I was in the garden the other day trying to find a beautiful flower that I could take a photo of. I snapped a few pictures, but none of them were doing it for me. The flowers didn't look nearly as beautiful in my photos as in real life.
Then I took one of this weed.
Holy smokes.
So pretty and fragile! As I finished taking the photo my leg brushed against it and the fluff blew away as if it had never been there.
As W.B.Yeats says so beautifully, the magic things are always there waiting for us...we're the ones that need the refining.
I find this takes time. And it takes intent. And sometimes a glass of wine.
Even though I'm all about going out into nature, I often resist actually taking the time to do it, and I resist even more having to wrestle my mind away from its musings to notice what's happening around me.

Today I finally did, albeit reluctantly, and here's what happened:
- a hummingbird stopped a foot from my face in mid-air and looked at me
- I found a baby squash
- hundreds of tiny frogs hurled themselves to the sides as I walked down a path in the woods, as if I were splashing through puddles and the frogs were drops of water
- two deer that had been standing just to the side of the path dashed into the woods as I approached
- a heron and I startled each other
- a cardinal swooped in an arc across my path in a dark stretch of woods
- mosquitoes picked up on my scent, passed the word, and swarmed in like a pack of heat-seeking missiles...oh yes, THAT's why I resist! Where the &*#$ is W.B.Yeats when the mosquitoes are out??

Thank-You cards - I have yet to do much in the 'gratitude' line, but hopefully more will come! In the meantime, avoid having to buy last minute cards at the drugstore, and order a package of these! (can be customized as well - just email me)
To order, go to http://astrongdesign.weebly.com/special-occasions.html.

Birthday Collection - Order individually, or as a package of 4 (or more, when I feel inspired to get creative)...priced flexibly to meet your needs! Shipped to your home within a week.
Be ready for birthdays by having a supply of cards at home, ready to go. Everyone loves getting mail! smile emoticon

To order, go to http://astrongdesign.weebly.com/special-occasions.html

If you are someone who has every been 'unemployed', self-employed, who has pieced together various small jobs, or chosen a different way of engaging in work...or if you are just interested in the possibility of what society would or could look like as technology and automation replace the work force, find yourself half an hour of uninterrupted time and sit down with a cup of tea!

This article is a lengthy but fascinating exploration of where things could head: "The possibility seems significant enough," says Thompson, "—and the consequences disruptive enough—that we owe it to ourselves to start thinking about what society could look like without universal work, in an effort to begin nudging it toward the better outcomes."

If you're interested but just don't have the time to read it all, here's a breakdown so you can skim ahead to what interests you:

p.1-13: the history and facts supporting the diminishment of work, why it has comes to this, and what that looks like
p.13-17: the psychological effects on the individual of not having meaningful 'work' (wow did these ever resonate!!)
p.17-25: what a world of less employment could look like ...how can we find meaningful work without formal wages?
p.25-32: how it would affect culture, society, and politics, and what are some out-of-the-box steps the govt could take to promote an engaged, creative, community-based society in the absence of work?

Rather than disheartening, I found this article incredibly inspiring and meaningful. Here's to reporters who are willing to brainstorm and imagine the beautiful possibilities!

Here is the link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/…/…/07/world-without-work/395294/ 
(download as a PDF in order for the pages to match up with my indexing)

These were a hit at the festivals I was at this summer!  Am now offering them online as well, while supplies last.
An easy and quick way to add something meaningful into your snail mail! Choose a magnet that matches your card, or buy them separately. Suggested donation is $2.00 each (to cover cost of magnet sheets and colour ink).
CAN BE MAILED DIRECTLY TO YOU, OR TO THE RECIPIENT!

Go to www.astrongdesign.weebly.com/magnets to order.

Yesterday I hastily made myself a sandwich, yanking food out of the fridge, rummaging for utensils in a crowded drawer, throwing my garbage toward the trash can...and then I stopped, looked contemplatively at the knife I had just used, thanked it, then carefully and gently washed it and placed it in the dry rack before resuming my mad rush through the day.

Thank you Marie Kondo for that moment. I haven’t even read your book yet.

This summer someone recommended that I check out “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing”. Doesn’t seem like hot summer reading material, does it, yet the book had FIFTY holds on 4 copies at my local library. So I did some digging and found an excerpt online (Chapter 4... http://tidyingup.com/excerpt), which maybe I shouldn’t have because now I feel I feel I might need to BUY this book. 
...ironically...since one of its main topics is about getting rid of things.

So why am I mentioning this on a blog about photos, beauty, nature, and inspiration? What relevance could a book about cleaning possibly have here?

Well, here are some of the titles that jumped out at me when scanning the table of contents:
• Selection criterion: does it spark joy?
• Tidying is a dialogue with one’s self
• Storing socks: treat your socks and stockings with respect
• Komono (miscellaneous items): Keep things because you love them—not “just because”
• Photos: cherish who you are now 
• If you’re mad at your family, your room may be the cause
• Reduce until you reach the point where something clicks
• Follow your intuition and all will be well
• Appreciate your possessions and gain strong allies
• Put your house in order and discover what you really want to do
• An attachment to the past, or anxiety about the future
• Do you greet your house?
• Your possessions want to help you
• Your living space affects your body
• How to identify what is truly precious
• Being surrounded by things that spark joy makes you happy

If you’re intrigued by how beauty, purpose, gratitude, presence, respect, and love can be a part of how you interact with the objects in your life, please check out the link above and read about Marie’s minimalist, meditative approach to organizing her house and daily routine, or read this lovely article by someone who tried out her approach:http://www.marthastewart.com/…/konmari-trendy-new-organizin….
I am certainly not advocating that everyone become a minimalist, but as I go through a period in my life where I am consciously questioning which possessions I need and what I can let go of, I am struck by the gratitude and respect that Marie shows for each item in her environment. Whether you want to purge your possessions down to nothing, or whether you want to renew your relationships with the world around you, this book brings new insight and joy into “being in your space”.

And for an opposite (yet oddly similar) approach, check out the ebook “The Life-Changing Magic of Cluttering Up: A Meditation on Meanings in Messes” by Kenneth Evans! Same concepts – more mess. :)

There are times when all the things you know to be true don't seem true anymore;
when beauty is elusive, and all lovely things drift you by, as if through a thick fog,
and the glorious tap tap tapping of rain on the awning,
and a yellow glimpse of finch
and the smell of coffee
are hardly even noticeable...muffled, like you're watching an old silent movie.
Still, something deep down in your brain, or more likely your heart, sees all those lips moving, and they are saying, “hey...hey...remember this?!”
And you do, you do.  For just a moment, for maybe only a second, you are pulled into the present, and their beauty is somehow familiar.  You know it.  
Then it's gone and the glimpse is so fleeting you forget you even saw it before the fog settles back in determinedly like a heavy wool blanket.

but your heart remembers.
even in the fog your heart remembers.

and I have to remind myself that my heart will remember.
today i can just be still.