my kid sister Christmased in Africa. She returned with, among other things, a handmade dress for my daughter and an observation: we're all different, yet the same. Some things (specifically, breasts and breastfeeding) aren't as big of a deal there as here.

This kind of realization is one of the main reasons I love to travel.

What do the locals do? While the tourist stops are interesting, what's the everyday like for the majority of the people? How do they DO life? Where is it the same? Where is it different? We all have to eat, sleep, survive the barren season, we all have a family, etc. How does this place do that environmentally, physically, spiritually? How does that shape the worldview of the people who live this daily? What can I learn from them? Should some part of my life change or grow based on this new knowledge? Are my ways 'better' ? Should I share them and risk changing the balance of this place?

In most cases, my travels have changed me for the better and I haven't found anything about how I do life that they NEED to know, other than cholera prevention. There is nothing more profound about the way I show love than how other cultures I've been blessed to immerse myself in show love.

Typically these other cultures seem less wasteful, more resourceful, more family focused, more welcoming and therefore less 'needy' for stuff.

Perhaps this is why I'm not very fond of the culture I currently find myself immersed in.