blissmonger.com

Cuteness at Mac and Don's playscape

I recently spent some time at a Mac and Don's playscape with Little Man, something I begrudgingly agreed to do, but I'm glad I did because I had the best time watching the little ones and not having to be responsible for them. This little girl was fearless and exuberant and had the best outfit, a smudge on her cheek, and a smile a mile wide. Thank you for brightening my day, little girl.

Aussie Santa

Not sure why Santa has to have a drink in his hand, but that's what this particular artist envisioned. Courtesy of the Australia section in Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI.

One minute it's legal to project our least flattering human characteristics, and the next it's not

The 19th Amendment. The 15th Amendment. On the day each was enacted, these attempts to legislate human behavior were introduced to millions of people practicing thoughts/beliefs/perceptions along a spectrum book-ended by, say, "Discriminatory" and "Embracing".

One minute it's legal to project our least flattering human characteristics onto people of color and of the female persuasion, and the next it's not. Just because the law of the land made it so didn't mean squat to those who believed/believe that women and people of color weren't/aren't entitled to the same inalienable rights that white guys were/are.

Those who had demonstrated publicly for the attainment of those rights or had privately endorsed them had done so from a level of awareness of the human condition that the first group didn't/doesn't possess--an elementary degree of genuine living, meaning behavior based on an objective examination of whether our beliefs and perceptions serve us as a species, and consciously changing them if they do not.

Extrapolate to our individual psyches.  An equally complex, interlocking set of contributing factors informs the beliefs and perceptions we learn to practice and burn into our neuropathways from the time we are very small. A small portion supports genuine living, or embraces the sort of thought patterns that serve us, while much of it perpetuates those abhorrent projections mentioned above that rely on knee-jerk, fight-or-flight response thinking that we rarely question.

There's a reason the self-help industry has proliferated to the extent it has. There's a reason that statistics on domestic violence, incest, and emotional abuse are grossly under-reported. There's a reason that litigation is the contention tool of choice.

We learned centuries ago from religious dogma and other cultural institutions to loathe ourselves, deep down, and to project that loathing onto others.

Disingenuous living.

Genuine living includes doing the inner work to send those old, inaccurate perceptions of ourselves packing, with understanding of why we might have bought into them way back when to survive; learning to drop the meaning we inject to situations that just isn't true; learning to thrive on the positive energy of nonreactivity rather than the sugar high of reactivity.

only the shadow knows

This looks so like what hanging out with the shadow feels like.

It lives in a trunk that's accompanied my ancestry for centuries, and it's lodged right over there on that landing on the spiral staircase.

I opened the trunk this morning and this dark fleecey thing sat down next to me, like it needed a friend.

It isn't saying anything or demanding anything, it's just sitting there, waiting for a cue from me, I think. 

Questions float into my head, mostly around, "Why?" And the answers I keep getting are, "Because."

That's just how things work.

Perhaps we are unpacking the trunk together.

It definitely wants to play.

And so we shall.

simple 33

I have no idea what this means, but it means something to someone.

photography by little man

Hamming it up in the doc's office. An hour and a half not totally wasted.

 

Searching for Angela Shelton

I bumped into Angela Shelton's work online the other night, and I've been inhaling it ever since.

Just got done watching her documentary.

I've watched video of her speaking to groups of people, video she does from home about how the thoughts in our heads rule so much of our existence, even when they are lies.

I'm not an incest or rape or molestation survivor.

But the stories that have traveled the neuropathways of my brain for decades have gone to some insanely dark places.

And back.

Thank you for speaking your truth, Angela.

Thank you for doing what you couldn't not do.

Thank you for allowing your humor to color your world.

Thank you for living a joyful life.

shining the way

bizarre but true

An anomaly, this.

Whenever I see a payphone, it's an installation of performance art.

I have great memories about pay phones.

Like the one about being able to talk long-distance from Italy to anywhere, for free, from certain payphones, by sticking the end of an ordinary, unbent paperclip into the center of the metal mouthpiece and then holding the other end in contact with the metal cord while speaking.

Bizarre, but true. I did it several times, until the powers that be caught on and disabled that feature.

Now I don't need the paperclip to talk at my leisure with anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.

Bizarre, but true.

Oooooommmmmmm...and green jello

   

An Unnumbered Grouping of Days of Resistance Toys - A

This is a stack of Jenga blocks.

You may notice that it's slightly out of alignment.

On more than one plane.

If we could photograph how our beliefs line up with our dreams and desires, this is how that arrangement would look.

Sort of a curvature to document how we bend over backwards to accommodate others.

Jabs and pokes whenever we judge, criticize, blame and fear something in others.

Jabs and pokes whenever we judge, criticize, blame and fear something in ourselves.

Our inner being knows that neither state is accurate, and doesn't go there with us.

