the obligatory holidays commence with

HALLOWEEN!  yes, you blogger witches!  yikes! (and sorry the header isn't complete, must be that the blogger witches are over something or ruthered and so I can't load the smallest image without it becoming HUGE!)

and this year, the witch, well, I gave her a shakey little house
which she never quite gets to enter.  She just keeps ridin'

her broom, of course, stupid as it sounds

while spidey prepares to attack her

hat

and I would have a close-up of that

but . . .

**Witches took her hat from me, wahhhh hhh h h h!
and I was so sure that I brought it home with me several years ago last time I "celebrated" the witching season!  HAH!

** apologies for the quality of video, I swear it looked so much better before it came across the ether, and as for the downward trend of witches - when was THAT any different? HUH? you say?  Huh? huh!

Rhys & Jess in Kauai

That was some trip! Here's a shot of those two.

Young At Heart

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you
If you’re young at heart
For it’s hard, you will find, to be narrow of
mind
If you’re young at heart

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes
You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the
seams
And life gets more exciting with each passing
day
And love is either in your heart or on it’s way

Don’t you know that it’s worth every treasure on
earth
To be young at heart
For as rich as you are it’s much better by far
To be young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you’ll derive out of being alive
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart

And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you’ll derive out of being alive
Then here is the best part
You have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart

There are a few people I would love to send these lyrics out to because they may need to be reminded about the human condition being finite, but not impossible.

Now that it is September and the month forever from now on of my baby son's wedding to his sweetheart, I am feeling a bit mushy, anyway.

Someone asked the question "Would You Dump Someone - (basically because they voted for the wrong person) and that got me started on the subject of how to choose a partner. And I would write endlessly about this and bore you - but my monitor keeps cutting out and won't allow me to go on and on about it. More later, maybe. For now I'll just say that even if I am inclined to disbelieve in love and all those fairy tales, still I will believe it may come true for others, my son and his fiancee definitely have made a good start at being young at heart!

and months go by . . .

still I am here. Even though I neglect my blog, does not mean I have gone away for good. Just that I am lazy, and distracted by so many things like the birds (see photos) the knitting (photos will possibly be made, possibly) and other terribly important stuff.



Summer has come and gone once and now it is summer - July 31, 2011 - to be exact. I have lost all those days in between because I did no journal except for thousands of photos which I will share and maybe whoever finds this will enjoy knowing that other people lose track of the many, many, things they were going to do with their life.

Ok. Enough drivel for now.

Christmas Eve

The history of this day, being somewhat cloudy (like the sky here), there just isn't a way we can know for sure how it went for them, back there. Or, for that matter, where they really, really were. I mean, on the evolutionary scale, were they more or less advanced than we are? Were they, the ancients, wise? Did they dis then?

Never mind. You mustn't think my questions need an answer.

As for the stuff I said I would not, could not stand to buy - well, I've done pretty well. Recycled some things, discovered I had bought myself so many presents over the years that I do not and cannot feel the need for any more today or tomorrow, at least. My generous friends, a couple of them, still overindulge me with things I fear I'll have no place for (and dread the moving or loss of!) Ha! ha! the gloom of it.

Have written some more trash on HubPages - go to my profile to find it for you to probably recycle through your subconsciousness; that is, if you're still sleeplearning, as I seem to be. If it comes up in my neck of the woods with your spin on it, I won't care! That's because I'm in such a generous, holiday mood! Right now.

So, hello to you, hello! Be kind to the next person you meet and if they pull a knife - run like hell! oh, and if you like wacky advice and dare to enter the draconian realms of good old facebook - you can find me there as Wacky Advice For Your Perfectly Wacky Predicaments

Thinking about Christmas 2010

Someone had to mention Christmas. Then I had to write my wishlist and publish it on HubPages for you (click on wishlist) and afterwards, I was feeling kind of dirty. You know - like a sales associate (basically, I guess I am) and here it isn't even Halloween yet.

But if you read the hub there, you'll see that I'm still counter culture enough for you and I'm not really selling out. Just doing my little part. Ha!

Anyway, I am aware that I have only about 5 readers here on my official blog, because I haven't figured out how to get more, or haven't wanted to do the work, or am just too dense to do any more than wistfully look at other bloggers who have 50,000 daily readers! I'm not even sure if I've hooked up my associate accounts right so that the ads that do show up here make me any moola.

Big deal. I was going to talk about Christmas. Now I've totally lost my Christmas spirit. Plenty of time to get it back. And, yes, I know I say that every year.

Anyway, since this is supposed to be the year of no new stuff for me, it will be interesting to see how I approach the time of year when I normally give myself permission to shop all I want. This year I have vowed to do good deeds, give lots of hugs and kisses, think of wonderful services to offer, but no major shopping. Will I make it? We shall see.

Minimalist Philosophy - Good Brain Posture

I've been reading about minimalism. I thought that this was a style thing - that people designed their homes to have a minimal amount of clutter ant that was about all there was to it. Beautiful homes with gorgeous built-ins and I liked the idea, but it seemed to involve a lot of money and the space looked large and barren. I thought you had to be rich to live that way!

Yes, well, this is not the way it is anymore (if it ever was). The new minimalism thinks SMALL! I wrote about Tiny Homes because they are cute, but also because they have style and fit the minimal pocketbook.

But as I read Everett Bogue's blog Far Beyond The Stars (which I can totally recommend to you as a good starting point if all this is new to you) I find that this way of life about more than having less stuff and living in a tiny house. It may have started back in the 70s when we were all spouting "less is more", but it has gone way beyond that now.

There are many things to think about when it comes to living small. Your house, your job, your transportation, the way you buy things, the way you eat, your health -all these things and more I probably haven't learned yet. So I think of it as an adventure. I need to be free from all the stuff and things. I need to see life again as the vital experience it is, not a burden. I want so much to embrace all the good ways of living I already know about.

Yesterday, I realized that each small task I do becomes a chore. I think this is related to my BRAIN POSTURE - the WAY my brain is aware, not just whether it is aware, but HOW it is aware of what I am doing. There are different kinds of attention. The kind of focused, clear attention that is receiving as much information about what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and what is going on around me is what I call GOOD BRAIN POSTURE. That good feeling you get when you sit up and take a deep breath and look around you - you can do this in your mind while you are working, or playing! You know when you have that going on by the way it feels - it feels as if you are being nurtured and fed! It feels like your brain is getting everything it needs. I think the only way to develop this GOOD BRAIN POSTURE is to make sure you consciously direct your mind to FEEL THAT WAY, as often as you can, no matter what you are doing.

This way you will be reinforcing the path in your brain to that place where you are clearly focused and doing things the best way you can with the minimum of effort. Or if you are not trying to actually DO something at the moment, you can be aware of your surroundings in a much free-er, clearer way. I am thinking this would be what I will call my minimalist brain - I'll be using more of my brain's ability, with a minimum of effort and a maximum of freedom. What we old hippies used to call opening up.

There are other people who are blogging and researching all of this, one is Tammy Strobel at ROWDY KITTENS where you can also download Tammy's short ebook free called Minimalist Health. It has the advice you can use to help yourself to a healthy minimalist lifestyle.

I think these two writers may have started some real effective change in my life and I am grateful. See if they don't inspire you also!

Next time I think I need to write about the fear that keeps us from opening up. The fear that makes us sarcastic and disparaging about anything like minimalism, the small movement, the 75 things movement, slow food, and a lot of other absolutely great ideas.

I need to come here more often!