~ one of my photo’s for ‘words to shoot by’ this week ~

‘someday consolations become constellations
not through force but by persistence do they
reach above the grind and into the weave

~ michaud savage ~

Full moon, milk pallor orb, September.

My creative gusts are soaring so high lately, connected to me only just barely by a single gold vein. I woke up entirely willing to be surprised, and wouldn’t you know it a white butterfly landed oh so briefly on my wrist while I was picking blackberries in the garden for my breakfast.

I found the little poeme you see above on facebook this morning and I penned it in my polaroid journal for truekeeping.

So today is many things…a cavorting hurricane of footsteps as I leap around all ebullient for Autumn…my heart fissured away in my chest (a melting violin) white butterflies and a glass of sea air to toast those persistent glimmerings of constellations making their way into the weave.

I am determined to perfume my days with an abundance of enthusiasms:)

I am listening to Manu Chao and friends in my windy studio today…getting ready for my photography course to go live next week once again…and also working on a ‘fly on the wall’ featuring the astonishingly brilliant Raudiel Sañudo coming your way very very soon.

` Maddie `

anam cara

~ Breckenridge and Carey in the market sharing a juicy summer peach ~

It’s a beautiful soft grey day here in my little corner of the universe. I can smell autumn in the air ~ that pungent sweet scent of leaves blushing crimson in a sexy tango. To celebrate I am wearing a fabulous black petticoat skirt my friend Judith gifted me at her dinner party this weekend with a vintage lavender cardigan and old, old vintage frye boots. Gosh, how I love autumn!!!

Oh this weekend my friends was such happiness. I am so in love with Seattle.

Dear Universe

I would love a little cottage on Vashon Island and an apartment in the city to share with my beloved. Just enough room to have swing dancing parties and a porch for my bike. And a VW van to scoot around in for camping excursions. Please and thank you so very much!!!

Amanda and I went to the Ballard market to see our friend Breckenridge play in his band.

Amanda danced with Kevin and they made me laugh because they couldn’t stop laughing. You can hear Breckinridge singing away in the background.

I had my first glass of bourbon at Amanda’s house (Basil Haydn) and decided I liked it very much. But not as much as I liked Amanda’s place. I could live in the bathroom if she would let me it was so pretty.

Amanda gave me a bicycle! It’s red and going to be tuned up so I can explore Seattle in style. And perhaps bicycle over to Lily’s house so I can learn how to make divinity. (Divinity is a kind of candy.)

Wynia and I spent a lovely morning at Fremont coffee with Rhubin and Roxy ~ you can see Wynia and Rhubin here waiting for their manicure:) I am happy to announce that my dog Roxy and Rhubin are now most excellent friends.

I love this song! I love this song! Breckenridge sings it best but I don’t have a file with him singing so you will have to take my word for it. Or go see him play sometime in Seattle. That would be the best plan.

Today ~ is the perfect day to make soup. Perhaps a curried beet, lime, apple and carrot soup. If you are in my neighborhood please do stop by!

xoxo

~ Maddie ~

pst! reel time ~ you will LOVE it! and words to shoot by ~ I repeat…words to shoot by!!!

~ photo by Tess Frances Herzog ~

‘We live in a world that needs more soul, more meaning. We, as conscious beings, have, as our primary responsibility, at this time in human history, the task of bringing soul into the world, or releasing soul into the world. We do this, first of all, in ourselves and in our own personal world; then we do it in our groups – including family; then we do it in our society through our work, relationships and presence there.’

~ Andrew Schneider ~

I need to share something with you.

Last night, when I returned home from my mountain road trip with my daughter Tess, she found this tender little bird on the path by the front door. I picked it up so gently and cradled it in my hands, an unfathomable thrumming ache pulsing through my heart, hot quiet tears streaming down my face. And I couldn’t put it down for some reason. I remembered my friend Denise’s words when she said that it was such a sad and beautiful honor to hold a dead bird.

