Task-A-Day and other dreams

Last night I dreamt I had a blog called Task-A-Day and in it, I only put up one post everyday and it would only be one thing I and you should do today. Like:
* Buy yourself a flower
* Take a walk
So each day, it would have one post to improve t.h.e. .q.u.a.l.i.t.y. .o.f. .y.o.u.r. .e.x.p.e.r.i.e.n.c.e. today. So this morning I came straight here and I'm including that as a sidebar list. Daily. and Archived.

More recent dreams:
.J.o.h.n.s.o.n. .m.a.k.i.n.g. .g.l.y.c.e.r.i.n.e. .i.n. .a. .p.i.n.k. .s.p.r.a.y. .b.o.t.t.l.e... .P.r.e.m.s.o.n.s... .M.a.k.i.n.g. .a. .S.c.a.n.n.e.r.'.s. .j.o.u.r.n.a.l... .a. .m.o.n.i.t.o.r. .l.i.z.a.r.d. f.a.l.l.i.n.g. .o.n. .m.e. .a.n.d. .m.e. .n.o.t. .s.c.r.e.e.a.m.i.n.g... .a.b.h.i.s.h.e.k.,. .a.s. .a.l.w.a.y.s...o.r.i.e.n.t.a.l. .b.l.o.o.m. .i.n. .d.e.l.h.i... .s.o.n.n.y. .m.a.m.a... .b.h.o.t.s... .s.n.a.k.e.s... .a. .b.a.s.e.m.e.n.t. .w.i.t.h. .a. .g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. .w.i.n.d.o.w... .s.c.h.o.o.l...

Uberglucklich- Overjoyed

Today, Y.o.u. are lovingly invited to be o.v.e.r.j.o.y.e.d.
Enter here

CHAI OVERLOAD

Have spent the largest part of the last few days sipping chai. This week, like all weeks in the middle of exams, has been fruitful, in many many ways.
I discovered Sophie's Persisting Stars , loved it, and discovered DevilMood via hers and loved that too (With a very cool blog header!).
I mave many, many SoulCollages (which will be on flickr shortly) in the process of dealing with something painful and tough. [ Kerry talks of something similar here]. Sometimes its such a delicate thing, Trust; sometimes you just miss the transition between trust and mistrust, trustable and untrustable.
Speaking of Soul Collage, can you let another person use your cards? Does that reveal an intimate part of you to them or will they find a mirror of some part of themself that needs to be voiced? Regardless of the answer, I let Surabhi draw a card for herself last night and journal. I don't know what she got or what she wrote. But it made her think and write pages!
Anyhow, my 37 days list is up here so that's something I've been following up well. Althought I'm not really the kind to get into commitments I don't want, this has helped when those sneaky "opportunities" to overcommit come my way.
Have my English grammar exam coming up- wish me luck!!!
In the midst of all this, I want to take time out to appreciate, so here's a small lost of thank you's. To:

• Bombay, for it tremendous possibilities, memories, and 3 fruitful years.
• LAMY, for my lovely, trusty, constant companion, the LAMY SKY fountain Pen, and my current favourite Turquoise Blue ink.
• Trust, for its emormous capacity to set things straight.
• Pallavi and Surabhi for forcing me to study.
• All the Bloggers I've discovered recently, connected with, and learnt from (see link lists) for the inspiration,insights, and honesty they offer.

I've been fairly inaccessible the last few days, so Thank You also to solitude, creativity, and everyone else who's had to put up with me. :)

Blogroll for 2nd April

1. www.37days.typepad.com: yes, long overdue to be listed here, but i've been exploring and exploring and today i spent almost all day there. So: you must go see it, if you haven't already. Its inspiring, uplifting, and enriching.
2. http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm?l=eng: visit here. light a candle in prayer or gratitude. light it once or daily. as a ritual or habit. for yourself or another. for a cause or not. your candle will burn for 48 hours.
3. www.tanayasjourney.blogspot.com: a blog i discovered just today. its a must visit for anyone who would love a sensitive thinker's blog. it has much honesty and much to think about.i found her link through the wishcasting blog.
4. www.wishcasting.blogspot.com: go here. make a wish. email it to be posted on this blog. support the wishes of other wishers. make your wish in the form on a wird, a list, a photograph, a peice of art...
5. http://www.bealivebelievebeyou.com/create/: for those who haven't discovered this yet, this is a must see. I've found many many people who have enriched my life and my blogging experience through this website, and am profoundly grateful to the many who have found me through it. Its a place for bloggers, creators, thinkers to connect. Lots of ideas, lots of links, lots of constant events.
6. http://www.artjunk.typepad.com/art_junk/ : a host of exciting and inspiring art and art journalling. she's also making many, many art squares which you can look at- which, also, will inspire you to go right away and cut those tiny squares and start making art on them.visit her for lots of inspiration.
7. www.artography.wordpress.com: art blog of constantly inspired artist. also recent participant in wreck this journal. creative and inspiring.

For this week, go visit these. they're inspiring and will leave you with a head full to think about and create.

