just a lil’ reminder 😉
and also, i had the best intentions of updating this blog more…
and i still do…
and i will again…
and i thank you all for your patience and for showing up, even when my presence is a little more vague and sporadic than usual as of late…
and it truly means so much to me that you continue to choose to follow along in my journey, and read my blog, and engage…
and i’m thinking of my sweet cousin tony today… ❤
and that is all… for now…
… “especially in the month of june…”
———
my roommate brought these gorgeous flowers home from work recently and i gasped with glee when i laid eyes on them… then i immediately grabbed my camera, of course! actually, i waited until about 6:00 the next morning, then took them out on the balcony and sipped my iced americano while snapping images of these amazing beauties. i just love mornings… and i LOVE morning light… especially this time of year!
such pretty tulips, orchids, peonies, and greenery!
i am inspired by LIFE. not necessarily by the world, and the way we live, but by LIFE itself. these flowers are alive, just as we are. i was inspired by the stillness of these flowers, the stillness of nature… how nature just IS. the sole purpose of these flowers is to simply be. if anything, they just long for us to look at them, to bring awareness to them. and i believe when we “stop and smell the roses”, we can connect with them, with nature, in such a way that can offer stillness and peace to our own lives. after-all, i do believe we are just as much a part of nature as nature itself.
i love what eckhart tolle says about nature :
“Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.”
eckhart’s words resonated with me and i’ve carried them in my heart over the years. when i felt the glee i did upon seeing these flowers, i was reminded of that quote… and i thought i would post some pics of these gorgeous flowers along with some of my favourite quotes regarding stillness, spirituality, or love.
i hope you enjoy and i hope this brings some stillness to the mind and a warmth to the heart.
❤
“the earth laughs in flowers.” ~ ralph waldo emerson
“the intuitive mind is a sacred gift, the rational mind is a faithful servant. we have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ albert einstein
“we need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. see how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… we need silence to be able to touch souls.” ~ mother teresa
“there is a voice that doesn’t use words… listen!” ~ rumi
“if we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” ~ buddha
“after women, flowers are the most lovely thing God has given the world.” ~ christian dior
“the best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.” ~ alexandra k. trenfor
“yesterday i was clever, so i tried to change the world… today i am wise, so i am changing myself.” – rumi
“and when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” – fredrich nietzsche
“be kind whenever possible. it is always possible.” – dalai lama
enjoy the weekend! ❤
hey gang, how’s your mercury retrograde treating you?
mercury retrograding in cancer teaches us this…
we are almost half way through the cycle… and now mercury has left the sign of cancer and entered his home sign of gemini…
so what does this mean? — well, the last week or so may have presented you with issues to deal with, revisit, resolve, etc. in the following themes : home, roommates, intuition, nostalgia, mother/mother figure, childhood, emotions, security needs… these are some key themes of the sign of cancer. perhaps you made the decision to move or make renovations in your home? perhaps a past project came up that needed tweaking or you had an “epiphany” regarding something from your past. you may have learned to trust your intuition more, or to learn to come to terms with some emotions you are feeling… MR in cancer offers an opportunity to revisit, rework, and release in these areas of our lives… and with the full moon energy last week, this period has had amplified energy to support it, as well…
now mercury is continuing his backward travel through the sign of gemini – which is where his “home” is. for the next couple weeks we can expect to see our thoughts shift into the themes that gemini represents. these include talks, short trips, local activities, brothers/sisters, electronics, vehicles, writing, the internet, and anything else that involves connecting or communicating. mercury LONGS to connect, and when he is in the sign of gemini, he has the most success in doing so. however, since he is retrograding in this sign, we can expect to see our thoughts become more introspective. we may want to get other people’s advice or opinions on the current relevant matters in our lives. we may revisit a writing project or rework a trip we had planned. any vehicle or electronic issues may arise to be addressed {sorry, that IS one of the bummers about this period – i hope you backed up your computer recently!} and/or we may find people from the past showing up again to rework, reclaim, or revise a situation. there is great opportunity during MR periods… it’s like taking a mulligan 😉
