freecycling

Awesome video of Danny Macaskill, freecycling in Edinburgh. Totally amazing.

what is dying to be born?

This week I came across Lianne Raymond's website and a book What is Dying to be Born? that Lianne has created. (You can download it here). It pulled at me for a number of reasons. It's the kind of project that sits on my wishlist, just dying to be born. I have little book project ideas floating around in my head, just dying to be born. I loved Lianne's introduction where she says:

So pretending to be Elizabeth Gilbert overcome by her muse, I composed an email explaining my idea and asking my question and I sent it to every amazing, wise, wonderful woman I could think of. The only way I found the courage to hit the send button was by being fully prepared to receive no replies. For the idea to be a complete flop.

And then she goes on to say:

To my complete amazement and delight they responded. I mean, they responded.

I could just imagine the delight as the emails rolled in with their answers to her question. I know that feeling.

I read entries from women I already know of and entries from women who were new names to me. These are some that I especially loved.

Kelly McGonigal says of health care:

It's up to you to create a life that sustains you physically, mentally and socially. Yes, do everything you know you should do to take care of your health. Then give yourself permissino to do the thing that makes your heart sing, or that quiets the suffering in your mind.

Maya Stein writes about believe:

If anything, believe in your own strange loveliness
How your body, even as it stumbles, angles for light
The way you hold a dandelion with such
yearning and tenderness,
the whole world stops spinning.

Susan Wooldridge's topic is oneness:

Today by the creek I pretend I'm the Dalai Lama. I don't know enough to get it wrong. The robes, white and golden. The smile, serene, the walk like an animal I've never met, feline, perhaps. Persian, with a hint of bobcat.

I like the duality of the question. Language always intrigues me. Double entendres. An unusual use of words. The origin of language. The question can be what is dying to be born in the sense we use dying to mean can't wait. I'm dying to see that film. What can't wait to be born? Or you could read it as what is ending, expiring for something new to be born. Endings and new beginnings again. We have to lose something or give up something, declutter something in order to fill that space with something new. To let something or a part of us die for something new to be born. It's a constant cycle. Endings and beginnings. The old and the new. Round and round. It's called evolution.

pogo effect

the little gem, originally uploaded by the.whole.self.

My latest new toy is a Polaroid Pogo. It's a tiny photo printer with built in ink that prints photos onto 2" x 3" sheets that are sticky on the back. It's the coolest thing I've seen in a while. You can bluetooth photos from your mobile (done that) or plug in a USB cable and pictbridge from your digital camera. It gives photographs a slightly Polaroid effect and I just love it.

I've been printing random shots and been wowed by the results. The printer is not expensive (around £24 for the black finish version) and the sheets are around £10 for 70.

I'm sticking the prints in my journal. Going to use them on cards. Generally, I'm going to stick them everywhere!

my tree (again!), originally uploaded by the.whole.self.

We had a show and tell at work this week that resulted in a couple of colleagues dashing off to order their own Polaroid Pogo from Amazon. We're all wowed!

the antidote

vitality man, originally uploaded by the.whole.self.

Today I've been out with my camera. For the first time in a while. I took some portrait shots for vitalityman's website (coming soon). I'd decided on a location beforehand but it turned out to be even better than I had envisaged. I'd seen a bridge and some trees. A slightly grungy backdrop. But a few yards further along was a derelict school. Broken windows. Graffiti. It was perfect.

I had a happy half hour having fun with the camera, looking for shots, trying things out. John was an excellent subject who needed little direction and I was pleased with the shots I took. I especially liked the one above which was shot through the side of a rusty freight-type container to get the blurry edge.

It made me realise again - or at least reminded me - that photography is my antidote to those times in my life when things don't quite go to plan. I love photography. I could spend all day, every day, taking photographs. I never want it to end. It's a complete joy to me, whatever I'm photographing. Whether it's just me tinkering or portraits or events. It never ceases to thrill me. And when I get home and download everything, it always feels like magic.

Sometimes I have phases when I don't photograph as much as I should. Work commitments, life in general. And those are specifically the times when I should pick up my camera, go out somewhere and just keep clicking. That's my kind of therapy. Photo therapy.

go the distance

Terence Mann in Field of Dreams:

There comes a time when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place and the universe opens itself up for a few seconds to show you what's possible.