Keeping in touch with friends, near or far is almost effortless now thanks to sites like Facebook. But I’m still a fan of hand written letters and cards in the mail. So after procrastinating long enough, I managed to tackle one of the exercises in the Artist’s Way, which involves sending letters to 5 people. Coincidentally,  in early May I purchased a box of beautiful cards from Papyrus simply because I loved the design. Plus, the box was adorable. I suppose this is just another example of the “synchronicity” Julia Cameron speaks of in her book. It’s always interesting when that happens. I just hope my 5 people enjoy their letters.

The afternoon rainbow. This one followed me the whole way home.

(P.S. I love the Shake It photo app)

Lately I’ve noticed most of my time has been spent capturing moments or trying to savor them as much as possible. I’m unsure how I like this phase since I greatly preferred the idea of creating instead.

My creative space feels neglected. I still want to finish my art journal this month.

My only conclusion is that it’s time to backtrack and dig up parts of myself that have quickly become buried.

…

sleep in late.

like to eat breakfast for dinner.

find comfort in a house of leaves.

dance when nobody is looking.

dream in Spanish.

But I always have a sense of wonder.

]]> http://www.elusiveness.net/2010/04/sometimes/feed/ 0 http://www.elusiveness.net/2010/01/not-shy-just-an-introvert/ http://www.elusiveness.net/2010/01/not-shy-just-an-introvert/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:45:35 +0000 Vanessa http://www.elusiveness.net/?p=755

Introverted people are commonly thought to be shy, but introverts’ low motivation to socialize is not the same as the inhibited behavior, tension, and awkwardness that characterize shyness. Introverts who are not shy can behave extrovertively when they choose; whereas shy people, both introverts and extroverts, can’t turn their tension and awkwardness off and on. – Psychology Today February ‘10 issue.

Thanks to Psychology Today for clarifying this misconception about my own disposition.

P.S. I’m also restarting The Artist’s Way for the 4th time. Crossing my fingers this will be the time I actually complete it.

Pleased to welcome my newest toy to the family. Canon AE-1 Program circa 1984.

3 days and 3 family visits later, the Christmas weekend is officially coming to an end. Of all the memories created over the past few days, I think my favorite was when I took this photo of my nephew opening one of his many presents. As soon as the bulb flashed and the film ejected from the camera, he stopped to look up at me with an inquisitive smile and said “Let me see!” Although I’ve taken several Polaroids of him in the past, this was the first time he seemed to understand that he could watch it develop before his eyes. It was pretty special.

For the first time last night I had a bowl of pomegranate arils and golden raspberries. The simplicity of the fruits were too beautiful to not photograph. And yes, they were as delicious as they look.

Regarding my last post, it seems my plan of reading the book Journal of a Solitude is on hold because there is not one bookstore in all of South Florida that has it, so I had to order it online. As a result, I moved on to 30 days of morning pages. Despite this practice cutting into my cherished minutes of extra sleep, I always feel 100% awake after doing them and I can’t deny that I missed the mental AM purging. It’s definitely a practice I recommend to anyone. You’d be amazed the thoughts (big and small) that spill onto your paper as soon as you roll out of bed.

Photo by andreanna

Recently my best friend brought up the idea of starting a routine to try something different every 30 days. I liked the idea of changing things up, but normally I’d hesitate at tackling a project of its kind because my track record for completing them in the past has always halted (like The Artist’s Way). That’s probably why 30 day “projects” seem more manageable, as opposed to the ever popular 365 day projects.

Although my friend has her own list of different projects, I decided to go back and revisit some of the exercises I completed for the Artist’s Way which included lists of things I wish I did more of. So far I gathered 30 day challenges of…

- Expanding my vocabulary

- Cooking

- Not spending money on frivolous things

- Drawing

- Self-portraits

- Yoga

- Art journaling

- Learning how to play a guitar

- Writing down what I’m thankful for and blogging about it

- Reading a book a week (4 books total)

- Complete morning pages

- A photo a day (different from self-portraits)

The only difficult part is deciding which order to do them in, but for the first 30 day challenge I decided to tackle reading 4 books in 30 days starting with May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude.

When she handed it to me I immediately noticed how delicate it was since the cover and some pages were no longer attached to the binding. It has a lot of wear on the edges of the pages but it oozes history. Page after page there are stickers, memorabilia, and images pasted inside the book. Some include poems and tiny bits of writing (in English and Swedish). When I finished looking through it, it seemed more like a scrapbook than a journal. But, however one chooses to classify it, I’m thrilled we have such a great piece of history in our family.

Luckily I had my digital camera with me and was able to take photos of some of the pages and beautiful details.

Some of the pages were so ornate that I’m thinking of photocopying them to use in my own journals.