mercury retrograde periods get a bad rap – but i believe it’s because we don’t generally UNDERSTAND what they are for… and we don’t properly harness the energy presented during these times, so many of us are left feeling frustrated and wondering what happened. which is ironic because that is precisely what mercury retrograde longs to be – UNDERSTOOD! i can’t tell you how many times a day i catch myself thinking or saying “i just wish {that person} understood how i felt.” you may catch yourself using some of my catchphrases lately – like, “did that make sense?” or “i just want to explain it so you can understand…” or “that came out the wrong way, let me rephrase that…” or “wait, i didn’t mean to say that…”
astrology doesn’t MAKE stuff happen… it can’t cause events. but time and time again i find validity in the movements and study of the planets and their behaviour. being natal mercury retrograde, i have a unique and tremendously accurate understanding of how this planet’s movements effect our lives in a major way. perception is EVERYTHING in life – and it can be to our benefit or to our detriment. this has been my biggest lesson during this current MR period. i guess it all goes back to being true to who you are. we are not all the same – we are very uniquely different. but i believe that the ways in which we are the same can bring us together and allow us to be ourselves, as individuals… if we could just simply change the way we look at things – at life.
every puzzle piece has importance, significance, and relevance – we just don’t and CAN’T all have the same design, function, or purpose – we must each bring our own individual strengths to the group, the collective, the puzzle itself. and we should never try force a puzzle piece to change its shape… we simply can’t. and besides, then it wouldn’t fit in the puzzle, anyway – you dig?!
thank you for reading, and for your support – it means the world to me! and please let me know any thoughts you have or feelings you wish to share… i love hearing from you! and don’t forget, i also am available for hire to conduct natal astrology interpretations.
i am so blessed. i need to keep myself in check whenever i feel that i am anything otherwise.
i live in this amazing place where i have access to amazing locally grown and produced food – including quality, pasture-raised, grass-fed, fresh beef. now – some of you may be shaking your head at that word, reading it here on this ol’ blog – food and foto. you’re probably like, “wait a second -i thought she was like, vegan or something!? doesn’t she usually do meatless mondays?!” well, yes – yes i do. and yes, for about four months once – i was vegan.
but dude, i’m not anything – i’m everything. and right now i’m really enjoying eating lots of grass-fed beef, butter, cheese, and dairy. i can’t seem to get enough of it. i feel very blessed to have regular access to grass-fed beef products. have you ever had the pleasure of enjoying grass-fed beef?! it simply doesn’t compare… it is just amazing!
while at my personal favourite market, i picked up some grass-fed beef produced from a local ranch where i live and was inspired to create these adorable mini-sliders. nothing special about them, really – other than the fact that this meal is basically farm-to-table! i just wanted to share the pictures and rave about how happy and grateful i am that i live in a place that values the ethical treatment of animals and provides availability of these great quality products to an equally-compassionate and educated foodie like myself! 😀 Continue reading
sunrise – snowmass village, colorado © audrey michelle 2013
it really has been a very very eventful year! personally, i’m kind of glad to be saying good-bye to 2013. i always say you can start over ANY time in your life, you don’t need an event like new year’s eve to make resolutions, start fresh, or even kiss a stranger 😉 but i’m still looking forward to wrapping up one year and starting a new one… i have been releasing a lot of old “stuff” over the last month… and i’m ready to welcome in the new!
i just really feel good about bringing in 2014 this year… things feel a little more peaceful in general, and that is great!
it’s been exactly 3 weeks
however, since my entire life changed in one single {terrifying} moment… i completely survived my car rolling twice on the icy highway roads on monday, december 2nd. not a single person was harmed nor animal or lamppost involved… no semi-truck in the way, no major abrasions, pain, trauma, or overall inconvenience other than losing my awesome car, shelby the subaru. but like everyone said, “you can replace a car, you can’t replace YOU!”
