the beauty that is everywhere

my love notes to the world

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Purple
Oh my goodness I am so in love with the lady in the truckstop where I just went in for ice and beef jerky. She has purple eyeshadow and pink lipstick and dark moviestar hair, staring off into the desert when I opened the glass door. This is going in the movie.
Tibetan Sound Healing (VIDEO)
Enjoy this pure love...
Animal, you, animal, me
These images by Gregory Colbert in his exhibit, Ashes and Snow, make me feel completely weepy. Just go look. Feel all the peace pouring from the animals, from the you and the me? This is what we're meant for, my dear ones. This is where we're going. Right...about...now. Image by Gregory Colbert, Ashes and Snow
Little Portals
Sometimes I want to give you everything. Yes, you, reading this now. I sit in the morning darkened by the rain, listening to the tea pot work up to a whistle, making precise Morse code clicks on my iPad keyboard as I type this. I have just read this morning's Garrison Keillor; first a cathedral of a poem you can walk through, smelling the beeswax candles, then stories of writers and the lives that seeped ...
Diners Are Portals
Laundromats are portals, too. You know what I mean. You walk in, the color is different. The people have appeared there for each other, converged on the place to do ordinary things with great beauty, like drink coffee softly from a heavy mug or lift the lid to the Speed Queen and peer inside. This morning we stopped at a diner on the way back to the beach. The dogs waited patiently in the car, certain ...
Yesterday On the River
My darling son Kenny was in town this weekend and we went to the James River, by way of what's known in these parts as Texas Beach. You depart ordinary reality slowly, via a path from a park near Maymont which seems initially rather ordinary. This is, as I'm sure you know, often true of portals. You walk down a dirt path, cross over the railroad tracks via a weirdly God-awful footbridge and set of ...
Airstreams are beautiful
They just seem to match out here, something glimmering back the color of everything as it drives through, just a little more saturated, just a little more certain of its light.
Soap
I wash my glass in Palmolive dish soap in the kitchen at work and it very sweetly catapults me back 28 years to where my babies are babies and I am washing dishes very sweetly in the kitchen in upstate New York. Any moment one of them might come around the corner, all filled up with light, and the business of toys, and being-ness, and I will pick them up with my soap bubble hands, ...
Ordinary Life
A quote from Jan Frazier, "When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening" --What do I want for myself? I want to learn how to pare from my consciousness all that is not gratitude. I want to cease praying for anything I do not already have, but pray only to say thank you, and pray to learn how to hold more gratitude. What do I want for myself? I want to put on ...
I Love You Anyway
This was on the sidewalk in San Francisco near Kenny's house. What an excellent idea: to love everyone and every thing, no matter what, even though, anyway.
Illinois [video]
This was a very different sunrise over corn. First it started flashing me its color behind the St. Louis arch. Then over the Missouri River and into Illinois where the colors of the sun spreading across the enormous sky and the fields and the road were all I wanted in the world. Soundtrack to this particular wonder was Sun Kil Moon singing "the universe works on a math equation/never never never ending."
What if?
What if no job or house or car or ideal weight or ideal husband is what is going to make you shine? What if there’s a bucket of magic in your secret heart and everything you witness stands transfixed, watching you, awaiting that moment when you smile and start flinging that sparkle everywhere. What if everything simply waits for the love of you? What if there are places in you waiting for you to love them. To love them anyway. And if you ...
Little Miss Sunshine
I just had my Little Miss Sunshine moment with some lovely adobe colored overpasses in Albuquerque. My camera was busy playing the perfect song (Bob Dylan and the Band singing "Too Much of Nothing") so I didn't try to take a picture with it too.
bloom: the creative process by artist suzanne l. vinson
Suzanne Vinson is a wonder of love and vitality being expressed through creativity. To walk in to her studio in the Ginter Park Community Center in the north side of RVA is to walk in to a place where ALL THE LIGHTS ARE ON. I am grateful for her and people like her. Here's a post from her blog: life in motherhood, ministry, and the arts: bloom :: the creative process. Image by Suzanne Vinson
Collect stories
When someone speaks to you, let everything slow down, and listen very closely. This is how you will get a glimpse of someone's true spirit, and maybe share a little of yours with them. You can practice this at first with people you already really like, and then as you get better you can even try this with people who initially seem very annoying. Let me know what you find out. Image courtesy of State Library ...
Where is it, this true home of yours?
