the beauty that is everywhere

my love notes to the world

This page is having a slideshow that uses Javascript. Your browser either doesn't support Javascript or you have it turned off. To see this page as it is meant to appear please use a Javascript enabled browser.

Being Tree-like
You may not seem to be doing anything much in the way of production, like clocking work hours or acquiring goods, or writing Pulitzer Prize winning books. Imagine, though, that there are qualities in you that are very tree-like. You stand with roots deep in the ground, soaking up water, soaking up earth energy, with your branches spread out and taking in light. You are producing oxygen that others need in order to take in ...
Corie Does My Hair
Every day, fresh wonder from Corie. I'm just loving #moviehairoftheweek, which I find hilarious and satisfying, all at the same time. And I don't think it's just because I'm her mother. www.coriedoesmyhair.com
In the garden
Radish harvest morning. Also bunny spotting. Also gloriously beautiful. Also camera batteries passing out. Also astonishing growth from the plants in the recent night rain. Also a voice in me that says: receive. Breathe in. Receive. There is nothing to get, even as I ricochet, even as I list-make, even as I figure out, forage. There are bunnies, radishes, flowers. There is a woman in a robe drinking coffee, going back in the house for fresh cameras. ...
Angels in plain sight
Imagine that everywhere you go, there are angels in plain sight. Your waiter, for example. Here is what happened to me one day several years back when I sat in one of my favorite coffee shops, writing, brainstorming, considering what my next move in life would be. I looked up from my notebook and was suddenly attuned to the waiter, moving across the room in all his glory, as though sent by the universe to illustrate ...
Random beauty, courtesy of 60s era glam
My daughter and I are both obsessed with these lifeguard perches on the beach in Marin. She is lucky: she is just a short drive from them. As I'm on the other coast, my drive is a few thousand miles more. But that's okay - I like the drive.
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."
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.
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
How to clear your space energetically
I use lots of tools for clearing my space and my body energetically, just depending on what feels right at the time. Here are some of them: Lemons. Another healer taught me to cut up a couple of lemons and add them to the bath to immediately clear my energetic field of any energies that are no longer serving my highest good. I also drink a lot of water with lemons in it. Dried white sage smudge sticks. ...
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."
Stranger than Fiction
Do you ever feel as though your life is being narrated? Or as though you may want to turn to Dustin Hoffman for metaphysical advice? Then this little gem of a movie is one of your new best friends. The luminous beings that appear in this movie are: Will Farrell, Tony Hale, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Queen Latifah!! I mean. And another major character of the luminous being variety? Sixties architecture. Yum.
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 ...
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
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 ...
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.
Radio silence (Sedona/beauty/road trip)
Here is a post from a few days ago I thought I had published... "Heading toward Sedona now. Just saw an elk jerky roadside stand. The sign said "really good." I believe them...." You will note the radio silence since just before entering Sedona. Meet me there, all my beloveds reading this, in the beauty.
Sprouts
There's a garden that grows in the backyard, sprouts coming up from seeds. Every morning, more loveliness. I wake, and walk out into the yard to see what the night rain has brought me. There are radishes and onion and beets and carrots and edamame and cukes and squash and zucchini and peas that have grown from seed, first delightful little sprouts, then plants that take their place in the garden bed. Also, in the way ...
It was always about the dance
You know that, don't you, Scott Hastings? Maybe the Ballroom Dancing Federation doesn't have any new moves. And you're bored with the old ones. Aren't you, Scott? Wouldn't you rather dance your own dance now? Wherever your feet want to go?
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 ...
Wyoming, further
The land flattens out, stretches further. Yarrow grows at the roadside. Treeless, here where you'd have to go so deep for water. Scattered cattle ranches, the continental divide. Ethereal, butter-colored place.
The Healthy Apple's Healthy Food Shopping List
This is a really thoughtful healthy food shopping list put together by Amie Valpone of The Healthy Apple: Your Guide to Clean Eating. I am a new fan! With a list like this, you and your shopping cart will feel so very beautiful. Image courtesy of Amie Valpone, The Healthy Apple.com.
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.
Expecting Adam
This is one of those books that filled me with light. Martha Beck writes about her pregnancy with her son Adam, a Downs Syndrome child, in a way that is hilarious, practical, enlightening and heart-wrenching all at once. Brilliant.
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.
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.
The Happiness Project
And while we are on the subject of happiness this week, let's give a shout out to The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin's memoir about her year-long study of happiness. Her website is a lovely place to spend time, and meditate on what happiness is for you. Be sure and report back what you find. Or tell me about other people and places of beauty and happiness that are near and dear to your heart, and should ...
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.
Sunset
Sunset Boulevard to the water, then up the coast to Santa Barbara as the sun moves spectacularly from our sight. Image by Corie Crowley, Coriedoesmyhair.com.
Remember your joy: where to begin
Just in case you've forgotten, and you don't know where to start remembering: Start anywhere. Maybe you have been lying there, watching movies, unable to move? Do whatever you can talk yourself into doing. Breathe in and out. Become aware of your breathing as you breathe. Become aware. You may feel sad because you have started to believe you have lost your way, that you’ve lost your tribe. You haven’t. You are already home, asleep in your bed. Now wake. And ...
Goodwater
Kenny told me once when he was little that he'd been drinking godwater from flowers. Goodwater/Godwater. Same/same.

Why I Kept the Blenko Vase

I recently pared down all of my possessions to what could be contained in 20 cardboard boxes, and headed west. This process – once I got started – turned out to be incredibly freeing because I jettisoned the heavy stuff (define heavy however you want) and kept only what I really love, and what belongs in my life now. It also left me with stuff that is either pure function, or pure beauty, or both.

I kept the Blenko vase. I bought it with my last hundred dollars once when I was traveling back from a trip. Blenko glass is hand-blown in West Virginia and it’s gob-smackingly beautiful to me. When I saw this particular vase I nearly swooned so I took it worshipfully in both hands to the cash register and plunked my dollars down.

So here I sit, with my Blenko vase and all of my other beloved and functional objects, and I find myself being very selective in everything I now acquire. I am very taken with the idea of utilitarian objects that nest, such as these Anchor Hocking Fire-king mixing bowls. Yummy.

Land of Enchantment

New Mexico, I love you like I always thought I would.

Martha’s got a fantastic soundtrack going – a bluegrass version of (what’s so funny ’bout) Peace Love & Understanding.

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…