once upon a time, there lived a teeny-tiny girl.

she lived in a teeny-tiny house in a teeny-tiny forest in a teeny-tiny world. she was so teeny-tiny that, to her, her house and her forest and her world seemed just the right size.

every so often, her world would shake and rattle. this startled the teeny-tiny girl at first, but soon she became accustomed to it.

she grew to love it because, as soon as the shaking would subside, snow would begin falling from the sky and the ground outside her home would slowly become covered in white. she thought it was the most beautiful thing ever.

every time it happened, she would run outside and let the flakes fall on her face and in her open mouth.

have you guessed where the teeny-tiny girl lived yet?

she lived in a snow globe!

{my attempt to capture 52 photos that represent trust – my word for 2011}.

a dear friend gave me a magnet with the following sharon salzberg quote:

"Life is like an ever shifting kaleidoscope: a slight change and all patterns alter."

i love that quote. it makes me feel hopeful. it reminds me that everything i do in the big wide world of working on my stuff on has an impact on my life – no matter how small a thing it is, no matter if i can see how it will happen.

when i saw this scene/photo, it reminded me of that quote, and somehow, it all circled back to trust.

you might wonder if i was driving while i took these pictures. i urge you to put that thought out of your mind. i cannot say that i wasn't, but i do not want to encourage the habit in anyone, most especially me.

fall is definitely over, and winter is definitely here. i have been wearing my thick down jacket and my uggs almost every day, especially on our morning and evening walks. it turns out that if you are warm, you don't mind the chill in the air so much. who knew.

this year, i want to celebrate the winter solstice, but i am not entirely sure how to do so. any good ideas for me? what are your favorite ways to celebrate things?

these would say,

"why are you just standing there? why don't you move?"

"you're still standing there. why are you doing this? move already! sheesh. keeping an eye on you is a full-time job."

i also like to flip back and forth between these photos in my photo library.

ears. no ears. ears. no ears. ears. no ears.

this could go on for hours.

won't you come for a walk with puppy and me?

oh, how i wish you could.

the sun is shining. the air is crisp. it is the perfect day to be outside and let the calm of the world around us soothe the chaos inside of us.

before i head out the door, a couple of quick announcements:

if you wish your life had a pause button so you could rest a bit, check out the pause. there's a special on through the end of december and i do have some openings.

also, i added the november/december collection of prints to the shop. they are joy, peace, and gratitude.

happy thursday!

which has nothing to do with anything, only i felt like sharing it.

apparently i am on an iphone kick. i took my iphone and atlas on an errand to the light bulb store on mississippi ave and then we wandered around the neighborhood afterward. does that second photo not make you think of the book the secret garden? i thought so.

remember when i shared my opinions about diet coke and pickles? well, here's the next topic that needs to be discussed. it is pumpkin and raisins, people; not pumpkin and chocolate chips.

everywhere i go, every autumn, there are pumpkin-y things that include chocolate. i do not understand this combination. it's too sweet and too dry (the dry part probably makes no sense to anyone but me but i can't think of a better way to explain it).

pumpkin and raisins, on the other hand, are a perfect combination. it is not too sweet and the raisins make the dough a little juicy. my most favorite cookies in the world are pumpkin raisin cookies. i can eat an entire batch in one sitting. sometimes i do. (i suppose that's obvious, or else i wouldn't know that i could.)

i used to discuss this with the great harvest bread store. every year, they made a pumpkin bread with chocolate chips. every year, i would explain to them that it needed to include raisins, not chocolate chips. alas, they never quite agreed. sometimes they agreed that raisins would be good, but they said that people really seemed to like the chocolate.

i find this so strange. why would you eat pumpkin and chocolate when you could eat pumpkin and raisins? pumpkin and raisins for everyone, i say!

i was trying to take a very specific photo for my trust project this week. sadly, the wind and the leaves and my camera did not align properly, thus there is no trust photo at all. but i was outdoors and it was not raining and fall was in the air, so i was still a happy happy girl.

the lovely thing about having a place that i visit regularly is that i get to watch how it changes with each season. i know we can see this in our own neighborhood, but somehow the changes seem more visible to me when they occur in a place that i see often, but not daily.

do you have a place like this?

i celebrate thanksgiving in my own way.

i celebrate the idea of thanks giving year round. i celebrate the day with three of my favorite things: atlas, a hike, and cooking. the ritual started when i worked too much and didn't want to leave atlas alone on thanksgiving day. now, i just think it's a lovely way to spend the day. this year, there will be no hike and i am making nachos instead of cooking; the pup and i both need to rest.

i was thinking about thanks giving when i found this quote. it perfectly sums up how i feel about the idea of trying to express my gratitude in one succinct blog post, or in one day, or at all.

"Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep." - Felix Frankfurter

yes. that. exactly.

may your day be full of peace, love, and laughter.

the trees on my side of the street have leaves that turn orange in the fall. the trees on the other side of the street have leaves that turn red.

the leaves were slow to turn color this year. when i left on friday for the painting retreat, there was only a hint of color in amongst the green. i came home on tuesday night and when i left to pick up atlas the next day, it felt like the trees had exploded with orange and red.

it was magnificent.

of course, a strong wind and rain blew in that night, ushering in the beginning of the end.

but it was still magnificent.

my intention for the month of december (i realize it's not december, i started early) is to take really really really good care of myself.

(actually, this was supposed to be my intention for the quarter – the quality i am working with is wholeness. better late than never, right?)

the trouble with this particular intention is that i have a hard time taking good care of myself, let alone really really really good care of myself. i am better at it than i used to be, but it's still an ongoing practice.

the other day, in a fit of inspiration, it occurred to me that this might be more fun if i pretended that i was my very own butler. named jeeves, of course. have you read the book wake up, sir by jonathan ames? jeeves is the main character's butler and my inspiration.

i tell you, having a butler is the best thing ever. i wish i had hired one years ago. he is so kind and caring and thoughtful.

last night, i was so much in flow that i forgot to eat dinner and worked at my computer for so long that my back ached and ached. i really needed jeeves to remind me to eat and to get up every so often, but apparently i gave him the evening off.

a very sad and dejected me-this-morning: "jeeves???"

jeeves: "i'm sorry to hear that you had a rough evening, sir. maybe a round of yoga would set you right? i'll put a fleece blanket nearby in case the idea appeals to you.

also, i noticed that you took an aleve this morning; might i suggest that you rest today? i will wash the dishes later and put another load of laundry going, but we can save the other things until tomorrow. if you rest this morning, maybe you will feel like going for a hike later. it is such a lovely day and you always feel better when you're outdoors.

by the way, you are out of aleve, so you are going to want to visit new seasons later and buy aleve and toilet paper. you know you will think about both of them until they're purchased. i'd go for you, but i know how much you enjoy grocery shopping. maybe you can also buy yourself some more stuffing and have it for dinner."

me: "that does sound nice. thank you, jeeves!"

jeeves: "you're very welcome, sir."

(isn't he kind and caring and thoughtful? he always has the best suggestions.)

(and yes, jeeves refers to me as sir. i refuse to be called ma'am, and jeeves refuses to call me sweetie. sir was a good compromise.)