rock on

it was a banner day for mail at our house. this beautiful little stone - entitled one bright morning - arrived from far away alaska. i've been stalking admiring amy komar's artistinthearctic shop on etsy for awhile now and with my birthday approaching, i decided to treat myself. she's got loads of wonderful painted stones in her shop and i can tell you that they are magical in person. check out her blog as well to see what's she working on and for glimpses of the beautiful alaska nature where she lives.

by amy komar - artist in the arctic

i showed sabin amy's shop last evening on etsy and sabin immediately wanted to paint some stones. we both had to try out amy's dotted painting technique and i was totally blown away at sabin's results. i am seriously in awe of her ability to just begin and not overthink everything. she has an amazing feel and is completely in tune with her muses.

this is my favorite of the stones she did last evening...she painted the heart and had intended to paint more, but she looked at it with the one and she said, "i think it's done, mom." i seriously hope she never loses that childlike ability to just be one with her art.

these fishies were a close second. she was actually painting the white one and she said, "mom, i don't know what this is." and i said i thought it was a fish, tho' it could also be a tooth if you tip it up the other way. and since sabin has a couple of loose teeth at the moment, it may have been an artistic manifestation of those pesky molars. but i love it as a fish.

she did another little heart...with dots coming out of it, a bit like the stitching i once did. so sweet.

the embroidered-looking one on the top left is the closest sabin came to imitating amy's work. somehow she intuitively went in her own direction, picking up the influence of the dots of paint, but going off on her own. i found it utterly magical to watch it.

here in my stone basket is the last one sabin did especially for me, right there beside amy's lovely petite little stone and a couple of margie's, the beautiful stone spudballoo had made for blog camp 2.0,  a few of my own and the feather i bought from geninne once upon a time. it's my basket of zen, right here beside my desk.

we got stoned at the beach

not that kinda stoned, silly. but it got your attention, eh?

i'm sick - allergies turned to sinus infection which has turned to the hacking cough from hell - so i give you pretty pictures of the stones we gathered at the beach yesterday, posed in little zen, fetching arrangements...

this is beach glass

some of the 24 heart-shsaped stones i found

more hearts

i'm crawling off to curl up in front of the t.v. and watch something totally mindless now. happy monday one and all.

a moment of clarity

i had a moment of clarity today. it hit me that despite much of the world i inhabit revolving around blogging and the community surrounding blogging, there are a whole lot of people out there who know nothing about it and have no access to this world that i can only characterize as fantastic, rich, lively and inspiring. they know nothing of the community that it can bring. a community in which someone who only knows you through your blog, can make something truly beautiful and meaningful for you. a symbol of clarity, just for you. and if you're lucky, you then actually meet that person in person, because she happens to live in the same country you do, which is really just a lucky coincidence, because she could live anywhere. but the fact is she lives within blog camping distance and for that, you are grateful. and you are also very grateful for the clarity symbol.

the clarity symbol that elizabeth made for me.

it's a little red heart-shaped pillow with more symbols on it (that i will use later)

and it resides on my side of the bed during the day.

hopefully, infusing my pillow with clarity for when i sleep.

...and a community in which someone who lives halfway around the world from you, sends you a little bag of stones. stones she collected for you as she scattered her mother's ashes on a canadian beach. stones that are worn smooth and shiny by the pacific ocean. and the fact that she actually thought of you and gathered stones for you (because she knows, from your blog, that you love them) on that day that was undoubtedly full of other thoughts and emotions for her, touches you deeply. and you feel really grateful for the blogosphere and the friendships you have found here. friendships and connections which are just are real (if not more so at times) than those you find in the everyday world which you inhabit. 

photo of the stones VEG sent on the sweet tapas plate BB gave me when we met in december.

and here VEG's stones join all of the other wonderful stones that people sent me from all corners of the world over the past year in my little stone bowl.

i so love that stone in trinsch of et lille øjeblik's handwriting. (and how cool is her handwriting?)

and the blue one is one i felted myself.

oh, and check out the little eyeball stone on the top left - that's from lynne.

have i mentioned that i love the blogosphere?

thank you all for connecting my world.

