Life's Lessons #4 BE Cheerful

Much as I have been very Eeyore-ish throughout my Life, I find that Life is just simpler when I choose to BE Cheerful. NOT that I am saying I stuff my iggy and yuck feelings and just put on a happy face, just that I am finally realising that BEing Cheerful is a whole other kettle of water bugs.

I am learning a LOT about CHOOSING who and how to BE since moving. I love my quiet and solitude, but it's entirely missing somedays. Oh well. I can still BE Cheerful. And kind. And approachable.

BEing Cheerful is a lot less effort than I'd considered. It doesn't require near the amount of energy BEing a crankypants does.

BEing Cheerful is even fun. And laughing [or simply smiling] seems to add to rather than take from the World. 

BEing Cheerful helps others to raise their game, too. It seems really hard for others to BE all grumpy and cross when I am Cheerful.

What amazes me about BEing Cheerful is that Life is far better than my old Eeyore-ish self has been telling me all these years. 

It's NOT so big a deal as somethings, but I am going to roll with it from here on out. I am going to reach for Cheerful BEfore I rely on Eeyore-ishness. 

That's it. That's all. See you here tomorrow...

Life's Lessons #3 BE Open

Somedays I am pretty predictable. I get up and write BEfore the sun even thinks about rising. I make a little art to share with whoever feels like reading what I send or post. Gracie and I have a Morning Adventure. There is always tea.

And laughter.

Today was pretty normal except that I took Gracie for her Spa Day to a brand new to us both place. She'd been a bit limpy lately, perhaps the cold has got to her eight-and-a-half + year-old body. MayBE she just was a little exuberant with her tennis ballies last week in the park.

Anyway, we found the place [and I am REALLY so over BEing a driver again...] and met the nice lady who was going to DO her thing. We reminisced a bit about good old Barkingham Palace and Papa Tony back in Delray Beach, but finally, with trepidation, I left her and went on my way to my FREE TIME. 

I was less lost in the weeds than sometimes, and I found some ways to pass the time that weren't at all about cleaning [aka rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic]. That little chore I was happy to leave BEhind in the Wee Cottage. Our new Wee Casa is twice the size with about a quarter of the stuff. 

I spent the morning and early afternoon DOing things that needed DOing and a few that did NOT but that I chose to DO anyway. It was fine. It was nice, really. But I was sure glad to come home to the message from the Dog Wash lady that my girl was coiffed and ready for pick-up.

I found myself thinking a lot about the past 2 months. We have only been here two months and I am starting to forget the Past and blend right on into the Present. [except for that car driving business... that ends tomorrow]

Moving was less a big deal this time. MayBE BEcause I have done it so many times I finally was ready to let it BE done without bother. I was open to the possibility that it could BE a simple thing. And, in most respects, I literally went to sleep in Delray Beach, FL, one night and woke up in Mesa, AZ, the next morning. Oh, there was a plane or two involved, but really, that was my intention from the day I decided to come back to AZ.

My mum thought I was asking too much. I knew though. I knew that BEing open to what I want is the surest way I know of getting it. And it is amazing how much BETTER THAN I'D IMAGINED IT BEing it was. [and is]

So... BE Open. That's my lesson from Today. And one I have had cause to enJOY greatly in 2013. 

Sometimes I need to get out of my own way.

Mostly, though, I just need to remember to laugh.

Life's Lessons #2 BE Silly

Silliness is an essential Life Skill. It is right up there with learning to say YES and NO. It makes Life bearable and sweet, especially when the poopstorms are blowing in and through everything.

I never realised how much I had eased silliness off my plate. Gradually. Over long stretches of Time. Until one day I did NOT miss it BEcause I had gone so long without it.

Today I am BEing Silly. BEcause I CAN BE. 

I am taking on the giggly attitude of my 5-year old self and the ohmygodicanNOTstoplaughingandNowthereismilkspurtingoutofmynose self. 

I am going to laugh, out loud or quietly and just to myself, no matter what anyone says or does. I am going to replace every cranky and judgmental thought with a smile. A realisation that I am NOT so different from anyone else.

I am tired of BEing sensible and acting like I am a grown-up with a pinched scowl and lots and lots of noise running through my birdbrain.

I am going to hop and twirl and dance with my smile all day long.

I hope you will BE Silly, too. However that looks to YOU.

Life's Lessons #1 BE Intentional

I've been thinking I'll close 2013 with some reflection and affection. It has been quite a year for me, and I'd NEVER EVER have BElieved you if you told me I'd BE Here Now. [Except, really, it is impossible that I could BE anywhere else.]

BEing intentional has been a theme for me in 2013. MayBE there are more complicated reasons for this, but I think it's BEcause I say YES and NO and don't feel compelled to explain further.

