making it through the remains of winter

It’s become obvious that my friends are all very tired of winter and I’m right there with them. I’m ready for spring!  I bet your Facebook page looks like mine. It’s morphed over the past months, beginning with gorgeous snow photos and most recently with pleas for relief from the cold temps and the seemingly unending precipitation. Yes, it’s been a tough season here on the east coast and we’ve got a bit farther to go before the warmer season takes hold.

Here are a few suggestions to consider, ways to distract yourself, take care of yourself, and to ease our way through the remains of this crazy, tedious winter.

Be kind to yourself. It’s been a long slog, you’ve been inside more than you’d like and you may be getting a bit stir-crazy. Don’t get down on yourself and don’t start beating yourself up with the shoulds and oughts that are likely creeping into your thoughts. Pay attention to your self-talk and turn any negative thoughts around. Be as nice to yourself as you would be to a friend or loved one. Maybe write down a positive thought or two and post them on the fridge or bathroom mirror where you can see them throughout the day.

Move! Take the stairs, put on some music and dance around your livingroom, take advantage of the daylight and temperatures of late afternoon and get outside for a walk with the dog or to take a few short minutes to begin that winter yard clean-up.  Explore yoga, go bowling with friends,  find an indoor pool, stretch, bend, breathe deep. Do any little thing that will work those muscles and get your heart pumping.  A little bit of movement will pay off in a big way. It’s not only great for you physically but will have positive impact on your peace of mind, well-being and chip away at lingering anxiety.  You’re going to feel better!

Get out there and enjoy live, local music. No kidding, music is good for the soul. I know it’s cold but once you get to the venue it’s going to be nice and warm. Better yet, arrange to meet friends there. Move, dance, talk, eat, drink, sing, enjoy. It’s the perfect therapy for a cold winter night!

Indulge yourself. Allow yourself the gift of an afternoon nap. Spend some time browsing your favorite blogs, doing some crafting, calling a friend, watching a movie. Distraction and downtime are good for you and break up your usual routine in a good way. To relax is to refresh and recharge.

If you’re not doing it already, begin writing. Set aside 10 minutes a day to sit quietly and write…about anything. Put your thoughts to paper, journal your activities, make lists, find and document things that you’re grateful for. You’ll be clearing the cobwebs in your mind while at the same time stimulating your creative juices. The bonus is that one day you’ll be able to look back at your work and enjoy what you’ve done and the memories you’ve documented.

Refresh your menu! We’ve all been enjoying comfort food during these cold months.  This is a good time to try out a new soup, stew or chili recipe and there are lots of on-line resources for you to search through. Try something different: a new taste palate, a new ingredient. Wake up your senses and try something new. This is also a great time to start increasing the amount of veggies and fruits into your daily meals. We’re heading towards spring/summer months when we’ll be eating lighter so start adding these fresh foods now. Your body will thank you.

Do something nice for someone else. The simple act of doing for someone else takes you out of yourself for a while and changes your focus. You both will benefit. Better yet, make your generosity or act of kindness anonymous. I recently secretly paid for someone’s order at our local coffeeshop and they had no idea. It made me feel great and the big bonus was that the recipient in turn secretly paid for someone’s breakfast order at her next stop. Double great! She felt good about being both the receiver and giver of gifts that day. A chain of kindness was born that morning. Try it…you’ll like the feeling!  

Look back. Pull out your old family photo albums. How often do you take the time to sit down and look through those photos and relive the good-old-days? Seeing photos of your kids when they were small, photos taken while you and your spouse were dating, seeing photos of family members far away or long gone will take you away. This precious time is sure to bring a smile to your face and warm your heart.

Focus on making your home more cheerful during these cold months. Bake up some homemade bread or cookies and fill your home with soothing aroma. Turn on some music and fill your space with calming background melodies. Turn on lights, open the curtains, light some candles, put a fire in the fireplace…anything to bring some extra light inside. It’ll make all the difference.

So take heart. Warmer days are on their way and at some point you can look back at those lovely snowy photos on your Facebook page and know you made it through the tough 2014/2015 season with style, grace and creativity.

corner view: cuddly

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane (Spain) and curated by Francesca (Italy), where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.  The theme this week is "warmth" and comes from Beth (US).

