New Year’s Rabbits and Other Fine Things

I’ve been doing a Friday peek-into-my-week post under the The Scattered Life Collective umbrella since late 2013.  I love the practice – I find it very helpful to bring a bit of focus into what’s been gathering in my attention during the week.  Kind of like tidying up a drawer or organizing a folder to then file in that big cabinet called my brain. It also provides the perfect opportunity to share things I think should have a wider audience and contributing to the culture of celebrating wonderfulness.  And it also serves a bit as a gratitude list. All good things in my book!

I expect to continue this blogging tradition for as long as it feels good to me – that’s kind of how I like to do things.  If I’m not enjoying something it doesn’t belong in my life is a rule I like abiding by.  And one I encourage for everyone.

Which brings me to another point.  A shout out of gratitude to Cynthia Lee, the founder of the Scattered Life Collective practice that’s come to mean so much to me.  Cynthia has declared 2015 to be her year of the soul and doing some deep inner-focused work and as such is ending the the Scattered Life Collective.

I love how everything is always an opportunity to honor where we are and what we wish to give our attention to.  And that’s one of the helpful things about starting a new year, or any kind of new cycle;  the built-in opportunity to consider afresh which direction you want to be moving.  I suspect there will be a lot of shifting and morphing for all of us in this upcoming year – I feel that energy in big ways.  And so my invitation to you is to be open to it, to honor those little whispers and certainly those louder calls, and welcome yourself into the sovereignty of creatorship of the life you want.

And so while I expect the shape of this weekly review of mine may shift a bit, let’s see what places are inviting our deeper exploration…

the internal landscape:  While I’ve repeatedly said I love the opportunity and promise of new beginnings, I’m also feeling a little bit wobbly as well.  I woke up this morning with a feeling I can only describe as “jumbly” – kind of low-level anxiety without focus that kind of sharpens the senses, but not necessarily in a good way.  Maintained long enough and it turns into something prickly.  So this is my hedz up to be lavish with the self-care; to stay grounded and centered and turned to listening inwardly; and to call in an extra dose of loving support.

epicurean adventure:

• I’m pacing myself, rationing out the last of the holiday cookies.  I’m seriously in love with these Cardamom and Fig Snowballs, and I suspect I’ll find another occasion to make them during the year as I don’t think I want to wait another twelve months.
• I’ll be making my own version of Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Squash Lasagna tonight, but here’s a recipe if you’re inspired.

good things:

• visioning and planning.  Oh there’s such fun and magic in inviting in possibilies, seeing what makes your heart happy, and deciding what things to focus on.  I have to move it out the cerebral though so writing and doing some arty things are really helpful for me.  I think I’ve found a journal I may be using this year to corral all my vision collages into. In the past I’ve often used spiral-bound pads with watercolor paper to collage on, and while I really like that, the pages are larger than fit my scanner which is problematic if I want to scan something.   The new journal I’ve found has 8.5 x 11 pages of what appears to be Bristol board which will be fine for collaging on and hold up to marker work as well.  We’ll have to see if this is a keeper new system for me.
• Pulling oracle cards with friends for the new year.
• I had a dream about rabbits who presented me with a crown of pinecones.  I wonder what Rabbit will have to share with me this year.

 favorite word(s) of the week:

Kundan – a unique form of purified 24k gold that’s created by repeatedly firing gold at extreme temperatures till all impurities are burned away.

Sissy snow – sparkly little dusting that prettifies things without any real impact.

Jólabókaflóð – Icelandic word meaning Christmas Book Flood when new books are typically published.  Iceland publishes more books per capita than anywhere.  Another fact added to my reasons-I-love-Iceland.

turning the pages:  I’ve begun reading SoulSpace:  Transform your Home, Transform your Life – Creating a Home that is Free of Clutter, Full of Beauty, and Inspired by You in prep of the on-line bookclub  Amy Putkonen is hosting beginning later this month.  Do consider joining us.

on the playlist:

I am totally entranced by the polyphonic overtone singing of Anna-Maria Hefele.  She’s doing this with her voice!

what I’m loving to supporting:   Our beautiful elephant friends are so in need of our help these days.  There is the atrocity of the mass poaching in Africa to supply the ivory trade, and things are not all that wonderful for some of the Asian elephants as well.  This Kickstarter funder is hoping to impact the heart-breaking conditions endured by some temple elephants.

fabulousities, curisosities, and brain igniters:

• I love the bright art of Suzanne Carpenter’s illustrations.  And who couldn’t love someone who says this about herself.  ”Some people think that I never stop talking. I come from a family with a bell in every tooth.”  A bell in every tooth!  Squee!  I’m inspired to have a personality transplant to move me from shy and quiet just so I can say that about myself.

• Sunday will bring us a full moon – Full Ice Moon here in the northern hemisphere.  Love this year-long full moon photo series from Jim Nickelson that he entitled Adventures in Celestial Mechanics.

• Given that we’ll be celebrating the Ice Moon, how appropriate is it I came across these fabulous photos by Kenji Shibata of flowers in thawing ice.  Swoon-worthy.

• Warming things up, these high-voltage images created by Phillip Stearns are fabulous in my opinion, but I get nervous just thinking he’s using 15,000 volts to get them.

• This post by Kristen Ploetz of Little Lodestar introduced me to a poem by Ethel Romig Fuller.  And now I’m inspired to think about my days as poems.  I’m putting this idea on my fresh newly-minted ideas-to-explore list.

And there you have it – a look into my week.  What about you?  What caught your attention?  What energies did you bring into this week?  Ever think about your life as a poem?  Do tell – you know I love to hear.