In the BEginning of the year I started to seek out intentional communities where I could live. It was extremely frustrating for months, and then my Life kind of turned upside down when Gracie and I got attacked in late March by two dogs who were NOT BEhind a locked gate.

I realised then that I needed to make some changes. I needed to NOT BE so out there on my own; I needed to find a "community" where I could ADD and BE of Service. And I needed to learn how to live among others again.

BEing intentional has brought me here, even to Today. And a good day it has been, all round. I realise that one thing I've got better at in 2013 is deciding to DO or BE or HAVE whatever AND following through with the action[s] required.

Life is far from perfect, which is fine. I don't want perfect. I just want to live simply and BE of Service wherever I CAN BE. Somedays still I get wound up and decide that MY WAY is THE WAY. I get impatient and edgy and sometimes a bit mouthy. But the thing is, I CAN and I DO change that, with Intention.

So that's a Life Lesson from 2013. BE Intentional and Change, Accept, and roll with the river. Don't look BEyond my own air space. Change myself BEcause it is the only thing I really CAN [or should, for that matter] change.

Photo Art Friday 4 October 2013 ~ Sky

Playing on a new playground today... I have moved, well at least I am Here Now, in Arizona, though NOT yet in our new abode, nor is there much of the Just Enough Stuff with me, so I am learning to play on this wee Chromebook.

This first is a crop of one of my collages from 2011 which has a window looking out onto a swing. I liked this bit of the image and the way digital fiddling made the sky more mysterious and full of autumnal colours.

I also like that this particular Peace of Sky reminds me of the sky Gracie and I bid a goodbye to at the beach last Friday morning, just at sunrise. This is the fun of the sky. It is everywhere we go and anywhere we are. It often looks markedly the same or different from one place or person to another. As for me, I like its mystery and transformability.

This next one is another sky from another time... Imagined. Cobbled together. Created simply to share with you. Today...

I'm cornfuzzled about whether you can see it or enlarge it to see it, mostly BEcause I am NOT yet familiar with the way to work on this wee Chromebook, but it's a fun fix thanks to a moon I got one night in 2010 and some magic from Bonnie's texture [I canNOT figure HOW to go back and find the name... so I am NOT risking it ;~D Right Now!!] and Pixlr Express.

I have missed fiddling about AND I am absotively posolutely loving that I am having a bit of a techno-fast this month. A little goes a long way and none is also just fine...

Looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to, too.

Photo Art Friday 9.6.13 ~ Water Theme

A Quiet-ish Currie this September...

I really enJOYed digitally fiddling some photos of waterscapes in San Jose, CA, in April of 2009. Never really understand what I am thinking when I take such photos; glad to find out I didn't NEED to know, just trust the process!!!

Added PDPA Skywater & Underwater textures and then played awhile in Pixlr.

Feeling grateful for the water thoughts...

Looking forward to seeing what others have been up to.

Photo Art Friday... August 2013

I've missed this staple of connection and sharing in my weeks, yet I have found that it has stayed around, in other guises, surprising me suddenly.

Just last August I finally got about learning to use Photoshop Elements 8. And what happened then was that I felt like elephants were playing pinball in my birdbrain. 

I couldn't see forests OR trees.

What I've discovered, happily, is that for me Digital Fiddling is NOT dependent upon my knowing How-To use PSE8 or any other elephant-like [to me] software. 

It doesn't need money thrown at it. 

Nor does it require a fancier camera.

All it takes is desire and curiosity. 

And a liberal dash of persistent consistency.

For awhile I'd noticed myself feeling breathless and apologetic about what I did NOT understand. 

That, and I BEgan to BE timid and afraid to make mistakes. 

That alone was itchy enough that I gradually stopped trying to use PSE8 and started using Picasa, then Pixlr & Picasa.

About my favourite thing to DO on Fridays [and oftentimes Saturdays as well] is meandering deLIGHTedly through Photo Art Friday posts and visiting everyone else's photo art and posts.

So Now that it is a once-monthly thing, I am happy to BE upon the first Friday in August. I'm eager to see what others have been up to. 

And, yes, overJOYed to BE able to share some of what I've been up to, too.

Nowadays I pretty much work with Pixlr exclusively. 

It's fun, easy, and always surprising. 

Somehow I'm finding the Enoughness factor that was missing for me with PSE8. 

It has BEcome second nature. 

I love how that happened.

I did a little bit with the flowery theme, perusing my photos from the past several years. One batch jumped up and kissed me on the nose, that BEing the 200+ from the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix where I visited during the Chihuly exhibit in late March 2009.

Into some of the BEautimous glass sculptures I blended some very bare trees I'd seen earlier that month while in Philadelphia. And then to bring it all together, a spread of desert blooms.

I went on, once I got started, finding several other ways to respond to the notion of flowers.

enJOY!!