retinal perspectives

all hallows eve

my plan for the evening is to read by the fire in between knocks on the door - and to hope that there is still some candy left for me after trick-or-treating is over. i haven't given out candy in a few years, but i know most of the kids in the complex (they all love atlas) so it seems a shame not to join in. besides, it gives me an excuse to buy more reeses. mmmmm. reeses.

atlas no longer has a halloween costume, for which he is, no doubt, pleased. i gave this costume to goodwill earlier this year. (i kept the hat for myself.) i figured i can recycle the photos from 2008 again and again and save him the misery.

have a wonderful evening, wherever you are and whatever you do.

ode to joy, volume 43

{my attempt to capture 52 photos that represent joy - my word for 2010}

a sunny autumn afternoon at the arboretum with atlas.

pure joy.

guilty pleasures

as i mentioned on my other blog, reading the happiness project got me thinking about what i like to do, as opposed to what i think i like to do (or want to like to do).

lately, i've been thinking about movies. i don't always tell people my guilty movie pleasure, because it sounds funny even to me, but i thought i'd come clean. (you are free to chuckle.)

i love dance movies. if there is a dance movie out there, i have probably seen it. many times. i have probably danced along with it. many times. if you must know, i don't just love them - i love them all. it doesn't matter if they are for adults or teens or tweens.

here're a few (maybe i should be embarrassed) tidbits.

when i made my road trip from oregon to michigan three years ago, i found out that high school musical 2 was going to be released on abc. i planned it so that we'd be at the hotel in time to watch it. i told my sister helen (road trip partner) that i was doing it for her. she said that she was 15 and so was older than the target audience - and that i should just admit that i was doing it for me. hee. we ordered room service and watched the movie and it was perfect.

instead of going to see inception at the theatre, i went and saw step up to the streets 3. as a matter of fact, i happen to own step up to the streets 2 and have watched it (and danced along with it) a million times.

i will even admit that i happened upon some random dance movie for the tween crowd with selena gomez and probably watched it 3-4 times before returning it. the story wasn't all that great, but i loved the dancing.

what can i say, dance movies are my guilty pleasure.

ok, your turn!

kick up your heels

so, remember when i mentioned that we had a little incident on vacation where atlas took off down the beach? well, i did an animal communication session with bridget to get information about something else and had her ask him about that incident too.

do you know what he told her? he was pretending he was his own dog.

in retrospect, this was totally what he looked like. his head was high and he was prancing happily along, like he was free as a bird.

this just makes me smile. (partly because he also told her to tell me that he will never do that again.)

to be an artist

"To be an artist it is not necessary to make a living from our creations. Nor is it necessary to have work hanging in fine museums or the praise of critics. It is not necessary that we are published or that famous people own our work. To be an artist it is necessary to live with our eyes wide open, to breathe in the colors of mountain and sky, to know the sound of leaves rustling, the smell of snow, the texture of bark. It is necessary to rub our hands all over life, to sing when and where we want, to take in every detail, and to jump when we get to the edge of the cliff. To be an artist is to notice every beautiful and tragic thing, to cry fully, to collect experience and shape it into forms that others can share."

- Jan Phillips in Marry Your Muse

celebrate

today, i am celebrating the fact that i can turn a button and get heat, because my numb toes indicate that the chilly season is upon us.

if you want to join in, i'd love to celebrate with you. feel free to share something you want to celebrate in the comments, and i will jump for joy along with you. (you can also whisper it into the wind, and i will celebrate with you in spirit.)

ode to joy, volume 42

{my attempt to capture 52 photos that represent joy - my word for 2010}

a ray of sunlight. a sunday morning. a deep feeling of home.

pure joy.

nature's fire

"Autumn is like a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

- Albert Camus

even a tiny blade of grass

while journaling about why i avoid self-care, i discovered that i avoid it because i don't think i'm worth it. apparently i have a deep core belief that says i am worthless and of no value, except as someone else places value (rather arbitrarily, it seems) on me.

a week or so later, that belief seems to have mostly dissolved in the sunlight. the week did include reiki and shiva nata but, as always, discovering the unconscious belief that was ruling my behavior was huge.

i believe that everything has worth and value, even the smallest blade of grass. i don't see how i can hold that belief and still believe that somehow i happen to be the one exception.

apparently

'tis the season for (dark and not-so-dark) leafy greens.

atlas eats enough of them these days that i've taken to calling him mooey.