training

As in: potty training. And yes, we're almost there, wouldn't you agree?!
:)

go

Go, as in; letting go & just do it :)
More Silly stuff!
Poor Buddha. Hope he's smiling upon my efforts :)

haiku, again*

Carla had us write a Humpday Haiku about our 'backyard'. And it was the inverted commas that sent my thoughts flying:

my 'backyard'?! huh?! uhm...
my bum isn't overgrown:
doesn't qualify!

Illustrated:
* my Silly haiku disappeared in Blogger's maintenance f#$*-up!

unicycle

friend

Aren't they gorgeous?!

I met Mridula throught Shannon's course Inside/Out, back in January 2010. We've stayed in touch since, and even did a photo challenge together for a while. When she emailed me that she was going to travel to the Netherlands, from India, to visit family with her daughter, she asked if we could meet. I definitely wanted to; a chance like that is so rare when you live pretty much in opposite corners of the world! It was sort of scary, too. But in a good way ;) I'm so glad she took the trouble of coming to this here corner to visit me in my home, because we had a great chat! The way you talk with friends, comfortably. I'm only sad that this will probably be the only 'real life' chat we'll ever have...

silly

I wasn't in the right place for the last session, but I'm here now & in desperate need of some spurred inspiration!
Here's to the Art of Silliness 4. Silly is as Silly does, & I'm ready ;)

P.S. It's not too late to join!

tourists

Chinese tourists, mostly. People 'seeing Europe in 14 days'. They're off to do this:

Plastic culture! It's forgivable in tourists. It really is. Most of us have substituted the Real Thing for instant culture, somewhere - I know I have, anyway. But is it okay for locals?! I'm not so sure. Yet where we are now, we're a 20-minute bike ride away from this place (click). And all those typical Zaans-green gables? That's the colour of my roots... (although I prefer looking at those little bits of heritage 'in the wild', so to speak; find the gems right next to an industrial monstrosity for example. But I know you can't 'do Europe in a fortnight' and have time for a treasure hunt like that. I get that!) I was born around here, and got my first flashes of people and the world in these parts. I never thought it mattered, but I'm slowly finding out it does.

So. I don't have an excuse. It was a gut-inspired moment of... 'I have to'. Squirt in all his glory, intimately acquainting himself with wooden shoes. Slightly too big. You would have, too. Admit it!

doing

Just a bit from my Morning Pages that I tried to illustrate. I don't want to give my inner mean guy floor space, so I'm just going to go with... how I love translating what I'm feeling or thinking to an image :) And it makes me feel good, to draw it out, to fill with colour.

I'm constantly feeling challenged when it comes to doing the things I want to do - all the things I want to do! - in the time I have going spare. So I end up doing nothing, at times... What a waste! I need to remind myself that drawing makes me feel good, and energised!
and that I could do with practise ;)

drugs

walk

I'm taking Brandi's e-course, MOVE. I thought it was about time for me to start paying more attention to my body, and stop treating it solely as a vehicle for my head. After 37 years, I've finally come to realise that I am more than my mind. And it's a good thing. It's timely, although a little late in life ;) I'm finding out it's much easier to relax when you actively use your body. As opposed to telling yourself to "relax already!!" You can actually, actively, take a break from yourself and the incessant voices in your head! Did you know that?!

I gifted my sister this course too, for her birthday. We're making it a point to do the weekly assignment together at least once. Two weeks ago, we sat behind my laptop to do sitting yoga :)

Last Tuesday had us outside for a walk in nature. And it was lovely! Pictures to prove :) I loved the way the conversation flowed because we were moving! We were meant to feel our muscles move, consciously, and I even got round to doing some of that! ;)

Nature walks won't be my weekly Thing. For no other reason than the fact that it actually takes a car to get to 'nature' from where I live. And I don't have my license. So that puts a spanner in the works right there...

But I've taken up yoga about a month ago, and love it! And I'm quite looking forward to whatever else Brandi comes up with - week 3 starts today, and there's another 3 weeks left!