rocking out

last week, i got a wonderful little surprise in the mail. an open heart from the lovely blog, recovery from a life not lived, sent me two stones from her parents' ranch and two packets of seeds so that i can grow some of those yummy lemon cucumbers. i've already planted them in the greenhouse and hope we might get to taste them already this year, even tho' it's a bit late in the season. i'm hoping that the greenhouse helps. thank you so much, open heart!!

and photographing these little stones made me realize that i hadn't shared the lovely little flat stones that seaside girl brought to me when she came to blog camp:

i really love them--they're so flat and smooth. and now the little stone treasure bowl on my desk looks like this:

so, as i type and work away at my desk, i'm accompanied by little reminders of my connections from all over the world. i think that's pretty cool.

* * *

i'm off to dublin for a few days, but have scheduled plenty of secrets to keep you satisfied.

* * *

and be sure to check out the new project, across ø/öresund launching this week. it's a new photo collaboration with the lovely kristina. we're nikon girls, you know. skåne was lost to denmark in 1658, but we're working on reuniting them, at least in pictures.

stoned. in a good way.

a few weeks ago, trinsch of the lovely, carefree hairstyle fame (which i am too uncoordinated to duplicate, by the way, tho' i tried), had a corner view: the beach post which had some really beautiful stones in it. there was a picture of them lying in their natural state in the sand and then in a beautiful little stack. i asked her to upload that little stack to flickr so i could favorite it, because you know i have a totally minor and not at all requiring meds or excess baggage fees thing about stones. happily, she obliged and i was content.

and then, today, a little envelope arrived in my mailbox.

fabulous handwriting! cool stone with a hole in it! could it get any better? why yes, it could!

inside the pretty little bag were those very stones trinsch gathered on the beach in israel! how awesome is that? but wait, it gets even better.

that little white stone at the bottom (at 5:30) is a little piece of marble. trinsch says that it's from the historical site of caesarea--the ruins of a roman city--2000 years old. italian marble, washed and rounded and smoothed in the sea for hundreds of years, washes up on the beaches in israel, near the historical site. but my very favorite one is the little round grey one right beside it (at 7:30)--it's smooth and perfect.

trinsch's beautiful picture of them in their natural habitat

from trinsch's picture, i imagined that the stones were larger (tho' husband made fun of me for that, asking how large i imagined the bits of sand were), but i am madly in love with them and not the least bit disappointed that they are small--they're absolutely perfect! than you so much, trinsch, for making my monday! in fact, i'm sure it will actually make my whole week! 

today, trinsch has a lovely post featuring a typecase from her childhood where she displays stones and shells found on beaches around the world. you should go have a look at it, it will make your monday less weird, i promise.

and the winner is...

we printed out the post from tuesday and clipped out all of the names of everyone (except me) who left comments. my lovely assistant folded them and put them in this little pink bag.

it is so fitting that the name that my lovely assistant then drew out of the little pink bag o'names in my yay-i-made-the-gold-issue-of-discounderworld helleristning/petroglyph giveaway belongs to none other than....

stacey childs, editor of discounderworld!  stacey, please send me your snail mail address and i'll send a little piece of denmark your way (because i ended up using a stone from a danish beach--it just fit better than the ones from norway).

the stone itself is fashioned after this helleristning which we saw at an exhibition at our local little fjord museum last year. i used red ink because that's often what they use on the helleristninger out in nature in order to make them more visible for photographs. sometimes, like below, they also use white. it just depends on the color of the stone.

i wish i had enough smooth rocks suitable for painting on so that i could send one to everyone who entered (but oddly, i do not--must go back to the beach soon). thanks for playing and be watching in the near future for another opportunity. this was fun!

don't forget! big petroglyph giveaway tomorrow!

remember--if you want to be in on the big thank-you-for-voting-for-me-for-the-gold-issue-of-discounderworld petroglyph/helleristning/stone giveaway (i need to work on these names) tomorrow, do leave a comment back on this post. i'll print them all tomorrow morning, snip them up and have one of my lovely assistants draw the lucky winner. because yes, it's constitution day tomorrow and therefore, a holiday. ya gotta love denmark

