I Heart Fall

Happy October my friends!

This is my most favourite month of the year. I am wrapped around this season like a warm fleece blanket. The air feels so fresh...so good.

And the trees have been turning ever so slowly. What used to sound like a soft wishhhhhh as the leaves flickered in the summer breeze, now sounds like a restless rustle. The leaves are indeed restless. I stood very still in a maple forest this afternoon and watched them fall. Some spun in rapid tight spirals, angry to be separated from the branch. Others twirled in open, loose circles like the graceful arms of a figure skater. And some were completely motionless, except for the slow, quiet drift to earth.

Have you ever been lucky enough to watch a leaf the very moment it separates from the tree? It's kind of like watching a meteor shower. Hoping that you will see that soft beam of light right exactly where your eyes are aimed at the giant sky. Usually you see a flash in your periphery and glance quickly at the fading star before it vanishes. Usually you see the leaf as it is already floating. I have yet to see one detach.

As I set up my tripod and peered through my camera, I would hear soft sounds as though a hiker was approaching...it was only the sound of the leaves settling after their graceful flight through the sunbeams. Little golden whispers, all around me. My only company as I settled into my solitude. Click here to see the images I captured today.

I was happy in those trees. So very much in the moment as I listened, and took in the scents that fall exhales. And as I silently expressed my love for the forest and its beauty, the forest told me how much it loves me too....down by my feet, next to the river, was this most perfect heart shaped stone. I couldn't stop smiling as I returned along the path. The stone in my pocket and a knowingness that love is all there is.

Just Sit There and Look Pretty

She's a little beauty. Those big brown eyes could woo the heart of just about anyone. Her lashes are so long, they could sweep the dustbunnies off the floor. Her bouncy curls and pouty lips. And those sweet little toes peeking out from under her princess dress? You could kiss each one.

How will the world receive her?

Surely she will be adored. She will hear the whispers, the expressions of how cute she is when she's mad....how contagious her giggle is....how charming she is when she shows you her dance poses in her brand new pink ballerina shoes.

As she grows, she will catch the eye of many boys... on the playground swings as they double-dare her to eat grasshoppers....as they show off in front of her on the soccer field....a glance from across the room in first year history class....an office crush....love at first sight at someone else's wedding....

She will not be immune to the mixed messages she will receive in the world...on magazine covers, television ads, Miss Universe pageants, modelling reality shows, celebrity gossip grapevines...she will feel the ever-constricting pressure to be perfect.

But will she see past all that superficial garbage? Will she know that it is all surface stuff? Will she understand that what really means something, is the gorgeousness of her insides? How extraordinary she is? What it is about her that makes her so hilarious? What her hidden talents are that separate her from the conforming masses? How special she can make someone feel, just by being her beautiful self?

This little look she gave me...the way she folded her arms when I asked her to sit down in her fancy dress and let me take her picture... may she develop this subtle emotion, and use this little roll-of-the-eyes defiance when she is confronted with something that doesn't correlate with the truest parts of her being. A little attitude can be a powerful thing.

There's more to this beauty than just sitting pretty.

~Please go visit emmatree and find the other sitting pretty links.... an open invitation to see how many other collaborative bloggers are interpreting these 6 little words. Debi has created quite a gathering with this brilliant idea. And she is giving away one of her gorgeous paintings too!

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.