Country Digs

Country living- puppy style. 

To Set the World on Fire

Where my cottage is, there is a strip of road that is one of the most beautiful Michigan highways to drive along in fall. The fiery trees engulf the road in a tunnel of flame.

 I imagine there is no sweeter way to burn. 

-MK-

Down the rabbit hole...

I have focus issues. 

There was nowhere to go but everywhere...

"There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars."

Jack Kerouac

The Pale Ground

Today was my birthday. 10/11/12. 

Today I am a year older. 

I hope this year is a good one. 

I hope it's better than the last. 

--Cheers--

MK

Forest Floor

I've really enjoyed taking photos every day with my camera instead of my phone.

A DSLR is irreplaceable and this month's project has really been a joy.

Happy Picture-a-Day Month!
-MK 

Never Let Me Go

"I come here and imagine that this is the spot where everything I've lost since my childhood is washed out. I tell myself, if that were true, and I waited long enough then a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy. He'd wave. And maybe call. I don't know if the fantasy go beyond that, I can't let it. I remind myself I was lucky to have had any time with him at all. 

What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."

Never Let Me Go

2010

To Conquer The World

Some days I miss Alaska so much I feel like giving up everything I'm doing and hopping on the next jet up north. I don't think I've ever enjoyed being some place quite so much or been surrounded by such nice people. They were my kind of folks up there, it was my kind of land. 

But for me Alaska is the destination, not the journey. It is home, and I'm still on the road... with many miles still to go. 

Love from the northern stream, 

-MK

Bonne Nuit!

My mind is tired, my eyes are sleepy and my body is worn 

down from a wonderful weekend. 

Tomorrow will be a day for words. 

For now- bonne nuit mes amis! 

-MK

The Right Words

I just wrote several paragraphs about words and writing but they were not simple and so I've deleted them.
I'll let Kerouac speak for me tonight. 

Cheers

Flipping through the pages...

The Hardcover

I just received a copy of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. The opening line seems promising: 

"Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable"

My book list keeps piling up and because they're all electronic books, I find it hard to figure out what to read first. You can't peruse through your Kindle books the same way you can through the hard copies; you can't look for interesting chapters or take a one-second peek at the end to gage what you're getting yourself in for. I find it hard to decide which book to read without my computer present to make pro-and-con lists.

And so the pile keeps building but I haven't been reading. 

I love my Kindle, god knows I do. I love highlighting my favorite passages and having all my favorite books with me everywhere I go. I love the e-ink technology and the instant dictionary. But it feels so limiting when all I want to do when I finish a book is go flip through the pages and re-read all my favorite parts. Clicking through your bookmarks just isn't the same. 

So today this old, used, library-version of some highly-rated, young adult stories has made it's way to me and I can't do anything but read it, because this book in my hands- the feel, the smell, the weight-
 it feels like home.  

Someday, they will perfect the ebook, they will simulate everything I love about real books and that will be the end to this debate, but until that day a hardcover will always take all. 

30 Days

A Picture-A-Day

As I mentioned earlier, my friend and I are doing a picture-a-day challenge this October. We were inspired by an older TED talk by Matt Cutts titled appropriately, "Try Something New For 30 Days." You do something, or take something away, for 30 days- like write a novel, stop eatting sugar, etc. If you've always wanted to learn to sew, well choose to sew every day for the next 30 days. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html?source=google_plusone

Along the same vein, I recently read an article on Life Hacker titled, "How Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret Fixed My Procrastination Problem." it suggests you spend some amount of time doing a desired activity every day. Instead of putting off cleaning your house, decide to spend 15 minutes each day cleaning something and before you know it, you're house will be clean and more importantly- it will stay that way. 

http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-secret-fixed-my-procrastination-problem

What both the video and the article have in common is that you're taking a big problem/desire/goal and breaking it down into a bunch of little problems/tasks. Micromanagement. 

You've always wanted to learn French. Well if you're like me, you'll buy a big textbook on Amazon and be really excited for a week, spending an hour or two each day studying it. And then, never pick it up again. I've taken on too much and I burn out. But how about learning a word a day instead? 

As I mentioned before, I've been hoping to create more content instead of consume it. Well doing a big art project every day is hardly sustainable. But a photo-a-day? Whether I take the time to go to a forrest preserve with my handy-dandy DSLR like I did today or I stay at home and take an iPhone pic with my dog- well that sounds reasonable. I can do it and I will do it and when it's all over, I'm going to be a bit closer to my goal of creating more content. 

Furthermore, as Matt Cutts mentions in his mini-lecture, instead of time passing by in a blur, these little projects give you an anchor, a goal that keeps you grounded. I will know exactly where I was and how I felt when I look at the picture above. Perhaps that is the greatest reward of all. 

The Truly Wild

This was the second to last weekend at our cottage before we must close her for the winter. This morning, while her fuses (no, she has not yet heard of circuit breakers) went a little haywire, I took the opportunity to wander around the forest nearby while the men folk did their magic. 

And what I found was a magic of my own. 

There is nothing quite so peaceful as waking amongst the trees. Our cottage is built on stilts into the sand dune and my little nook sticks right out into the tree heads. I wake to the birds singing and the fluffy black squirrels playing around in a way only the truly wild of their species know how to. I always try to burn the sight into my mind so that I can pretend I am always there but there's no replacement for the quiet joy that spreads through my body as my eyes behold the new day. 

When I wake each day, it's with a sense of relief. 

When I wake in the forest, it's with a sense of being. 

Perhaps, someday, when my wings have been tired from all their adventures,

 I will build my home somewhere tucked deep away in the forest, 

and I too will play, as only the truly wild of my species know how. 

Michigan 2012

Artsy, Fartsy Fall!

October is a 'Picture-a-Day' month! 

(well me and my darling friend decided it was at least)

 I'm excited for it. I feel I consume too much, curating small galleries of other people's art on Pinterest (speaking of which, you should follow me @ http://pinterest.com/marieeeka/ :) ) and not making something of my own for others to gather into their own collections. I need to get the creative juices flowing, they've been stymied by work and routine and directionless action. 

Plus!! NaNoWriMo is almost upon us! I can't tell you how excited I am. My last few days have been spent perusing Amazon for the best books on writing and character development. I apologize in advance to my mailman for the next week's hustle. 

I hate the heat and tend to be a bit of hermit in the summer months but Fall and Winter...they make me feel alive, like everything I want is possible. 

Cheers to a lovely, artsy, creative October and November!

Well lived.

1931

This summer has been a trip down memory lane. I've spent hours scanning in old photos my grandfather has kept safe all these years. The couple above are my great-grandparents on a road trip to the West in 1931.

 Looking at all these people I've never met, yet whose blood runs in me is truly a remarkable experience and has inspired an ancestry project of sorts I hope to share with you all soon. 

Until then...