Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Flickr

When trying to create a Flickr account, I realized that I have a Flickr account, but I'd forgotten and wasn't using it.
 Click here if you would like a peek!





Friday, August 2, 2013

Daring greatly

I did it. I sat out on the patio and wrote and doodled what I'd learned from reading Brené Brown's Daring Greatly. Her writing speaks to me.

I love swimming at the Château Montebello pool so much, I wrote a poem



The importance of breathing 
by 
Julia Nadon

I back dive into the deep end
The coolness shocks my body
Why do I this again?
 The first lap always feels awkward
I flip and turn and push off the wall
Back and forth I swim
Reaching further with each stroke
My body turns into an efficient machine
My mind rushes like a movie screen
Playing clips of conversations and
Scenes from my life
Back and forth I swim
I become the observer
My worries blow away
Like clouds across the sky

Sitting meditation won't do it for me
In this pool, my body slices through the water
My mind slows down
I become aware of each and every breath
Lest I drown 



I've been swimming at this pool since I was little. My brother was a lifeguard there so of course anything he did I wanted to do (except for driving trucks for a living). I lifeguarded there when I was still in school and when I chose to come back to live here, one of the first things I did was start swimming here again. I've swum in pools in many places. None has the same calming effect. I hope to swim here until I die.

I can't capture all of the beauty






I've been going on artist dates with myself lately à la Julia Cameron. In the last week, I've been to the city to walk along one street. I've had a massage. I've swum which is also how I meditate.

 I refilled the bird feeders and bird baths and watched my yard come back to life with chickadees, finches and a lone squirrel. I've listened to random music on my mp3 player. I've played the guitar just for fun. I've biked for fitness, for escape and for errands in the village. I've listened to a TedTalk.

This morning as I walked through the woods on my way back from breakfast, I kept whipping my camera out of my purse to capture cliffs, streams, mushrooms, footbridges, moss, slugs and dragonflies. Photo after photo, I tried to capture what I was seeing all around me and I thought to myself that I'll never be able to capture all of the beauty around me. For some reason I felt grateful in my defeat. I'm glad that I'll never be able to capture it all. There will always be something to go after. I also wondered how is it that we can capture images, sounds and movement, but we still can't record smells, tastes, the warmth of the morning sun on our shoulders or the feel of the breeze on my face.

I finished reading Brené Brown's Daring Greatly while having breakfast overlooking the golf course. I copied so many passages into my journal. I'm thinking of organizing them somehow through mindmapping, at least I'm going to try.