snowflakes are falling falling falling

study material for New Year's Resolutions...?

Came across this article over the weekend, written by nurse Bronnie Ware about the 5 most common regrets she'd heard from patients:

(original article here):

"For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.
People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.
When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.
By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.
We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.
It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.
When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness."

"Coveting possessions is unhealthy. Here’s how I look at it:

All of the computers on Ebay are mine. In fact, everything on Ebay is already mine. All of those things are just in long term storage that I pay nothing for. Storage is free.

When I want to take something out of storage, I just pay the for the storage costs for that particular thing up to that point, plus a nominal shipping fee, and my things are delivered to me so I can use them. When I am done with them, I return them to storage via Craigslist or Ebay, and I am given a fee as compensation for freeing up the storage facilities resources.

This is also the case with all of my stuff that Amazon and Walmart are holding for me. I have antiques, priceless art, cars, estates, and jewels beyond the dreams of avarice.

The world is my museum, displaying my collections on loan. The James Savages of the world are merely curators.

As I am the curator of their things, and thus together we all share the world."

(above quote by random commenter here)

worth a watch, makes you think

marimekko always

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

Ira Glass

Don't forget to VOTE!

I think a lot of the problems we’ve been experiencing come from the fact that no one embraces the miracle and amazement of the present. So many people—steampunks, fundamentalists, hippies, neocons, anti-immigration advocates—feel like there was a better time to live in. They think the present is degraded, faded, and drab. That our world has lost some sort of “spark” or “basic value system” that, if you so much as skim history, you’ll find was never there. Even during the time of the Greeks, there were masses of people lamenting the passing of some sort of “golden age.” But I’d never go back and live in any other time than teetering on tomorrow; this is the greatest time to be alive.

— Patton Oswalt

chaos theory

To entertain the radical idea that understanding might involve accepting chaos threatens the foundations of our existence. Confusion is anti-American; it flies in the face of benevolent efficiency—that outstanding Puritanical virtue. To admit to anything that suggests chaos is subversive. Sometimes, however, subversion is the way to understanding, and understanding is the cure for information anxiety.

— Richard Saul Wurman

and...


I don’t know what the hell is going on. Neither do you, and neither does any one else, really. We're all lost and making things up as we go. We are making things before we know what they do and breaking stuff before we know what replaces it.

We’re all just here tinkering, speculating and listening to see if our shovels hit something hard while we’re digging. I suppose that’s what world-building is, though, so let’s get used to it. We need to learn to tolerate ambiguity.

Copyright © 2010, Frank Chimero

four random things found while web surfing on a rainy morning

1. fun website - though you need a good connection & download speed to optimize the experience:
a unique calendar by fashion label Uniqlo

2. calling this "French line dancing":

(from "Band of Outsiders" by Jean-Luc Godard)

3. Kirsty MacColl

this was great club music back in the day
Kirsty MacColl died too young, in a tragic boating accident - love her music

4. human ingenuity is awesome - I want to ride on this:

"Lawrence is now one of only two cities in the country to operate pedal-powered rides like this. The idea originally came from Europe, where the vehicles are popular in places such as Amsterdam and in German cities."
click here for full article or visit pedalhopper.com

it's YouTube Friday

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from Disney's Fantasia (1940)


Dance of the Mushrooms


Tchaikovsky's Walt of the Flowers

Coolest home video ever!

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Aurora over Norway

some day I want to see this phenomenon
above photo from Astronomy Picture of the Day - click here to see the full description and an even larger version of this photo! (this was their post for September 20, 2010)

be brash, inflict viewpoints

pithy misc. manifestos found online

Carmen Amaya

polka dots!!!

Wanda Jackson

oh ho ho ho oh ho ho

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day."

E.B. White

one of my favorite Marimekko patterns - I like to stretch yardage over a frame and hang it on the wall:

“Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

~Howard Thurman

Zulu telephone wire weaving

Wow, I love these!












more here