justBeConnected

Let's Talk About . . . . . Inspiration

      What is your inspiration today?  I'd like to talk about this and get your input on how you stay motivated.  In all areas of life, but especially ways to find inspiration for creativity in the midst of the demands and responsibilities of every day life.  I've been pondering a variety of ideas and projects recently, wondering where I should focus my energy.  And I can't seem to land anywhere with my mental meanderings!

     I am hopeful now that my girls are in school, at least for part of the day, I will have a few minutes to catch my breath and think a complete thought from beginning to end, maybe once a day.  But then there are always those extra activities that come along with the school year.  Seems like I find myself running, running, running to this meeting, or that event, or dropping off and picking up from this or that, and when I finally am at home where I could create, my brain is in such a twist that I can't quite figure out where to start.

     Perhaps those of you who don't have little ones around will think this is all kind of goofy . . . . but I've been a mom for many, many years (some of you know that our girls are a second family for hubby and me) - and it has just always been like this.  So why did we do this, you might wonder!  Well, this is just what we felt was right for us, and indeed it has truly been a blessing to have our sweet little darlings in our lives.  But kids are kids!  And I've tried to figure out how to find ME in the midst of all the noise and mess that comes with kids, and I'm still wondering if I've lost myself completely!                        

So, if anyone has any ideas on finding inspiration and motivation in the middle of whatever your life throws your way, please share it with the rest of us!  I'm clueless, but I'm not giving up.  I'm still out here, with lanterns, looking for me in all this craziness!  Nina

New Beginnings!

  As the carefree days of summer turn to the cooler and more structured days of autumn, I always begin to think about new beginnings.  Rather than focus on the end of long, sunny days at the pool or playground with my girls, I like to make plans for the new season.  Even if you live in an area where the weather doesn't change all that much with the turning of the seasons, this is still a time of excitement . . . . back to school, sports events, and the upcoming autumn holidays.

One of the things that I always look forward to at this time of year is a return to more structure.  A schedule that seems to have some sense or order, in place of our days of fun and frolic, where I have to make sense and bring order to our time.  Most days I do OK with establishing a good schedule, but some days are just crazy!  So, I am ready for school to start, giving us a focal point for our activities.  I know that I will be so much more productive, and I am anticipating lots of fun events for our family this autumn.

One of the things that I am most anticipating, though, is time for ME!  It is really difficult to find quiet time to think, create, explore, write, and just sort through all the "stuff" that is in my brain.  I also have lots of house and yard projects that I want to work on, but between the heat and the crazy days of the past several weeks, I haven't been able to get too much of that finished up.  So . .. . . . I am looking forward to autumn! 

  I'm making a list of all the projects I want to work on, friends that I want to meet for lunch, online classes that I am planning to take, writing that I want to do, and self-improvement plans.  Get back to exercise class, read motivating and encouraging books, maybe even work on some of the music that I've been wanting to get to all summer! 

What's on your agenda for the upcoming weeks of autumn?  Wouldn't it be fun to encourage each other along the way to achieving some of our goals for the rest of this year?  Here's my challenge . . . . . make a list of eight or ten things you want to accomplish before Christmas, post it on your blog, and let's cheer each other on as we plan for our new beginnings!  Have a wonderful weekend, Nina

Home IS where the heart is!

Where do you live?  I am such a "stay at home" type of person, that my house and our little world is the center of my universe.  Now, I realize that lots of people don't feel that way . . . . . some people like adventure and exploring mysterious new places.  Well, I do like to discover new places and meet new people, too.  But being at home is my favorite place to be!

Around here, we do lots of puttering around inside our house and more recently, we've been trying to fix up our yard.  We bought a darling old Victorian house, right on Main Street, in Our Town.  We are at the west end of town, just three blocks from our elementary school, library, and community pool.  We can walk to the park and the ice cream shoppe, or we can visit with all the neighbors in our little neighborhood.  I know, that seems kind of quaint, but that's the way we like it!

  We just moved into our house last summer, so there is still so much we want to do.  Do you ever want to just rip out a wall or tear out a closet and make room for something new and different?  Well, I can't afford to start ripping and tearing, but I can buy a gallon of paint!  So, this week I've been painting a big, old yucky closet in our upstairs hallway.  Eventually we hope to tear it out and remodel the upstairs, but for now, I need some storage space for all of my sewing stuff, so I started by just pulling out everything that had  been stashed in there for the past many months.  I washed everything down, and then when it was dry I started painting.  I'm a very messy painter!  But when it is finished, at least it will be clean, and fresh, and it will look so much better than it did before.

