ordinary mandala no. 1

Okay, so Saturday afternoon I was taking some photos for another YouTube video, and I noticed that I was seeing a lot of circles in the pictures. I started photographing every circle I could find, thinking I would later put them together in some sort of video. This is that video.

Most of the photos were taken tonight at my parents' house. I called the video "ordinary mandala" because all the circles remind me of mandalas, only the subject matter (the photos of the household objects) is ordinary - not what you'd normally associate with spirituality.

But then, I've always loved the simplicity of the ordinary...

spaghetti squash

I took these photos today after scooping the seeds out of a spaghetti squash, in order to cook the squash. I thought the yellow-orange colour of the gunk from the middle of the squash looked neat against the blue of this bowl.

united way fundraiser

As as personal fundraiser for the United Way this year, I am selling posters of some of my photographs, with inspirational quotes on them. Prints (laminated 8 1/2 x 11" colour photocopies) are $10 each, and PDFs (electronic versions of each poster, which can be used as desktop backgrounds) are $2.

Text on the above poster: Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. (Oprah Winfrey)



Text: In spite of illness, in spite of even sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintigration if one is unfraid of change, insatiable in curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways. (Edith Wharton)



Text: You never grow old; you become old when you stop growing.



Text: Play nice.



Text: Remember your humanity and forget the rest. (Albert Einstein)



Text: Sleep when you're tired.



Text: That it will never come again is what makes life sweet. (Emily Dickinson)



Text: Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. (William Morris)



Text: Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. (Greg Anderson)



Text: Earth laughs in flowers. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)



Text: There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. (Owen Meredith)



Text: One must ask children how strawberries and cherries taste. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)



Text: The flower offered of itself, and eloquently spoke of gods, in languages of rainbows, pefumes and secret silence. (Phillip Pulfrey)



Text: Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door. (Emily Dickenson)



Text: Now Autum's fire burns slowly among the woods, and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt. (William Allingham)