In a crazy world...

... better to light a single candle than curse the darkness...

remembering those killed or wounded in Tuscon, Arizona.

Weekend quotes

Willem van de Velde II (1707)

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship - Louisa M. Alcott

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see - Henry D. Thoreau

Wise words...

a neighbour's frosty hedge taken last year

missed posting yesterday's quote - busy day travelling to sheffield for the FES clinic...

exhausted today *sigh*

Thursday's quote: 'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did' - Mark Twain

Today's quote: 'Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new' - Albert Einstein

Today's quote

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions,

but in the fewness of my wants.

Joseph Brotherton (1783-1857)

Today's quote

Take rest.

A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.

Ovid

Begin...

Unlike the inspirational - not to mention multi-talented Cathy Cullis - it's taken me till today to post about my own little challenge...

i originally wanted to do a drawing a day, but realized that's quite a big ask...

instead, i have been writing a quote a day in a pretty 2011 diary from Persephone Books.

My Word for the Year is written on the flyleaf, and my quotes so far...

31 Dec: 'You have faith in the goodness of mankind' - inside my fortune cookie when we had a Chinese take-away to celebrate New Year's Eve

1 Jan: 'What one does is what counts and not what one has the intention of doing' - the prolific Picasso

2 Jan: 'Don't judge those who try and fail, judge those who fail to try' - Unknown

3 Jan: 'Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself' - George Bernard Shaw

i've also signed up for The Happiness Project - i don't know exactly what it'll involve, but 'We will not know unless we begin' :)

PS on a totally unrelated topic - i've just found this wonderful website! i love sneak-peaks at folks' creative spaces :)

Card and Word for the Year Ahead

Ace of Cups from The Tarot of Trees by Dana Driscoll

The Card

i 'pulled' this card from the deck on new year's eve asking for my card for the year...

what a wonderfully inspiring, uplifting card!

it denotes so many things: spring, love, romance, drawing on deep emotions, the element of water, intuition, the unconscious, the feminine, womb, birth, offering, the holy grail...

then yesterday i received this e-letter from dear SARK in my mailbox, as yet more confirmation :)

i confess my cup has often felt only half-full throughout 2010, and more often than not i perceived it as definitely half-empty, focusing too often on only what i can't do, and feeling only loss...

but i hope throughout this new year, whenever i'm feeling depleted, i'll remember this card and all the fullness it represents.

The Word

Christine over at the Abbey of the Arts invites us each year to choose a word for the year...

sometimes the word comes promptly, and sometimes you have to wait awhile...

i had to wait until christmas day when a dear friend gave me a little book of inspirational words and pictures...

Be not afraid of growing slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.

this chinese proverb - with it picture of a succulent desert plant - leapt off the page!

needless, to say, i see all these elements - the card, Sark's letter, the word and image - of a piece, giving me a clear message for the year ahead:

like a desert plant, i can draw nourishment from the least amount of blessing that befalls me. i can dive deep within my own pool of inner resources and become succulent and full, and eventually overflowing and a blessing to others...

this is my hope for 2011 :)