My garden is filled with birds that love to sing in the cherry and apple trees, flying around with a joyful reverence that completely uplifts each and every one of my days. And each and every one of those mornings at 4:27 a.m., one single trilling bird wakens me to such a soft yet enthusiastic birdsong from my dreamy slumbers. I wondered if this little bird was my morning bird that helped me begin each day with such sweet joy.

And here I hesitate to continue to write for some reason.

Perhaps I am afraid my clumsy words will not do justice to the message of my little bird. For, while holding this little bird (which was not curled up in surrender but stretched out, chest held high to the world,) I recognized myself somehow. In that tiny body cradled in my hands I felt longing and missing, hopes and dreams, finding and leaving and losing, sorrow and rapture.

In the unfathomable ache in my heart I also felt a soft murmur of reminding and even a whisp of fear.

My fear of counting for nothing in this world one day when I pass on from my earthly body.

And those words are very hard to write, to share with you since this fear is not truly quite fully fathomed as I type this. And fear, as everyone knows, is the opposite of love.

I want to love BIG. Examining the gifts of my life, I am blessed with an abundance of love around me. My little bird reminded me with such a swelling pang how much I love my family, my children, my friends, my pets.

One life is such a short time for love.

It really is.

Echo. One life is such a short time for love.

Today I have a song to sing in honor of my little bird. More love. More song. More soul. More beauty. More joy.

I want to increase all these energies in the world each and every moment I am blessed to spend time here on earth.

More love. More song. More soul. More beauty. More joy.

xoxo

Maddie

today…some joy on ‘reel time’…and celebrations on ‘words to shoot by’…and the song of the day

a song my daughter played me on our roadtrip together:)

*photo of maddie and the little bird by Tess Herzog*

Above is one of the images I shot for this week’s ‘words to shoot by’ ~ the word is ‘mirror’ and I got it into my head to bring a mirror down to the beach verrrrrrrrry early Saturday morning. I know, I know what you are thinking ~ I am turning into the mad woman who is constantly taking pictures by the sea returning home with kelp in my hair and little bits of shell and bone and driftwood between my toes. I have such unconditional love for the sea and the sea for me. Our communion strums the true depths of my spirit. Sappy, but true:)

Anyway. Back to my pictures. Saturday was so beautifully beckoning and despite the early time (I was up at 5 a.m. to catch the symphonic rush of the incoming tide for more dramatic shots) I was happy in the happiness, leaning into a little creation whilst most intelligent souls were still sleeping. I had my coffee and music on the drive down to the White Rock beach (it tends to have more ebullient waves than Crescent beach, hence the car ride) and the pale magenta sky was streaked with gold ribbons clamoring to reach the cresting waves. R a d i a n c e I tell you!!!

And then. Suddenly, without warning, (as these things tend to go by the sea) the winds appeared (perhaps jealous of our reverie?) and kicked up such a terrible fuss with a gale of rain like two children having a tantrum. And before I knew it, my camera was soaked, my mirror was speckled with raindrops, I was drenched to the bone and shivering and miserable and frustrated.

I think I even kicked a pile of seaweed across the beach at one point. It was not a pretty thing to witness let me tell you.

And thennnnnnnnn….. (and I love this about myself) suddenly I decided to keep shooting in the rain, and LEAN into the experience. And it’s truly strange but literally in a space of 30 seconds my attitude changed. I tasted the salt spray on my lips, kicked off my shoes, hiked up my skirt, and with each mesmeric movement I embraced the seduction of the mornings changing mood.

It was enthralling. ENTHRALLING!!! I really wasn’t even sure at that point if the pictures would turn out at all but I was so completely in the moment and alive in the act of creating, I cared not a bean. It was beautiful. Truly beautiful. Later I returned home, hopped in a hot bath, made a huge breakfast absolutely head over heals in love with my life. Oh! and the pictures turned out quite lovely, actually. You can see them with a whole gallery of stunning photo’s here later this morning.