Which makes those emotions feel as uncomfortable as they do.

Our inner being's alignment is like a perfectly cut two-by-four.

And it holds the place for us to slowly line those blocks up when we wake up to the game.

And that feels really good.

photographers

tubes and wires

An Unnumbered Grouping of Days of Resistance Toys

If you aren't yet familiar (gasp!) with what Resistance Toys are, enlightenment awaits.

Go ahead, we'll wait until you get back.

~*~*~

Given my dislike of even a vague directive to conform to a list of objectives, I am launching the 'An Unnumbered Grouping of Days of Resistance Toys" campaign.

When I feel like it and when I am inspired with an idea, which is happening fast and furiously these days--hence the campaign--I will be posting a new Resistance Toy that has been created by me and perhaps road tested by other blissmongering types who like that sort of thing.

To celebrate creativity.

To have a ton of fun.

To crack myself up.

And to inspire you to create your own. Once you get the hang of it, Resistance Toys are everywhere, just waiting to lend their transformative talents to your life-enhancement efforts.

I'd love to post images of what you create too, if you are so inspired to send them, or add a link to their existence on the web to a comment below (this does NOT mean you, scum-sucking spam bottom-dwellers).

To get things started, here is a reprise of the one that jump-started this whole wacked thing in the first place:

Intrigued by what resistance toys can do for you? Check out the e-book here.

And if you are drawn to work/play on those pesky beliefs that dredge up the efficacy of Resistance Toys on a 'go-deep" level, contact me.

beauty, giving, receiving

Single-strand, eye candy creations to consider for your gift-giving delight. Their faces will light up when they take the presentation of the box in their hands, read the blissmonger quote on the tag, untie the hemp twine and breathe in the experience.

And then thank you profusely.

The beauty of giving, and of receiving.

Native

Magic

 

Sleek

Earrings and bracelets to match are easily arranged.

Glam--several versions

Version A:

Version B:

 

Version C:

bliss bling for the holidays

Need some gift ideas for the holidays for your beloved, or for yourself? Add the URL of this post to your Wish List, and see what happens. 

Swooning will occur when she opens the box. Click here to purchase.

 

I do commission designs for the special people in your life. Click here to initiate the talks for a special design. She will love it.

Earrings and bracelets can accompany these necklaces. Click here for details.

train tracks in Holly

swooning will result when she opens the box

 

Blissmonger jewelry excels at unique design that augments your beloved's personality.

Tell me about her essence. Send me a photo of what she has in her present collection.

If she owns something in need of repair or tucked away because of lost elements, I specialize in reinvigorating left-for-unwearable treasures.

Either way, swooning will result when she opens the box.

When's the last time that happened?

Contact me for details.

reframe

Reframe

Slightly out of focus

Feeling into the shift in seasons, energy, life

There is delight to be had

in them all.

pretty shiny things

 

Currently available at Sweetgrass in downtown Davisburg.

little man portrait

new bliss bling

Before

After

New bliss bling at my etsy site. This set was a complete joy to usher into existence--but they all are. This one commemorated getting back in touch with some friends from another lifetime, and it was a lovely experience, full of great food, little ones, and appreciating what I've got in my life. Click on the link and take a look. Take some bling home with you.

signs, signs, everywhere a sign

Follow your gut.

That phrase used to bewilder me, since I had no clue what type of communication my gut was giving me.

Now that I've managed to rediscover how to tune in to that frequency, I do my best to honor the guidance it has in store. Even if that means stepping on someone else's toes, upsetting an apple cart, rocking the boat. I've sunk my own boat often enough by not listening to this guidance that it's too costly not to, in the end.

Maintaining boundaries, or not, with people teaches them, and you, how you want to be treated. Take a look at this area in your life and see the results all around you and erupting inside you if you don't feel so great.

Of course there's a way to let people know what you require, what you expect, what you prefer, and there's outright animosity and finger-pointing. I would highly recommend developing a sensitively delivered form of the former rather than the latter. Because if I'm coming from a place of feeling exploited, then I didn't do the due diligence of communicating what was on my mind in the first place. My bad.

This also enters the arena of bargaining with yourself about who you really are and what isn't acceptable in terms of behavior and esteem, or lack of it, from others. Hearing out loud coming from your own mouth what it is that you want is a powerful experience. And it gets easier with practice.

It's not about accusation. It's about clarification. And when you know on a cellular level something just isn't right, then it's time to say so, and go.

Before a decade goes by and your life isn't exactly what you thought it would be.

~*~*~

The comment function isn't working for me, so I'll include mine here:

Thanks, Linda!!

This awareness of mine has been a long time coming, Matt. Lots of opportunities to practice a different way to look at something. Lots of people conspiring to help me practice. And lots of decisions in baby step form to get to the critical mass that being "right" just isn't the nirvana it's cracked up to be.

