Mirror Mirror on My Blog

The Theme for City Daily Photo is "mirror" for March, and this is my first posting!

I'd so enjoy joining with City Daily Photo and other fellow bloggers so with this post I'm hoping to link up too! 

The magic of the window is not in itself but in the view it shows outside.

M. Murat

The eyes are the mirror of the soul and reflect everything that seems to be hidden; and like a mirror, they also reflect the person looking into them.

 Paulo Coelho

Yes this is me day tripping around Northfield.

Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.

Edith Wharton

Endless, are the many things that 

can reflect within a storefront window.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Carl Jung

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."

C. G. Jung

Don't Just Think DO

 So here's something that went viral over a classroom zoom lesson last week.

I was hooked by this teacher's inspiring idea for her class and I played along too. (In an acceptable children version) No wine or other adult discretions.

I'm also posting to

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

and as Eileen said, "Happy March" everyone!

"A lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep."

George R.R. Martin

So let's begin. 

List ten ways to get excited in the next ten minutes.

1. Eat something that you enjoy!

2. Spend relaxing time on the water.

With friends or family even better.

3. After a long day of learning, or zooming, 

take a quick nap with your dog.

4. Find the funniest things you can, laugh, and share them!

5. Stretch yourself to a newer even higher limit and scream, Kitty of the mountain!

6. Meet someone new and shake their hand! While wearing your mask.

(I know then wash your hands!)

7. Always expand your horizons read and discover things! 

The more you learn the more places you'll know and go!

8. Join a club like the 4-H or be a Girl or Boy Scout, or band/chess/speech you enjoy it you do it.

Alone we can do so little.

Together we can do so much.

Today is going to be the best.

Tomorrow will be even better.

9. Experience something you've enjoyed before.

"Laughter is poison to fear."

George R.R. Martin

and

Once you've accepted your flaws,

 no one can use them against you.

 George R.R. Martin

and yes own it, we're all flawed. Nobody is perfect.

10.  Spend time with friends and family.

(and if you can include critters too all the better)

Parents/grown-ups/grandparents can only offer good advice or guide you to the right paths. The final forming of a person lies in your own hands.

Revised by me and Anne Frank

We adults can show you the world

it's what you see and appreciate that matters.

Me

Thanks for stopping by your comments mean the world to me.

Take good care of you.

 

Pandemonium Breakaway

Welcome to another WORDS FOR WEDNESDAY blog post from Elephant's Child and our word list is from Alex J. Cavanaugh.

The words are, guacamole, ninja, lollygag, malarkey, skedaddle, piffle, and/or berserk, earwig, fiasco, gazebo, huzzah, nitwit, thingamajig, and pandemonium.

Let me say, this was a lot tougher than I thought it would be! But thank you Alex your delightful words really stretched my thinking!

Pandemonium Breakaway!

Crazy like the sound of banging pots, what a fiasco while all pandemonium broke the crowd went berserk in a moment of sheer frenzy screaming, "huzzah!"

Without a doubt they knew not to lollygag about this frozen tundra of extreme temperatures so skedaddle they did so not to freeze in one spot.

Except this man, frozen in his steps as the snow fell all he could think of was devouring another hot dish of chicken guacamole quesadilla!

Everyone warned him,

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation." Jean Kerr

Could you imagine a headless world? Or worse yet like these poor folks?

Butts in view what a piffle indeed while our imagination skedaddles wildly across the land like a ninja in disguise. 

Heads on or not if we lollygag about more pandemonium may fall into the mix and then someone blurted out, "Oh no, a flurry of earwigs have been spotted!"

Of course if you ever wondered how an earwig travels in winter they're stealthily tucked away in a warm ear of a bicycler who possibly might be engaged in earwigging (secret conversation) between a ninja and a nitwit conversing a piffle of malarkey about a frenzy of earwigs cutting lose.

Meanwhile about 1,750 miles away in a city park there are no crowds, or ninjas, not even a mousy nitwit you could hear music playing.

Somewhere within this gazebo an outdoor speaker plays the song, "I Like Chopin" sung by Gazebo 

and

as if my story wasn't silly enough look at what sits not far from the gazebo.

Okay using the word thingy when you're not absolutely understanding the whatchamacallit you are looking at, a thingamajig proves more helpful in describing what sits within this garden retreat.

The End.

I used all the words.

Hallelujah! I finished.

The Road Words For Wednesday

 Hello everyone, with this post I'm playing along with Elephant's Child and 

WORDS For WEDNESDAY

Our words this week are, firefly, mystery, science, theater, star, 

and/or not trek eureka, psych, jokers and gate.

Catching Fireflies.

Where 

THE ROAD 

Leads.

In search of Someplace.

A firefly is a gift to us and it's a mystery in which science explains a firefly's "cold light" glows from the lower part of their abdomen and may be yellow, green or pale red, with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies,

So throw out all alien theories.

End of the road or is this the way out?

If this were theater the firefly would cast as the main star. Oddly the female firefly is the most easily noticed.