This weekend was so busy, each moment more magical than the one before ~ there were strawberry and white chocolate pancakes at the Sunflower cafe, traipsing around thrift shops for clothes (a tangerine sleeveless raw silk shirt, fabulous spring green khakis, gypsy hoop earrings) riding my bicycle all the way to my yoga class (with the cutest teacher EVER ~ happy shout out to Ryan) and watching my beloved Canucks dominate in the hockey playoffs. NO WAY JOSE!!!!!

Today…I am making a film for ‘reel time’, listening to this music…setting up a new ‘fly on the wall’ (for Thursday, come back thursday!!) and every now and then I have yet another peek at this picture taken by my beautiful friend Jillian ~ it is HOT I tell you! And not just hot as in ‘beautiful shapely man hot, but hot as in …the magnificent alchemy of communion with nature, soul, spirit and his wild adoring woman tuned to that atomic moment…a symbolic ‘becoming’ of sorts.

Oh now listen to me…blabbing on! Let’s just stick with HOT.

Happiest of Monday’s to you one and all!!

xoxo

Maddie

pssssssssst!!! the sweet Summertime registration for the ArT of living most cheerfully is OPEN!!! A big thank you to everyone who waited so patiently for me to sort out the paypal registrations ~ muah!!!!

one more thing…I love this work…it is..so captivating!!!

ok I lied…just ONE MORE THING AND THIS IS BRILLIANT ~ for all my photog friends out there:) xoxo

~ ‘singing happiness’ shot with my spectra polaroid camera and sofftone film for ‘words to shoot by’ this week ~

It is a funny thing, happiness. How surprisingly tender, unexpected and delightful it can be. Take this morning, for instance. My happiness is the breakfast that I am eating up in my studio ~ a jar of pistachio’s, a little yellow bowl of frozen organic vanilla yogurt, a cup of mexican coffee and a platter of blood oranges and ruby grapefruit. I have the door to my balcony opened wide off to the side of my studio and the birds are singing without breaking anything. I can tell they are completely in love with their life.

And I am completely in love with my weekend. Filled to the brim with joy I have to say. My daughter Tess and I went to such a beautiful film on Mother’s day ~ ‘water for elephants’...you simply must go see it as it is a feast for the eyes and the soul I tell you. Poetic cinematography! The enchanting allure of the circus! Elephants! The triumph of love over evil! What’s not to love about that? I would see it again in a heartbeat and if the sun wasn’t shining in such an irresistible way today I might have played hooky from work just to slip into that world once again. Later in the evening my son Noah asked if we could rent this film and we curled up with apple~blackberry pie and icecream and watched it cozily by the fire which obviously meant a double dose of happiness on Sunday.

This weekend I also shot some truly delightful polaroids with my spectra camera for ‘words to shoot by.‘ The word for this week is ‘tree” which greatly thrilled my tree hugging soul. Clearly, it appealed to everyone else’s soul as well because there are a record number of contributions ~ go see…and then run out and hug a favorite tree of your own. Your heart will leap with joy I promise you.

Oh! And can I tell you just one more thing? In my little corner of the world a sweet new cafe opened a few days ago. I was walking home with my dog Roxy and we popped by with my flip camera and caught the owner’s son a bit off guard but it was worth it ~ because Roxy got a free biscuit. Needless to say she will be insisting we walk that way home from the beach every day now, that is for sure:)

I have a thought running around in my head ~ I am hungry for some new mix cd’s and was wondering if any of you out there would like to trade a mix with me? I will send you one of my most fabulous compilations of lovely songs and you can send me one of yours. Yes? E~mail me at livingcheerfully@gmail.com if this sounds up your alley.

What music are you listening to lately? I want to know!

xoxo

Maddie

WAIT WAIT!!! Just in case you are interested…I have a facebook page for living cheerfully. Even on less than perfect days here….