So, today, I am hoping that if you have a minute, you will tell us about YOUR house and yard.   If you live in an apartment, or share a room with a room mate . . . .  if you have a huge house and enormous yard . . . . or if you live in a medium size house with a messy yard that you are fixing up . . . . your little world is so much a part of YOU.  Let's talk about your home and where your heart is!  Have a fun weekend! Nina

Where have you been this summer?

I know that summer always seems to fly by, and the month of July really just escaped right on by me!  So I almost forgot that today is my first opportunity to just chat it up a bit with all of you, my bloggity friends!  Some of you know that we live in the Rocky Mountains.  Now, we have only lived here for just two years, having spent our entire lives previously in Michigan.  So from the midst of corn fields in the beautiful farm land of mid-Michigan to the gorgeous mountains of Colorado, we have had a great time exploring our new home town. 

One of the places that we have discovered that is so much fun is some of the mountain lakes and streams where our Daddy takes our girls fishing.  Since we moved out here for our Daddy's job (he is a miner), we have a rather unusual schedule.  He works for three or four days, 12 hour shifts, and then he has three or four days off.  Then once a month, he has seven days off in a row.  So that is when we get to do lots of fun stuff with our girls!    On his days off, we all like to pop in the car with a couple of fishing poles and a cooler filled with sandwiches and stuff, and head up the mountain.  Now, we are already at 7,540 feet altitude, so we are going up there a ways!  But the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and we often see snow on the mountain, even in July and August.  And then it won't  be too long before we have snow everywhere again . . . . . usually by October.  Fishing is probably the most exciting thing we have done so far this summer!  So today I am hoping to hear a little bit about what YOU have been up to this summer. 

Where have you been and what have you been doing?  I know that I'm enjoying our summer, but it is getting to be that time of year when we start making plans for back to school, the changing of the seasons, and then before long, we'll be thinking about the holidays and the winter months.  So, before we lose our memories of summer, let's take out a few special moments from our memory and share them with our friends here at Create a Connection.  Can't wait to see what YOU've been up to!  Nina

Solitude of the soul rains

hello creative bloggers & sweet spirits,

I'm not in the best mood today to write...so for the dialog day I will make it short.

You all have felt unexpected thunderstorms of solitude, moments that make you feel hard to breathe, tired, you know you're not hopeless but you got this feeling.

Talk to me about the solitude of the soul, the time of despair, depression, the dark places and how you have found your way out towards Hope and lights.

Talk to me how you deal with feeling of uncompleteness.
How does your passions, your love,your faith,your family help you through these lonely and sad phases of life.

feel free also to tell me if sometime you feel like it was better to prevent yourself from telling your friends and family the truth, just pretending it was all ok?
why sometimes sadness,loneliness have to be hidden?
Do we fear to be rejected or seen as complacent and complaining persons?

to me right now, I feel I just have my art and poetry, my different personas inside, some are rather weird and crazy but they just try to cheer me up :)
and of course I can still sleep on it, tomorrow it'll get better I know that of course:)

I dont necessarily want this to be a sad dialog day friends!
on the contrary ,share with me your way out of negative emotions, how you deal with them?

you can answer here or at your blog and put the link here if you are inspired to write a long answer:)share your honest thoughts, thank you very much

have a beautiful weekend***

helenina

Dialog day: finding your way & picking pieces of your soul through Mythology mysterious lands

Greetings scattered with pink lotus flowers and shimmering pearls***

How is everyone? the weekend soon...most people always feel better when the weekend's coming;)
I sometimes miss that feeling, maybe when everything will be more settled and clear in my life I will work MORE and enjoy weekends ^_^

so today I wanted to talk about Mythology.
I always think carefully about what to write here for the dialog day, I am thinking it's almost weekend nothing tiring for the mind or too depressing, then I think it's create a connection, it's for like minded sisters, to connect and to interact, so I think talking spirituality is a good way to re-link our soul to one another, see our similarities our differences whether we identify to this or that archetypes.

I have been inspired ( by tori amos, American doll possee album)several weeks ago to do this French doll Posse project
which funnyly( I am sure you don't say that but I am French I can dare some neologism;)
enough inspired a blog friend to write beautiful words today windy angels here

at my very long post about my French doll posse you can find which archetype are connected to each of my different personality, no I'm not that insane ;)
I think we really can fill our well with these inspiration of ancient myths because we get to learn something about our behaviour, about how we could feel better looking both sides of a situation,calling to the archetypes that could push us and make us feel understood.