Cuz it ain't.

funky buddha

Funky Buddha. Didn't make it there in my foray into the wilds of Chicago recently. So many places to check out. But I'll be back.

Just saw this go over the Twitter wire: "Don't waste your time believing you can't."

A few things out of whack with that statement. If you do waste your time believing that you can't do something, you probably aren't aware that that belief is unfounded.

If the concept of believing you can do something is so foreign to you that you haven't felt the slightest bit of relief that thought might offer you in a very long time, this advice is equally a waste of time.

Perhaps a better reframe might be, "You know that belief you keep thinking-- 'I can't' ?  It's possible that it's not true."

Living in doubt and fear leaves you open to only a certain bandwidth of sense. Someone in that place might be able to hear this more appropriately-stated-for-them message.

 

graffiti with redeeming qualities

I walked around this part of the city, taking in the reclaimed aura of the buildings and the streets, mixing in with the people who live and work there now: babies in strollers, babushkas inspecting their neighborhoods, and every age and status in between, and the undeniable presence of those who first lived here a century and a half ago. They watch us, wondering what we'll do with our choices, our time, our talents, our dreams.

that still small voice is your sanity talkin'

I discovered yet another layer to the adage that that still small voice inside your head, it's your sanity talkin'. Many times over the last five or six days I've hit the sides of this pinball game called life that I'm in and sacheted off the bumpers, glad for the warning that the thoughts I was thinking were about to send me down to that end-of-the-game hole at the bottom if I wasn't going to pay attention. And frantically flayling with the flipper mechanisms at that point is just a waste of time. Much better to catch it in the early stages when the lights and buzzers are participating in your favor.

 

Me, taken with the help of the reflective sides of The Bean in Millennium Park in downtown Chi-town.

Cutie patootie on her way to get soaked at the spitting wall. Photos of that event later. Time to nap and recuperate from the drive.

lush yumminess

This is the result of a design commission from a new friend who gave me this to work with: "I got this hot pink sweater from my mom, and since then have gotten a few other articles of clothing the same color, with nothing to wear with it. Maybe throw in some orange, too."

 

eye

new bliss bling

New bliss bling available. Let the spiral energy vortex be with you :-)

self portrait

sweet magnolia

Spring break. Good times. Left five inches of snow behind and found magnolia blossoms swelling from the branches. There's something about those petals that makes me want to eat them like tempura. Still groovin' on a friend's new place and feel the awesome energy that will surely conspire to inspire her to new heights--truly gorgeous surroundings. Picked up a copy of Attracting Perfect Customers and started weaving the connections from previous work with what they consolidate in one place. Sorry marathons with Little Man and grandparents. Excellent finds at Goodwill in NE Portland.

Now to unpack and reconfigure for the perfect situation that is on its way with perfect timing and amazing fit. Bring it.

shiney and new

Met up with a friend who is starting a brand new chapter in her life in the most beautiful space, surrounding herself with what she wants in it. This has been a long time coming, and it's all manifesting so beautifully. Quite a sight to behold. Great inspiration here, on many levels.

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

I'll be off having a little bit of this and a little bit of that aforementioned above stuff this week so postings will be minimal during break time. Enjoy!

nurture your life

This cat befriended me in a shop the other day--put out her paw to let me know that I should keep petting her. At one point she was on a table that had some collage material on it, words and images from magazines--she rolled around in them, and the one that stuck to her fur and was my message was: nurture your life.

OK.

i've got my eyes on you

bracelets

birthday

This was the best damn birthday cake I've ever tasted. Whipped cream frosting, yummy chocolate and vanilla swirl cake, and ribbon to decorate. I may just get one for myself.

frog

Blisseye fob and foblette

New products in my Etsy shop: the Blisseye fob and foblette. I've been looking at a fob on my key chain lately, and will try hanging it from my rear-view mirror next--the perfect places a reminder to reach for better feeling thoughts blend in with subtle power. Everyone could use more of that.

Follow the yellow brick road

jack frost

So yeah, Jack Frost is beautiful and all, but really, enough is enough. When it takes more time to scrape the frost from my car than it does to drink coffee in the morning, something is terribly wrong.

potential vortex jammers

I have a few potential vortex jammers, sure, don't we all--but I'm not going to give them air time in my head long enough to get them onto the screen to even mention them. SO not worth it. Those situations are temporary, and they are not good enough reasons for me to shake my vibe.

What are you using as your excuse not to feel good today?

rooster

I didn't read the placard next to this display case so I have no idea what it has to do with the T-Rex skeleton next to it, except for the theory that dinosaurs and birds have much of their structural structure in common. I just thought it was cool with the light coming up from underneath it.

museum l

healing

miles to go to hell

boy scout

hoops

window