Moments

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.

~ Diane Arbus

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This was Leslie's mom's birthday a few years ago. It was also her birthday one time this year, but that's not what I'm talking about. Anyway, in this photo Leslie's mom is looking at a book with Andrea, Aurora is getting out something to play with and Leslie is just standing around doing nothing. That's actually a joke. Leslie was running around picking up trash and packing up cake for people to take home.

I was the one sitting around doing nothing. Nothing except capturing this photo.

Names

It ain't what they call you. It's what you answer to.

~ W. C. Fields

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You may not have known that Satan's last name is Anderson (though you might have known he worked for Wells Fargo). I also learned from listening to other people that God's last name is Ammett.

Who

Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are.

~ Esmerelda Santiago

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According to Netflix, I walk with the Roses of Schitts Creek and serial killers. 

Cities

By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.

~ Socrates

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I'm surprised more kids don't grow up to be city planners.

Communication

The soul is healed by being with children.

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

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From a video Kirk sent to me:


Kirk: Hey, Zak! Tell Aunt Michelle where we're going to go eat!

Zak: Inside.

Kirk: (chuckling) Right, but WHERE?

Zak: Restaurant.

Kirk: (not chuckling) What restaurant?

Zak: (Pointing) This one.

Kirk: (frustrated) What. Is. It. Called?

Zak: Burger.

Kirk: (VERY FRUSTRATED - I'M TYPING THIS IN ALL CAPS TO EXPLAIN HIS LEVEL OF FRUSTRATION) WHAT IS THE NAME --

Mom: (whispering in that freakishly loud way that's actually louder than if you just say something without whispering) ZOMBIE. BURGER.

Zak: Zombie Burger! (which he said in that tone where you can tell he's either thinking, "If that's what you wanted me to say, why didn't you just tell me?" OR "Zombie Burger - DUH."

Bird

The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.

~ Eric Berne

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I have been listening to Science Friday today. It's the last episode where they are talking about birds because of some bird book that came out. The "experts" do not seem to know anything about birds. One said, "I'm not an ornithologist, though I know more about birds than most people." The other said, "Making meaning of animal behavior is really difficult, so I'm not sure what that behavior means."

(pause)

And yet, I continue to listen...

Creepy

Sometimes, to keep things exciting, I decorate my house as if I owned a child. I'll toss a tiny pair of shoes in the hallway or lean small wooden crutches in what I refer to as "the baby's room," which is actually a tiny space where I make things. I continue to call it the baby's room because it confuses people and it's creepy.

~ Amy Sedaris

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We could do a better job of making sure our language represents what it is really meant to represent. Too often I think we try to come up with nicer ways to say things that are not necessarily nice. For example, why don't we use the word "pervatrator"? It means people who are pervy and perpetrate their perviness on others. 

It's much nicer than calling them the things we call these people now - "neighbor" or "doll maker" or "nurse."

Weather

Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get.

~ Mark Twain

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Me: What's the weather like, Aurora?

Aurora: It's summer and it's pretty nice, but it rains sometimes.

Sales

Make a customer, not a sale.

~ Katherine Barchetti

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So if you see a listing for a yard or garage or moving sale and the listing says, "Too much to list," don't go to that sale. The people having that sale are liars. They COULD list everything if they wanted to, but they chose not to do that. It's not like they are selling infinity items. 

And if - by some stretch of the imagination - they ARE selling infinity items and are not in fact liars, still don't go. You don't have time to look through all of that stuff.

Follow

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values - and follow my own moral compass - then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

~ Michelle Obama

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The other day I went to a movie. I couldn't remember the name and when the ticket person asked me what I wanted to see, I said, "I don't remember. I think it's called 'Them That Come After.'" She looked down at the ticket screen and said, "You mean 'Them That Follow'?" I said that yes, that was the movie.

For some reason that made me giggle. I don't giggle often. And then I heard myself giggling and that made me giggle more.

I was glad that there were not a lot of people around at the time.

And also I learned that this is an example of academics always trying to use twice as many words as they need to. 

Peppers

Pease porridge hot

Pease porridge cold

Pease porridge in the pot

Nine days old

~ Mother Goose Rhyme-y Thing

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When I first saw this photo I thought, "Oh - I can use "peas peppers hot" that nursery rhyme thing. But it's not peas peppers - it's pease porridge. Apparently, that was something like oatmeal.

I like oatmeal, but I think peas & peppers would be good, too. But not canned peas. They're mushy.

Witchlet

Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world. There was no choice but to pioneers; no time to be beginners.

~ Margaret H. Hamilton

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So I was looking for a quote about beginning. About starting something. I wasn't planning on using this photo. But then I found that quote and I knew I probably still had some photo I hadn't blogged from the adventure to the Wizard of Oz theme park. I found this. It is perfect with this quote.

Because you all know that Margaret Hamilton played Elmira Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz.

What you don't know is that Margaret H. Hamilton was a computer scientist who coined the term "software engineering." 

Or maybe you did. You're smart people. I'm sure there are things you know that I don't realize you know.

But did I know this, you ask?

Nope. Despite your assumptions, I really do not know everything.

Yet. 

Chill

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget he is someone today.

~ Stacia Tauscher

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This is Zak. I get to go see him in a few weeks. 

