Just a beautiful room, with white panels. From here.

Dreamy, whimsical picture books and animations by the hugely talented Shaun Tan.

 

 Old commons photos. (Source unknown)

 

Convincing myself that one day I might be able to make something like this. (Source: roots&wings.)

 

Travelling vicariously through Israel, to the sea of Galilee via the lovely travel blog of David + Sarah.

 

Waiting in rapture for the new Middle East album, which comes out tomorrow. They are like nothing else.

Can't wait to have a celebratory listening with the Freest Man on Earth :)

Good and true.

Your task is not to seek for love,

but merely to seek and find

all the barriers within yourself

that you have built against it.

a handful of earth

cries aloud

i used to be hair or

i used to be bones

Out beyond ideas of

wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field.

I will meet you there.

images: 1/ book archive, british book of birds 2/ sam caldwell 3/jane reaction 4/wikimedia commons 5/ wikimedia commons: pulpit rock at kiama (I've been there!)

All words by Sufi poet, Rumi.

thursday morning.

These pictures make me think of

early mornings : faces that have been hardened by the sun : the side by side rush and calm of travelling in an unfamiliar place : the breathlessness, tired ache in the legs and elation of finally getting to the top of a mountain : new smells and new sounds in new streets : a hot cup of tea at the end of a long day : the movement, rustling and faded blue colour of swirling waves : warm sun on the nape of your neck, like a steady hand : the quiet stillness that descends on some places, in that golden window of time as the sun is coming up or going down.

(All pictures from the incredible eye of Randy Martin.)

To do.

Learn how to knit mittens.


Go for a walk every day.


Take care of my plants: new soil and a lot more attention to watering (oops).

Cook this (again).

And have a go at making these.


Finish reading the Brothers Karamazov.


Create beautiful things, like this.

Have a beach picnic with friends, like we used to.



Spend more time with the people I love. And actually "be there".


Be kinder to myself (= worrying less).



image credits. 1. cinq. 2. mdashing 3. unknown 4.+ 5. jamie oliver 6. porter square books 7. amy blackwell 8. original images 9. original image (taken on the spotmatic) 10. unknown.

A teaspoon of Mother Teresa: for when you don't know what to do when faced with all the suffering in the world.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family."

"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love."

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you."

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."

"Each one of them is Jesus in disguise."



"In the West there is a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the results and we get caught up in being more and more active to generate results. In the East -- especially in India -- I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan tree for half a day chatting to each other. Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving -- it is not in the result of loving. "

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go."

"Live simply so others may simply live."

Billboards by Robert Montgomery.

Imagine walking past one of these on your way to work. I think the rest of the day would feel different.