eclipse

This full Moon and red eclipse situation is such fun....
Literally, today has been crazy!!
The energy is just insaaannne.
But hey, all this Moon drama comes bearing good news and positive changes, so a-okay!
Bring it on, let's do it.
Out with all the old, IN WITH ALL THE NEW.


I want to fall in love with actions, not words.
I want to fall in love with reality, not ideas and wishes.
Reality, not fiction.
ACTIONS, not words!!

Seriously, sometimes I wish I just wrote about everything, names and all just how it is.
I know I won't, but sometimes I would really like to.


So.
I really need to be kinder to myself, respect myself more, love myself better.
This is really a task.
A real real task, a big task.
And this needs a plan.


Out with the old, out with all the old.
Time for ALL the new!

This is what full Moons and especially eclipses are about.
Cleansing, and purifying.
Jamming people into dead-ends so they would have to get rid of the crap.
Claw out.


Red is the colour of love and hate.
Red is the colour of blood and blood is life and death.
All the dualities.


If I could I would put some heads on spears.
Really.
Instead, I'm watching Vikings and thinking of starting Thai boxing on Sunday.
It's been a while coming.


Forever soft, forever strong.


NEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Please-thanks.
Yours truly.
M.

release the swag

www.polyvore.com

So.

With the arrival of autumn, my annual feeling of being the most boring person in the country has returned.

So this has created my joint project with A. for turning on the outer swag.
The pretty one suggested going on polyvore.com, which might change my life.

Also, just to be clear, this boringness is absolutely external.
I don't feel interally boring.
I just think I look ridiculously boring.

Also, adding some boyfriend jeans to my wardrobe.
And using Kandee Johnson's videos to learn some new make-up tips.

Because this is where my head is at.
And apparently I consider this very important.

Yours truly.
M.

sunscreen

“Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen
would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been
proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no
basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will
dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth
until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look
back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp
now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you
really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying
is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things
that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you
at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with
people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead,
sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end,
it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you
succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with
your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at
22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most
interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them
when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children,
maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance
the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you
do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself
either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of
it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest
instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone
for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to
your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the
future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few
you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography
and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need
the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you
soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians
will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll
fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable,
politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust
fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when
either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it
will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way
of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting
over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.”

—	Kurt Vonnegut

blame

Placing blame makes no sense.
But I do.
I blame you.
I swear I'll stop.

But I do, I blame you.
And you, and you.

But the truth is.
The only, and I mean, the only thing I need to realise, is that this is not a competition.
Life.
No, seriously.
This is not a competition.
I'm not competing, nor do I have to prove, anything, at all. Ever.
Old habits die hard, but they too will die.
And disappear.

I want to forever be my own first choice.
And live accordingly.
According to this one very very very simple principle:
I will forever be my own first choice.

I think that is my biggest fear.

1st.
M.

patience

i don't understand how much you should have patience or impatience?
i don't understand anything about that at alllllllllll
whuuuuuuuuuuuuut

This is hilarious!
I found this post draft, written on the 16th of March, so 2 months ago.
And this is just so current, still, so therefore, this is hilarious.

Patience.

But the good news is, I'm learning.
I think I'm really learning.
And there's so so much positive hope in that.

Learn.
M.

don't die at 25

“Most people die at 25 and aren’t buried until they’re 75”

—	Benjamin Franklin

This quote, is so true.
This happens (and happens visibly) so much.
You notice people around you, not growing anymore.
And this is me deciding, I won't do that.
I refuse to be safe, or choose safe.
I refuse to die this young.
This period of time is for choosing brave and showing some frikkin' courage.
I want to keep the trust of a child, for a long long time.
And the courage to go head first.
And to keep looking, for the thing that makes me happiest, in this world.
And believe that true love exists.
And fall in love with everything, all the time, every day, with no questions asked and no boundaries.
And eat ice-cream.
And run around.
Because when did having fun stop being a normality.

I won't die at 25.
I won't die at 35, or 45, or anything-5.

I will carry on developing, and seeing, and seeking.
And marveling.
And wondering and wandering.
And seeing magic everywhere.
Because otherwise there is no point.

With all the love I hold.
M.

retrograde

A while ago I wrote about Mercury being in retrograde.
This time around it's time for Pluto to have some fun.
However, when Mercury's thing lasted a month, Pluto will have lots of funsies for 5 months and we're currently a month in.
So.

http://www.finerminds.com/consciousness-awareness/plutos-retrograde/

As ever, I don't follow these things knowingly. I stumbled upon this and in retrospective the first month has absolutely been following this song and dance.
Besides, these are all nice things and suggestions anyway, so why not.

The article's not very long, so if you've got a minute, look through it.
If anything is of use, we all get a point.
If not, no harm done.

Happy retrograde. 
M.


Me and E. spending a Monday night. Spanish one took the shot. Happy homeland times, one and all.

sthlm

So it's my last night in Stockholm and I'm watching Lord of the Rings, the first one, and A's making vegetable soup.
Tomorrow, my flight leaves at 3pm and then it's back to TLN.

This has been an awesome visit, and a strange one at the same time.
But the awesomeness outweighs the strangeness ten-ten-ten-fold.

The awesomeness.
IT'S SPRING HERE.
I mean, honestly.
There's a photo below of one of the bridges in the centre of town, going towards Gamla Stan, the old town. And the sea/river thing is free of ice! I mean, free of ice! As a Norseman, this makes me so happy I was just stood there yesterday, staring like a seagull or something.
And A's flat is like, beyond superb. It's white, and practical, and cosy and just like, SUPER. Honestly. Again, Maria wants a nest, vol. 2000.

And it's been a highly highly educational visit, in so many ways. But more of that later on.

You live and you learn. And the important things anyway are friends, and homes and spring!! Which will always come again.
And feeding ducks, and parks, and music, and smiling at strangers, and being open to stuff, and seeing the King (which I did, by the way), and I don't even know.
The important things which we sometimes think about.
But that's stupid.
And a waste of time.

So as spring approaches, I won't forget.

With love.
M.

good times

And my happy food shop.

Found these old shots from LDN, but they are just so happy.

Yums.
M.

dangle

I used to do this all the time in our old house.
Only I wasn't as high up as she was.
My room was on the 1st floor, or those who don't follow the UK floor system - that would be the 2nd floor.
And my window faced our neighbours apple-trees which were so nice, whatever the season. And I would just sit there, dangle my legs and read.
Or just sit there and stare at the sky, daytime or nighttime.
One time, when I had just discovered Bob Marley, courtesy of my first-love, I sat exactly like this and listened to "No woman, no cry" 46 times. Or was it 42. Either of these digits.

So yes, I am a huge fan of this. Huge fan.

(I'm packing.)

Dangle more.
M.

sthlm

This place is circus.

And I don't know how to behave.

These two statements don't go hand in hand.
we're back home from town, I'm back to wearing the reindeer, and A. is napping.

Circus.
M.

nostalgia

I've found so many nostalgia-inducing articles lately. Pictures, old posts on old websites that I've forgotten, old cards, from old friends, messages.

Nostalgia.
Not a frequent visitor in my head and heart.
I know it fascinates A., but it's never really been my cup of tea.

And then in the last week I've been neck-deep in it.

Funny feeling, isn't it. Nostalgia.

It's cold outside today. M.