* * *

and while we're on the subject of giveaways, mal* at turning*turning, the most thought-provoking art therapist out there, is giving away a lovely mini quilt in my most favoritest colors to celebrate her 100th post and you can enter to win that as well. so run over there--she actually gives you five ways to have a chance to win! but you've gotta be on twitter for one of them. ;-)

evidence of creativity update (46 - 52)

welcome all of you new commenters (commentators?) who came out of the woodwork on the last post! i guess those flowers learned more than i thought they did at plant school. :-) i'm pleased you all hopped into the fray.

as some of you know, thanks to molly, i am attempting to do and document 100 creative things during 2009 and am sharing them here. i'm up to #45, and so it's time to do a bit of a catch up, since i haven't actually updated this list since april 13! thankfully i take a good 100 photos every day so i can go back in my iPhoto and figure out what i've made since #45.

#46 - a kickass fresh strawberry lemonade. this counts because i invented the recipe myself and didn't look at any of my 600 cookbooks.

6 lemons, squeezed

1 pint of strawberries

1 tray of ice cubes

1/2 C sugar (more to taste if your strawberries aren't super sweet)

whizz it all up in the blender, pour it into a pitcher and pour in one bottle of fizzy water. serve and enjoy the ooohs and aaahhs. add vodka or rum or tequila for grown-up fun.

#47 - a bunch more helleristninger, which i will count as only 1.

#48 - coffee cozies for blog camp

#49 - quite a lot of cakes made with rhubarb of which i will count only 1. recipe for this one is here. you can see that it was good because it was mostly gone before i could take its picture. we've got rhubarb coming out of our ears in our garden. from only two plants! it's apparently an excellent year for rhubarb.

#50 - artistically arranging rocks in baskets. i know this sounds a little suspect as evidence of creativity, but i travel to the far reaches of foreign countries to collect the stones and then spend an inordinate amount of time on arranging them just so and they look pretty when i'm done, so i'm counting it.

#51 - blog headers. i make and change my own frequently, but i recently branched out and made one for amanda and one for VEG. the ease of making fun headers is just yet another reason that i love my mac. because i do them in pages, mac's answer to word, only way better for handling photos--resizing, dragging & dropping them to exactly where you want them. it's all really easy. with free fonts from dafont.com, i can have endless hours of fun.  so it's definitely evidence.

#52 - just today, i made a mattress cover and two pillows for the iron bench in my upper garden. you just gotta love ikea fabrics. so bright and cheery.

bearing in mind that it is a holiday here, i'll give you three guesses as to how i spent the rest of my afternoon...and the first two don't count.

those kind of suspect-looking slabs in the upper left are where husband was at one time going to place the pizza oven, but it's going to stand somewhere else now, in fact, that's what husband was working on all day today. there's nothing you can't do if you can find directions online.

this was the view from where i was, just in case you still haven't guessed...

it was, in all a glorious weekend. hope yours was too.

* * *

a couple of other notes before i leave...

hermit book club - the next read is haruki murakami's hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world. i'm rereading it so i can lead the discussion on friday, june 12. if you're not already playing along with us, please do join in, there's still time to become a murakami addict like me.

trans-atlantic learning adventures - if you want to see what we did on saturday at the local tivoli (or more accurately what sabin did, trot along over to sabin & addie's blog and have a look. while you're at it, stay awhile and check out their project.

we've begun the countdown to blog camp I--june 19-21 right here in denmark! come and check out the latest madness on our minds over at the blog camp blog. i'm going to get my act together and try to get a bit of a schedule up so you can know when you can find us live online via stikam (if i can figure it out) at blog camp, so that even if you can't be here, you too can participate! if you're new here and don't know about blog camp, check this post to see how the idea was born (husband is pretty brilliant sometimes).

sabin and i are still working on the questions from friday, but never fear, you'll see the answers sometime this week. if you still have a burning question on your mind, please leave it on that post and we'll try to include it.

p.s. i found my rock. :-)

friday confession

i haven't confessed since that first one earlier this month, so i thought it was time...plus, friday confession was polly's original idea with it, so the day is even right.  it is friday, right? i've kinda lost track this week.

forgive me odin, for i have sinned...