Pye, our sweet pastel torti, was a tiny little thing when we brought her home. She connected instantly with my husband and over time has grown to love me too. Pye though, is deathly afraid of the world and everyone in it.  The only other connection she's ever really made in her 14 years was with our Golden, Maggie.  I think that Maggie knew that Pye was a special kitty and needed some extra loving. Pye has made a home for herself in our bedroom and rarely strays from there. Maggie was the only reason that Pye would venture from her upstairs retreat. They frequently would be caught snuggling  like this. Maggie has been gone for some time now and Pye has lost her cuddle buddy. It really is a myth that cats and dogs don't get along, isn't it.

things worth sharing: 3/2/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

 

1.  The most beautifully illustrated Velveteen Rabbit volume I've ever seen, artfully reimagined by Japanese Illustrator Komako Sakai. So touching! 

2.  In this 11 minute podcast interview, Gordon Lightfoot chats with Growing Bolder Radio about his long and fascinating career, including his friendship with Dylan and why they each consider the other his mentor.

3.  Quote:  "I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever." ~ Isak Dinesen 

4.  Created by students and faculty in the communication and computing science departments at Pennsylvania’s Villanova University, you can take a 3D virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica and other art-filled Vatican spaces  The four Papal Basilicas are included, along with the smaller Sistine and Pauline chapels.

5.  Have you run through all of your winter soup recipes and looking for another to finish out the season? This Curried Red Lentil, Pumpkin and Cauliflower soup will knock your socks off! 


 

 

corner view: warmth

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane (Spain) and curated by Francesca (Italy), where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.  The theme this week is "warmth" and comes from Beth (US).

This has been a wild winter for us here in the eastern part of the US. We've had unrelenting periods of frigid temperatures, wind, snow and ice. The kids around here have missed so much school  and yet, it's just been too brutal for them to go outside and enjoy their snow days. Are we ready for Spring and the warmth that it brings? Oh yes!


I suspect they'd rather be in the water rather than on it!

Spray from the falling water creates beautiful ribbons of ice.

Django loves it when it snows!

Dobby prefers to be under the blankets when the temperatures drop.

things worth sharing: 2/23/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. My Own Life: Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer. A beautiful, thoughtful, touching essay.  

2. "Their “studio” was a dingy, v-shaped warehouse attic. No acoustical tiles, no drum booth, no double-sealed glass window; they played and sang in the same room with their tape deck and mixing board, which were a TEAC half-inch 8-track and a cheap, used Soundcraft, respectively." The story of how the Eurythmics recorded the Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) album. 

3. Quote: “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late... to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”   ~Eric Roth

4. Rare Beatles and Rolling Stones photos being released for the first time through the Grammy Museum. Numbered, limited edition, never before seen. Selections to be rolled out monthly through 2017. Even if you don’t buy it’s going to be fun to experience this collection come to light.

5. Do you know about the on-line series, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee? Good laughs: Jerry Seinfeld style! You're sure to find an episode that has you laughing out loud.


  

  


you get to choose...

You get to choose. Your thoughts are truly powerful and you get to choose how to process the negative events around you and the disappointments in your life. Perhaps someone important to you didn't show up, your boss didn't come through with the raise you were hoping for, the house or car you bought turned out to be a real lemon, you got picked last for the soccer team, your mother is pretty awful at mothering. The opportunities for disappointment in life are endless, but how you think about these things and the way that you choose to respond...that's your choice. Complaining and criticizing isn't going to help. In fact, when you swim in that murky negativity pond you are limiting yourself and your opportunities to move past and to move forward. So don't linger for too long, pondering what went wrong or why something happened (or didn't happen) the way it did. Focus your energy and thoughts on finding a silver lining in the situation. Focus on moving forward, not on looking back. You get to choose where you focus your attention and energy. You get to choose.

 

things worth sharing: 2/16/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. Who wrote the most romantic love letter of all time? It wasn't Keats or Hemingway. According to the Daily Mail, the British company Beagle Street commissioned a poll to ask people their opinions on the most romantic love letter ever written. Though they had a famously tumultuous marriage, Johnny Cash's letter to wife June Carter ranked #1 in the poll results. June passed away in 2003 and Johnny passed away just 4 months later. You can read his sweet words here. 