Today I would like to talk about Kuan Yin, "the chinese Goddess of infinite mercy and compassion.Her name means " she who listens to the sounds (suffering) of the world"
She provides the earthly blessings of children, heath, and long life and rescues people from drowning & poverty.
She is a particular protector of women.
Kuan yin is a symbol of the unlimited compassion each of us can have for ourselves. No matter what the situation , it is possible to treat ourselves with mercy and love"( words by Michael babcock)

I love Kuan yin symbol, we can easily have compassion for the children  who cries, for the women who lost her kid in Iraq because of silly wars, for the starving people in Darfour
we are human.
but how do we behave with ourselves sometimes?
are we still full of compassion,mercy, understanding?
or do we judge ourselves, think we're not enough, not good ,pretty,smart, creative,talented blablablablaba enough...

Well Enough of this attitude!
let's try to be as good to us as we would be with our best friend:)
remind this to me when I drown myself in wrong habits of self depreciation.

I am so fascinated with mythologies.
I think we all really can be inspired by these myths and find pieces of the puzzle of our soul and build a strong self, a self that can be trusted and loved because she knows herself, she has found balance.

As an artist I love  the Muses  &  saraswati

because they come to me everyday . I get inspired because the Muses are here Below, in the beauty of humanity, in nature, in all the different & deep emotions...
Saraswati in hinduism is a river goddess and I am a piscean fairy, I need water and it's my element deeply and I get that feeling that any kind of art is like a flow of river,sometimes gentle and quietly wise, sometimes passionate and wild...
The way I am pouring my soul in my work may it be poetry or painting/collage it is also a water metaphore...

I could also talk and finish this with Morgan Le Fay, only her name is poetry ;)

She is an enchanteress and half sister of Kind Arthur.She knows the Fate or each person.Like a shaman she is a shape shifter( oh how much I love that idea of shape shifter, I feel I can be a modern shape shifter, in the sense I can adapt to the place I am and feel comfortable entertaining a child and able to then have an interesting conversation with an older person, from each social background, I am a chameleon I adapt to the person I am facing,not faking just finding in me what could make me relate to this person( I dont do this on bad days, I can get judgemental and hastily assuming things )
Morgan le Fay represents that deep place of healing magic within each of us- the center of wisdom and healing flow even in the moment of death.
So to you my friends who need to find their healing magic, just go deeper, I invoke Morgan Le Fay may she guide you towards a way to feel stronger, balanced, healthy and happier with the person you are.

Feel free to share with me by a link here, or answering here, which goddesses do you identify with, which inspire you, if you are motivated you can also share your own doll posse with pictures of your different personalities to make peace, to feel as one ^_^
or share what you think of Mythologies, I will enjoying reading your thoughts!

***Blessed Be***

 

How do you postpone death?do you live enough?are you wasting time on useless things?

I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing.
Anais Nin

We always say that life is short, times flies and all these things to remember it's Time Now ,here & now to enjoy ourself, to take risk, to say we love, to love, to live the moment in spite of the way we can look, in spite of what others will say or think...

I love that quote by Anais nin.
It reminds me my path, the way I live , the way I always cancel death, the way I may talk about it in art but to say, go catch me,  I am way too alive for you!

I am amongst the silly dreamers who wants to live forever ;)
I always want to live above life and to remember this is a Real Luck to be Alive!

Some people are struggling for their life, for their health, some are fighting for freedom...
I feel I have to remind myself each time this blessing of being alive, of breathing, of having health, friends, family & a brain to think, a soul to dream...

I postpone death by Loving deeply, by sharing my soul, and living in the offering of me, pieces of me, for the ones who want, who have something to take, to feel understood and less alone...
I postpone death by poetizing existence( I have this blessing to see the world of the unseen and to not stop on the surface, I always dig deeper and sometimes I guess it makes people feel weird when I speak 'familiarly' to them because I want to believe we can all be brothers and sisters), making art, loving with passion like in fairy tales! art ,thinking and writing poetry is a big part of my inner life, I scatter the inner garden of all my dreams in the real world, I make it look real to me, it feels so good!
I am very thankful to have dared to go this artist's path, because I could have chosen to give up, to choose the wrong and never LIVE the real me, inside, let her wither and die...
and I know I still have a lot to do for my artist's path if I want it really and to be a full time artist who can really handle a living with her art.

