This Joy Today is All I’ve Got

Only gratitude brings true joy. An understanding that I am worth this feeling, entitled by my humanity to feel it.

Between joy and happiness, I choose joy.

The Psychologies magazine says, “Joy is more consistent and is cultivated internally. It comes when you make peace with who you are, why you are and how you are, whereas happiness tends to be externally triggered and is based on other people, things, places, thoughts and events.”

I can feel joy and be unhappy. I see the bigger picture.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Reached the Halfway Point on my #100DayProject 2020

Yes, I am 50 days into my one hundred days long art project akamy 100 day challenge aka 100 days of Shalagh. I am halfway through. Honestly, the habit is established in the first two weeks .

After that it becomes a given. Up to that point, you may play mindgames with yourself about whether you will finish or not.

Once you stop that and just show up unquestionably for a length of time, you become your own superstar.

By the end of the project, no matter how many of your pieces you think suck, you can revel instead on how much you showed up for you, how worth it you are.

And that is worth it. So worth it.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

A Second Round of Captivity Pictures

Our two week pandemic lockdown rolled out into a two month self-imposed incarceration as we await our governor’s recommendation for how much longer we will stay safely away from society and it’s disease contaminating state. And to think I said, “I just have to run my household for these two weeks without losing my mind.”

I have kinda lost my mind a couple times but I’ve also been impressed with the way I was able to shed my fear soon enough to start to blog and make my own sense of all of this. It’s the 24/7 parenting and lack of alone time that are the killers. But I’m still living a pretty first-world life here despite.

More captivity pictures because a certain blog reader I saw at the grocery store said she likes them.

And as I said in my first pictures “in captivity” post,“I hope you are all keeping yourselves happily occupied during your self-imposed distancing. The suggested activities to hold your anxiety at bay are Creativity, Cozying and Curling up, and Communing. As you can see, we are actively doing those here at my house.”

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

A Winter Weekend Picture Album

These weekends in January seem sublimely slow and filled with joy and family, candlelight and music. I scored an inexpensive replacement on Ebay for our 5 CD changer so that we can play our CDs again. And I cleaned out our games finding some spelling and math games to play with Fiona. And finally mopped the kitchen floor. And somehow we are busy with community gathering. So yummy !

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Every Picture Tells a Story…

And an even better one when the picture is pretty.

I have always loved taking pictures. And after I birthed this blog from a need to practice my writing, I soon became aware that I needed to put my own pictures with my words. It made sense.

And just as my writing benefited from perpetual practice, so did my pictures. I discovered it wasn’t in the taking of the picture necessarily, although you do need to have something captured on your camera, but in the editing of the pictures.

At first, I used my picture program in my computer to pump up the contrast and colors for each picture. But when my old computer began to lock up with too many pictures, I started to use my phone camera and other photo editing apps to do all of my picture editing.

I’ve tried Snapseed and VSCO but in the end, I just use the phone edit program, Square InPic which puts any picture into a square format, and then the edit program attached to Instagram. That’s it.

I have a new computer as of a year ago and would love to get a better photo program to use, but for now, I can use my phone with all the pictures being backed up onto my phone via OneDrive.

Maybe one day I’ll get back to film, or even own a DSLR camera, but for now I am contented to just keep doing what I’m doing. The best camera is the one you have with you.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.