Do You Suffer from Lid Temple Syndrome?

LOVE this from Kyle Cease!

"It's so soft . . . and less liddy."

"It's easier done, than said."  That would make a good bumper sticker / T-shirt / coffee mug!   

I think he could do a follow-up mockumentary, possibly with JP Sears.  "Do you suffer from Lid Temple Syndrome?" with a shot of people in ordinary life with lids on their heads. 

"Symptoms of LTS include: limiting beliefs, self-doubt, low self-esteem, fatigue, binge-watching shows you don't even like."

Kyle:  "I have a dream that one day, people will walk around without lids on their temples."   

And then some naysayer in a white coat saying, "This needs PEER-REVIEWED research before you irresponsibly tell people they can perform a lid-ectomy without a B.C.L.T.S.  (Board Certified Lid Temple Specialist).  

"Ask your doctor . . . ."  

In the meantime, I did a Rumi graphic:

Just because most people have lid temple doesn't make it normal. It just makes it common.  Of course, that's just crazy talk, because there's no such thing as Lid Temple. 

Or is there?

Another graphic:

  

One Engagement Ring, Disappointment Not Included

How's that for a 6-word story?  I've had on my endless To Do List to sell my engagement ring. I finally got it appraised and have listed it in my Etsy shop. I priced it a bit below its appraisal along with FREE SHIPPING so it will sell sooner rather than later; altho I know Christmas & Valentine's are the big engagement times. It really is a beautiful ring, but not being a jewelry person anyway, it's kinda wasted sitting in my brother's safe!  Originally I thought I'd turn it into a Claddagh ring. Meh. I'd rather remodel the bathroom. So that is what these funds are slated for.  :-)  Hopefully it will sell before Thanksgiving week, so I can do the remodel then. Fingers crossed!

Here are some some graphics I did:

I googled how to photograph jewelry. One photographer uses hot glue to keep rings sitting up, but I had glue dots. The first photo I took in front of a piece of scrapbook paper. I think that's my favourite. I love Paulo Coehlo and Rumi and those quotes. I saw the last quote on Pinterest and I thought it was sweet. So there it is! (Too many notes--name that movie). My ring for sale.  :-)

What Season Are You In?

Today is so frosty & c-o-l-d. COLD. I have to venture out into the world today. Have to? I get to. Summer seems so far away, but memories of it keep me warm. As does my toasty wood stove. So much of what we experience in this world is in our own world in our head. It goes through our filters and we decide how to interpret it.

Victor Frankl, was a Holocaust survivor and a psychiatrist. In his book, Man's Search for Meaning, he describes a day of digging in the frozen ground with the rest of the prisoners. It was backbreaking work under inhumane conditions. But in his mind he was with his wife feeling absolute LOVE. And warmth. He never saw her again, and he wouldn't know for years that she had already been exterminated, but for that moment, she was there with him. What he says in his book is that when all else is taken away from us: creature comforts, materials things, our family, and our freedom we still have the ability to choose your attitude and what you focus on.

The other thing is this: strip everything away and there is still love. You have the ability to feel it now at anytime. It is who we are at our core, it is what we are made up of. No matter what the circumstances, no matter what season you're in or how far away it seems, there is always LOVE. All it takes is the sincere prayer to open your heart to it and invite it in. As Rumi says,

LOVE is the religion in me.

Poetic Advice from Rumi

When I was in massage school two years ago, each class would leave behind a gift to the school. There were various art things, many involving hands, of course. One in particular I liked was a quilt with everyone's hands on it. Another was an OM symbol with everyone's names. So our class, Section 05-L, knew we wanted something hand-related and personalized.
The program started in Oct. and ended in May, and in between there was little time for anything else but anatomy, physiology, and massage. One of my classmates remarked that there was a perpetual pile of laundry on the sofa, and her family knew that's where they needed to go for clean clothes. Back when I lived near civilization, I could spend hours in Michael's. Even tho I didn't have time for art then, I was still there one Saturday wandering around. I saw this huge canvas, 3 X 4 feet in the back of the store. At the time I was just concentrating on muscles-muscles-muscles, had no immediate plans for anything artistic, had never painted anything beyond 14" X 20", and thought, "I'll wait until I get one of their 40% off coupons and then I'll buy it." I walked to the front of the store to get in line and an older gentleman walked up to me and said, "Excuse me, young lady. Would you like this coupon? My wife is not going to use it." And that's how fast it takes to manifest a congruent desire!
I blinked, and two months later, our class was talking about giving our school a going-away gift. And here was the canvas ready to paint. It might be hard to tell, but the hearts at the bottom are each a picture of my classmates. And the picture didn't translate the purpleness of the painting. The hand, the colour associated with the heart, represents healing, massage, and God. The lotus represent the soul. What some people might call a "star of David," is actually a symbol used in Vedic (Indian) art. The upward pointing triangle represents masculine, outward moving, action-oriented energy. The downward-pointing triangle represents the femine, receptive energy. United, it represents the union of heaven/earth, yin/yang, physical world/Spirit. In the chakra system, in sacred Indian art, the triangle is featured in the heart center, uniting the physical body with the spiritual. In the center of the lotus is an OM, representing God, the primordial sound. [In the beginning was the WORD].
The quote is from my favourite Sufi poet, Rumi:

Let the BEAUTY of what you LOVE, be what you do.