smile

Part of my reading this week includes these words,

"...a smile is the most basic kind of peace work."

Pass the peace...smile often, and...

keep your peepers open!®

lane change

Last evening as I recorded my daily something that made me happy I wrote, “When a road is closed it is not the end of the road.” That, I thought, is so apropos for the way life is unwinding for my friends, me, and others I’ve met. It seems to be a time of change for people in my lane and as we’re confronted with these shifts be they surprises or the natural progression of things, we all must steer our way around the roadblocks, hit the bumps and not let the car go off the road. The way I see it, we are experienced drivers who at this point can chart our own maps rather than take the detour, don’t you agree?

Trust yourself. You do know the way so start up your engine and…

keep your peepers open!®

over & above

Views from a window...

Wherever you stay, there's always a view so...

keep your peepers open!®

humanity

a true human being is enough to make the whole world rejoice - thich nhat hanh

happy easter

happy passover

This springtime holiday season, may we reject the part of us that hates, respect the differences of our neighbor, resurrect the happy human within and celebrate life.

keep your peepers open!®

stuck up

When did your creativity stop? I found myself sharing that thought during a robust conversation with colleagues as we talked about the difference between working with adults and children when it comes to art, music, dance, movement, writing or any other form of artistic expression. Our creative voices are often silenced when we are very young; critical statements delivered without thought to developing the recipient can be devastating not only for children but also for an adult with the healthiest ego. Over the years, I have had the privilege to conduct various workshops for grown-ups meeting hundreds who dare not draw, string words together, or touch an instrument all because they are stuck in that moment, either remembered or buried, that cut their creativity cord.

If you are one of the people, be you teacher, parent, or in any other role where you dole out opinions on the creative output of others, watch how you use those scissors! Our creative energy whatever the level or quality of that energy is vital to our being. Don’t take that from another. We all have the right to express ourselves just for the satisfaction of it; it is not everyone’s desire to be a professional. Now…if you are one of those people who has a yen to express yourself and feel like you’re stuck up in the air somewhere, it’s time for you to figure out when and why you got there, pick up the scissors, cut that spot out of your picture then get on to your bliss with abandon! I speak from experience because I did exactly that -- the sound of doubting voices past no longer occupy a space in my head hence my absolute joy for writing, piecing together collages, snapping photographs, developing recipes, designing interiors, and arranging flowers (and any other creative thing I decide to try).

The wheel is in motion…when will you rediscover your creativity?

keep your peepers open!®

happiness is

I just can't help my elation with spring. Flowers everywhere capture my attention day after day, sometimes the very ones I saw the day before call me back to see them again. I stood for an hour or so at a huge daffodil bed last week enraptured with the happy gathering of joyous yellow and orange movin’ and groovin’ in the sunshine, a nice wind messing up my hair as I took almost as many pictures as there were flowers (just kidding though not at all farfetched for me).

It is cherry, or as a friend put it, “cheery” blossom time in DC. The city is abuzz with people taking in the pinkish-white cotton-candy top trees lining the circumference of the Tidal Basin. Some people are lucky enough to live on cherry tree lined streets, one of which I stumbled upon near my chiropractor’s office. As I turned the corner onto what looked like a winter fairyland, I had to park the car and get out for a closer look.

Happiness is spring, my camera and right now, so...

keep your peepers open!®

spring thing

Don’t need to say much except to say that I’ve been watching the same buds for the past few weeks…

Before the buds bloomed on the tree I was watching, I noticed that the same kind of tree in another neighborhood had already blossomed…

Couldn’t help but take a look at the shadows of the same blooming buds sans their color…

Tree watching this spring is my new favorite thing, so...

keep your peepers open!®

billboards

When I completed my MBA, it was my intention to go into advertising. I bubbled with excitement thinking that one day I would see my work in magazines, on billboards and eventually on TV. A career in the ad world was not to happen. On my way to an interview, the PATH train into NYC was in an accident, changing the path of my professional life. There have been so many junctures along the way when something small or dramatic has completely changed my course. When the train derailed that morning so long ago, I now realize, my dreams really did not go with it. All that happened was a shift in how that vision would actualize.

I have been most fortunate over the years giving interviews and writing for a variety of publications; I once had my home profiled in an eight-page spread for a lifestyle magazine. I loved each of these opportunities however, seeing my photographs and a photo credit in print last year was amazing. Today, I am over the moon -- my collage art is featured in Soul Body Connection Magazine, an annual published by Spirituality and Health and I am listed, picture and all, in the front pages as the featured artist!

I am very grateful and yes, tingling with joy that something as personal as my collage creations are now in print for who knows how many to see…this is a billboard moment in my book. Oh, and one of my photos will be in the May/June issue of Spirituality and Health so…

keep your peepers open!®

PS – Check your Barnes and Noble for a copy or click on http://spiritualityhealth.com/shop/products/soul-body-connection-2014 to order.

open house

Earlier this week, I stepped out of my car into some chilly rain sans an umbrella allowing the droplets to wet my face as if to say, “Go away winter weather, you have stayed well beyond your welcome!” Maybe it heard me because the next day, a bright sun coupled with a slight breeze warmed my cheeks, which turned on a light in the storage area of my head. Three connected yet very different art projects are stored in the attic of my brain; bits and pieces of stories rest in closets on the floors below. All are ready to burst forth like the buds of the season now trimming the bare tree branches.

Spring signals a creative revival for me, a time when I want to rejoice on paper in some way or through my lens. For instance, I saw beds of daffodils fluttering in the afternoon air yesterday. I stopped the car, got out to greet them, capture a few on film then hurried home to tool around with the edit buttons in order to create other images.

It is indeed time to throw open the windows, clean out the cobwebs and let my imaginative self shake loose so it can walk through the doors of my expression…

keep your peepers open!®