Because the Nose Knows!

I often end up sewing my own curtains.  I enjoy hunting for the design, colour and fabric that says “yes” to me.  If I’m tackling a decorating project from “square one,”  I like to begin with a small detail – an object, a colour or a fabric that hits me with immediate resonance and inspires me to build around it.  When I take hold of such an image – or more accurately, when that image takes hold of me – I know that I am following my nose; it’s an instinct in which I’ve come to have great faith – my inner GPS.  

The same principle holds true for shopping.  I shop in 1 of 2 different ways; I either plan my wardrobe requirements around a season or an event or more often than not, I come home with a scarf, necklace or pair of shoes that shouted to me, “Hey! You can’t leave this store without ME!”  My system works like a charm.  Blind intuition has stocked my drawers and closets with an array of mix and match clothes and accessories that make it fairly easy to put together something a bit “new” when need be.

A lot more is at stake here than window treatments and fashion accessories!  My earlier, “unenlightened” life found me in a bad marriage and the wrong career because I heeded the voices of others.  It was a painful experience for me out of which I’ve grown, learned and moved on. 

I learned that an ill-fitting shoe can blister your “sole,”

but an ill-fitting life will blister your “soul!”

Most of life’s regrets can be avoided if you commit to yourself by following your nose:

Ø  Make friends with people who make you feel good

Ø  Pursue your own dreams

Ø  Trust in your own judgement

Ø  Listen to your heart

Practice these things faithfully and you will meet your destiny with peace, happiness and success!

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous

"Copy and Paste" - The Road to Perdition...

"If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all!" ...Grandma Martin  and many other people... 

Those are good words to live by and I try to abide by simple, basic rules.  Here's a spin on that old adage - "If you don't have anything original to say or write, make sure you credit your sources!"

I plagiarized once.  I left a grade 12 geography essay to the last minute.  Working with only 1 or 2 references, I "borrowed heavily" for a few paragraphs.  Sure enough, the essay was returned with a red circle accompanied by the comment, "I think you may not have used your own words here."   That my teacher had actually cited an original part of my essay didn't matter to me; I knew that I had cheated elsewhere.  Rather than heap "hypocrite" on top of "plagiarizer", I made no comment.  I can still feel the remorse I experienced on that occasion and I've not been tempted to opt for an expedient route since.

Thanks to the Internet, plagiarism is more rampant than the common cold.  Thousands of websites pander to intellectual parasites. 

Sites like The Essay Directory (right click and select "open in a new window)

That's like child porn - something that decent people don't tolerate!

I would like to think that the majority of this stuff gets caught.   Checks and balances also abound on the Internet with sites like;

The source of my little rant is 2 experiences I had in the past year - 1 last fall and 1 yesterday.  The first was from a speaker I have some personal acquaintance with.   She delivered a speech for a humorous speech contest.  Formerly unimpressed with her style, I had to congratulate her effusively on a performance that had definitely been kicked up by several notches.  I made a point of conveying my delight in hearing such a compelling and entertaining speech.   A week or two later, I watched a YouTube video forwarded by a friend through email.  It featured a stand-up comic delivering very nearly the exact speech with which my acquaintance had won her contest!  I was dumb-founded, shocked, incredulous, crestfallen, angry, affronted and dumb-founded (again!) (right click this and select "open in another window" to see how I really felt!)

I'm over that one... 

                                    

After all, the insult was perceived by me but not directed at me.  Yesterday's incident had significant  differences.  The principal involved was a random contact from a dating web site I had just signed up with (and have now left!)   After seeing my profile - or perhaps only my photo and highlights - he sent me a message with a tasteful measure of flattery and a heavier dose of rhetoric on topics he'd obviously gleaned were of interest to me.  I was impressed but hesitant to use the telephone number he had shared in his email.  I re-read his words this morning.  They were good, but - you guessed it - a little TOO good...

I selected a few very unique constructions and pasted them into my Google search line and sure enough it returned an immediate "hit."  It turned out that I had nearly begun a discussion not with "x" from whoville but with  Kierkegaard from beyond!  That drove me to something I am loathe to employ - bold, red capitals!  I was REALLY PISSED OFF!  I sent a brief reply, including the link with his unquoted text, told him that I wouldn't be needing his phone number and I cancelled my account!

At this juncture I have an important decision to make - wine or meditation!!  A penny for Y-O-U-R thoughts???

