The Earth, Further and Further.

Michael Kiwanuka - “I’m Getting Ready”

Dali Atomicus (1948) by photographer Philippe Halsman 

Dali Atomicus explores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, water thrown from a bucket, an easel, a footstool and Salvador Dalí all seemingly suspended in mid-air. The title of the photograph is a reference to Dalí’s work Leda Atomica (at that which can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats.) Halsman reported that it took 28 attempts to be satisfied with the result.

Click here to see the unretouched version of the photograph that was published in LIFE magazine. (In this version the wires suspending the easel and the painting, the hand of the assistant holding the chair and the prop holding up the footstool can still be seen. The frame on the easel is still empty.)

Click here to see the original Magnum Contact Sheets

Reduce, reuse, recycle, relax. 

I added the petals of a wilting bouquet of roses to my bath today. I also added a scoop of coconut oil. You haven’t lived until you’ve felt your own skin with handfuls of rose petals. Or just one over a single finger. I stretched and massaged my every muscle this way, through the slipperiness of the light oily water, my “Classical Piano Favorites” playlist in the background. (Fauré, Brahms, Schubert, etc.) This bath was one of the most pleasurable experiences I’ve ever had. I really felt my body. I love feeling strong and fit and healthy. It baffles me how so many people confidently consider themselves good lovers when they don’t even have a relationship with their own body. 

Young Man - Nothing

I’ve been falling asleep to this track for the last few nights. 

Thierry Feuz | California (2006) 

Beautiful work by an amazingly talented artist who also happens to be very dear to my heart. 

1.) Still seeing so much good in the world despite being abandoned, neglected, disregarded, put-down, belittled and otherwise shit on by nearly everyone I thought I needed love from. 

2.) Remaining love-driven above all else! For being an endlessly self-regenerating watering-hole of love.

3.) For keeping myself beautiful in accordance with my own personal conception of beauty, in which beauty in aesthetic appearance is the highest plane in a hierarchy whereby inner beauty is a prerequisite to outer beauty. A striking and attractive face can be just that, but there must be a beautiful person—a kind, compassionate, sympathetic, thoughtful, loving person—within to turn those looks into something beautiful. 

     3.5.) I see myself as beautiful because I know what fills my heart. I know with the certainty that only I can know, that my intentions are pure and always rooted in love. Despite what may gurgle up from below from time to time, I do not allow myself to act in vengeance or spite or jealousy, nor in greed or competition. (Although perhaps sometimes in fear.) To be filled with love is to be beautiful. 

4.) For purging from my experience all feelings of embarrassment and of being offended. Embarrassment is nothing more than handling a situation badly. To never feel embarrassed is a statement of grace. And to never feel offended is a statement of logic. The thoughts and behavior of any person outside of myself have no logic or reason to cause me distress. People simply are how they are, independent of who happens to be around. Sometimes, when I happen to be around, people are rude, tactless, inconsiderate, and worse. Only my reactions to these situations reflect back on me, not that I’ve been in them. 

     4.5.) I’ve bettered the rest of my life in internalizing these idea(l)s. 

5.) For endlessly self-perfecting in these qualities. 

SUPER PRETTY:  George Shearing’s magical touch blending the Rodgers-Hart “It Never Entered My Mind” with Eric Satie’s Gymnopedie.

Today, from a distance, I saw you,
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer’s retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell. 

nationalgeographicmagazine:

Spring Stream, Finland
Photograph by Kyle Ueckermann, Your Shot
I took this photo at the edge of a small stream in Lehtimaki, Finland. The ice is beginning to melt, revealing the water beneath.

Download Wallpaper (1600 x 1200 pixels)

Source:

Lucky me! I am spending the holiday with the VEs. This is the closest I’ve felt to being a part of a family in over a decade and I can’t believe how empowering it is to feel wanted and loved in this way. 

Of course I bought the toddler a lil Easter bunny, but since he is the sweetest boy in the world he will without a doubt ask “What about baby?” In an effort to encourage sibling equality, I’ve crafted a faux Easter bunny puree! ;) 

that we were slowly cooking ourselves to wake in the light; this morning forcing its way between the fibers of my curtains and our reluctance, and I was taken by surprise at how much warmer I felt when he said

“You are a beautiful person.” 

How much more deeply those words warmed me than had they been “you are beautiful.” Because, who cares? A compliment to my unmovable genes that could go unspoken and make no difference.

But to be “a beautiful person.” I felt seen. Not for the fortune of my predetermined design, but for my own way of bringing this design to life. I felt seen, and it made me feel all the more beautiful. I felt seen and that made all the difference. 

My body: this is just a smaller apartment I inhabit much like my actual apartment. I can alter the style of my hair and the clothes I decorate myself with as I can alter the color of the walls and the rugs and drapes. But there is a life in here, it’s because of me, I’ve done something here and everyone who comes through feels it. It’s not the paint or the furniture or even the souvenirs of all my life up to this point or how I’ve arranged them around. You can feel it in silence and in darkness. It’s the magic that makes these floorboards and drywall into a home; it’s a magic that makes these bones and cells into me. 

In bed that morning, this one—he knew it. He knew me for the feeling of me, me in silence and darkness like that we shared in the night, and he saw in me the beauty that I want always to be seen. 

Gorgeous.