Flying High 2: Cast Your Vote!

Which do you like better?

There are so many options when playing with

photoshop layers ... it's often hard to choose.

So you get to vote!

Which do you like better?

This one with wings?

Or Friday's post?

Flying High

Today I finished altering this photo of mom.

That afternoon mom and her friends were goofing off,

hanging around in front of Crowell High School.

One of the young men picked her up and 

set her in this niche to the side of the front doors.

I've always loved this picture and

decided to play with it. 

Austin is just below mom's feet and

she holds the Yellow Rose of Texas.

Austin is where mom and dad got married,

and we celebrated that symbolic yellow rose on

their 50th anniversary family reunion cruise.

Perched high on a telephone pole (mom, do you 

remember your first telephone? would you write in the
comments any stories you remember?) mom is 

surrounded by hummingbirds that she

loves to paint with her water colors.

As I finish this post one of my favorite shows,

Who Do You Think You Are?

has just finished tracing the ancestry of

someone who explored census records, country

cemeteries, and marriage certificates.

We are fortunate to have some of our
family history recorded in an autobiography
mom wrote during her high school years.

Click below to read how three families in heavily ladened
prairie schooners left the hills of Tennessee for Texas in 1851:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36534720/Autobio-DCB

...somewhere in the rear came Squire Campbell's
iron grey hunter and his fox hounds, for he
hoped in the new country to continue the chase of the fox ...

I love hearing family stories, looking at photos,
and then letting my imagination wander freely
as I think about who I am ... and who I might be.

Playing with Flowers

There's something refreshing about

playing with beautiful  flowers.

Sean plants ... Holly photographs ... I play around.

Seems you can't go wrong when playing with flowers!

Depression Distractions

Whew!!!

That's not a problem after all!

In the process of dealing with one of those
everyday-life-stressers

I discovered something interesting:

What craziness!
 To find a looming
dragon of depression defeated
because something else threatened!

What distracts you from stress?

Look Upward and Outward: Cheyenne Flying Thunderbirds Air Show

During Cheyenne Days there are moments
when much of the town pauses to look beyond itself.

As we prepared for the Flying Thunderbirds air show
vehicles filled every parking space near the
community college -- and then lined up and down
the highway.  On a weekday! In the middle of the day!
(?Is this craziness or is this wisdom?)

Children stared up at the sky
as the six jets turned, swooped, and dove in perfect sync.
Smoke streamed behind as some broke off
for a solo dive-spin, duet, or quartet.

Amazing! And mesmerizing.
Young parents relaxed while teens, children,
and even toddlers gazed above.

It reminds me of how Plato describes the power of
looking above and beyond our own selves

in astronomy and other outward-looking activities:

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards

and leads us from this world to another.

This is true for the children and youth,
some at-risk, who attend camp at the new-ish 

Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus 

near our family ranch in Crowell, Texas.

I asked my brother, why astronomy?

He described how gazing into the universe takes 

us beyond ourselves so that we might

gain a different kind of perspective

and move on to find new meaning in life.

It was later that I realized he had quoted Plato.

How I Love That!

The creative and yet practical

ways Plato addresses struggles!!!

How do you look upward and outward?

The night sky? Cloud gazing?

Civic Park or Cherry Creek at sunset

as homeless unroll sleeping bags?

Click below to leave a comment
so that we might brainstorm together about how
to look beyond ... and expand our souls.

Put Your Anger to Good Use: Those @^*&/!# *%/!#@s!

I love the creative ways some people 

throw down the gauntlet 

in the face of trouble and the garbage of life!

Here's a reproach and metaphor I like:

...those microscopic &*/@!# cancer cells! 

(Insert "Old Testament" thoughts of smiting, 

destruction, pestilence, and burnt offerings here).

Hah! Makes me want to adopt this for the DirtyD word. 

Depression lurks in the same insidious way, 

and we similarly wonder if/when

it will launch a surprise attack from within.

So that you can 

use some of this anger in a positive way

I've re-created

a visual journal page for you.

What do you want to glare at Kabuki style?

What pestilence do you want to smite and destroy?

Go for it!!!  

You can highlight and then save or print this image;

it's one that will work well in black & white or color.

Use the label for your battle cry 

or your own list of creative anger-symbols.

Then use expressive gestures or fonts

as you write/scribble/scrawl your thoughts.

(you can place a text-box on the pages

after saving them on your computer.) 

Post or email me a copy of your creation.

Let's put that anger to good use

to name and &*/@!# those &^*@/#!!!*

depressive cancerous *%/!#@s! 

Journal Blessings!

Battling Depression -- via a Young Don Quixote

As a child I was always intrigued by a section of gnarled tree trunk
that was carved into the head of Don Quixote.
 It never occurred to me to wonder who Don Quixote was; 

after all, he was just some guy dad liked.

Dad also had a small wooden piece, only a few inches tall, a 

skinny old guy with knobby knees, pointed helmet, and tall spear-thing. 

My brother now has these in a niche in his den.  
A good friend has a silkscreen print of Don Quixote on a horse, 
again a scrawny guy wearing a pointed helmet 

and holding a  lance, all drawn with a striking grungy outline.

I finally wondered, who is this Don Quixote?

Well, he’s a guy who seems to be simply silly or crazy-as-anything.

Maybe that’s because he goes through his days with boundless hope.  

Or maybe it’s because he thinks every 

windmill is a giant enemy that needs to be slain. 

(At this point it occurred to me that the pic of dad at nine, 

grinning big-enough-to-beat-all as he sat on a horse, 

would be perfect to alter: Young Don Quixote!)

Seems to me that jousting with windmill blades is either crazy or delightful.  

I think it’s a delightful metaphor 
for battling depression -- that visible/invisible 

giant-of-an-enemy found in homes far and wide.

What a way to bring a smile to your eyes and a lift of the chin:  to face

the day with an imaginary lance (how about this candy-cane striped one 

I found on flickr?) ready to battle any giant you might encounter.

Enjoy!  Click comments below to share your fav Don Quixote story, 

your battle with those visible/invisible-giants-of-depression-or-you-name-it, 

or anything else on your mind.  (Yes, you can

also still email me -- people love to read comments though

as we grow, think, and learn together.)