2. Most Grammy Award-winning individuals of all time, as of 2014?
According to Statista.com, Sir Georg Solti, an orchestral and operatic conductor, leads the pack. And the rest?
Sir Georg Solti:  31
Quincy Jones, Alison Krauss:  27
Pierre Boulez:  26
Vladimir Horowitz:  25
U2, Stevie Wonder:  22
Kanye West, John Williams:  21
Chick Corea, Vince Gill, Henry Mancini, Pat Metheny, Bruce Springsteen, Al Schmitt:  20
Jay-Z:  19
Sir Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin,, Jimmy Sturr:  18
Beyoncé, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, YoYo Ma:  17

3. Quote:  The enemy of creativity...is fear. We're all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid. A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up. ~  Seth Godin

4. The new Audubon website now has the complete first folio, including high-resolution scans of the plates. They're so high quality that you can zoom in and see the amazing detail in the watercolors. They're almost paintings within paintings. Printed between 1827 and 1838, it contains 435 life-sized watercolors of North American birds, all made from hand-engraved plates.

5. How to say something nice about someone's art, when you have nothing nice to say...
       
 
 

perfect people...

Perfect people...
..wear tailored suits or overalls, hijabs or kippah, Adidas or Birkenstocks...
..have kids, adopt kids, don't have kids, or instead they've adopted a dog...
..run marathons or huff & puff when they walk around the block...
..have big bank balances, run out of money before the next payday...
..perform music, listen to music...
..worship in a church, a mosque, a temple or during a walk in the woods...
..have lots of friends, prefer to be alone...
..have grey hair in their 20's, have dark hair in their 60's, have no hair at all...
..did or said something in their past that they wish they could take back...
..have partners of the opposite gender, same gender, or no partner at all - and that's ok...
..were raised in the North, were raised in the South...
..have skin tones of deep rich coffee, soft creamy white, or anything in between...
..focused on the arts in school, focused on the sciences...
..are content at home, travel the world in search of themselves...
..are curvaceous, Rubenesque, willowy or gaunt...
..live in the city, live in the county, live in the west, live in the east...
..live for broadcast sporting events, would rather read a book...
..are farmers, are stock brokers, are looking for work, are making their own way, are retired.
Perfect people...are perfectly unique.

 

corner view: love in my corner

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane (Spain) and curated by Francesca (Italy), where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.  The theme this week is "love in my corner" and comes from Kari (England).

Mother Nature is constantly trying to remind us that love is all around.

We just need to take notice.

 It's no wonder that we use flowers to express emotions for us, whether it be love,

sweet remembrances, or final good-byes.

"Sweet flowers alone can say what passion fears revealing," ~Thomas Hood

things worth sharing: 2/9/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

The Scream?

1.  A detailed look at the story behind Blood on the Tracks and captivating Dylan history. Well worth the time for anyone who is a fan: “Letting his genius collapse for the sake of a quiet life with his kids couldn’t really continue. And, as the ’70s progressed, the tension between the two sides of his nature slowly tore him in half. Like some awful horror tale, the more he tried to flee from his fame, the more he circled back into its grip. He had left Woodstock’s supposed idyll in late 1969, dismissing it as a “daily journey into nothingness”. Moving his family into the heart of his old Greenwich Village haunts, though, was hardly likely to shake off his fans. When he walked the streets there, he felt stared at like “a giant jungle rat”, a disgusting, unnatural freak. Self-styled “Dylanologist” AJ Weberman made things worse. He picketed Dylan’s house, berating him with a bullhorn for abandoning his flock. He rooted through Dylan’s garbage, looking for clues. He even shoved past an outraged Sara to try to breach their apartment. Dylan eventually battered his tormentor in the street. But dreams of a normal New York life were smashed.” Read the whole article here. 

2. Great quote I came upon recently:

"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."   ~Schopenhauer

 

3. The 1997 anime film, Princess Mononoke, is the story of a struggle between forest gods, the creatures who live in the lush mountains of Japan and the humans who consume its resources. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and beautifully animated by the wonderful Studio Ghibli. You're going to want to check out Miyazki's other films too. They're amazing.

 

4. Lidia Bastianich's recipe for Zuppa Gallurese is a must-try during these cold months. It can easily be converted for vegetarians by substituting in no-chicken or vegetable broth. This will become one of your favorites. (I use a less cheese than is called for and it's still amazing comfort food) 

 

5. Graymatter's song Cloud 9, written by Brad and Barry Gray. Fun to perform, fun to record.  For even more of the session, you can see the outtakes here and Graymatter's Facebook page here.