Rain & Relaxation >> Sunday Sense

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby

  ~~Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967)  American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist.

It is a rainy, gray Sunday in Connecticut. Normally, I’m one of those people who complains about rainy days – not thunderstorms (I love those!) – just the days where it’s a steady, slow rain . Sure they are restful, but the cold, damp, and gray ends up making me depressed after a while. The excerpt from the poem, April Rain Song, by Langston Hughes, is one I always think about when it rains. He views rain as something to revel in and something to celebrate.

After some thinking today, I realized that I do actually appreciate a lot about the rain. I took these photos back in 2010 during a rainy day. They show the three things I truly love about a rainy day: the calm, clean feeling after a big storm where everything feels scrubbed down, the way spider webs become like crystal and taffeta art, and the look of the water drops on each blade of grass. Although, I spent much of this day walking around, taking pictures , and getting everything wet except my camera, it was one of my most relaxing days that Autumn. I hope you enjoy the photos:

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New Year’s Resolutions- 2012 >> Sunday Sense

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” ~Jack Dixon (Author)

Looking on Facebook and Twitter, I have been looking over New Year’s Resolutions updates.  I ran across this quote as I was looking for inspiration about changes for my own resolutions and wondered, “Why bother to make any New Year’s Resolutions at all?” Afterall, there is plenty of data that shows that resolutions often are doomed to fail.

This has put me more in a Mark Twain mood when it comes to resolutions. Twain once said: 

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

So, this year I have decidednot to have any specific New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not saying that I’m perfect, but I think my approach has changed from previous years. I have learned that I am healthiest when I am doing what makes me happy. So, that is simply how I will try to live this year: by doing as many of those things that make me happy.

For example, each year people wonder how I manage to not gain holiday weight. Answer: I dance, hike, and do yoga. These things make me happy and I don’t have to force myself to excercise by doing them. No going to the gym, pressures to impress, or subscribe to memberships.

Creativity resolution? Scrapbooking makes me happy so I will be doing that this year.

Need to see new things? I will carry my camera around more so I can take new pictures and support my writing and scrapbooking habits.

I’ve got one body and one life and I might as well be happy and creative as I do things. I’ve learned that sometimes you find exactly what you need or have been looking for when you stop trying to impress/please everyone else and just please yourself.

Think about what makes you happy and maybe you will find it already fulfills your desire to create a resolution.

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Children & Art >> Sunday Sense

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Pablo Picasso  (Spanish Artist and Painter: 1881-1973)

Here is one of the first Sunday Sense posts I’ve done in a while. I hope it inspires all you readers with children in your lives. I think we sometimes take for granted how imaginative, creative, and generally ingenious children, especially young children, can be.

The reason I picked this quote? I’m eating breakfast in front of “little kid art”  and thus being inspired by it. On the refrigerator there are scribbly images held up by magnets. (Refrigerators are like the Louvre of little kid art, aren’t they?) In front of me sits this:

Santa's Workshop: A post modern study of Christmas

Yes, that is a sugar and candy version of Santa’s workshop that The Fiancée’s (and by extension my)  two little nephews designed on one of the nights we babysat. (Don’t worry, the house is for show so they didn’t end up eating the whole thing. That sugar paste dries into the equivalent of sweet cement.)

Another project, we worked on was this house made of rice crispy treats and candy. This one, they were able to eat, albeit, not all at once like they wanted to.

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As you can see, it’s pretty good! Of course, I may be a little biased since I made this on Thanksgiving when they weren’t looking. (Don’t worry, I ate mine. That was the best part.)

Stuffing island with broccoli tree and a view of sweet potato lake and a string bean boat

So, remember, creativity and art can be found everywhere! Even in broccoli, gum drops, or refrigerator art.

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A Father’s Worth >> Sunday Sense

“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.”

George Herbert quotes (English metaphysical Poet and Clergyman, 1593-1633)

Happy Father’s Day! This Sunday Sense quote is pretty straight forward! Hope all the fathers out there enjoy their special  day. To those single mothers out there, Happy Father’s Day to you, too! You deserve just as much credit.

Until next time!

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The Power of Words >> Sunday Sense

This Sunday Sense post was inspired by Kim’s May 15th, 2011 post (It’s a Beautiful Day and I Can’t See It) on her blog The Creative Addiction Blog. It is the first ever video “Sunday Sense” post. I watched it there first and haven’t been able to forget it since. Despite the fact it is a commercial, I still find it inspirational. Enjoy!

Happiness & Sharing >> Sunday Sense

Image via Wikipedia

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the one candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Buddha  (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

In last week’s “Sunday Sense” I reflected on what it truly means to home. My good friend Sally replied, “[...] I think there is another dimension to that quote. Maybe home is anywhere you share your heart…”

Her reply got me thinking about the nature of happiness and how it spreads. This quote by the Buddha was one view of happiness and the spread of happiness that I had never quite realized. I hope it is as inspiring to you, the readers, as it was to me.

Also, thanks to Sally for helping put all the haziness of life into perspective.

A Place To Call Home >> Sunday Sense

“Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.”                                                                                                                         ~Tad Williams (American Author, March 14, 1957)

This quote is simply one of those that stands out to me because of the fact that I have done so much moving around recently. (You’ll see a post on all of the recent moving soon.)

In any case, I have been thinking about what really makes a place home. I always say that home is decided by people you love and where they are at. After reading this quote, I have decided that maybe home can always be in your head and carried wherever you go. This is one quote, I’ll be mulling over for a very long while.