Taking photos is a big part of my life, so it’s really hard to call one single photo “the best one.” Plus, I like different photos for different reasons. Some are great because they transport me back to a special memory, some are artsy, and some just make me laugh. I especially enjoy photos that wake me up to overlooked beauty, such as a photo I recently took of dried cocoa powder in the bottom of my coffee mug. That dirty dish is a piece of beauty I might have overlooked if I had been sleepwalking through the day and had plopped it into the sink without truly seeing it. So, with all that in mind, here’s the photo I’ve chosen as my best of 2011.
Tag: #reverb11
Community in my kitchen I could fill several blog entries talking about all the places I have experienced community in 2011 – online, offline and even overseas – but for this Reverb11 post I’m going to expound upon the sense of family I’ve enjoyed right in my very own kitchen. My husband has two grown kids, and one of the ways I have gotten to feel like part of the family is through time spent cooking together at our house. I love it! This Thanksgiving, for instance, we assembled and decorated a gingerbread village with them while the turkey roasted.…
Santa Meets Synchronicity What with getting married in the spring and finally unpacking stuff I’ve been carting from one storage unit to another, it’s been a nesty year for me. Much of this nesting involved discarding clutter, so a few weeks ago, when my husband asked what I wanted for Christmas, I couldn’t think of a thing. Likewise for him. I think we both muttered something along the lines of, “not needing more stuff to clutter up the place.” That night, however, while doing dishes, a mental image barged in on my daydreams: it was an upright piano. Yeah, right,…
Synesthesia is my Superpower I chose Synesthesia as my superpower because, while I find it a positive quality, it is often described as a mental disorder. Check out this article from Discovery magazine entitled, Top 10 Little-Known Mental Disorders, which claims, “Synesthesia is a disorder resulting in the sufferer experiencing an alternate sense as a result of the first sense.” Sufferer? Disorder? I love being a synesthete! Makes you wonder how many other things are considered to be abnormal/wrong when, in fact, they actually enrich people’s lives. What is Synesthesia? The word Synesthesia has Greek origins meaning, “joined senses.” The “disorder”…
Reverb11 prompt: Fear The Reverb11 prompt I’ve chosen for today’s post comes from Coach Jennie a.k.a. @CoachJennie, on Twitter, in case you’d like to follow her there. Fear: If you could take a pill to *cure* just one of your fears from 2011, which one would you choose + why? If I could cure one of my fears by taking a pill, I would cure my fear of driving. This is something I’ve struggled with for years, and while I’ve made progress, I’ve still got a long way to go. For years, I was afraid to drive a car, but…
The Virtue-Flaw Continuum Have you ever noticed how people’s virtues directly link to their flaws? Look closely, and you’ll see that a person’s best trait often goes hand-in-hand with their most annoying. I think one of life’s challenges is to keep our traits balanced so they come off in a positive way. When we’re out of balance: Tenacity becomes stubbornness Cleanliness turns OCD Concentration becomes aloofness Perfectionism turns into procrastination Kindness slides into gullibility Helpfulness becomes codependence Outspokenness becomes opinionated Honesty veers into tactlessness Politeness turns insincere Have you noticed any of these virtue-flaws in yourself? (It’s usually easier to…