For CaC : getting to know you day:
The Infamous Proust Questionnaire:

* Your most marked characteristic?
sensitive
* The quality you most like in a man?
sensitivity
* The quality you most like in a woman?
angels wings
* What do you most value in your friends?
sensitivity
* What is your principle defect?
too sensitive
* What is your favorite occupation?
artist
* What is your dream of happiness?
To have many angels dancing all around me (hmmm, I’ve captured for a brief moment)
* What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
I don’t want to go there – I can’t find any humor in it whatsoever
* What would you like to be?
More humorous
* In what country would you like to live?
Canada
* What is your favorite color?
blue
* What is your favorite flower?
delphinium
* What is your favorite bird?
I love birds – doves, bluebirds, robins, wrens, chickadees
* Who are your favorite prose writers?
Luanne Rice, Sue Monk Kidd, Michael Ondaatje, Bryce Courtenay
* Who are your favorite poets?

Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without words,
And never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson

I thank God for most this
amazing
day; for the leaping greenly
spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;
and for everything
which is natural, which is
infinite, which is yes.
e. e. cummings

* Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
My mind’s drawing a blank
* Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Blank again
* Who are your favorite composers?
Pachelbel
* Who are your favorite painters?
Ummm – not really into the history piece - who was it that painted the ballerinas? (I never actually studied art.) Maybe I can say two from the very present - Misty Mawn and Susan Tuttle. (both recently refound in Somerset Studio)
* Who are your heroes in real life?
all the angels, Suze, Mary Ann, Fran, Nance, Jude, Stephen, Stacey, Darcy, and Debra (to name only a few)
* Who are your favorite heroines of history?
ummm
* What are your favorite names?
Jacqueline, Francesca, Jennifer, Katherine, Genevieve
* What is it you most dislike?
Hatred, prejudice
* What historical figures do you most despise?
Hitler and all his buddies
* What event in military history do you most admire?
Ummmmm
* What reform do you most admire?
abolishment of slavery
* What natural gift would you most like to possess?
To find, even if tiny, a touch of laughter in the face of (any) adversity, be it large or small
* How would you like to die?
With good mental faculties & with my daughter and husband holding my hands
* What is your present state of mind?
frustrated - best not to ask why
* To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Procrastination - she grins - trying to look at it usually as play time. If I’m going to do it - procrastinate - I might as well enjoy it.


Here are a couple of examples of yesterday's procrastination, photopaint on fractals























* What is your motto?
Not certain this would be called a motto, but it’s what I try to live by:
"To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk being called sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self. To place your ideas and your dreams before them is to risk being called naive. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing and becomes nothing. He [or she] may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live. Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave, he's forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free."
Dr. Leo Buscaglia

"getting to know you day" from CaC:

1a. What is one thing about your body that you hate, deny, talk trash about?

I think I’d have to say that I hate my shoulders. Not only are they ALWAYS way up by my ears, resulting in almost chronic shoulder pain, but they are kind of big and bony. My dream would be for them to be relaxed and sitting softly at my side so that I hardly notice them there at all. I actually experienced this a couple of times about six or seven years ago after I’d visited our naturopathic Dr. for the first time and he’d done some quantum treatment for stress. I imagined it was something like heaven. I wish I could return to that state.

1b. What can you do to make friends with this part and show it a little love?

I obviously need to try to relax more often, probably get more sleep on a regular basis and remember to laugh more and smile more and breathe more deeply - not so shallowly. I need to worry less. I need to be more gentle with myself. I could try to use the word “could” more often instead of the word “should”. Thanks to my friend Carol for that advice.

2a. What is one thing about your home that doesn't feel good?

It doesn’t feel good that there is so much clutter, nearly everywhere. It is particularly bad in the basement. Much of the clutter is in relation to the fact that I am trying to play in the area of mixed media and haven’t quite discovered in which specific area I want to concentrate. The fact that all three of us are collectors of stuff, doesn’t really help either.

2b. What is one thing you can do to change that?

I have had spurts of energy and blocks of time in which I have been able to do some major purge and organization. I’ve had garage sales in which I have made quite a lot of money through the sales. I know I can do more organization but will probably wait until the spring (may be another six weeks, but it WILL arrive) when I am feeling stronger and more cheery. I have one room in the basement almost cleared and ready to set up a bit of a studio. Yes! I know I can do it. I also have a bright shower curtain, from a second hand store, to hang in front of the closet (with no doors), an old green cupboard, and a huge table to go in the room. I know it will happen.

3a. Is there a relationship that you have difficulty with?

Right now the relationship with our daughter continues to be difficult. She is a teenager and also has difficulties with social skills because of challenges she has. The school and others have been working with her regarding the social skills but she went into a much larger school this year when she started high school. They are not as familiar with her and the program is not as specialized as it had been. Some of the things she has most difficulty with are understanding her own non-verbal communications and her tone of voice. She tends to come across as super critical of me. My own sensitivity allows for me to feel easily hurt.

3b. What is something small you can do to either salvage it or come to terms with the way it is now?

Methods of coping and accepting are on going. I could try to remember she is a teenager and emotions can flare regardless. I could try to build my own self-esteem and take more lightly her criticisms. I could try to be more positive with her and provide even more compliments, while trying to ask her opinion more often. We could try to have more fun with each other and laugh more often.

4a. Is there something you are afraid to do, but would like to try it?

I am afraid to try selling my art, to open an “etsy’ shop, even though I would really like to.4b. What can you do to begin a plan to try it? I can put together pictures of the items I do have. I can determine how much postage would cost. I can try to establish a bit more of an inventory. It would probably also help to join carfac and communicate with someone there about pricing and study their website to learn more about on-line business. I could review etsy to learn more about prices of similar items.

The photo is of me and our daughter "Cat".