Winter Medium Wind Memory

Winter: birds sailing in the winter air. Not sure how they make it through the frost nights, but there they are. Wind in the trees, sounding like waves, like a tide of time, coming and going. Single brown leaves falling while the first white buds start to form. This circle of life, of seasons. Of spring summer fall winter.

Winter. It is one of the few words that stay the same in German and English: the winter. der Winter.

It was this tiny thought that brought back the memory of something I once wrote, a reflection on language and words, on translations and synonyms: Out of whack and out of step 

Which once was online, published in IdentityTheory Magazine. And now is up again, in Medium. The visual to go with it... is new. A play with words and winter.

December Reflections, 2016

So there it is, the last month of the year. "It would be nice to have some kind of shared space and hashtag for that", I mused earlier this week. And then I simply came across it today: a post with the title "December reflections". Following it, I arrived at this page with "ponder prompts". Some playful, some about creativity, some reflective, some with a focus on the past, some about the new year. It feels like just the right thing at the right time for me.

Here's the link to the webpage: December Reflections

And here's instagram: #Decemberreflections2016

Below is the prompt list, and the notes for the first day: "On the table". Tomorrow will be "light", so two easier themes to start. And then it will be about the fave photo and best book of 2016....

 On my table right now:

• a cup of tea 
• a november-cats-bookmark-to-be 
• the first december in my daily world calendar: penguins in Antarctica 
• my first zentangle
• pen and pencil 
• and a straw star, from the box of christmas things that I fetched from the attic, and opened again.

in yellow days & your world

it’s this time again:
summer fading and autumn entering in yellow days.
such a color spectacle, the way one tree can color
all the space around it.

and time:
one week ago, it was our final island day.
i walked along the beach in a t-shirt.
watched swallows sail.



The island atmosphere, the more open horizon, the different rhythm of time - it still continues this week. There is a larger art project I am working with right now, and it's beautiful that this week brings the space and time to stay with it. More about that in a while - it's also the reason why I am less active in the blog and in the online hangouts right now.

From island to sky words:

A habit that developed during the island time: reading some poetry in the morning. Poetry Foundation has a playful poetry app that lets you spin a wheel of themes, and then lists poems. That’s how I arrived here this week:

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“Your World”

by Georgia Douglas Johnson

Your world is as big as you make it.

I know, for I used to abide

In the narrowest nest in a corner,

My wings pressing close to my side. 

But I sighted the distant horizon

Where the skyline encircled the sea

And I throbbed with a burning desire

To travel this immensity.

I battered the cordons around me

And cradled my wings on the breeze,

Then soared to the uttermost reaches

With rapture, with power, with ease!

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more skies from everywhere:
skywatch friday

Making November Mindful

The days are finally starting to feel normal again. So nice. And while catching up once more last week, I came across a lovely-sounding web initiative, the Mindfulness Summit, which happened to be in October – so I missed that.

But it sparked an idea: I want to make November my personal month of mindfulness, and post a mindful post, image, painting or link each day, over in my neglected photo blog.

The first posts are online. For the start, I created a mandala, which now also turned into the icon for this month. Also included are: videos, photos, notes, a mindful app and more. It's all online here:

Once upon each day: Making November Mindful

Nov 1: Mindful November Mandala
Nov 2: This mood of autumn: yellow leaves falling (+ yoga video)
Nov 3: to feel calm
Nov 4: Handmade chain reaction (or: cookies)
Nov 5: Perspectives on Mindfulness (research summit link)
Nov 6: the same place / a different place
Nov 7: Spaces + Borders (art therapy moment)
Nov 8: Insight Timer (meditation app)
Nov 9: Ornate Mandala
Nov 10: life is..
Nov 11: chalk leaf patterns
Nov 12: moon strings (blog memory)
Nov 14: a troubled world (Etty Hillesum)
Nov 19: do more of what makes you happy (flow magazine)
Nov 20: sky friday rituals (sky friday)
Nov 21: nothing & the ocean (ocean quotes)
Nov 22: life is made of moments (Instagram)

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I also want to put a reflection together on the time since the cure - or rather: a longer post on the whole year of going through the breast cancer diagnosis and the time of chemo and radiation. But so far, I didn't find the right mood for it. Right now, the mindful month feels like the way to go, to play and explore and enjoy.

