Yummy Wakame

Yesterday at my request, my sister Nykki drove me out to a long stretch of road, parked on the side and we switched seats. I’ll never forget how we grinned at each other and giggled. For most of my life I had lived with a crushing fear of driving that made me feel powerless and in extreme danger behind the wheel. Even as a passenger I was unbelievably anxious, pushing on the invisible brakes and biting my nails. But yesterday as I sat behind the wheel and adjusted my seat, instead of feeling paralysed behind the wheel I felt tremendous excitement as all my dreams for a travelling future came flooding in, and as I drove off, that excitement was turned into courage and finally control as I turned on winding corners and went up narrow farm roads on steep blind hills. She is the perfect teacher. more…

I love these kids and their shiny beautiful hearts :@)

View this video on YouTube

Austin White is one of my favourite photographers in the whole wide world. His unique perspective of the world enables him to capture moments that are so fleeting and so elusive with colours so bold and evocative its hard to believe you aren’t right there where it’s happening. He’s a fully road-schooled kid of 17 years and is of the Bare Naked Family fame.

This recent video documentary of his visit to Salvation Mountain moved me deeply. I had to share it with you guys:

Salvation Mountain from Austin White on Vimeo.

If you are unable to view the inbedded video please click here.

In a few hours I will have finished packing my winter clothes and a few comforts into a bag and will be riding into the nearest town where I will catch the train out onto a new leg of this life adventure. I will come home to Marathon when the time is right. I will complete my drivers license for the first time, buy a new smaller gypsy home and make it mine own. I will come back to sweep my beautiful black cat who recently adopted me off her twitchy feral feet, and onto the travelling life of her dreams! Frolina my frau lion. Keep hiding in those trees and keep up those surprise ninja attacks from the bushes. Keep eating my clothes. Keep breaking down the screen door to get in. Keep snacking on chilli peppers and elbows. Never change for anyone.

In time for my sendoff, in my inbox this morning I received this unexpected gift from a beloved faraway friend:
“It’s funny how you can travel all over, but you are always still right here in front of me and everyone else who loves you and isn’t afraid to say so ~=)”

I love you, all my friends and family around the world and I feel your love, your bravery, your spirit, your magic, your hugs, your wisdom. I feel close to all of you at all times and always have, as I am sure you just know as intrinsically as I.

If you are feeling adventurous I will be sure to pack you into my back pocket for this ride!

“Whether it’s ourselves, our lovers, bosses, children, a local Scrooge, or the political situation, it’s more daring and real not to shut anyone out of our hearts and not to make the other person into an enemy. If we begin to live like this, we’ll find that we actually can’t make things completely right or completely wrong anymore, because things are a lot more slippery and playful than that. Everything is ambiguous; everything is always shifting and changing, and there are many different takes on any given situation as there are people involved. Trying to find absolute rights and wrongs is a trick we play on ourselves to feel secure and comfortable.”
~ Pema Chodron

mp3

I saddled up my pony right
And rode into the ghostly night
It was wide, wide open, wide, wide open more…

So beautiful…

A visual exploration of the human movements, focused on martial arts performances, printed on see-through paper on a large format book. The experiment aims to freeze the movements of martial art performers into a tangible series of layers of perception through the use of visual narrative techniques applied with the use acetate, draft film and tracing papers. Book specs: 168×21cm open, double folds, metal screws binding.

via visualcomplexity.com (via Quiddity)

Treehugger

gulp…

(please watch this in full screen mode. it’s absolutely worth it.)