Warrior of the Light
“A Warrior of the Light is never predictable.
He might dance down the street on his way to work, gaze into the eyes of a complete stranger and speak of love at first sight, or defend an apparently absurd idea. Warriors of the Light allow themselves days like these.
He is not afraid to weep over ancient sorrows or feel joy at new discoveries. When he feels that the moment has arrived, he drops everything and goes off on some long-dreamed-of adventure. When he realizes that he can do no more, he abandons the fight, but never blames himself for having committed a few unexpected acts of folly.
A Warrior does not spend his days trying to play the role that others have chosen for him.”
This is a page out of a book I’m reading by Paulo Coelho, called “Warrior of the Light.”
It’s a book of wisdom about embracing life for all that it is. ❤
I love this message I found on page 11! It's beautiful and grounded in so much wisdom and love for life. ❤
It is my hope that it will inspire someone else like it inspires me. 😀
I'm wishing you much love & light. ❤
Xoxo Kim
Head in the clouds {cloudy update} <3
❤
In my last post I wrote about how there were no clouds today. But now there are! Just a few but I’m sharing the photos of the ones I captured and some quotes!
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore
“Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.” ~
Orison Swett Marden
“People ask me when I’ll get my head out of the clouds, I tell them never, I like this view.”
Much0 love to you!
❤ 😀
~ Kim
30 Days of Photos – Day 16 – {Beauty Up Above} <3
“There’s beauty up above and things we never take notice of
You wake up and suddenly you’re in love.” ~ Billy Ocean ❤
Our goal for Day 16 of the 30 days challenge is to get a picture of clouds! One of my favorite things to get pictures of. Everyday for the last few days, maybe even a week, there have been beautiful clouds in a beautiful bright blue sky and even on the rainy gray day, there were some pretty pearly clouds!
But today there’s not one cloud in the sky which is very unfortunate since today is the day for clouds (for me, you can start the photo challenge any day you want). I’m annoyed.
So here are my clouds for the day:
On Tuesday, August 11th, there were some stunning clouds. Unusual ones. Rainy ones. Delicate pearl white with like silvery outlines.
I don’t see ones like those ones much. I don’t know exactly how to explain in words what they were like but they weren’t bright white and not really gray. But they were bright and white just in a different way. They were kind of like translucent maybe.
And in some parts of the sky there was like a hint of pink and orange trimming the clouds.
Then later the clouds were more dramatic with a beautiful setting sun. I remember the date because I had a splitting headache that day, worse than usual and it really stood out(one of the benefits of having terrible headaches – things stand out in ways they usually don’t to someone without excruciating, agonizing headaches). But August 11th, for me, wasn’t the day for clouds but for landscape, seascape, or urbanscape photos. Too bad.
I got some pretty cloud pics that day though!
Here they are:
And here is one later in the day:
They were prettier in person. But these pics will have to do since I can’t bring back the actual clouds that day and even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to share them through the Internet, physically (yet – but who knows what technology is currently being conjured up?!).
This picture turned out not how I intended because I was in my dad’s car and was trying to get a picture of a building (this is August 12th, the day for me to get pics of buildings), and he started to drive away. So my picture got messed up. But I LOVE how the reflection of the blue sky and clouds can be seen in the car windows.
I love reflections and shadows! Both of which are the subjects for two days in the 30 days challenge! 😀
This is my very favorite kind of sky! In the photo above with the reflection. Bright blue with fluffy white clouds.
Tomorrow is the day for mannequins! This shall be interesting! I’ll have to go traveling to find a creepy mannequin! Those things really are kind of on the creep side. And they’re often missing heads!
So I’ll be seeing what I can find!
Good day to you! Or night!