Parallel to that, I started to sort through things in a sort of November-spring-cleaning. Or rather: returning-from-the-shadowland-cleaning.

Step by step...

tune of spring

4 spring moments, for photo friday.

so good that the days are growing longer and more colorful

more spring moments from around the world:
photo friday

sunrise + winterlight + weathers

for sky friday + photo friday: a recent sunrise and winter walk,
together with small moments from previous winters + weathers



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overcast day
cold front coming, named: Cooper
i browse archives, arrive in May and July,
visit pink flowers and a dove’s wing:
all those days, highs, lows,
following each other,
moving through / us

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first of feburary,
the day after frost and snow
and the christroses open
their eleventh petal
in white and rose
as if it was spring already

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more weathers from around the world: photo friday
more skies from around the world: sky friday
more small moments in this blog: small stones

woodtalk / winter

this blog post is inspired by skywatch friday and by the new snow that arrived last night. the story is a memory from the past, the photo is from this morning, taken from the window of the house in the story, which still happily is speaking in the night, in its own quiet, old, wooden voice.

 

Woodtalk

It’s cold outside. it’s so cold outside that it’s even cold inside this house. too cold for the old walls, the old windows, the old heating. But I guess this house has seen darker nights and colder days. It’s a very old house, survived two world wars, and it has its share of bruises and scars.

And tales to tell. So many people lived inside this house – mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, grandchildren. So many people lived and slept here, talked and worked here, loved and dreamed here. Sometimes I think of them when I walk up and down the old wooden stairs that lead upstairs and downstairs, although I never met them. Like this morning, when I woke up early for no visible reason, wondering why I was so bright awake when it was so dark outside. When I decided to get up, cause I liked the idea of seeing the dawn, and didn’t feel like going back to sleep anyway.

So I wandered through the house while the world outside was still sleeping. Took a cup of tea upstairs with me, and sat there, watched the nightsky turning into a daysky. Listened to this old house. It never seems to sleep, you always can hear some floor crackling, some door creaking, some heating moaning, as if the house was speaking with itself, like old people speak with themselves. not talking loud, cause they already have the answers. You can be scared by it if you want to, but you also can enjoy this woodtalk.

It is a little bit like running through the woods alone. Another thing I did this morning, in the cold. something that feels like a punishment if you are forced to do it. something that feels like crystal-clear pleasure if you want to do it. the air so clear and cold that the sunlight seemed to freeze in pastel colours. I really felt like walking in a painting, with the soft snow under my feet sparkling like fresh painted colour, and the forest looking like a magic wood. With me being a part of this forest for some timeless minutes, a winter-fairy, a wood-runner. and the forest whispering to me in a hundred voices, whisteling, squeaking, rustling, cracking. and me wishing I could understand more of this woodtalk.


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more skies from everywhere: sky friday
more sesaons in this blog: winter spring summer fall

snow, 2 birds, Sisyphus

Snow and more snow – 
Flake by flake, the world sinks into black and white. 

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For the end of this year, winter decided to embrace the regions here in white: since Sunday, it is snowing. It's always stunning to see how everything looks so different in snow. And how the birds just keep living with it. (Apart from those who migrated in autumn).

Looking out of the window, I saw the crow land on the top of a tree, and tried a photo. Which then lead to the smallstone. And another bird moment: when the crow finally left the tree, it took just a minute for another bird to appear:


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From present snow to past snow - later, while clearing the walkway once more, I remembered the snow flash story I once wrote:

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H2O

She clears the snow, once more. Her shoes are drained already, her arms are tired. The snow keeps falling since days. She tries to see it as just what it is: a structure of H2O. Strings of molecules, the base of life.

“The rain that falls, the water we drink, it’s the same water that was home to the first fish, that quenched the thirst of the first mammals,” a scientist explained on TV.