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous

Re: Skip the Meds...

                                                                                       

A case in point...

I skated an epic roller blade in Hamilton the other day.  On my last lap I stopped along the trail at "Baranga's on the Beach" for an amazing Greek salad and a tall, refreshing soda - anything more in that heat would have invited disaster on roller blades!  A solitary diner, I sat at the patio's edge, smugly comfortable among the groups of chatting business lunchers and day-trippers.  I was euphoric in fact, after logging 40 exhilarating kilometres on my skates.  The sun was still high and scorching but I did not fight it.  I met it joyfully but with compromise and respect!  Every 8 kilometres or so along the trail, to the surprise of anyone standing nearby, I rested briefly and conducted a ritual self-baptism to keep cool.  Filling up my water bottle with fresh cold water I poured it over my head, neck, shoulders and body - a mini version of a daily water dousing ritual practiced by many eastern Europeans and martial arts practioners. 

When I stopped for lunch I was nevertheless hot and depleted; anxious therefore, to compose and recharge before completing the last 6 kilometers of my skate.  I took off my skates and socks stretched my legs and arms and relaxed all muscles.  I turned my face towards the lake and let my eyes feast freely on the hazy horizon of the distant shore.  I experienced perfect peace...

The view was incredibly beautiful - an expanse of blue water, sandy beach and a vague, distant skyline in front of which, in the haze and smog, looked like a ridge of low purply mountains.  Knowledge, a priori, informed me that I was in Hamilton, Ontario but a capricious muse convinced me that I was on the Bulgarian Back Sea Riviera.  By view alone I could have been in any one of a dozen or more exotic locales.   That was a very comforting and peaceful thought; it banished any wish to be other than where I was at that precise moment - it fixed me joyfully and satisfied in the present.  Of course my muse prodded my imagination to transcend the present.  While I continued to drink in the distant skyline, the idea of a globally generic scene started to populate my mind with a curious character named George; a legend in his own mind, a mediocre sales type - bored with his own existence who fabricated other personas with whomto interact with others on a larger than his own life scale.  George's exploits kept me amused and entertained for some time.  He is a very captivating character with whom I may one day further acquaint you.

Quiet my inner voices?? Not any time soon!

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous

Skip the meds!

 

Not too long ago I blogged about personal growth and self-help books.  I've been giving them more than a casual nod recently and have enthusiastically followed some of their suggestions - like meditating, clearing space in the mind and inviting "consciousness" - a "graceful" state of being.  It's been a few weeks now - and I'm getting ANTSY!  Peace and grace may be normal for Tibetan monks but they're pretty darned alien compared to anything that I'm accustomed to.  While I'm all for momentary tranquility trips when reeling from one of life's traumas, I don't crave the pallid panacea of the prozac plane that is the ultimate destination of these recommended paths.  "Nice" is ... nice; but have you ever thought about what it would be like for an eternity?  It would be H - E - L - L!!  Arghhhhh!  It would be like being at a bridal shower for the rest of your life!! 

And what about "quieting the inner voices" and being in the present?  I think that that should be left to choice and discretion.  Admitedly, sometimes those voices get in the way of getting the job done but  I, myself, have a particular fondness for those voices.  They inform me, they amuse me, and they challenge me.  They speak of possibilities and show me different ways of viewing things - visions of all kinds that make of an otherwise dull existence a world of wonders!   One thing that I can happily carry away from my self-help reading is the key to recognizing negative internal chatter and being able to silence it, but I would no more wish to clear the room of all of the other wonderful voices that populate my mind and entertain me than I would to turn my back on my best friend.  Like another blogger recently admonished, "be drunken!"

If it is peace that I seek, it is of an "end of the day," "put your head on the pillow and sleep" variety not a cloud-9, 24/7, vacuous construction or evasion of life that's equivalent to flat-lining.  My highs and lows tell me that I am alive and living emphatically. My inner voices conjure up brilliant inner images when the outer ones are just too damned inane to acknowledge.

I'm returning my library books - on time, and continuing with my latest read, "East of Eden!" 

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous

The Bearable Lightness of Being!

July 3, 2010 - Sunny - hot and no responsibilities...