I hope it’s a good one!! ❤ 😀
Suddenly – Billy Ocean – mobile
Suddenly – Billy Ocean – desktop
xoxo Kim ❤
30 Days of Photos – Day 15 – {Where You Lead} <3
“Loving you the way I do
I know we’re gonna make it through
And I will go
to the ends of the earth,
’cause darling, to me that’s what you’re worth
Where You Lead
I will follow
Anywhere that you tell me to
If you need-(If)you need me to be with you
I will follow
Where you lead” ~Carole King/Louise Goffin
Day 15 is intended to be a day for leading lines. It’s one of my favorite topics. But another one I don’t quite have down yet and have much to learn! It’s fascinating and an opportunity to get creative! But I got some sorry excuses for leading lines photos today! I intended to go out and get pictures but my mom, sister, and my dad went out and I stayed home and watched the dogs. They tear the house apart when we’re out so it’s good if someone stays home. And also I wasn’t sure if I would be back in time for work if I went with them. So, at work is where I decided to get the pictures since it would have been dark outside after work. I probably could have found things at home but just decided to get them at work! 😀
I am reminded of a couple lessons. Again, something is better than nothing/it’s the attempt that counts. And also I feel that my brain is being pushed to be creative even more than if I were outside since being in a store/work there is less obvious things to get pictures of! So I felt my brain working hard, looking at ordinary things in different ways even more than usual. Not that these pics are creative, they kind of suck(although I like the fan one!). But still, I’m reminded that all we have to do is look and open our minds and there’s bound to be something to take a picture of that is kind of ok even if it’s not brilliant.
It’s not really about the subject of our pictures but how we look at things, our feeling of inspiration, and our passion.
So here are my pictures for August 15th:
I like this one too. The color & texture help to make it more interesting than just a stack of paper bags.
lol
And here is a sweet song by Carole King. I love the mother-daughter version she sings with her daughter Louise.
I hope you are having a wonderful day/night!
It’s about to be 12:00am here in Philadelphia! Sweet dreams! ❤
xoxo Kim 😀
30 Days of Photos – Day 14 – {Money Can’t Buy Happiness} <3
“But it can buy ice cream. And that’s kind of the same thing.”
Day 14 of the 30 day photo challenge is intended to be a day for getting a picture of food! Food is one of my least favorite things to get pictures of! I like to eat food, not take pics of it! Lol Unless it’s really pretty! But most food isn’t. Most food that I see anyway! The prettiest food I see is usually sweet things like cake, cupcakes, and ice cream.
Lucky me! I work at an ice cream store!
“Sadness is no ice cream in the freezer.”
Here are my pictures for the day:
“My head says ‘go to the gym,’ my heart says ‘eat more ice cream.'”
I think I’ll listen to my heart on this one! lol ❤ ;-p
This is my favorite!! Mint chocolate chip! Yum! 😀
I hope you are having a wonderful day/night!! ❤
Check out the 30 day photo challenge here!
xoxo Kim
30 Days of Photos – Day 13 – {I’m Beautiful Dammit} <3
“Well, I woke up one morning,
flossed my teeth and decided,
“Damn, I’m fierce!” You look good!
You can be just like me! A goddess? Yeah!
Don’t just pussyfoot around and sit on your assets.
Unleash your ferocity upon an unsuspecting world.
Rise up and repeat after me: ‘I’m beautiful!'”
Day 13 of the 30 day photo challenge is to get a picture of our own self, specifically the face.
I got quite a few pics of me today! August 13th. Here goes:
And without makeup:
And here’s a few recent ones but not today ones:
I’m not usually this vain! Although I do love taking pictures of myself! I’m just having super, super fun with this photo challenge, taking new pictures for the topic of the day and going back and finding previous ones! 😀 And today happens to be photo of the self day! lol ❤
And here is a song I love, featuring Bette Midler:
❤
I love this song about celebrating our own and each other's beauty which includes physical beauty. There's nothing wrong with appreciating the physical beauty of a woman, including our own. It's fantastic to celebrate!