The other night I was texting with him. Here is our exchange:

And Kirk sent me these:

Butterfly

Butterflies... Flowers that fly and all but sing.

~ Robert Frost

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Sometimes we choose good names for things - like butterflies. Way better than "oleo flappers."

Chair

If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

~ Shirley Chisholm

(Yes, I know I've used this quote before. I like it.)

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Me: Last night I had a dream I was in Washington, D.C. at the House of Representatives and they were choosing where they were going to sit.

Leslie: I don't think it works that way.

Me: I know. It was a dream. Anyway, most of the people I talked to were really nice and seemed to like me.

Leslie: Were you handing out corndogs?

Me: NO. SOMETIMES PEOPLE IN CONGRESS LIKE ME EVEN WHEN I'M NOT HANDING OUT CORNDOGS!

Attention

Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.

~ Epictetus

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I like paying attention to what little kids pay attention to. Aurora is curious and soaks in a lot of things.

She also is quick to respond to others. Sometimes so quick to respond that she doesn't fully collect the information she needs before she answers. For example...


BOOM!!!!

Leslie: Aurora, are you okay?

Aurora: Yeah

(Pause)

Aurora: I just hurt my arm a little.

Attention

Give you fullest attention to whatever the moment presents.

~ Eckhart Tolle

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If you don't pay attention, you increase the likelihood not only that you will miss things, but that you can make mistakes. For example, if you're not careful, you could confuse an instapot with a neti pot. That would be bad.

Music

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.

~ Plato

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I am training myself to be inspired by music. More specifically, to be inspired by the music at award shows. More specifically still, music they play when you've talked too long on an award show and they're trying to get you off stage. 

That way, when my day comes - as surely it will - I will be ready and motivated to just keep going even after my time is up for my acceptance speech. I know you're excited for this.

Me, too.

Paths

The obstacle is the path.

~ Zen Proverb

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I started this blog ten years ago today. I was in a really difficult place in my life and I wanted a creative outlet that was just for me so that I could laugh and try to train myself to pay attention to the moments and things in life that bring laughter and beauty every day. These are the same things we easily overlook when we are depressed or anxious or struggling.

The obstacles and challenges I was facing inspired me to write this blog. The obstacle was the way the forward. Without the situations I was in, I wouldn't have looked for a way to write and use my photography in creative ways. 

But ten years later, what is the result of the blog? Has it made me a happier person? Has it really trained me to focus on positive things and moments of beauty? And what about other people who have happened to stumble across my blog - has it helped them? Has it inspired them to pursue joy and a positive sense of being rather than wallowing in negativity and self-pity? And by touching individuals, has it transformed the world so that it is a better place?

Yes. It has done all of those things.

Curious

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I think lying is usually wrong. Maybe not "lying in wait." 

Unless you're "lying in wait" to mug somebody. Or really to commit any crime.

Unless you're committing a crime of vengeance in a movie. I sometimes like movies like that. Also, how'd you get a role in a movie??

Miracle

Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.

~ C. S. Lewis

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Miracles snap you out of the hum drum-ness of life. They bring you to sharp, almost painful attention on certain moments of amazement. Like a whip - CRACK! - and you can never again not see what you have seen and not know what you have known. Like a whip - you are focused on specific point. Like a whip. A miracle whip.

Dog

Hark! The dogs howl! The sleetwinds blow;

The churchclocks knoll: the hours haste, 

I leave the dreaming world below.

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

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I like dogs. Especially medium and big dogs. I really want a dog. I think that Leslie and I agreed that we will get a dog after I get tenure.

Leslie says I should name the dog tenure. I don't think I want to do that because we'd end up calling it "Tenny" for short. Then people would think we named our dog after Alfred Lord Tennyson. And that seems kind of pretentious. 

Pig

As for meat, I'm not going to become vegetarian. I'm telling you that right now. I want me a steak. I want me a pork chop. I want me a lamb chop, even a piece of duck every once in a while.

~ Sharon Jones

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Know how to tell it's Sunday? If you live near Ingles, your yard smells like ham.

That or look at a calendar.

seats

I like playing blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.

~ Mitch Hedberg

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This is one of my favorite places to sit. It is away from things. I get too wound up with work and the self-contrived stress of life that I feel overwhelmed and anxious. But being here I forget about those things and remember that the world is a bigger place than work.

I love my job. 
And I love time away from my job. 

Communication

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Sometimes when children don't have language for things like, "I'm hungry," or "I'm tired," or "I'm scared," or "I don't like your rules," they act out because they don't know how else to tell us those things.

Sometimes adults do the same things.

Happiness

Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him.

~ Friedrich Nietsche

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I had a conversation with my friend Kurt one time. We decided that we agreed that it is much harder work to be happy than to be unhappy. It takes effort - it doesn't just happen. 

If we spend our lives letting things "just happen" to us without taking any small measure of control that we might be able to claim, we lose. 

Not that Life is a game.

Well, technically it is a game. A board game where you are forced to get married.

Like a cult. 

Not sure where this was actually headed.

Gifts

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.

~ Desmond Tutu

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And if you operate under the assumption - as I do - that God has a sense of humor, well - watch out. Just because God has a sense of humor, it may not be exactly the same as yours or mine. Some of the things that make God chuckle may not be funny to us.