Today’s post, Artist’s Seven Deadly Sins, is a guest post of mine found at Jim Wood’s site. Head on over there for the post an other great creative inspiration!
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Discover Building a Life Out of Words
I live in Amish country: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
When you visit you’ll find:
- Horse and buggy combos are commonplace, even at Wal-Mart.
- Hard workers and neatly kept lawns.
- Tourist attractions.
- Shawn Smucker.
I’ve yet to meet Smucker in person, but after reading his new book Building a Life Out of Words
Creativity and the Costa Concordia: Get on the Ship
Time:
January 13, 2012
Setting:
Costa Concordia, Island of Giglio, Italy
(the setting could also be ‘your mind’)
Cast:
Coast Guard: Captain Gregorio De Falco
(think of De Falco as ‘your coach’)
Ship Captain: Captain Francesco Schettino
(think of Schettino as ‘reasoning’)
***
Know Who You Are
De Falco: “This is De Falco from Livorno. Am I speaking with the captain?”
Schettino: “Yes. Good evening, Cmdr. De Falco.”
Making Space for Movement
10 Things People Hate About Thanksgiving
I love Thanksgiving to pieces. To absolute pieces.
Abundance
“Who wouldn’t love Thanksgiving?” I pondered. Apparently, there are a few out there.
A quick Googling (not ogling) revealed the haters. Here’s a quick compilation of some their complaints.
- Carving Birds. Don’t take the hate out on the bird. It gave its life so you could have a nice nap later in the afternoon. Take tips from the amazing Alton Brown, Turkey Carving 101.
- Working Out. According to Livestrong, the average American consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. That’s more than double the average daily amount. Working out will come later. One day isn’t going to kill the waistline–the other 364 days will. Continue Reading…
Friday Light: Slightly Embarrassing Quirks and Inappropriateness
At times I want this blog to be notable. Regal. Intellectual. Thought provoking.
But that can also be boring. Hence, the reason every Friday post blends in a little humor, and today’s shares an extra dash of embarrassing quirks from childhood. Quirks volume one here.
+Earthworms. After it rained and the earthworms littered the ground, I’d don my rollerskates and ‘save’ them, tossing them back into the soaked earth from which they sought to escape. I don’t do this anymore. OK, maybe I did once or twice in the last year.
+Hot Dogs. I didn’t eat hot dogs for about five years durning my elementary school days as I’d been told they were made of earthworms. I save earthworms, not eat them = childhood logic.
+I Pledged Allegiance to a Christmas Tree. Real Christmas trees always adorned our home, but one year it grew, even in it’s little tree stand. It actually got taller. I felt badly that the poor guy would be tossed into our woods behind the woodpile. It was growing, after all. So what makes a Christmas tree feel better? Singing to it. Christmas carols. I promised the tree that I’d never forget all it had done for us. The odd ritual only lasted a week or so, but that tree died a slow death while being saranaded by a nine-year-old. Kinda like The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstien. Only not really.
+Inappropriate Nicknames. As a kid, I often went for the laugh in most circumstances. Still do. I think I was simply going for the laugh when I called my third grade art teacher a prostitute. Something like ‘oh yeah, we’ll you’re just a prostitute.’ Hmmmm. I’d never been removed from a classroom faster than I was on that day. I honestly had no idea what a prostitue was, though I imagine when I first heard the word used by others, their audience laughed so I thought I’d give it a try. Bad idea.
There’s more. Oh, yes, there’s plenty more. But that’s a start and you can read quirks volume one here.
In the meantime, please tell me I’m not alone. What kinds of crazy did you do when you were a kiddo? Leave a reply below so we can all get a chuckle…
***
Hot Air Ballooning in Amish Country: Six Facts
Last week I had the great fortune to do this:
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| “Balloon with a View” This balloon launched with ours. |
*It costs money. Fortunately, for me, this particular trip was a gift. Thanks Dad.
*Fear of baskets is a no-go. If you fear floating around in a human-sized Easter basket, this isn’t for you.
*It’s not like Pixar’s movie “Up.” Wasn’t “Up” a sad movie? I didn’t cry once while on this ride.
*It’s hard to catch a football from a balloon. A few kids tossed a football up to us (while flying much lower, of course, than the pic above) and we missed. Twice. Leaning out of a basket to catch a football = not a good idea.
*People love balloons. It was fun to see all the people waving, cars crashing from watching us and not the road, and the dogs freaking out.
*Amish people love balloons too. Here’s how some arrived in their Amish “car” to scope out our balloon landing.
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| “Amish Auto” |
Time to check something off your bucket list?
When Peter Pan Makes an Appearance in Grown-Up Land
Recently, my wife and I had the incredibly great fortune to see the real, live Peter Pan.
His name is Cathy Rigby.
Yep, you read that right, ‘the boy who wouldn’t grow up’ is a grown woman who is nearly sixty years young. Read more about our experience here.
Ms. Rigby gets paid to act like a child. It’s her job and she does it amazingly well. Many adults have adopted the same role as Rigby’s: grown-up Peter Pan’s. Not pretty. Especially since most of us aren’t paid to act like children.
I’m not immune to this “Peter Pan syndrome” myself, but I am aware that childish ways can creep into my adult ways. It can be a fine line… knowing when to be child-like rather than child-ish.
Keep the wonder. Keep the excitement. Keep the joy. Keep the freedom. And be a grown-up about it.
It’s a Privilege to Work, to Love, to Create
Today, on 9/11, I am thankful…
- We are a privileged nation filled with everyday heroes who love, work, and create.
- We have everything we truly need. If you are reading this, you have everything you need as well.
- We are loved with an Everlasting Love.
- We are free to innovate, free to share, and free to move.
As the thunder clouds roll into town this evening, I know and feel that we are not, and never shall be, alone.
We are surrounded at every moment by a great cloud of witnesses; some of whom took their lofty place a decade ago.