We're often made to feel that physical beauty is wrong to celebrate, that it's shallow or stuck up or wrong to others who may not feel as beautiful. But it's not shallow or objectification unless that's all we see and care about and it's not stuck up unless we act like we are better than others. And loving our own selves, expressing our appreciation for our own beauty in a truly loving way can inspire others to do the same with their own beauty.
The most important beauty, in my opinion, is within. But that doesn't mean we should not also cherish the physical.
And physical beauty comes in various forms, dark, light, big, small, tall, short, long hair, short hair, blonde hair, black hair, gray hair, orange hair, blue eyes, brown eyes, wrinkles, curvy, scarred, stick thin, tattoos, young, old, middle age….there's no specific definition but we can cherish it when we encounter it. ❤
Also, non physical beauty comes in various forms, tender and quiet, fierce and assertive, loud and bold, simple and laid back, bitchy or syrupy sweet, inquisitive or just going with the flow, badass or gentle, witty and funny or thoughtful and warm, motivated or not…or a combination of all of these things. Let's embrace all that we are while encouraging, accepting, and building up others.
Let's celebrate our own and each other's inner & outer beauty! ❤
I love how in the song she acknowledges her own beauty & strength while encouraging others to do the same. Confidence is sexy and it's even sexier when it's humble enough to allow other people to be just what they are and seeing beauty in it.
And in this song, they make it clear that we are not “too” anything. We are perfect how we are.
“I'm not too short, I'm not too tall,
I'm not too big, I'm not too small.
Ooh, don't lemme start lovin' myself!
Ooh, don't lemme start lovin' myself!
I'm not too white, I'm not too black,
I'm not too this, I'm not too that.
Ooh, don't lemme start lovin' myself!
Ooh, don't lemme start lovin' myself!
I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful, I'm beautiful, dammit!”
And it's our responsibility to live how we want to live and maintain our own happiness no matter what other people say, do, or think.
“Too wack, too smart, too fast, too fine,
too loud, too tough, too too divine.
I said you don't belong. You don't belong.
Too loud, too big, too much to bear,
too bold, too brash, too prone to swear.
I heard that song for much too long.
Ain't this my sun? Ain't this my moon?
Ain't this my world to be who I choose?
Ain't this my song? Ain't this my movie?
Ain't this my world? I know I can do it.”
It's one of those “feel good” songs it's almost impossible to hear or read the lyrics and not be inspired and uplifted. It's a combination of inspiring, upbeat, and funny. They encourage us to feel beautiful and not just feel it but scream it off the rooftops! 😀
If you got it, flaunt it! And if you don't, flaunt it anyway!
(many years ago at work, my coworker, who was struggling with body image issues, said this. She came to work wearing tight, revealing clothing and decided to say to hell with society's definition of beautiful and sexy, just be what you are and flaunt it! It inspires me ever since. <3)
Check out the 30 days photo challenge!
“I know who I am. I am not perfect. I’m not the most beautiful woman in the world. But I’m one of them.” ~ Mary J. Blige
Much love to you,
❤
Xoxo Kim 😀
30 Days of Photos – Day 12 – {build me up, buttercup <3}
Day 12, yesterday for me, August 12th, is the day for getting pictures of buildings.
My favorite buildings are in Center City, Philadelphia but I wasn’t there yesterday. So I will share a few I captured previously.
And one I got yesterday. The one above with the gorgeous blue sky. ❤
Buildings are my love. One of my favorite things to get pictures of!! I probably have like thousands.
Yesterday as well as today, the sky was/is very vibrant blue dappled in big, fluffy, clouds! My very favorite kind of sky to look up to.
It's interesting because my favorite weather is gray, rainy, snowy, cold, cool, wintery, fall, with a chill in the air, dreary, barren…you know the weather that many/most seem to think is miserable and disgusting. But the sky is my favorite when I look up and it's an almost animated kind of blue with pearly white clouds drifting through the streaming golden sunlight. So beautiful. So inspiring.
