"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

– Winnie the Pooh

when i visited my sister in illinois, we spent friday evening at great america's fright fest. i really just wanted to watch margaret and travis ride the roller coasters and take little savannah on the merry-go-round, but savannah slept the entire time so i went on a couple of roller coasters instead. it turns out that i might not have the stomach for them anymore. oh well.

fright fest was pretty cool, though. there were lots of frightfully dressed people wandering around and scaring everyone. well, or making them giggle. i am more of a giggler.

speaking of frightful giggles .. a scene from a book i read popped into my mind a few days ago and i have been giggling off and on ever since. it was years ago, but i think it was from "bitter is the new black". i am probably getting the details all mixed up, but the author saw something about a lost dog on tv. she then started worrying about what would happen if her dog went missing so she spent the entire day making giant lost dog posters with special pictures. i think she even laminated them. when her boyfriend came home, he found her in the middle of taping a video segment that she could send to the news stations. she was sobbing, and he, of course, thought the dog actually was missing, until she told him that she was just preparing in advance. i remember reading it; i was doubled over, laughing so hard i was crying. it was even more funny because i kept thinking, "but that is genius! i need to make lost dog posters for atlas!" i need to find that book again and re-read it.

how are you, on this (hopefully not frightful) december day?

{my attempt to capture 52 photos that represent trust – my word for 2011}.

after a year of looking for trust, i must say that i will never again see most of nature without being reminded of it, especially – for some reason – grasses.

a wordless weimaraner wednesday.

joy to the world, indeed.

once upon a time, there lived a teeny-tiny girl.

she lived in a teeny-tiny house in a teeny-tiny forest in a teeny-tiny world. she was so teeny-tiny that, to her, her house and her forest and her world seemed just the right size.

every so often, her world would shake and rattle. this startled the teeny-tiny girl at first, but soon she became accustomed to it.

she grew to love it because, as soon as the shaking would subside, snow would begin falling from the sky and the ground outside her home would slowly become covered in white. she thought it was the most beautiful thing ever.

every time it happened, she would run outside and let the flakes fall on her face and in her open mouth.

have you guessed where the teeny-tiny girl lived yet?

she lived in a snow globe!

{my attempt to capture 52 photos that represent trust – my word for 2011}.

a dear friend gave me a magnet with the following sharon salzberg quote:

"Life is like an ever shifting kaleidoscope: a slight change and all patterns alter."

i love that quote. it makes me feel hopeful. it reminds me that everything i do in the big wide world of working on my stuff on has an impact on my life – no matter how small a thing it is, no matter if i can see how it will happen.

when i saw this scene/photo, it reminded me of that quote, and somehow, it all circled back to trust.

you might wonder if i was driving while i took these pictures. i urge you to put that thought out of your mind. i cannot say that i wasn't, but i do not want to encourage the habit in anyone, most especially me.

fall is definitely over, and winter is definitely here. i have been wearing my thick down jacket and my uggs almost every day, especially on our morning and evening walks. it turns out that if you are warm, you don't mind the chill in the air so much. who knew.

this year, i want to celebrate the winter solstice, but i am not entirely sure how to do so. any good ideas for me? what are your favorite ways to celebrate things?

these would say,

"why are you just standing there? why don't you move?"

"you're still standing there. why are you doing this? move already! sheesh. keeping an eye on you is a full-time job."

i also like to flip back and forth between these photos in my photo library.

ears. no ears. ears. no ears. ears. no ears.

this could go on for hours.

"The poetry of the earth is never dead."

– John Keats