Bartleby Raises the Roof
Bartleby Raises the Roof, a photo by jyllianm on Flickr. My sweet boyo in the the new cat tree. It’s a little shorter than I/they like it to be but he surely looks cute in there.
The Winter Couch
Fotor, a photo by jyllianm on Flickr. 2/365 What some evenings look like in the winter. When I say I’m cold J tells me to ‘throw another cat on there.’ I’ve had 4 out of 5 but by that point I’m roasting. Zack enjoys placing himself in the most uncomfortable …
Hoppin John
1/365 Eating black eyed peas on New Years is a Southern tradition. One of my sweet memories of a good friend, Matt, is when he brought black eyed peas to a New Years party in San Francisco—giving us both a shared language in the midst of living elsewhere. Funny I …
Beginning at the End
Oh somewhere in me I had an epic goodbye 2013 post, you sucked. Can’t wait to see you leave..etc etc. But we have girls spending the night and I’ve been snoozing with cats on the couch, so my fur is just not up. I had a list of resolutions about …
Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself. Samuel Butler
From Kat McNally 2014 is going to be MY YEAR because…I am cutting off the crueltyIn 2014, I am going to do… what helps my family and me and stop doing what hurts us.In 2014, I am going to feel…like I am good enough and getting better.In 2014, I am …
There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Well I disappeared for awhile and fell off the Reverb wagon because—that time of year I think. Also family drama. Kat McNally asks about the way forward and Project Reverb wants to know about gratitude. Since I’m behind and back dating this. I’m going to be succinct. I am grateful …
Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous–to poetry. ~Thomas Mann
Kat McNally’s prompt asks us to consider self-compassion: The Buddha said, “You, yourself, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.†While Project Reverb asks if I was an introvert or extrovert this year. It really is interesting to me how I find connections between these …
Perchance to Dream, Aye there’s the Rub
A Peace of Clothing. Sorry I couldn’t resist. Every year I wear out several black cardigans of varying weights. They are my armor, my uniform. I started wearing cardigans because I didn’t want to wear blazers. I wear blazers now, usually vintage men’s but still I go back to cardigans. I …
The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.― Socrates
Word and Habit… What word can guide me through 2014. The word for 2013 seems to have been upheaval unfortunately. For 2014? Possibly steady. I like steady. I want to be steady in my work. Showing up, doing well. No conflict, no difficulty just turning out good product and helping …
A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty
I think I don’t have a thousand words, so how about these. This is the difference happiness makes: This is all I need to know.
Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.Galileo Galilei
Kat Mcnally asks that we describe our year in terms of our five senses. Project Reverb wants to know what kept us anchored Well…J and Em kept me anchored. They always do. They are the reason I wake up in the morning and why I kept trying to make a …
Be sincere, Be brief, Be seated.― Franklin D. Roosevelt
So Project Reverb wants to know what I ate , while Kat McNally asks what was my best decision I’m afraid I have a bit of catching up to do, so this unlike my usual long winded entries, will be brief. Best Meal? Either the night our dinner group went to …
We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community.Dorothy Day
My days are a bit jumbled up but I think that’s ok with Reverb. What I like about reverb is that there are guidelines but you can bend them. That helps. Too strict and it turns into a death march , too loose and you don’t continue. Or that is …
Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.Henry Ward Beecher
And Project Reverb asks about  Failure while Kat McNally and Rachel Maddox  wonder: Today, identify something muddy that kept recurring for you throughout 2013, and then ask yourself this: What’s the clear truth underneath this damn mud if I finally wash myself clean?  And they are of course related. I …
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Inspiration and Auto pilot. Two diametrically opposed forces. If you are inspired you certainly aren’t on autopilot. I find people who are strongly themselves inspiring. My friend Beth someone I’ve known for quite sometime, because her brother is one of my longest and dearest friendships…is now someone I care about quite …
Nobody who says, ‘I told you so’ has ever been, or will ever be, a hero.― Ursula K. Le Guin
I suppose if you look at things from a more optimistic point of view, they turn out to be adventures, not terrifying hurtles down the side of an icy mountain on a trashcan lid at a high rate of speed right? I hope in the years to come that this …
We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be. ― May Sarton
Well then…I don’t take many selfies because I photograph quite badly. Always have. I never learned to gothgirl thing of posing for the camera. I think the back of my head might be my best side. There was a picture I liked of myself…it doesn’t just have me in it, …