: :  i admit this is just another way of doing one of those random lists i love so much.

: : i've used up a rather shocking amount of my kenzo eau de fleur de thé perfume this week instead of showering regularly.

: : sabin and i ate carpaccio for dinner three days this week. plus a soft boiled egg with spears of aspargus dipped into it. we always eat weird raw stuff when husband is away. and yup, that's a super cool heather moore skinny laminx egg cup cradling that egg.

: : i am fighting an urge to go downtown and see if there is anything summery and wonderful in the form of a dress for me. but (aside from the kenzo) i've done so well on extending austerity april into may that it would be a shame to break it here right at the end.

: : and i really want my own pair of converse all-stars, which are apparently affectionately called chucks, but which i can't really bring myself to call that because i am lacking the cultural reference for that name. but that's my own fault for removing myself from that culture for over a decade. i have the same thing with something called "wife beaters" that people keep mentioning. i have no idea what those are. anyway, i want light yellow converse all-stars. i don't know why that color, as i have nothing else that's yellow, it just that the thought of those makes my heart sing. i hope they make them in that color.

: : very often my kitchen sink area looks like above because it's where i draw the line as to how i want to expend my energy allotment for the day. so much for that feature on apartment therapy.

: : i am so relieved that all of my articles are done now and just awaiting the final approvals. and that the feedback that's come in from the various interviewees is very positive. that's a big relief. because my inner perfectionist is one tough cookie to please. and she had her doubts.

: : this week i spent an awful lot of time wearing my old green gap sweatpants and husband's big red gap hoodie, clutching my talisman stone and rocking back and forth in front of my laptop.

: : i took my talisman stone to the bathtub with me. after clutching it in my sweaty little palm all week, i thought it might like a bath. is that weird?  i showed my stone to my mom yesterday on a video chat and she said, "julie, get a life." i thought that was a little bit harsh. and i hope the stone didn't hear her.

* * *

and now for something completely different

i'd like to do a post as cyndy suggested, where you ask sabin and me questions and we post the answers, so please leave your questions in the comments. that is right, isn't it, cyndy?  my questions--with a look on the past and sabin's view on the same questions, but what she imagines her answers will be in the future. as cyndy says, "First car? First date? First day of college? First house? The list is endless..." so think along those lines in coming up with the questions.

and happy friday to all of you. i for one am looking forward to the weekend.

#700 and advice on getting there

photo adapted from an idea by marathoner81 

thank you for the inspiration!

i love the suggestions you guys came up with and i will be using some of them (yes, including a helleristning stone giveaway, HRH TFM that was a good idea) in the coming days, but what i thought i'd do today actually isn't really in the comments (i said i was going to be dictatorial about this). but i do thank you all very much for giving me some great ideas and you will see them coming to a blog post near you very soon.

since BoN hit me a little over a month ago, i've had a number of quite a few people email me to ask for blogging advice. how i got started, what i do to stay motivated (P&P asked some of this in her suggestion below), how to go about it, how often to post--a whole range of questions. just this morning, gypsyfeet, a blogging newbie who is a canadian living in korea (cool!) emailed me and asked for some advice. then it hit me that THAT was what i should write about for my 700th post.

i know you regulars don't really need any advice and i'm not sure i really have anything worth saying on this topic, since i've really no clue what i'm doing, i just keep doing it. however, i won't let those doubts stand in my way, it's just that i wanted to give you the chance to skip to other posts or another blog at this time because this may not apply to you.

* * *

background

i created this blog in 2004. i had just been wrongfully fired from microsoft (as my lawyer ended up proving, but which i knew from the moment it happened) by my total crap hack insecure middle-level fargo-based manager. my original intent was to expose the middle layer of management fat around microsoft's middle (i'm sure it's still there and likely still needs exposing) and it made me feel good to create the blog.