Your true home is where you live in your heart. The place where you are connected to love and the way it moves through the world, permeating everything, beaming out from toll booth ladies, impatient clerks, flat tires, cows mooing, people who interrupt you, redwood trees, sun setting on the water as you sit outside and breathe it in.
Fun with DIY: Make Lanterns Using Your Fave Photos
Oh, my goodness, the possibilities are endless with these DIY lanterns. The photos or illustrations could be of anything, yes? Here's the how-to link: DIY House Lanterns Fellow Fellow | Apartment Therapy.
Being Grateful
I've started to notice that there is something about being grateful that seems to change my way of being in the world. And it seems to me to be another aspect of this notion of having a choice. I can find something or someone to be grateful for. Even if it's just a regular everyday thing, like breakfast. I can think or say to myself: "I'm so grateful for this delicious breakfast." And of course, I ...
EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database
Have you heard about this database of beauty products? You can look up the ones you use and see what kind of rating they get in terms of safety/toxicity. The lower the better. Image by EWG.org.
Stories
I have things to tell you, you know. It won't take long. Or it may take a hundred years. And I will be listening, because you have things to say, too. We have stories to put together like bubbles, bumping lazily into each other, fusing, popping, suddenly boundaryless, suddenly all the stories ever told. And we will keep telling. Because we are sayers. And seers. And smellers. And breathers. We shop at Price Club. We grow ...
Pretty Food and Electronic Geekery
You know, don't you, what it's like to want to eat pretty colors? This Fennel, Beet and Citrus Salad from BrooklynSupper.net is literally the prettiest food I've ever seen. No geekery there! Just pretty food -- Elizabeth Stark is a gifted photographer as well as a gifted cook. Pretty food has color to it. And color is a sign of nutrients. When a plant is grown in mineral-rich soil, it absorbs those nutrients, and is hardy ...
Breathing
You know about breathing. Breathing in and out. So what I am saying to you is breathe in air. Let that be one of the things you do, and build cities around it, countries. Breathe in Boise, Idaho, the church in London, the flowers from your father’s birthday, your daughter’s first laugh. Breathe in a tree somewhere, birds, a circle of rabbits moving through the yard. Then breathe out. Add your own air to the world.
Brackets
I have never really been a sports-watcher, unless it's U.S. Open Tennis matches between Nadal and Federer or possibly Italian and French men playing soccer. Talk about beauty being everywhere. When I was little and the entire family was watching sports and yelling at the teams on the television, drinking Tab and eating grilled cheese sandwiches -- all activities which were foreign to my sensitive little self -- I pretty much assumed I was adopted. I ...
Into the mystic (VIDEO)
Ah, it's played at last. No road trip would be complete without it.
Take Polaroids of Your TV Screen
Take Polaroids of your tv screen while Lucas dances, black eyes, black hair, black turtleneck, lanky Lucas, while he dances, no tripod, no vertical hold, no pause, just you leaning sweet into Lucas. Make 1,000 copies on photo glossy, staple gun each glossy to a telephone pole every mile from here to New York City. Arrive breathless. You may quibble, saying who is this Lucas, I don't know him? I'll say does it really matter, you ...
Remember your joy: being Aunt Bea
Walk into the place where you live and see if it is dark. See if the tv is on, if the dishes are stacked in the sink. Smile at the room, as though you are Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith show and are about to fix everything. If you have an apron, this would be an excellent time to put it on. If you don’t have one, and you think it may prove handy, get ...
Sound Healing - Crystal Singing Bowls
This is quite an amazing album of sound recordings by Jonathan Goldman, sound healer, using luminous Crystal Tones singing bowls. I promise this will change the very nature of your day when you listen. Leave it playing on repeat and see if you suddenly realize you are in theta state.
Let the Mystery Be - Iris Dement (VIDEO)
I could listen to this forever. "Everybody is wondering what and where they all came from. Everybody's worrying where they're going to go when the whole thing's done. No one knows for certain, so if it's all the same to me, I think I'll just let the mystery be."
A Chromatic Typewriter: For Re-Writing History
More loveliness from Making it Lovely. This is a conceptual art piece by Tyree Callahan. So dreamy. Image compilation by Making It Lovely. Art and Image by Tyree Callahan.
Feeding Myself Healthy Food
My feeling is this: our bodies are complete miracles. And probably we are wise to feed our bodies more miracles, like plant-based nutrients that are as close to their natural state as possible. And when we think of feeding our bodies, we probably want to expand that notion to include everything that our bodies take in, whether through our mouths, or our skin, or our lungs. So we can, with great delight, think of what ...