i’m still shaking my head at how it even happened and most of all HOW i survived… walking away totally unscathed and mostly just in shock. the bizarre twist to all of this is that i have found many blessings come out on the other side of it all. i’m even going to write about the event, as it really did change my life. any event like that shakes up a person’s whole being… and when it’s “over”, it’s kind of impossible to claim to be the same person afterward. Continue reading
hey everyone, happy sunday. and happy first day of autumn!!
this is my favey-fav season, and not just because i was born in it 😉 but i do tend to thrive in autumn… i love the colours of course, and the calming down from summer, snuggling and cozying in and slowing down… i just love all that autumn brings along with it.
i’m just relaxing and enjoying my half-caff americano* and was thinking about how many blogs i want to catch up on.
*{that reminds me of this funny thing that happened and i took a foto of it}
🙂
my life has shifted so drastically in the month of september, that i just haven’t had time to keep up with the blog like i wanted to. plus – a huge rebirthing is in order here at foodandfoto.com. on a personal level, i have grown and “re-birthed” on my own so much, that it’s only fitting the blog shifts along with me. i’m not exactly sure what that will look like yet, but do stay tuned – some big changes are on the way! Continue reading
i’ve decided to start something new – a “feature” on my blog. i’m going to call it “messages from manhattan” and it will showcase fotos of various sayings or quotes or the like that i noticed and fotographed all over the city during the time i lived there…
here’s one of my all time favs :
wake up! and have a great weekend.
{oNeLoVe}
“you always buy the unique-looking produce… the ones no one else wants, the oddballs, the misfits!” — a coworker said to me.
it’s true.
i like anything out of the ordinary. because me?! – i’m out of the ordinary…… i mean we are all unique, just like everyone else, right?!
but i’m a very old soul… and i’ve seen a LOT in my some 10 thousand years… and in my current waking life, i often feel like some of the fruits and vegetables i buy – discarded, overlooked, passed-by, out-casted, and just plain weird. but dude, i’m totally still edible – and you know – some things get better with age… 😉
well… i found this potato particularly interesting because it kind of represented me. not only was it heart-shaped, as i obviously am, and which i find a lot of random things that find their way into my visual path are, but it is also kind of two different colours. it almost looks as if a garnet yam and a jewel yam are intertwined. it got me thinking about how i believe we all have a duality to us. i was having a conversation with a friend about all the changes going on in the world right now – the talk of 2012 doomsday, or the hope of a 2012 arising – in love and light, and consciousness, perhaps? and we were discussing how we all have a “dark side” — and some of us publicly show it with acts of violence or utter projection as to inflict sheer pain on the person receiving it, and some of us albeit perhaps not as violent, still keep it very much hidden, which can take a TON of conscious effort. Continue reading
by the way, i’ve decided to add some real structure to this blog, so i have something to look forward to posting each week, and you have something new to look forward to reading. this is how it will break down :
meatless monday – {vegan recipe}
travel tuesday – the foto {a blog about something cool i have done in NYC or somewhere along the way in my life}
wordy wednesday – {as you’re seeing here}
thirsty thursday – {on top of a new recipe, i’ll try a new beer or wine or mixed drink and recommend it to you }
foto friday – the foto {this will also be a blog about something to do with photography – most likely a portrait session or event i’ve shot, but it may be a recipe as well}
and i’ll probably take weekends off – as most people in the blogging community seem to do. but i may occasionally break that rule, too 😉
———
i should preface this by saying i appreciate you readers SO much for taking time to read anything i write – and i’m also extremely tired and i can’t proofread this as in depth as i normally do, for i need a nap. so, thanks for baring with my ramblings… it’s uber important i get out my thoughts!
—
shew. what a morning.
it started with my cat, pawing relentlessly at my door until i let him in to cuddle – then i couldn’t get back to sleep so i shot up out of bed and did some quick yoga, then made a smoothie, sat down at my computer, and started crying.
this is how some days begin. Continue reading
food & foto 