at first, the blog was closed to the world--i wasn't naming MS by name b/c my case was pending and i didn't want to jeopardize it. what i ended up writing about was how i felt about being fired and my subsequent search for a new job. then i got a new job and i was really busy and i didn't post at all during 2005 and 2006. towards the end of 2007, i was feeling really tired and burned out and wrote a few posts again. it was also at that point that i opened up the blog, thinking no one would find it anyway, so what did that hurt. then it hit me that my job was actually killing me and my relationships and my family life and so i left it at the end of 2007. i decided then that blogging would be a way to heal and find my way back to myself.

i've always written journals and used journaling as a way of thinking things through and helping me sort out the world around me. my need to do that after leaving the stressful job was great and this little blogger compose space just spoke to me, so i started channeling those musings through the keyboard rather than writing them out in journals. i found it was an easier way of being sure that i wrote every day--which had also been a longtime goal that i had never really been able to fulfill. i type fast and so i could get the thoughts down faster anyway. whatever it was, the blog as a medium clicked for me.

so i wrote happily along, trying to find my way back to myself and especially to my creativity and my family and well, my life. i also started reading a lot of blogs. i lurked, because i didn't really know how the whole commenting thing worked and it seemed like all those people commenting knew each other and i just felt like an outsider. i also was in a process of working out what i liked and what spoke to me, so i favorited a lot of blogs in different categories and visited them regularly, but quietly. i doubt any of them knew i was there. some of them i still occasionally check in on, but for the most part, i'm not really actively reading the same blogs today that i was then (that's mostly because i've moved on from the scrapbooking thing).

in mid-march 2008, around my birthday, i got my first comment. i was astounded that someone had found me as i seriously never imagined anyone finding me or reading what i was writing. i was writing instead of going to therapy and just enjoying it for the act of it and for myself. so i was totally surprised how cool it was that someone left a comment. that someone was the elementary. she writes lovely, thoughtful posts and can turn absolutely any tiny detail into a totally delightful story with a life lesson attached. she's wonderful.

getting a comment on my blog gave me the courage to comment on some of those blogs i was reading. and it turned out that then those people came to visit me and suddenly a few more were commenting and it started to feel like a community with friends. to this day, i still don't feel worthy of commenting on a blog like hula seventy, so it can be that you'll feel that way too. but maybe it's just me. and it can cut you off from wonderful people--for example, for the longest time i felt unworthy to comment on paris parfait, but tara is one of the most generous, wonderful bloggers i know. all it took was that i finally had the courage to leave her a comment.

* * *

the medium

i love the blog as a medium. i think it affords the opportunity to be all over the place and explore different genres. one of the early comments after BoN hit me was, "i love your blog, but i don't know what it's about." i felt like, "yes, success!" you see, that's precisely what's cool about the genre of blog (if it indeed is a genre, i'm on the fence about that--i think it's becoming one)--it's anything and everything you want it to be. but, from my point of view, it's above all personal. so my advice (and it is advice, not rules, i don't think there are really rules to blogging) will reflect this--i'm not advising you how to sell your etsy stuff (as if i know anything about that) or find customers for your interior design business or photography studio or create a blog where you post tutorials of crafty stuff. all of my advice is about blogging as a personal expressive tool--gypsyfeet called it my "thinking out loud" style this morning and i think that's an apt description. so this is my advice for thinking out loud. :-)

* * *

the advice

1. be real, if you're bummed out, say so. if you're elated, share it. people will see through it in a minute if you're not real. that annoying blog that made me hate the word "rad" is so thoroughly and completely fake sappy sweet that it makes me want to throw up. and i'm certain it's all an act because that shines clearly through in all of the vapid self-portraits that are used in every post. and i refuse to link to it here so that you are spared and to avoid sending any visitors her way.  instead, i'll give you a link to a new blog i found recently of someone who i think is blogging in a very real way and i love that! go read marinik's blog, her husband has cancer and is dying and she's writing about it so beautifully and so authentically, i'm amazed.
   