Overhearing

A child, walking by my window: ”Mmmm, nice little wind, wind!”

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Feeding Myself Healthy Food
My feeling is this: our bodies are complete miracles. And probably we are…
EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database
Have you heard about this database of beauty products? You can look up the…
Quantum Physics and the fundamental unity of life
When science bears witness to love. When Russell Brand narrates our…
Breathing
You know about breathing. Breathing in and out. So what I am saying to…
Loving Kindness
Send love into your body -- your heart, your cheekbones, your belly. Know…

Clean: The Beginning of a Four-Week Detox
This week, I've started a cleanse, after going back to this book Clean, by Alejandro Junger.…
The Foxfire Books: How to Make Moonshine, Rain and Fiddles
My friend Katie, who grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, mentioned the "hippy Foxfire…
The Happiness Project
And while we are on the subject of happiness this week, let's give a shout out to The Happiness…
Link Love: Michael Pollan's Food Rules Animated (VIDEO)
Posted by BrainPickings.com, "Michael Pollan's Food Rules Animated in Stop-Motion" Just lovely. …
Get High Now
This is rather a wondrous book by James Nestor, filled with practical and often hilarious advice on…
Expecting Adam
This is one of those books that filled me with light. Martha Beck writes about her pregnancy with…
Ordinary Life
A quote from Jan Frazier, "When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening" --What do I want…
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Miranda July made this website a few years back for her book, "No One Belongs Here More Than You."…
"Glad No Matter What:" A Book by SARK
I am reading this really lovely book by Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (aka SARK), called Glad No…

Stranger than Fiction
Do you ever feel as though your life is being narrated? Or as though you may…
Darjeeling Limited
Pretty, pretty movie, the Darjeeling Limited. That's just how Wes Anderson…
It was always about the dance
You know that, don't you, Scott Hastings? Maybe the Ballroom Dancing…
Take Polaroids of Your TV Screen
Take Polaroids of your tv screen while Lucas dances, black eyes, black hair,…
Little Miss Sunshine
I just had my Little Miss Sunshine moment with some lovely adobe colored…

In the garden
Radish harvest morning. Also bunny spotting. Also gloriously beautiful. Also camera batteries…
Sprouts
There's a garden that grows in the backyard, sprouts coming up from seeds. Every morning, more…
How about awesome?
Awesome people hanging out together: an awesome Tumblr blog. This will cheer you up if you need…
Little Portals
Sometimes I want to give you everything. Yes, you, reading this now. I sit in the morning darkened…
Being Happy and Being Inspired Makes Happy Inspired Art
My dear friend and amazing human being Liz Sheehan is the director of Partners in the Arts, a…
Being Grateful
I've started to notice that there is something about being grateful that seems to change my way of…
Angels in plain sight
Imagine that everywhere you go, there are angels in plain sight. Your waiter, for…
What if?
What if no job or house or car or ideal weight or ideal husband is what is going to make you…
Loving Kindness
Send love into your body -- your heart, your cheekbones, your belly. Know that you are love in…
Take a train
Take a train in the morning. Sit on the side where the sun is and watch it light the trees, the…

Yesterday On the River
My darling son Kenny was in town this weekend and we went to the James River, by way of what's…
My Planet: Healing with Whales and Other Stories
My dear and lovely friend Leah Lamb has launched My-Planet.org, and with it brings to life her…
Animal, you, animal, me
These images by Gregory Colbert in his exhibit, Ashes and Snow, make me feel completely weepy. Just…
Link Love: Michael Pollan's Food Rules Animated (VIDEO)
Posted by BrainPickings.com, "Michael Pollan's Food Rules Animated in Stop-Motion" Just lovely. …
Being Tree-like
You may not seem to be doing anything much in the way of production, like clocking work hours or…
Still
I was walking by the ocean today with some dear and lovely friends and found myself thinking of…
One Love, One Heart (VIDEO)
This video, a compilation piece performed by musicians all around adding their part, had me…
Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011
I found this on laughingsquid.com. Such a lovely place to find delight. Aurora Borealis in…
Utah's salt flats
Just surreal. That white you see is…
This makes me want to learn how to knit. For real this time...
...and to learn more about these fabulous people at Fibershed. Here's an excerpt from the Etsy…

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