Nothing brings me more alive. I feel a stirring in me, a strange and beautiful pull, when I look around and up and see vivacious green trees, a blue, blue sky, golden beams of sun all around.
The Blue Cross building, one of my favorite buildings. I never been inside.
I hope you are having a sweet day/night! ❤
😀
xoxo Kim ❤
30 Days of Photos – Day 11 – {It’s the attempt that counts} <3
Day 11 I was supposed to get a landscape/urbanscape/seascape picture but I wasn’t anywhere to get any good ones, just out running some errands with my mom while having a very severe migraine-like headache, triggered by my chronic pain condition(tmjd/tmd). I had to lay down for a while. But I was still happy and the headache eventually let up after a quick rest, blueberry iced coffee, and a handful of Tylenol. Tylenol, which works wonders for me for regular pain, does nothing for these horrific headaches brought on by my condition, but sometimes it takes the edge off for certain pain before the pain begins to get severe or after the pain begins to end. But often only when I take like eight at once (which a doctor I used to have told me to stop because it is dangerous to the liver. But I can’t think of my liver and what may happen to it in the future when I’m in excruciating agony right now.) Not for all my tmjd related pain and not when it’s too bad already, but some. This headache was ending anyway and I took Tylenol to try to hasten the ending process. It seemed to work! Or could have merely been a coincidence! Who knows?! Or cares?! All that matters is it ended! I don’t usually take medicine because it doesn’t usually work. And Tylenol works the best when it does work.
But I did get a couple pictures that I tried to come as close as possible to make constitute as a landscape or urbanscape photo. I don’t think I succeeded very well but trying (especially with one of the worst (migraine-like) headaches of my life) is success enough!!
This was Tuesday, August 11th! It was a lovely rainy day.
I won’t ever let a devestating headache or any pain stop me or hold me back. It won’t kill my inspiration, only inspire me more deeply.
Check out the photo challenge here!
Much love to you,
❤
xoxo Kim 😀
30 Days of Photos – Day 10 {color me crazy}
Day 10 for the photo challenge is supposed to be a day for a specific color we choose. I chose tan. I was drinking iced coffee which is tan and also my dogs are tan (all except Prince Oscar, the shih tzu who is black & white <3] and so are a lot of their bones.
Prince Oscar
He is the cutest boy!He often acts like a grump, begs like crazy, and loves to snuggle. And he can be a bit snappy when he doesn’t like something. He never learned to walk up & down steps and has to be carried! lol He’s heavy for a shih tzu! I love him! ❤
My mom always laughs about how almost every dog we ever had is tan. She wants an unusual or interesting color but we never get one! Lol She loves their personalities and how cute they are and would never trade them for anything but she thinks tan is a bore.
When our puppy, Woody was born last year, my mom was thrilled because he was brown and she was thinking finally a different color dog. Then he turned tan! Lol It's hilarious!
Him when he was brown. ❤
My sister wants to write a book called “50 Shades of Tan” as a funny memoir about our life with tan dogs. 😀
This picture was taken the day before but I like it so I’m sharing it here now.
And here are my babies!
This pic was taken on Day 10 of the photo challenge. August 10th.
The other pics here were taken days before and after.
Baby & Mommy ❤
Baby & Daddy ❤
I’m not drugged in this picture. Lol It’s after a busy night at work after little sleep the night before. That’s why I kind of have dark lines under my eyes with a sleepy look. Anyway, I was not trying to get a picture of myself but my dog. My dad and sister said her eyes looked horrible and really funny and creepy so I put my phone on “mirror”/ autoshoot to see and got a picture! Lol Luckily I don’t look terrible in the picture!
And since we are on the topic of color:
Isn’t this amazing?! This is that picture at the top but I edited it with an app called Black & Color, which works very well for many pictures.
Want to participate in the 30 day photo challenge? You can check it out here!
And begin whenever you want! I’m having so much fun!!
I hope your day/night is wonderful!<3
xoxo Kim 😀