2. go out and read a lot of blogs, when you find one that speaks to you, click on their blog favorites because chances are it will lead you to more blogs that you'll like.
3. don't be afraid of leaving a comment--but leave an honest comment--if they moved you or made you laugh or even pissed you off--say so (politely, articulately), but don't just say, "nice blog." and leave a link to yours. i never ever click those links, but if someone leaves me a sincere comment, i always click on their profile and have a look at their blog. it's really about being real again, just like in #1.
4. by being real, i don't mean that you have to expose real names of your family members and such--i refer to husband as husband because that's what we all call him, but i know some people say spouse or hubby or kid #1 (please don't say kidlet, that's just wrong, but of course, it's a choice and you're welcome to make it) or whatever because they want to protect their privacy. that's totally cool and doesn't mean you're not being real.
5. it's up to you to decide how often you want to post. i post every day because that's part of what i want with blogging--i want to write on a daily basis. but one of the very best blogs i've ever read and which i read religiously is truth cycles and hele posts only once in awhile, as the spirit moves her. i'm sure i'm not the only one who wishes she would post every day, but that's not her way of blogging and every one of her posts is worth the wait, so whenever a new one pops into my reader, i rush to read her first. what's interesting is that i don't always comment the first time, her posts merit careful thought and i often go back to post a comment later.
6. use great photos. i have come to the point where i would almost call myself a photographer (don't worry bill, i won't actually do it ;-)) and i can tell you that if you look back at my early posts, that was not the case. i bought my nikon D60 in early may last year and my photos have steadily improved since then.
7. carry a little notebook with you to scribble blog ideas in. whenever i'm out, i see half a dozen things i want to blog about later. for this reason, i don't go anywhere without my camera or my little blog notebook. and i mean nowhere. they come to the grocery store with me, just in case.
8. if you see a blog post you love on someone else's blog--be it a list or writing in reaction to a particular question or quote--write your own version and link back to the person who inspired you. inspiration is viral in the blogosphere, but do give credit where credit is due. it's not nice to steal people's words and ideas.
9. try out other voices. write in the 3rd person once in awhile. write a fairy tale. i never do poetry, but lots of people do to good effect. the medium allows you the freedom to try out all kinds of things.
10. listen to what people say in the comments. i've been amazed, especially of late, at how reactions to various posts were very different than what i had imagined they would be. i thought i was being really funny with my snow white post and people found it to be a sad little tale. i hadn't seen it that way at all, but could totally see what they meant after i got that reaction. listening to the feedback you get in the comments can totally help you grow as a writer.
11. i love to change my blog header regularly. it makes me happy.
12. don't go too nuts with the gadgets in the sidebar. (i know, i don't follow this well enough myself. but i do try to avoid things that are flashing or have too much distracting motion.) the star of your blog is your blog posts. there are tons of awesome free blogger templates out there to help you be creative and display the things you want to display.
13. this is a personal preference, but i really don't like those music players that trigger music automatically when i visit a blog. you don't really know where people are when they're reading your blog. maybe it's late at night and their baby has just gotten to sleep and they click to your page and music blares out and wakes the baby. or they're at work and don't want to broadcast to the world that they're reading blogs. put the player on, fine, but don't have it trigger the music automatically. or share your playlist in another way--i've seen blogs with changing "listening to now" lists. that's cool and i've discovered a lot of great music that way, so i love people sharing their favorite music, i just want to be able to play it on my own terms.
14. answer your comments. i don't always have time these days, but i try to, especially on the "important" posts or on a post where i wanted a dialogue about the topic. if there's an email address on the comment, i often answer directly to the person. sometimes i indulge in these (perhaps annoying if one has subscribed to comments or if one feels left out) IM conversations, which are an occasional bit of fun. i love that whenever i comment on magpie's blog, she always answers directly to me. it makes me feel recognized and worthy and like a friend. mary and meri both do that too. and i think that's way cool.
15. if you don't feel like posting, don't post. everyone goes through periods where you just feel a lack of motivation. there's nothing that says you MUST post something--it's really totally and completely up to you. that's the beauty of blogging, it's totally subject to your whims.