Photo taken in Eureka Township about 3 miles from my house and a grand meeting place for fireflies!

Tell me does this gate prevent us from leaving or entering through it? It's a mystery to me.

Gazing in it offers a slightly ramshackle atmosphere

 of not knowing again which way to travel.

In Psych 101 do they ever teach that if you find yourself

 on the wrong road which way is right?

Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled, and that has made all the difference. Robert Frost

Worry not that your trek becomes weary, for you never know

 what strangers you may meet along the way.

Eureka they exclaimed as this dusty trail has finally brought us to a close. Everyone knows how lucky it is to stumble upon a yellow brick road, meaning we've achieved Godspeed at long last.

Success is ours, we've found our way out. I think.

Of course some silly jokers have paused at the gate. Afraid of the Wizard maybe?

Eureka! Welcome to Oz everyone.

"If we walk far enough," says Dorothy, "we shall sometime come to someplace."

L. Frank Baum

I do believe we've arrived at someplace.

Remember you can play along too, with or without a post just visit here.

What We Play Is Life

 Happy Mardi Gras to all!

Enjoy a few photos of Mardi Gras celebrations from a few years back.

"Look after the senses and the sounds will look after themselves." Lewis Carroll

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Lewis Carroll

and "In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take."

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901.

"What we play is life." Louis Armstrong

What a wonderful world.
 

"I'd rather be a little weird than all boring."

Rebecca McKinsey

"Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once." Chris Rose 

"You're mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

Lewis Carroll

"Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality."

Lewis Carroll

I ask you which queen is the sweetest? The one above or this one below?

"She who saves a single soul, saves the universe."

Lewis Carroll

"Our dreams drive us so. One after another. Jasmine sprung bravely from the fertile soil of our suffering. And who can live without dreams? Who loves their brief, sweet passage? Dum vivimus, vivimus. While we live, let us live." 

David V. Lentz

Mardi Gras in it's usual fashion of course has been cancelled, but the folks there are still celebrating from their front porches! Here's what I captured from the news this morning.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person I know that loves clowns, and not the ones depicted in horror films. But the kind like this one.

I bought this charming clown in a quaint little shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

God Bless all clowns 

Who star the world with laughter

Who ring the rafters with a fine jest

Who make the world spin on its merry way

And somehow add more beauty to each day.

God Bless all clowns

So poor the world would be

Lacking their piquant touch, hilarity

Their belly laughs, the ringing, lovely mirth

That makes a friendly place of this earth.

taken from my book

Clown Paintings by Diane Keaton

I'll be looking for those trees of green, while wishing away winter, hoping you all are experiencing happy days and warmth! Spring is coming.

Thank you for your visit, 

Take good care of you.

A Walk in Search of Critters and Muses

Once we realize that all the simple things in our lives are beyond the ordinary and wonderful enough, it's that very moment your inner muses come to life. 

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

What's that luscious green stuff underneath Rusty?

Grass you say? What's that again?

Okay this is more like today! Our temperature right now -16 with a high of -4! Ouch!

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."

Vincent Van Gogh

So let's search for those muses.

Why not begin with learning to play with shadows?

A year ago today, on this Valentine's Day we enjoyed our Science Museum which is temporarily closed. But our learning process continues in other ways.

"All of us need to be in touch with a mysterious, tantalizing source of inspiration that teases our sense of wonder and goads us on to life's next adventure." Rob Brezney

What shall we do today?

So I ask,

The lion to the left of me and

 The lion to the right of me.

They answered, ask the

 Colorful moose and butterflies in the middle.

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"

Van Gogh

If you're lacking inspiration or you're suffering from heaven forbid that creature called "boredom" as I've heard an occasional kiddo proclaim, 

I'll say go for a walk, talk to someone along your way.

Even if it's your fellow critter.

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."

Vincent Van Gogh

How about that snow person you may encounter. What do you notice?

So Mr. Snowman are you seeing with green peppers for eyes?

And Frosty put your hat back on, it's cold outside!

What about that cat-in-a-box?

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

It is fun to have fun! Dr. Seuss to the rescue.

So you're hungry you say after touring the town?

What shall you discover?

If  your adventure happens to include a plastic igloo aren't you the lucky one!

Sit down awhile, relax, and perhaps sip some wine or warm yourself with tea.

Once you've dined, visit some shops, support their stores. 

Excuse me Heather but you have a pup following your every step!

So whether you're serving up cake for your family or spending the day about town remember what Van Gogh said, "Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is done well."

and at the same time

Involve yourself in 10 actions.

Try daydreaming, watching clouds, dance, go to a lake, eat soup, visit a farmer's market, read old journals, eavesdrop at a coffee shop, go to a bakery, just be.

Enjoy comfort food while watching a movie!

Visit a nearby town, but make the drive an exploration along the way.

If you could compose a haiku what would it be?

Cold February day 

On this bright sunny morning 

Hear the bird chirp overhead?

Thank you for taking time to visit and share your thoughts with me.

Stay warm and safe and take good care of you.