The Love Bug Chronicles #1

Who says magical realism doesn’t exist? I think it does.

Why, just yesterday, during a seaside walk, I saw so many things...

It all began with a click- clack- rattle- tattle sound approaching as a little red sports car whizzed past. An old car...vintage. Two seater. Bride and Groom. A just married sign in the tiny back window, and a string of dented tin cans bouncing off the pavement like a chorus line of tap shoes.

I walked along, edging along the shoreline and as the traffic noise drifted away, I noticed that the ocean sounded like a distant fairground. Screams of excitement were reverberating from a whale-watching zodiac doing donuts way out in the open water. It must have felt like a carnival ride at sea!

I came upon a grassy slope where people were flying kites. It looked like a Norman Rockwell painting, except for one beautiful anomaly... Standing there was an old man, who looked like he came from an exotic land far far away. He was dressed in colorful robes and a pointed cap and held two long sticks in his hand, joined together by a long string. He dipped the string in a bucket of secret potion and slowly separated the sticks, which were actually more like magic wands. Out flowed the most spectacular gigantic bubble the size of an elephant! Everyone stopped and watched in amazement. A little girl holding a kite jumped up and down, pointing her tiny finger in the air. It floated and morphed into beautiful shapes and fanciful colours and I smiled as I went on my way.

I went down the hill and around the bend, closer to the water when I saw couple sitting on the beach. The man was pointing to the water as they watched a stray bubble, a smaller one (small being relative...it was about the size of a basketball) hovering over the water, drifting and floating, eventually succumbing to its fate in a tiny explosion. The man looked behind him, puzzled...his eyes scanning for the source of the magic. It was like it appeared out of thin air.

It was like everybody was at play yesterday.

Including little red love bugs....for this one believes in magical realism too. I'm certain this is not the last you will see of her. The world is a big place... and there is a lot of road to cover. Today was a drive in the fall countryside. Cool crisp air and golden pie crust surroundings.

Who knows where she will venture next...

I'm a Newbie

Well, I finally did it! Finally joined the masses and created a flickr account. Sheesh, it's about time!

I was hesitant for a long long time, for a number of reasons. But I've been thinking... many times I take pictures that I want to share, but no words come to me. Sometimes I just want to put my images out there and let others come up with their own stories.

Besides, I feel as though I am getting a wee bit lazy with my picture taking. I want to push myself a little and start taking more pictures. I want to carry my camera everywhere and post new pictures almost daily. I can't imagine writing a blog post daily, but I can see myself creating and sharing more images, and I am excited about that. So many of my photos get lost somewhere on my computer because I can't find the right words to supplement them, and then they are forgotten before I ever post them!

Over the last several days, I have become a bit of a flickr junkie. I am addicted to looking at other people's images (I'm sure I'm not alone here ;) and nothing is more inspiring. Nothing makes me want to pick up my camera more than when I see a gallery of incredible images. There are so many creative people out there!

I feel the need to take a great variety of different images. I tend to stick to nature photos on my blog, but there are so many incredible things to photograph in the world. I want to document the world as I see it.... little snippets of my personal daily life.

So I hope you will occasionally pop in and say hi. It feels a little lonely over there right now. I feel like a new kid in class. A stranger in a new world.

Which leads me to a few questions. Can someone tell me how to link to my flickr account from here? Does anyone know how I can make one of those nifty little moving mosaics that I can put along the side of my blog..they are so pretty. :)

And how do I find YOU on flickr? Can I add you as a contact? Is that how it works?

So many questions. But so many new things are free to manifest out of me now!

So excited!

(update...I now have a mosaic!)

The Last Petal

It is at the edge of a petal that love waits

~ William Carlos Williams

I love me...I love me not...........I love me...

I have come to realize that almost every issue that I face in this life usually comes down to self love. When I am struggling with something, I try and remember to ask myself....am I coming from love, or fear? Almost every emotion stems from one of these. And more often than not, fear is the one that comes up for me. But as I am becoming more aware, I am choosing love... for the world at large, but especially for myself.

But I want to take it to a deeper level. I don't want to band-aid life's struggles with a hot bath or the distraction of a good book. Although these are things are nurturing, and make me feel better temporarily, the kind of love that I am talking about requires me to stretch a little further...go into the pain or the fear and wander around in there for a while....explore these familiar surroundings and learn more about myself and the way I cope with the heaviness of life. Without the help of that persistent and annoying self critic. Oooh, she can be nasty.

So I want to ask you....

Do you love yourself? I mean really love your insides? Do you have a nurturing part of yourself that takes care of the more sensitive and tender You? I invite you to share with me....what do you do to really take care of all the different parts of yourself that so crave your attention?

Pluck the last petal for your beloved You.

Insectia

What would it be like to be so tiny that you could nap the afternoon away on a bed of duckweed, as the gentle lapping of the water's edge lulled you to dream?

What would it be like to know that you are connected to ancient ancestors that go back 300 million years?

How would it feel to have a jeweled body of vibrant blue and wings made of nature's finest lace?

Or to have 1000 eyes to behold the world and its wonders?

Wouldn't it be amazing to be a nymph of the water world before becoming airborne? What would that first take off feel like?

How exquisite it would be to set your toes on the velvety softness of a flower petal and drink its sweet nectar.

Or to be called a name as sweet as *damselfly*

Road Trippin

Nothing screams summer like a good road trip. My mom and I took one together...just us girls. We were on our way to visit my brother and his family, but we took some roads through the southern interior of B.C. that I have never seen before.

We visited small towns that looked so romantically picturesque, I wanted to move right into this seemingly simple lifestyle. Of course, I conveniently forgot how isolated these places are in the winter. We walked down streets, ice cream cones in hand as we admired character homes and funky shops. As we continued down the highway, we gasped as we saw three black bears in three different locations. We stopped next to bridges to take pictures of overflowing rivers running high with spring's mountain thaw. We visited friendly horses and gave them handfuls of grasses in exchange for a picture or two. We crossed a river on a cable ferry that looked as though it came from another time and place. The beauty of this landscape was breathtaking and inspiring. Powerful transformations can burst inside of you when you experience a place that is new to your eyes.

I loved spending this time with my mom. We have always been close, but there is something special about taking a road trip together. We were like Thelma and Louise without the crazy....on the road, feeling free from responsibility and regularity for a little while. We had so much time to talk and muse about where we are in this particular point in our lives. I felt as though I was given a gift....this uninterrupted time with a woman so dear to me. I am so deeply grateful for the connection that we have, and will never forget this adventure we shared.

A picture perfect way to start the summer. I hope this summer feels as stretched out and endless as it did when I was a kid. Maybe the key is to savour every moment so that every day feels full and satisfying...not just when you are on vacation, but when you are living your daily life. Live it like you are on vacation.

Here's to longer days and warm dreamy nights sugared with the scents of summer blooms and ocean breezes. I think it's time to cut the watermelon.