I also love dressing up like a fae child, to entertain myself, to feel my youth and eccentricities are still there and I am so alive, I can still swirl in my fairy skirt even if I am already 28 I can sing and dance if I want to ^_^
I free my mind, I accept and tolerate my silly eccentricities, I dont ever refrain myself from being me because of the proprieties?(good manners?)
I just let go, I speak loud if I want to, I tell the truth, what I think
I keep being wildly spontaneous, even if I know I surely look ridiculous sometimes :)
but whatever :)
I mean ridicule hasn t ever killed anyone has it?

I think to postpone death of any kind, as it can be metaphorical if we look deeper underneath...
I let my inner fae child live and speak her mind!
I forget my age and other's eyes, I love and I am real.
This is maybe the best freedom I have ever found.

Taking risk is also very important, because don't we then feel more alive?
when we give up , when we abandon ourselves , because it's too late, we're too old for this and that and nobody cares after all...all these things make death win, and take pieces of our breathing spirit!
so I take risk to show who I am, to love and to lose the ones I cherish, though losing them because they have better things to do is much easier than because it's their time :(

I always think about death , strangely enough when we see the life and childhood smiling melodies of my art, but death is the last door, and I'll never be ready for that!
so I have to live and love now, more and more!
I also remind myself not to dwell too much in the egocentric laments whenever I feel down...I open myself, I share my worries and sadness with my dear friends, because it's also a way to postpone death, we often think we might bore them to death, we might look so childhish to be sad for fuss, but our friends feel touched when we confide, it shows we trust and value their friendship!
It shows we can count on them!We believe in the light they can scatter in our dark gardens.

I also have postpone death by suffering and making mistakes a lot in the Past, I needed that to learn, to feel passion of life...I remember the sad past and maybe finally all these things were just a need of Love, not a real wanting to die and give up, by suffering I clang to what was real and essential to me.

I am so happy to be alive, so tell me creative souls out there how do you postpone death? do you LIve/love enough each day?
do you sometimes feel you've lost too much of your time in procrastination, self doubt, lack of self esteem, fear of daring?

you can answer here, or if you are inspired to write a novel about it ;) ;) write at your blog and put the static link of your post here, I'll be happy to read your thoughts, thanks for taking part and reading:)

Many blessings and a beautiful weekend to everyone!

XO,

Helenina

Dialog day : The blessing of Friendship/sisterhood & the kindred sister

Greetings scattered with turquoise bead and amber stones***

It's Helene from France, and wow, I am getting tired now, but I have promised myself to write this now, so here I am :-)
On time, surely in advance for you over there across the Ocean :)

so for my first dialog day I thought a little and what come to mine lately was the Celebration of Friendship, sisterhood and the magic of the echo...finally

Maybe I could cry if I think too much!
I am really lucky. I felt so lonely several months ago. It is amazing how just one person, unknown 'yesterday' can definitely bring a new world in your heart!
It's poetry when you feel the blossom of your garden all grow and shine because you feel understood, you feel it's not one sided this time and maybe for once you will be Happy, it will work this time it will be beautiful...

I am a 'hoper' I have taken several month off from friendship, I needed to heal
I still had some friends around but I needed to know who cared really
It is not that easy to know what people want? if it s just a connection, a blog comment back and forth? a real bond? a true friendship?a deeper level of friendship soul sisterhood?

I read blogs here and there, I see people's yearning for empathy understanding and this beautiful sororal bliss.
I have been like them, I have been in my quest, it's something we can t give up!
There is someone else that we can get closer, because our souls are alike, because there is a feeling of dejà vu, I dont know...I love this feeling as if I have known someone in another life, it's real.

I love the little feeling of 'obsession' thinking of your soul sister always the one who is more like a kindred sister maybe, a soulmate...
I am a dreamer and an hopeless romantic
I dont care if I have to cross an ocean to meet her because I mean in the soul it is real,it s close it's present,constant...

I need constancy.I need time. I need similarities but not only,I enjoy differences, learning, sharing.

I have been able to acknowledge lately that I have several dear friends,soul sisters and they all mean so much to me, I am here for them,I celebrate their beauty,I am always surprised by their personalities, their sweetness...it s true I also doubt a lot, do they really care etc?
I sometimes torture myself ^_^

I have always been able to make friends via blog,internet and penpalling because in the real life it's more difficult being home alone( soon to be self employed artistic lost soul (kidding)

I always thought I might be too demanding sometimes or that maybe higher level of understanding and friendship was but an ideal you know.
I see very few person have that
you know the ' I miss you' when it s just been a day without your friend.