CURRENT LINK LIST

My current top-10 of must'visit blogs and personal websites:

1. www.swirlygirl.com: full of art and collage. Ideas. Inspiration. Links.
2. www.aisling.net: re-discovered her last week to find that the website hs been completely revamped, and is more inspiring than every. Ideas and resources for everything from art dolls to art journals.
3. www.wreckthisjournal.com: the website for keri smith's new book. Lots of freeing ideas on what to do to your prim and proper journal pages. :)
4. www.smallcreations.blogspot.com: lovely, inspiring art.
5. gomakesomething.com: instructions from everything from mail art to art journals to gluebooks..to everything. Visit them when you have time/inclination to create but can't decide what. Try something new.
6. www.gettingit-tori.blogspot.com: a blog with art, ideas, musings...
7. www.scannersrefusetochoose.com: the board for scanners: people who're interested in a million things and in a million new things every 3 months. :)
8. www.touchdrawing.com: home to the soul cards. I've got some poems on them: i have the first deck. the artwork is lovely, often quite moving.
9. www.arte-postal.blogspot.com: my newest added link to mail artists.
10. www.changingcourse.com: lots of ideas for interesting jobs.

A Prayer for the Broken Hearted

2*2 ART

mahima
Originally uploaded by mahimaisme.

Its my day for 2*2 art today.

The stringed peice is for chamki.

The other two are peices i created today...still in the mood for more.

Click on it to see it larger, this is not clear enough.

blogroll for the day

Today I visited...

• Keri Smith again: she inspires me, everyday.
• I saw the most magical post here
• The "blog stats" for my blog from a link someone sent me.
• Tori's blog, which i discovered one day on a narcissistic trip seeing who links to me. Glad i did it- i love her blog!
• Cabinwriter's blog, Off The Grid
• Gemma's Blog is full of altered art and lovely creations. I'm sending her an art-ful envelope this evening :)
• Kerry's blog is full of honesty, writing, thinking. she discovered me one day and i'm hooked to her blog ever since.

visit these people!!! they're wonderful!!

ANY INTERESTING GERMAN!?

Ok!

My current goal list has been pushed into progress and this post is an appeal! One point in my list says:

LEARN INTERESTING GERMAN

Which means not fully learn German or leant anything in German. So, first, i'll define "interesting" as it means for me in this context today:

• words with no english equivalent
• words that are unusual
• words that have been adapted into english
• words that are funny or refer to something peculiar or refer to something in a peculiar way.

The first step to doing this successfully is:

• Find a German who is interested, and interesting

So if you are, or know someonw who is, or know someone who knows someone who is..you get the idea: let me know!!!

ONE World ONE Heart

world
Originally uploaded by mahimaisme.

This is one of the pages up from me for anybody who wants to participate in the one world, one heart world bloggers swap (you can see more about it here). anybody who wants this page can leave me a comment anywhere on this blog. on March 21st, there'll be a draw and you'll know who gets them. To see more of what's on the offer, you can go to my flickr set and/or to BRUSHSTROKES

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Note: This post could be a sequel to this one on twenty-somethings, and/or this one on children and fear and/or to this one on children again and/or this one on drawing and life. It came to me while re-working with Gloria Steinem's book Revolution from Within (which ranks as one of my Great Must Read books)

Go back to being five, maybe six years old. Can you remember being proud of something new you learnt, something you’re good at, something you love about yourself? Remember offering to perform or “show off”? Can you remember the last time you did that? The last time you were that truly, unabashedly proud of your self, experience, or ability?

There are children you know, today, those who are at that phase when they still feel if they’re really good at something, they can say so proudly, or start performing and want everyone to watch, or are drawing, writing, trying to find a means of expression that is slightly more abstract. Notice how we deal with them? [this “we” being you, me, parents, aunts, uncles…] When they are a little younger, it’s amusing to see this kind of behaviour. Then we start to tell them to praise things in other people, in other children and not speak so much about their own skills or good things- that’s for other people to notice. Then when they are still older discovering poetry, or art, a sometimes laugh when a 10-year-old draws a man who looks only remotely like one, or writes a poem that isn’t exactly W.H. Auden: because they are too old for simple compliments or just pure encouragement when you can’t see evidence of any real skill.

This, in my opinion, creates patterns. They imply, to a person who is still only discovering their concept of self, of expression, of self-esteem, these things:

ð What you’re good at is not as important as what somebody else is good at. So praise other people, hide your strengths till even you forget you have them.
ð Don’t attempt anything unless you’re already good at it.
ð Your skill or ability makes you valuable/ lovable.
ð Pride in yourself is a terrible thing.
ð You’re not big enough to be taken seriously.

These are psychological patterns I can see in me, in friends, in almost every twenty-something. We are mostly well-adjusted, smart thinking, sensitive people, but hesitant to say “I’m good at this” or “I’ll try” or “I deserve better than this”. We want to be understood but it’s such a step to truly communicate feelings to another. Trust is another issue. We’re still only discovering other ways of expression: in writing, in art, even poetry or adventure sports: it’s hard to think you can jump in and try something without already having the necessary skills.