She imagines them, all those drops of water that keep moving through time, in different states of being, once being a river, once a cup of coffee, once being used for the laundry, and then falling again, as rain, as snow. The circular thought brings on images of the streets of laundry she has ironed in her life, of the armies of dishes she has washed, of all those days she has woken up to, to fall asleep again at their end.

She keeps clearing the snow, and can’t help it: her thoughts are with Sisyphus now, and she tries to see him, again, as a happy person.
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The line about Siysphus as a happy person is a Camus quote, btw. I still remember when I heard it first, during a philosophical evening at the library, And thanks to Wiki, here's the sum of it:
"Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices.. and claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that "all is well," indeed, that "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
(The Myth of Sisyphus)

july sun/day

Sunday, 6. July
today: summer full on. 34°C. the fields turning yellow.

it's hard to believe that the weather is about to turn: tonight will bring thunderstorms and dropping temperatures, and from tuesday onwards, there will be nothing but rain...

update, Friday, 11. July: 
the rain indeed arrived, and the temperatures fell, as if someone switched seasons on a clock. after 5 days of rainy skies, this summer sky moment from last sunday almost feels like a dream.

more skys from everywhere: sky friday.

blue rain green sunday

sunday. rainy. which at least will make the garden happy, after weeks with not enough rain. and in that way, the blue sunday rain connects to the photo friday theme of this week: green.

more green moments from around the world are up at photo friday 

sky friday: spring tree skies

For sky friday this week: two spring tree moments.

The first is from a gardener park, not sure which kind of tree this is, but it's  almost zen-like with the single white petals opening. Standing there, i remembered those lines from another day and season:



And the second spring moment is.. a cherry tree in bloom. They look like snow trees. Actually, last year taht time we still had some days of late snow. This year is extraordinary from early warm weather. Like the blooming trees, it feels unreal.

And to top it, there now is a Southern wind from Africa. It brings desert air, and Sahara dust. So yesterday the sun was there until noon, and then vanished. There’s a touch of summer thunderstorm energy in the air, and actually they now predict thunderstorms for Saturday. 

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More skies from everywhere: skywatch friday


Have a beautiful sky week, everyone~

petals above, petals below

the new theme of photo friday is "flowering". today is all rainy and grey, but the first day of spring came with blue skies and flowering trees. here's a photo:

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in addition. a video that catches the mood of looking up on a day like this:

 

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... and here's the counterpart view, looking down:




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for more flowering moments from everywhere, visit photo friday
to join, blog a photo and add your link

seasons, revisiting, trees

a blog post from a previous march: 



trees 

i keep returning to them. and i keep taking pictures of them.

trees inspire me 

the way they symbolize balance and strength, flexibility and eternity. and the way they keep reaching for the light

the way they change with every season, and turn every year into a ring.

the contrast of the hardness of their bark, and the softness of their petals. their ability to breathe dioxid and exhale oxygen.

and most of all: the way they found a way to remain grounded while moving through a constant process of change.

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revisiting seasons: i noticed that a friend is revisiting / reposting her blog entries since a while, and it inspires me to also do more revisting – especially in this busy pace of time. and there is so much to revisit, like this one

1 day to solstice

one more day, then it's solstice!

looking forward to the turn of light, and to longer days. right now, the sun rises at quarter past eight and sets at half past 4 already. today is grey, but yesterday's sky was amazing, as if solstice was in process already.

more skies...
...for more sky moments in this blog, try the sky diary

...for more friday sky moments from around the world, visit skywatch friday

today, or: November & a mistake

today: November
today: night frost
today: Allerheiligen
today: at home
today: with a cold
today: looking for winter books
today: returning to a slightly more normal rhythm
today: yellow leaves in the wind

also today: finding an embarrassing mistake in the database of a new project. realizing that there have been several hints so it, hiding in plain sight. only that everyone ignored them / didn't see them, as no one expected a mistake like that, and everyone was busy with other problems to solve.

