beauty on my balcony

since my journey of restoration, i'm surprised how once my burdens were lifted, or laid down, how the daily things around me suddenly seem more beautiful than when i normally wouldn't even notice that they are there. i guess that's what they mean when they say, stop and smell the roses. and that i did. and i loved it. and i still do it when i remember to.

one morning sometime last year as i was spending time alone at home, i went to the balcony to breathe in some fresh air and watch the greenery and try to look out for birds and hear then chirp. i suddenly realized that even just on my balcony i had some beautiful little things. there was life growing, there were colors, and even something playful. so i trotted back to the bedroom and got my trusty camera to catch the moment. and here's a sampling of what i have on my balcony

this is my little piggy windchime which my mum-in-law got me.

i love little piggy things, btw. and this delightful little flower is a little flower plant, one of three that hubby brought back for me from his trip to fraser's hill. and of course my cactuses. i started with one little one which i thought wouldn't need much attention. i basically left it alone but it just kept growing and growing babies although i didn't do anything for it. now i have too many of them.

and this pretty one is the young tender shoot from a mint plant that i have. they are incredibly easy to grow. you just cut a little branch off without any roots and stick it into some soil and it grows and grows. i use the leaves and boil it in some water with ginger root and some rock sugar and it's a good remedy for phlegmy cough. and this is a part of a huge tree with some berry-like buds that's snapped through my balcony grill.

so do stop and smell the roses. they are usually all around you!

OH, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

the artist's way

(gosh, i can't believe i have not entered anything since october last! no wonder i'm itching...)

this is a book by julia cameron - an author, screenwriter, ex-wife of martin scorcese. i was recommended this book to read by ann clifford, who has since become a dear friend, who took the time to sit with me and pray with me and help discern with me what path i should take as i go on my sabbatical. that was more than a year ago and my sabbatical year has officially ended december last. and boy was it an amazing year! this book is called "an artist's way. a spiritual pathway to your creativity". it's a book on discovering or rediscovering your creative self and creative path, a self help book for one to start journeying creatively or for a blocked creative soul to unblock.

i loved the book. i was allowed to explore what my inner natural passions are, and i rediscovered quite a lot of loves that i had laid down or neglected for years. mainly the creative arts - dance, music and singing, painting, photography, cooking and baking, keeping fish, basically anything that's full of colors and movement and stimulating. i would say since then i have successfully unblocked, and am truly enjoying myself in my dance class, classical class, and dabbling in photography and painting. even cooking and baking has become more colorful. and the fish, while they come and go (poor things) is relaxing. i've also really enjoyed the opportunities to perform both in dance and classical singing. God has restored play in my life, amongst other healing emotionally.

i must say i can't paint well, perhaps not yet, but who cares, i enjoy it. so it doesn't matter what people may think of my painting, thank goodness art can be very abstract, haha. anyway, this was my very first painting. well, it's actually not much of a painting. it was actually one of the assignments from the artist's way book. to paint a statement that you would hold for yourself and to start living by - "treating myself as a precious person will make me stronger". it is not a self indulgent statement, esp for folks who we tend serve and attend to everyone else's needs but their own, or who may deny themselves pleasures in life in the name of putting christian ministry above all else. (we're called to put God above all else, not the church nor ministry). and God is a good God, who does hold us as precious beings to his heart, and do not deprive us of his pleasures in life that does our souls good, like play. the passions that he's put in us since our conception will never leave us, no matter how much we neglect it, over time it tries to get our attention to treat our thirsty souls and inner beings well. therefore now i treat myself well and as a precious being, and i do experience growing strength from Him, and his love, and his goodness.