This morning I wasted time before my computer and felt no guilt for quite a while.  That didn't last however. I drove in to Milton to get an overdue oil change - (not exciting but better than staying home and housecleaning!)  Something accomplished!  Yeah me!  I kind of had it in the back of my mind to wander up the escarpment and check out Crawford Lake but not thinking about lunch when I left, I had to stop for food and water.  A simple order of Greek salad and soda water at the Ivy Arms took a half hour to arrive but sitting in the sun with a good book, I had the patience of Job.  It felt like my teen years when I would ditch school and wander around the city - in and out of book stores and museums, have lunch on my own and go ice skating!

Since I'd blown my time budget I just had a roam around Milton.  I drifted along the old heritage streets - homes of the original settlers, now occupied by owners devoted to preserving the character of the past.  I am dying to photograph them but refrain from it until I have a camera to do them justice!  I did photograph the wooded pathway I eventually came to though...

Click here (right click and select "open in a new window")  for photos... 

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous

When you run out of steam, change gears!

Like my jet-lagged Irish gal pal, Mandy, I was "knackered" today.

One of those crazy nights of perhaps 3 hours sleep.  The walls  closed in on me as I pecked weakly away at my to-do list.  I eventually decided that if I could not be productive I would go out and enjoy the bright and lively day - perhaps some of it would rub off!  It was early afternoon so I grabbed my camera hoping to catch the water lilies in full bloom on Fairy Lake.  I was not disappointed! 

It is quite understandable how a single object can captivate enough to become an obsession.  That is how we become collectors.  That is how painters produce numerous studies and finished works of art upon a single subject - a woman, a scene or a flower.  That is why Claude Monet devoted so much of his creative genius to capturing his beloved water lilies on canvas.  I was certainly captivated by the water lilies today.  It was not a day to be confined within walls! 

Another man similarly captivated by an obsession was Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1865-1931).  An amazing man; he had a passionate enthusiasm for observing and recording the patterns of snowflakes.  In the infancy of photography, he adapted and innovated available technology to create the first camera capable of competently photographing a single snowflake.  His story and his images are remarkable - visit them here! 

            Click here! for the rest of my own masterpieces :)

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous

The Weather Gods Beckoned - Again

Isn't today gorgeous!  Perfect days like this don't come often.  I went for a walk at noon; for a change taking no cell phone, MP3 player or camera.  I regretted leaving only my camera.  What photos I could have taken at Fairy Lake today.  Masses of white and yellow water lillies that would have enraptured Claude Monet!  Stunning as they were in their natural habitat I couldn't help thinking how charmingly they would have adorned my dining table floating in a large, clear bowl.   (that was my Martha Stewart moment of the day)

I made a turn around the track at Prospect park.  The grade school kids, teachers and parents were having a picnic day - play-in-the-sun, low-tech recreation straight out of Norman Rockwell.  I smiled - it was like walking through a movie set!

I met and old Beagle named Hank - really!  He was a good-natured old boy.  He'd just allowed himself to be loved to death by a "Newfie" dog in the leash-free park and didn't mind me patting him in the least.  He reminded me of my Beagle, "Candy Girl," from way, way back.

Making my way out of the park, I headed towards the wooden  bridge that crosses the creek leading into the lake.  It's a beautiful view from there - parks on both sides, natural vegetation all around, geese, ducks, frogs and the occassional rabbit.  There I saw one stunning water lilly on it's own.  I stopped close to another observer - a young boy.   After a few moments, I looked at the boy realizing I knew him.  It was "Carl" who used to be on my bus route.  The school board pulled him off my route to transport him privately.  He had extreme behaviour issues.  He was the only child - and that, after only 1 day - that I ever wanted to walk out on my job for.  After a few days though, he became my favourite kid.  We hit it off when he boarded one day with a book in hand and we discovered a common interest.  He told me he loved to read - read a couple of books a week and spoke fluently about them.  He told me too, that he made, edited and uploaded videos - another commone interest!  After that day we never had a problem and conversed to the exclusion of the other 2 riders.  When the school board realized that he was travelling with other kids they yanked him from my route.  I was rather upset.

I continued through the soccer pitch and "Max's Garden" at rotary park.  It's a lovely nook maintained by my gardener, artist friend, Elizabeth.  I have unofficially provided some garden maintenance there too!  That was my way of justifying the plant divisions I made to propogate my own garden! You can't "stop and smell the flowers" too often before you get the urge to pluck a few of them!

Posted via email from juddzz's posterous