if i were (revisited)...

i did this exercise in "if i were..." about a year ago and i though it would be fun to see how many of my answers matched what i said then....

if i were a month i’d be september

if i were a day i’d be friday the thirteenth

if i were a time of day i’d be midnight

if i were a font i’d be garamond

if i were a sea animal i’d be a dolphin

if i were a direction i’d be left

if i were a piece of furniture i’d be arne jakobsen's egg

if i were a liquid i’d be a crisp south african chenin blanc

if i were a gemstone i’d be a garnet

if i were a tree i’d be a birch

if i were a tool i’d be a crowbar

if i were a flower i’d be a lilac

if i were an element of weather i’d be a thunderstorm

if i were a musical instrument i’d be a a saxophone

if i were a colour i’d be teal

if i were an emotion i’d be unsettled

if i were a fruit i’d be a papaya

if i were a sound i’d be loud

if i were an element i’d be fire

if i were a car i’d be a vintage mustang

if i were a food i’d be a very spicy curry

if i were a place i’d be a prairie

if i were material i’d be linen

if i were a taste i’d be chili

if i were a scent i’d be lilac

if i were a body part i’d be an eye

if i were a song i’d be sung by Sheryl Crow

if i were a bird i’d be a nightengale

if i were a gift i’d be something you'd never of dream of re-gifting

if i were a city i’d be seattle

if i were a door i wouldn't have a lock

if i were a pair of shoes i’d be converse all stars

if i were a poem i’d be ithaca by cavafy

i guess we grow and change, because not that many of my answers are the same...

what would happen if you were....come on, you know you want to play along!

updating "about me"

with new people joining this year's flickr group - postcards to blog camp, i found myself typing an introduction of myself over there. since the group isn't a 365, but more of a community founded on last year's 365 and others who love their cameras and/or blog camp, it's not too late to join us (so get on over to flickr and request an invite)!! but anyway, what came out when i introduced myself there seemed like a good update of my bloggy "about me" page, so i thought i'd share it with you here, since there are also lots of new faces around here. you can also find it on the "about me" tab above.

i'm american, but have lived in denmark for a dozen years (and counting) after following a very cute danish boy home from the balkans in the late 90s. i still have my US passport (unless sarah palin becomes president - then i'll be giving it up and applying not only for a danish one but asylum on the grounds of cruel jokes played by the universe (but i digress)).  in the past year, we (my danish husband, who is actually called husband, and our daughter, sabin) moved to a falling-down farm property in the uncool part of denmark (jutland), which i promptly tried to convince everyone was "the new black," (no one believed it). the property itself isn't falling down, just the house, which was built in 1895. but we have a lake and room for a pony and the land itself is beautiful, so we're happy to have to spend the next ten years tearing it down and rebuilding it getting it the way we want it.

i struggle all the time with trying to live a simpler, less consumer-oriented life, but then apple comes out with some fabulous new product and i fall once again..sigh. but our move to the farm is part of that seeking simplicity...we'll soon have a big garden and intend to get a few pigs and chickens so we know where our eggs and bacon are coming from. hoping to live a bit of that old BBC series - the good life - but with ultra-modern, attractive and well-designed electronics.

i recently left a job that was crushing my spirit and am excited about a new venture i'm starting with a friend i met first here in the blogosphere and then in real life. so you never know where your bloggy friendships might take you.

i love nikons, iPhones, horses, cats, bunnies, my macbook air, the iPad (you're getting the picture on the appleism, right?), sewing, quilting, stitching, pretty paper, cooking, antiques and traveling. i'm not very religious (unless you count the appleism) and i don't much like capital letters.

beautifully different

dec. 8 - beautifully different:  think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

a long time ago, i wrote about the freckles that are only on one side of my face, so i won't go into that again, tho' i do think it's something that makes me different. whether it's beautiful or not is open to debate, but it does seem to be quite unique.

i've wracked my brain for the other ways in which i'm different...i think we all, on the inside of ourselves, find ourselves to be unique, our view of the world different than others, but in our thinking that, we're really the same, aren't we? my quirky views of the world...that eventually you won't have to follow the no-passing markings on the road because you'll be experienced enough to just KNOW whether someone is coming, or my childhood belief that the local newscasters on television could see me...those are different. but i don't really believe those things anymore.

i think i exude a kind of energy that lights people up. some people. for others, it bothers them. greatly. and they want to shut it down or simply make it go away. and what's interesting is that i don't have any control of it - i can't turn it off or on, it's just there, beaming out of me, hitting people in a positive or a negative way, quite beyond my control. and it's something that i both get to enjoy immensely and which hurts me at times almost beyond my comprehension. it's such an ephemeral thing - it's hard to describe and control. it's just there. a kind of life force. making me a bee charmer to some and a stinging bee to others. part of what makes me beautifully different and uniquely me.

* * *

check reverb10 for more beautiful differences.

really good at...

...having ideas.

...putting diverse groups of people together to make magic happen.

...creating events where people really enjoy themselves.

...inspiring people to do great work.

...putting photos with text to underline hidden (and not so hidden) meaning.

...putting disparate ideas together to form a new idea.

...bringing people together in unexpected ways.

...inspiring loyalty.

...getting my way.

...being convincing (how many of you have a nikon or apple computer because of my convincingness?).

...creative solutions.

...interior design.

...shopping (not that that's anything to be proud of).

...critical analysis.

...laughing and making people laugh.

so i wonder what this all means i should be when i grow up? any ideas? anyone...anyone...bueller?

life is like a blurry chocolate

 i had a brilliant conversation with a very wise man this evening. it wasn't long, but it was one of those conversations that you wish you had.  all. the. time. of course you probably wouldn't appreciate them as much if they were common, but suffice it to say that this is was a good one.

this very wise man lives from his creativity. very successfully. because he dares to do so. and i talked to him about that daring and how it came about.

he said something very interesting (many things, actually, but we'll just take the first one for now because it's late and i have to get up early). he has this theory that we spend very little time inside of ourselves, being who we really are, in the here and now. that most of our time is spent outside of ourselves - looking at the future or the past. and this conflicts with my favorite barbara kingsolver quote about "you never know how inside of themselves people are." which may now have to be amended to "you never know how inside of themselves people aren't." which is an entirely different way of looking at things, isn't it?

and he asked me what i'm really good at. and i think it's a question worth pondering.

what are you really good at?