This is something rare, and I must say I cant believe I am living it, I dont know.
Maybe it's not both side? getting worried ahah
I think it's something to protect to hide maybe ...
so yes I am lucky I should not say I feel lonely anymore though yes it does happen but I know I have met friends here via internet, this virtual soul sisterhood.
I know who my friends are and I'll do my best to be a good friend to them, I hope they know I care.

so please tell me your thoughts?
what is friendship? what is its importance in your life? what is a soul sister to you?
have you found that beautiful kindred sister?
are you on your quest? what is your ideal friendship? what are you searching for?
do you celebrate the beauty of friendship? how? do you tell your friends how much you love them?

well I dont very much, I show it, but I dont say the word, it's weird...I love hearing it though!
anyways I hope you won't give up, it can be someone here, somewhere, you can make many soul sisters, because each person bring something new in your life, they change you in some ways :-)
I have always valued Friendship so much but even more growing old ;)( no I am not that old ;)ahah
I see my so dear mom for instance and that she does not have friends and sometimes it saddens me so much for her, maybe she likes it that way, I know I could not live without sharing with special souls who can relate and let me walk in their garden :)

Blessings to everyone, be well, smile a lot, hug your friends even spiritually;)
I am so blessed & grateful that I wanted to talk about it.
will be glad to hear your stories and thoughts, make me smile, share your passionate stories with me:)

Dialog Friday - Independence Day

On this last day of my hosting Dialog Friday, I am hijacking a bit of July to ask you to share your thoughts on personal independence. Has there been a pivotal time in your life when you declared independence (even if just to yourself)? Independence from a job that was sucking the life out of you? Independence from a bad habit finally dropped? Independence from a toxic relationship?

I know I've had several. I've moved on from jobs, I've breathed a sigh of relief at the turning point of a difficult time (secondary [sub]infertility being the most poignant), I've peacefully walked away from troubled relationships, I've crossed the finish line of a marathon and declared independence from all of the self-doubt I experienced during those long months of training.

These days, my personal declarations of independence are much more subtle. I'm at a great point in my life. A survivor of certain situations and circumstances that vary between the frivolous and the very serious indeed. Yet, I am a victim of nothing and no one. I'm happy. I'm healthy. I'm in love with my family. I am loved. I'm grateful. The choices I make every day, the things I do to sustain this level of contentment and the things I do to expand it, those are my little moments of independence. Independence from anything that detracts from this wonderful chance, this wonderful life I've been given.

Thank you so much for coming along with me on this Dialog Friday journey. I really enjoyed it!

See you around,

Nino from Cease Cows...

Dialog Friday - Wonderful Imagery

In order to better enjoy my yoga practice this morning, I created some wonderful imagery to clear my mind. I really shouldn't take credit for it, as this imagery was visited upon me almost as if by magic. It came out of nowhere, unexpected yet it was perfect. I envisioned four peace doves softly gathering up any thoughts that entered my mind in a blanket, much like the proverbial stork carries a baby, and ushering them away into a blue sky; later depositing them gently onto an island in the middle of a calm sea far, far away. Some thoughts didn't seem to want to go willingly which made them all the more amusing to dismiss, much like you dismiss a toddler's tantrum when, in reality, you know they're just being irrational, as toddlers sometimes are. This surprisingly powerful imagery helped me tap into my ch'i and I've felt wonderfully serene almost all day long. :)

Ten years ago, I sought the counsel of a learned and wise advisor who taught me the finer points of meditation and self-hypnosis. He made me an audio tape in which he created a wonderful retreat for my mind to visit. It started with me waking up fully refreshed and descending a staircase. Each step down brought me closer to a state of complete and total relaxation. To this day, I employ his teachings (though not as often as I should) to the point that I don't even need the audio tape to guide me anymore.

I once read a magazine article about a Mother who had battled cancer. She spoke of imagining miniature clones of her daughter karate kicking the cancer cells within her body into oblivion. This woman felt this imagery truly helped her conquer the disease.

What do you think? Do you use imagery? Do you find it effective? If you haven't used it yet, how about you try to create some. Share it with us. Personally, I find it to be a wonderful spiritual (re)treat.

Peace,

Nino from Cease Cows...