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This is a picture of my friend Silvija's magnificent real Christmas tree. She has done this every year I have known her (since Grade 9). Inspiring!

Here is another inspiring text I discovered. It takes such a load off my mind (which I realize is the Small Mind). It is so easy to be happy and relax when the Big Mind is taking care of everything.


This is a quote from the book “God Loves Fun”
by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

“Turn back and you will see that the whole life is like a dream. Isn’t it?
See the past. Is it not like a dream?
Till today, till this moment?
You came here, you settled; the day before, you had started from somewhere.
Before that you did something, something else on New Year...you enjoyed your
Christmas presents. The Year before, and the year before, you cried and yelled
and much before you shuttled back and forth from school for years- bored,
waiting for the weekend. Isn’t it? That is all gone. Is it not like a dream?

And what is going to happen? A few more days, what can happen?
At the most, you will laugh and jump, or you will cry and sit. So what!
Anyway, it is all going to pass, however you spend your time. Why bother so much?
In order to smile and laugh, you are bothering so much. Your effort to smile and laugh
is making you cry and weep. There is nothing you need to do.
Just smile and laugh. Life has no purpose, no mission. It is a game, it is a play.
Life has no message. Life itself is an expression of joy.
There is nothing you have to do.
Everything is being done by the Big Mind.”

ATCs

My Artist Trading Cards for this month were inspired by the challenge set by Ronna in the ATCQuarterly. She asked for a card inspired by the theme of "Dollars and Sense". I have an old wallet with currency from the countries I have visited and decided to sacrifice the paper money for this project. Does it make sense to cut up money? If you are an ATC artist, yes!

I mixed pieces of bills from Hungary and Bali with Canada Tire money, newsprint from a local oriental daily paper and bits of gold paper to represent the real thing. When all the pieces were layered onto my ATC-sized cardstock with Mod Podge and then completely dried, I punched in some holes. Then the collage was glued onto another card of copper cardboard, so that the copper peeked through and looked like "cents" (pennies). It was a great way to spend this wintery afternoon.

I look forward to the trade this Saturday in Dunvegan, as always, but this month is special. We will stay on after the trade for a party, sharing some finger food and bubbly. This is a great tradition and we get inspiration from opening up our collections for review.

Soltice

It is early in a deliciously stormy day: sleeping in, waking to the sound of the wind snapping the flags above the town hall across the road, listening to seasonal music from around the world on the CBC (with my budgies chiming in), the scent of Reto's freshly baked "Hazelnuss Stengeli" wafting upstairs and now connecting to my family/friends/visitors through the net.....all heavenly!

This day begins two glorious weeks off from karma-yoga type work. Time to spend in my art studio, reading The Gazette in front of the fireplace, skating on the Rideau canal in Ottawa, and just Being at home. Thirty two years ago I was expecting my daughter's birth "any minute"...she arrived on the 23rd. Happy birthday, now in India, dear Simone!

I offer you this photo I made yesterday in minus 26 degrees. It expresses to me the essence of this shortest day of the year: pure and simple, deepest inner life. Like the New Moon, we have reached the Nadir of Nature's cycle, the darkest time with the most potential.

Winter

As of next Monday, all car owners in Quebec are required by law to have four winter tires installed on their cars. It seems that many drivers were stalling with the decision to make this big investment. Four new tires can slide you back about $700.-!

A recent snowstorm was a joyful event for our local snowmobile owners, snowman builders and photographers. Maybe it was not so wonderful for all those driving (or stuck in slush) with their summer tires. Freezing rain was the icing on our cake: I went out to take some pictures of Nature's poetry to share with you.