* * *

the conclusion

i write for a living in addition to all this blogging, as well as coming from a long line of journalists, so writing is in my blood. i might feel a lack of motivation some days, but i can't imagine having nothing to write about. i think about blogging all the time--everything i do, everyone i meet, everything i observe, every picture i take is all potential fodder for a blog posting. i scribble them down in my little notebook and if i'm having a blah day, i turn to that and find ten ideas that get my mojo back. in my view, the more you write, the more you will have to write about.

everyone always asks me how i have the time. it's because i prioritize it. it's important to me--more important than watching t.v. and getting enough sleep. i'm a night owl, so very often my posts are composed late at night and set to post at a particular time the next morning.

blogging has made me more present in my everyday world, despite the fact that i send it all out into cyberspace. i'm more grounded and more observant than i was. and it's what has brought me here, to my 700th post. and i think that's a good thing.

what to do?

this is post #699, which means the one after this is #700. i've written almost 700 posts (that's just on this blog, we're not even talkin' about all those others). i feel like #700 should be something special. a milestone of sorts (not to begin to seem obsessed with stones). but i feel a little paralyzed (that's been common this week) before the round number.

then it hit me, i have this fantastic resource right here, at my disposal. and that resource is all of you! so what should #700 be? i'm open to any and all suggestions (tho' i will pick my favorite in a most undemocratic perhaps even dictatorial fashion). and #700 will be the one that inspires me most.

so, put your thinking caps on and leave me a comment with your suggestions. perhaps a giveaway (and if so, what would you like me to give)? a dare? something you think i can wax philosophical on (not grammar, that's clear)? a list of questions you've always wanted to ask?

i wanna hear all your best and brightest ideas. because somehow these milestones matter, don't they?

concentration stone

i've been holding this stone in my hand or in my lap for two days straight. i even fell asleep with it in my hand last night. it helps me concentrate. it's become a bit of a talisman for me. and i swear it has helped. i found it on that beach in norway two weeks ago. and i'm closing in on being done (with my work).

when i look at this picture, i see my mom's hand...

...tho' it is my own hand. but when i think of all her hands have done, i think i'm ok with that.

sunday morning theories

we sit on sunday mornings at the dining table with the fat sunday newspaper, steaming cups of tea and the morgenbrød that husband always goes and gets at the bakery. it was during one of these times that the whole blog camp idea was born. what we're reading always provokes discussion, this morning it was of trading schemes to offset CO2, how this government hasn't devoted enough money or attention to research into alternative fuel technology and on to how difficult it must be to write a feature story about someone who won't speak to the reporter.

on the table were the stones i gathered on that beach in norway last week.  husband was teasing me about bringing half of norway home in my suitcase and i was assuring him i'd left quite a lot of it behind.  since he loves to dig, i said he should have more understanding for my need to commune with the rocks as he does with the soil in all that digging. i philosophized some lofty thoughts about how the stones put you back in touch with something ancient and basic and make you feel some kind of connection to a continuous line stretching through time.

and i was only half-kidding, tho' i said it all off the top of my head. i told husband that it gives me a palpable sense of calm to find a stone that fits perfectly in my hand and hold it, feeling its coolness in my hand and transferring my own warmth to it (sabin just picked up this stone which i had been holding and it was still warm after lying on the table for half an hour). husband suggested that i start a new -ism.  rockism. (we need to work on that name.) i'm aware that there are already theories like this involving crystals, but i'm much more drawn to simple stones.

rockism would advocate the gathering and collecting of stones and of sitting around holding them in order to get in tuned into that line of continuity with the earth. because i swear that if the stone is right, you can feel the ur-energy humming and flowing into you through the stone. i think we're searching for centres of calm in this fast-paced life and that one way i find it is in my love of stones.

that's my -ism and i'm sticking to it.

have i mentioned that i love my job?

this is what's on my brain this week and why i'm not visiting all of you as much as i would like. instead of my usual late nights of surfing all the blogs i'm folllowing, i've been up late writing. for work! and it makes me so happy! i've had three days in a row of talking to inspiring people and i get to write up their inspiring stories of innovation and dynamic change.

and this place is so beautiful, that i just totally can't believe my luck life.

and today, after a morning of learning and enthusiasm and meeting new people who love what they do and are doing totally amazing, innovative things, i had a bit of time to drive a little ways down the coast and find the most beautiful little beach covered in these:

i can tell you that i am once again grateful that i'm gold, because that  bag isn't gonna be light.

i promise i will be by to visit soon, it's just gonna be a crazy couple of weeks. so please be patient with me!