Tuesday, February 15, 2011

~happy valentine's day~

I hope yours was short, sweet, sincere, happy, genuine, and angst-free.

The most fun I had for the holiday, or even the whole week, was cutting and pasting together my own cards. I love arts and crafts.

Friday, February 11, 2011

shazam


I don't have a tripod, but I was psyched when I figured out how to do the "exploding flowers" trick. Yes, the first day of spring according to the lunar calendar has come and gone, and there are flowers like this all over the place, but we also had a "snow warning" this weekend-- even as far south as Shikoku. I have to say I haven't seen any of the white stuff yet today.

simplicity

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

H.D. Thoreau

Monday, February 7, 2011

the water of...


When I was young,
we used to have fairy tales read to us--
as many children do.

In several Russian fairy tales,
the hero first rushed headlong
at the obstacle in his way
and was chopped into pieces
and left for dead.

But the animals he had befriended
would bring him back:
one flying to fetch
the water of death,
another flying to find
the water of life.

The water of death
sprinkled over the pieces
brought his body back together;
the water of life
revived his spirit.

And then, of course,
wiser to the ways of his foe,
he would try again
and win.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

music magic


This is a song that takes me back to childhood days in sunlit classrooms with wooden floors and the smell of chalk dust in the air. Really a wonderful movie, too.

Friday, February 4, 2011

water guardian I

ablaze

(...though admittedly, this photo looks a bit greener and darker on the blog than it does in my picture viewer. Come on, blog! Where's the passion? Where's the oomph? Where's the fire?!)