Children at three, five, even ten have a tremendous sense of self-worth. Lets’s nurture that rather than take it as amusement, or tease them about it, or try to discourage it. let’s never tell them to praise other people and be “modest” about themselves, or that self-love is vanity and other-love is essential and desirable. Let’s never laugh at their attempts at art, sports, fashion, poetry, stunting their growth, fostering in them a sense of inadequacy, of not being “good enough”. Let’s never tell them, or imply that they’re too small to make a difference.

Instead, let’s encourage them to laugh “too” loud if they want, dance “too” freely,dream big, speak their mind. Let’s allow them space to experiment with means of self-expression. Let’s take their attempts at life, art, anything else with respect so that they don’t grow up into twenty (or even forty!) year olds too timid to experience boldly or express honestly; and so that they don’t grow up feeling like their need either beauty, or brains, or speed, or that BMW to be loved, wanted, valuable.

If we ingrain anything in them, let it be just that They deserve because they Are.

Does ART survive LIFE?

Magic Moments

When you are ready, Magic happens.

Unexpectedly, today was magical. Not only like every Sunday tends to be, with the Sunday morning conversation with Pawan, and the lazy lie in, but in bigger, more fantistical way.
Chamki and i had a sudden adventure- complete with memorabilia and photographs.
Then, my super-smart, super-funny, super-hero bloger friend decided to take me out for coffee and we had the fun-n-est time. Surprises after surprises occassionally interspersed with reality checks (in the form of "madam, this is India") and runs up slopes, races to beer shops (which, btw, never had beer- only noodle bar did) , bad jokes, and lots of discoveries.
To you, who made this so fun,
Thank you. :)

21 Things I Want in a Lover

Do you derive joy when someone else succeeds?
Do you not play dirty when engaged in competition?
Do you have a big intellectual capacity but know
That it alone does not equate wisdom?
Do you see everything as an illusion?
But enjoy it even though you are not of it?
Are you both masculine and feminine?politically aware?
And don't believe in capital punishment?

These are 21 things that I want in a lover
Not necessarily needs but qualities that I prefer

Do you derive joy from diving in and seeing that
Loving someone can actually feel like freedom?
are you funny?
la self-deprecating? like adventure?
and have many formed opinions?

These are 21 things that I want in a lover
Not necessarily needs but qualities that I prefer
I figure I can describe it since I have a choice
in the matter
These are 21 things I choose to choose in a lover

I'm in no hurry I could wait forever
I'm in no rush cuz I like being solo
There are no worries and certainly no pressure
in the meantime
I'll live like there's no tomorrow

Are you uninhibited in bed? more than three times
a week?
Up for being experimental? are you athletic?
Are you thriving in a job that helps your brother?
are you not addicted?

...curious and communicative...

Alanis Morissette

musings with lyrics...

if we chose our lovers from a checklist, this would be mine.

journalling at cafe coffee day with chamki

you can see more journal pages here.

journalling

Good Morning Monday!

A glorious monday morning
does anyone ever say that!?

became with a quiet wake up.
and lots of fresh air
in a long walk around bandra
with a coffee and sketch stopover
at
crepe station.

came back to SARK's newsletter for February:

" Our heads are round to allow our thoughts to change direction. "
Francis Picabia

something stupid

TO X:

Days like this, i just feel stupid. stupid for loving. for loving like this. for believing too much. for lighting a candle in prayer for a lover who's leaving for holiday with another lover. for violating my own principles. for hating and not blaming and still answering calls. for agreeing to be the other, then the one, then the other for almost half a year... but love has its lessons and my current mindscape would have me believe that this has a purpose and however painful, loving relationships are worth sustaining. is there never an answer? does love always have to be discovered and understood alone?

Soul Card writings- A Series

These are a series of cards I drew during a conversation, on a particular issue... a long, convoluted issue with no end or solution in sight. This card came so often- all the time, every pick it was either that card or the base. I see a relevance, a connection. But not entirely. if you see one, if something immediately strikes you about the image, tell me. Maybe it'll help.
To see the card that corresponds to each of these pieces, click on the date.

I

01-02-07

Errupt.

it may bleed

don't be afraid to get dirty

it may hurt

but it's surface

-the wound.

don't be afraid

just breathe

i know you are blameless.

are you still hiding something?

show me.

you are already forgiven.

am i?

blood. bleed. bloody.

cut. sever. abort.

do you know the truth?

there will be calm.

pray for clarity.

II

03.02.07

Muddied.

even your clarity

is

muddied.

leave.

move into the sun.

or else

III

03-02-07

distress is an experience

at once

painful

and catalytic.

change is on the way.

IV

03-02-07

a rupture

then blood

covered

clean hands

are not enough to prove innocence.

V

03-02-07

i am stained

uncleanable

never again

that freshness

of face and soul

foolish

but not unfeeling.

look at me

now

stains

dark brown

like chocolate

or dried blood

on my face

my hands

my memory.

To Abhishek

i pray for you
my heart
a stable core
amidst all the turbulence
of anger.rain.heartbreak.
pray for you
protection
as you have given me
a wild but unwavering
love.
accept my gratitude.

3.02.07
Anda Pau

Dummy, you can see your soul card here