trying to see it as a learning experience of how the human mind can shut down the focus. maybe even more so if it's a whole group that is involved in a project, everyone trusting that surely the others, the experts, would notice, that the slight mistake on the screen is a miniature mistake, some accidental wrong detail in a dataset.

the last September Sunday, or: 5k in fall colors

yesterday: the last Sunday of September. and: the wordpress 5k jogg/walk challenge. the sky first teased with rain, but then luckily turned dry and sunny for the early afternoon.

i knew i wanted to post and share the scenery, so i made several photo stops along the way: this is in Southern Germany, and the combination of fields and forests is rather typical for this region. today also was the city marathon in Berlin… to think that the winner completed the 42k there in 2 hours! not that i run for record times, for me it’s more about being outside, about seeing and jogging and breathing in fresh air.

above is a collage - and here is the dynamic version in the wordpress blog, it changes each time the page is refreshed: 5k on Sunday in different shapes.

now monday. an overcast sky. and work waiting.

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more spring summer fall winter moments in this blog
life as a journey through changing seasons

100 days, or: change of seasons

last year, i joined the 100 Days of Summer, a time of shared daily creativity. now, just in time with equinox, a new 100 Days season is on: 100 Days of FallWinter.

didn’t know about it when i went for a walk along a new way yesterdays (“new” as in “been there since ages, but new for me”), and took several photos, one of them is above. now it feels: this was the starting point of the 100 days.

and again, only realized laterr, some notes on time:

• it was equinox yesterday, the official start of autumn
• and in 100 days, it will be: 2014

here's the link to my 100 days blog: once upon each day

take time to smell the flowers (or: delicious / summer zen)

(inspired by the summer zen series and by the "Delicious" theme of photo friday)

today brought the change of sky: from summer sun to september rain. the morning was still sunny, though - which made every hour in the garden double precious. so many flowers are in bloom right now. like the "storm roses" that i planted last year, the ones that got deranged by a thunderstorm in front of the flower shop, so they couldn't sell them any more. they are so beautiful:

or the cosmos, with their delicate, transparent petals:

"take time to smell the flowers", 

the changing sunday sky seemed to say

while taking photos, i also saw bees and a butterfly.
for them, the flowers are: food.
and at the same time, distributing and gathering pollen,

the insects add to our food.

so this probably is the final post of the summer zen series.

below, the previous links.

tomorrow to come: monday, work, rain.

but i will be sure to take the time

and smell the flowers

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more summer zen:

• #15: a brief history of humankind
• #14: 8 minutes of focus & balance
• #13: finding abundance - Tiny Buddha
• #12: you can/t
• #11: yoga wake up - Anne Novak
• #10: 10 to Zen - Zenhabits
• #9: no mud, no lotus - Tara Talks
• #8: to grow, to see, to question...
• #7: 23.000 breaths - a yoga walk
• #6: pebble in your pocket - mini meditation
• #5: back to the start - once upon each day
• #4: the artisan's prayer: "Teach me, Life.."
• #3 road quotes: "A bend in the road.."
• #2: less and more
• #1: calm - calm.com

solstice sun and moon

it was solstice yesterday, which is called "Sommersonnenwende" in German: "summersunturn". the start of summer. and the sky here was in tune with it: sunny and warm, with swallows curving the air.

in the afternoon, i took the time to go swimming, and the triangle of elements - water, sun and air - lead to island memories from the Canary islands, which are also called "islands of perminant spring". so that's where my photo friday image is from, taken 6 months ago:

 

later the moon came out, almost full, and i tried a photo, which looks like the cloud reflect the moonlight.
now i just looked: full moon will be on sunday, two days after solstice



for more "Seasons of the Sun", try photo friday
for more sky moments, visit skywatch friday

snow tulips

new snow, again. in almost miraculous ways, the early spring flowers get snowed under and get up again, time and time again. the flowers in the first image are tulips, the second image is heleborus: Christmas roses. they trick the eye, though: their petals are in fact white and red leaves. that's how they survive the ice frosting.

& more garden moments in time: life as a journey through seasons