Fun Theory

labour of love

I am so, so happy that a wonderful friend has taken another big step towards achieving some lofty goals... This past weekend Susan Rybar Photography  launched and I couldn't be more thrilled! Susan's photos are rich and vibrant, brilliantly capturing emotion and beauty found in the 'every day' moments of life.

Susan has been methodically planning and working towards this goal for some time, balancing her passions, career, and family to make room for this nourishment of her soul. I wish her amazing success, of course, but more then that, I am inspired (again) by her energy and unrelenting drive in making her dreams real. I am so lucky to call this shining star a friend. Congratulations, Susan!

dont forget to dance

Thanks for the reminder, Crea

quote of the day

With absolutely nothing but coincidence to a weekend punctuated by 'Narnia-isms,' I stumbled upon this poetic quote. It's my new favorite:

'Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.'
- C.S. Lewis


Ohhhhh, Narnia!

life list - first edition

A while back, Maggie over at mightygirl posted her list of "100 things to do before I go" and since then, that list has morphed and is now known as the 'Mighty Life List' - a list that has garnered so much attention that Intel is sponsoring it and helping her achieve some of those items!

Sponsorship aside, I really like the idea of keeping tabs on priorities large and small, especially the to-do's that can help make an otherwise ordinary life sparkle a little bit more. Plus, I love lists: writing, editing, and crossing off the done bits ... L-O-V-E. So over the past few months, I have begun working on my own 'life list' - a list, in no order of significance, of attainable & challenging goals left for me to complete in my lifetime.

I know that this list will grow and change dramatically as time goes on, and I want to get it out there now so I have a place to easily reference and keep tabs on myself. Let's face it, there are 100's upon 100's of things we'd all like to do! These are a few of the ones that are standing out for me right now:

• Complete El Camino del Rey
• Perform regular random acts of kindness
• Learn to dance Latin-style ... Salsa? Tango?
• Have a home or cottage completely off the grid
• Go back to school
• Complete a trip that would be considered an expedition
• Volunteer in a 3rd world country
• Learn to play the violin
• Deliver a speech to a large group of people
• Skydive
• Learn to operate a motorcycle
• See the wonders of the world: Great Wall of China, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, Roman Coliseum, Taj Mahal, Great Pyramid
• Remove money as a worry or barrier
• Spend a week in an ashram
• Take a culinary program, or have a chef teach me how to cook a signature meal
• Observe a gathering of local people sing a traditional song somewhere in Africa
• Go to burning man
• Stay in one of those over-the-water-huts in Tahiti
• Be completely passionate about and love my work
• Make having fun a priority
• Set foot in all 7 continents
• Take control of my health - take better care of myself
• Ride in a fighter jet
• Write a book
• Regularly volunteer in my community
• Take a painting class
• Bungee jump
• See a whale shark, manta ray, and a coral reef while scuba diving
• Build and then spend a night in an igloo
• Complete an outward bound program
• Travel solo for 1 month+
• Soak in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland
• Have a bite of Fugu (puffer fish)
• See an opera in Italy
• Make a meaningful, positive difference in someones life
• Sell a piece of my artwork
• Learn to trust that good friends will stick around, and test that theory more often
• Say 'yes' more

exultation and learning

Seems whether you fancy yourself a 'serious' writer or one content with dabbling, the basic drive and desires that lead to blogging are something we have in common. I am pretty sheepish when asked about my blog - usually feeling something between embarrassed, silly and narcissistic. The post below offers a nice perspective to the often asked question of 'why blog?' (via penmachine and wordyard):

Why people blog — and why journalists keep missing the point

There is a shortsighted misunderstanding of the motivation of most bloggers that I keep encountering as I’m out there talking aboutSay Everything. The people asking me questions are naturally, for the most part, journalists; and as I write in the book, journalists as a class have a particularly hard time understanding why most people blog.

This jumped out at me as I read this passage in today’s Wall Street Journal review of Chris Anderson’s “Free,” which was written by Jeremy Philips, who is executive vice president of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which owns the Journal along with vast tracts of the media landscape:

If you have a blog, “no matter how popular,” the revenue from AdSense — a Google service that places ads on Web sites — will probably never “pay you even minimum wage for the time you spend writing it.” Of course, that’s fine for bloggers more interested in fame or influence than in money or for blogs (like Mr. Anderson’s own) that are loss leaders for more lucrative endeavors, such as writing books or making speeches. But if you have to earn a living from the Web, “free” can be a problem.

Note the alternatives Philips offers: You might blog for money. You might blog for fame or influence or as a “loss leader” for your real business. But nowhere in his world is there room for the actual motivation that drives most bloggers: a desire to express themselves, to think out loud, to exult in the possibilities of writing in public — and learn from the pitfalls, too. Maybe there’s a payoff in enhancing your reputation, but there can also be a payoff in simply enhancing your experience at communicating your thoughts and ideas. Speaking to a big crowd is alluring but speaking even to a small group of friends is rewarding, too. For the great majority of participants, blogging is a social activity, not an aspiration to mass-media stardom.

It is very hard for journalists to understand this because the opportunity to express themselves in public has always been a part of their professional birthright. So they won’t notice that motivation even when it’s staring them in the face. When you point this out, you are almost always greeted with a sort of cynical sniff: You can’t be serious. But I am!

-Scott Rosenberg (http://www.wordyard.com/)

to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yeild

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers;
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch where through
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breath were life. Life piled on life
Were all to little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the scepter and the isle
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads you and I are old;
Old age had yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,

One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Ulysses -Alfred Lord Tennyson