Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Proud to be a Jersey Girl?





I was born and raised in South Jersey. I never really loved NJ, though, and always pictured myself living somewhere else. However, as I was driving down the road this week, I realized one major thing about NJ that I love. Trees. The trees are so incredibly beautiful! They are like works of art, the greens, creams, pinks, and purples all bursting out! It's breath taking. It almost hurts, they are so beautiful! It is also a reminder of what a great gift nature is and how much beauty there is in it. Here are a few pictures I took of the trees here in South Jersey.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Friday Shoot Out A Day Late







I love this Friday shoot out idea and love taking pictures. I have been coming to realizations about what I really want to do in life and one of those things involves being a prolific artist. This simply means that I love all the arts and want to be involved in all the arts one way or another. The Friday Shoot Outs help me enjoy the art of photography through my own photos and looking at the amazing photos of others. So here are some random shots I took this week. Comments are welcome as I am extremely amateurish in this art.

The dog is my sisters pomeranian. I make Johnny try on hats in stores because his persona changes drastically based on the hat he has on. I find it amusing and he does not mind!!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Friday Shoot-Out Comfort Foods from Home





Since I have not been eating out a lot lately, I chose, for this challenge, to take pictures of some of my favorite comfort foods which I had at Easter. Chocolate Chip Cookies and Johnny's famous scalloped potatoes. Both were delicious and comforting (and fattening). Since everyone I know eats meat, but me, I enjoy the non-meat foods quite a bit. I am technically a pescatarian, as M informed me one day, since I do eat seafood. In taking these pictures, I realize that food is actually an interesting subject for photographs.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Killing Complacency


Riding the New York subway several years ago, I noticed Barnes and Noble had these wonderful ads called "Poetry in Motion". What's greater for a poet than to read poetry on the subway in New York City! One poem has stuck with me all this time and I think of it in relation to complacency. The line that has repeated in my brain over and over, somewhat ironically, is "Beware of things in duplicate." Here is a link to the entire poem: http://www.geocities.com/FragileSummit/poetry/subway/beware.htm
It is truly one of my favorites.

This poem reminds me of how routine robs us of the awareness of time passing. Complacency makes us live the same day over and over until one day, you look in the mirror, surprised that you are twenty years older. Creativity is one of the best ways to combat complacency as is awareness. All forms of art break through complacency. The newness, though, brings fear and that is why people hold on to routines for so long. Complacency is safe and many times, people will hide behind aspects of their life to keep the routine. So, in the immortal words of Randy Jackson, "Keep it Fresh!"

Friday, April 10, 2009

Today's Five Beautiful Things


1. Winter melting into Spring
2. The scent of shampoo
3. the glitter left over from the treasure hunt with M
4. The taste of coffee
5. The two squirrels that like to chase each other

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Advice Is Like a Dog Biscuit


I am often reading other people's blogs, watching talk shows, and many other forms of "studies on life." What has come to me about all this advice-giving is that it is so important to know when advice applies to you and when it is totally useless. Advice is like a dog biscuit, in that if you are a dog, a dog biscuit is perfect for you. However, if you are a cat, you can eat a dog biscuit, but it may not be what you need. Same thing with advice. If you are an overly serious person who takes life too seriously, than advice about "carpe diem" and "lighten up" apply to you. However, if you are a partier who does not take responsibilities seriously, this type of advice is not what you need. So, here is my advice about advice! Know yourself and pay attention to advice that you know is right for you. A Buddhist maxim states that giving advice is like throwing a lotus blossom into a river, hoping to change its flow. People will ultimately do what they want no matter the advice. The best advice I've ever heard are the following three things:

1. Pay attention
2. Pay attention
3. Pay attention

Friday, April 3, 2009

Beautifully Speaking


On Oprah today, Oprah had experts talking about what makes a beautiful face. They talked about different celebrities and how they rated. Brad Pitt came out the highest. Personally, I never found him particularly attractive and I know I am in the minority in that opinion. However, that just shows how subjective the idea of beauty is, no matter how science tries to capture its essence. There are factors such as context, culture, and emotions. Part of spiritual evolution is learning all the different levels and facets to beauty as well as opening up to its power. To do this, I am going to start listing five things a day that I found beautiful, similar to a gratitude journal. Please join me and post yours! Here are mine for today:

1. Johnny (my man)
2. M (my man's daughter)
3. Magnum (my cat that will not let me pet him)
4. The sound my my wind chimes
5. white blossoms on the trees that smell wonderful!