Tina's Tree

Sing it loud.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:43:00 +0000

Me, too, Mr. Diamond. Me too.
Sing with me, won't you? Belt it out loud so even the dog looks at you funny. Mine did and you know what? It didn't matter to me. I did it anyways.
Forever in Blue Jeans

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:58:00 +0000

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.

A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

~All quotes by the brilliant Ansel Adams

A journey.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Very late in 2011, we chose this as our new vehicle. It was time. There were a few that we debated but ultimately it was the Journey that was right. Ever since, I've become fascinated with everything that it means to me. I didn't know then just how all-encompassing this decision would become.
Having dabbled with the One Little Word project that I came across from Ali Edwards, I struggled to find one for 2012. Nothing seemed to fit quite right. The more I thought the more this word circled around me. It embraced me. It whispered that this is my word.
Journey.

Hazy days filled with heart.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:22:00 +0000

This morning I woke to a city clouded in a misty fog. Rather fitting for me given that I was up much later than I had intended doing things that were less than enjoyable. Perhaps peculiar but sometimes, I see clearest amid the fog. It forces me to focus on the right here and now. I can wonder what is in the grey space beyond where my sight can see but can't do much more than prepare for what it will reveal once I reach that point.
A bit like life in general, I'd say. I can ready myself for any fathomable thought but it's only in the here and now that I can be. The past is filled with memories that soften around the edges as time goes on and then fade to grey in the mist. The future radiates hopes and dreams of what will be. It, too, is a bit grey and certainly unknown. But right now, in this this moment, in this tangible space where my eyes can focus, is where my heart drums its beat.
February, welcome. You knocked gently on my open door politely waiting for me to invite you in and I thank you for that.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:59:00 +0000

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.
~Don Williams Jr.

To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.
~Chinese Proverb

What people forget is a journey to nowhere starts with a single step, too.
~Chuck Palahniuk

Mornings like this one.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:11:00 +0000

The alarm went off. The dog lazily peered up from the foot of the bed, her droopy eyes said it all. But alas, it was time. I stretched through to my toes and felt rested, ready to start. The usual routine unfolded - shower, dry, dress. I opened the children's room door and peeked in.
They lay in a peaceful slumber. The very thought of waking them made me want to just snuggle in instead. I readied their clothes then picked up the ones from the night before that didn't quite make it into the basket. I stopped as I heard the little one sigh in her sleep and thought me too. Ever so softly I called to them and to my surprise they began to stir. He stretched through to his toes while I stood smiling remembering how I had just done the very same. She buried deeper into her pillow and I nodded knowing that was on my mind as well.
A short while later we were brushing teeth, washing faces, combing hair and the other mundane tasks that are whisked into mornings. It looked like business as usual but it felt different.
There was an inexpicable magic this morning. Perhaps it was something in the way we woke (gently, calmly) or the softness of our steps (rather than the fast-paced stomps life so often fills up with) or the tone I made a concious effort to set. Maybe it was the tenderness that I paused to notice or that softness that children naturally have that caught me today.
I stopped and noticed the difference. I inhaled the moment then went about the day.

Dance.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:13:00 +0000

Because it's Friday, get up and spin. Just let the music take over your heart.
Go!

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:46:00 +0000

Truth lifts the heart, like water refreshes thirst.
~Rumi

Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.
~Unknown

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.
~Irish Proverb

How they grow.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:29:00 +0000

Wasn't this just yesterday?

Have a seat.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:21:00 +0000

Join me today, right here in this cozy corner of mine. Choose a traditional teacup from my collection. There are ones painted with yellow lace roses, ones kissed with pink buds almost in bloom and still more that have gold trim around the edges. Be careful as there are a few that are chipped yet I can't bring myself to letting them go just yet. Maybe some day just not right now. Let me warm your cup with a spot of my melancholy tea blend as I reminisce. Please excuse my tears when they fall.
Quite some time ago, today was a frigid day such that it seem the world itself was trying to freeze time. I was jolted awake from an unsettled sleep in the dead of night by a pain so intense I gasped. I begged for it all to be a nightmare. I pleaded with the universe to let me be wrong. I called a friend in desperation. She knew.
The day whirled around in a blur of beeps, buzzes, bracelets, charts and macabre images that have scarred me. Routine phrases were used by those who knew what they were defined as though many were foreign to my untainted ears. I didn't understand. I felt alone and scared and broken.
On this day, all those years ago, I felt a piece of me change. I didn't know then what I know now but I knew I would never be the same.
I know now that's it's ok...that I'm ok.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

Angels, in the early morning
May be seen the Dews among,
Stooping -- plucking -- smiling -- flying --
Do the Buds to them belong?

Angels, when the sun is hottest
May be seen the sands among,
Stooping -- plucking -- sighing -- flying --
Parched the flowers they bear along.

~Emily Dickinson

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:52:00 +0000

May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright New Year.

May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill, and may the year ahead be full of contentment and joy.

The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May these be yours at Christmas.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:15:00 +0000

This video has beautiful quotes. Things will be different for our holiday season this year and this video helps to focus what's important through the quotes.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:44:00 +0000

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
~Albert Camus
People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.
Anton Chekhov
Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!
~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

The most wonderful time of the year.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:11:00 +0000

And the grinch, with his grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
~Dr. Seuss

I believe so whole-heartedly in the above piece from the infamous Grinch. Pause for a moment and think what it is you can do to give that isn't tangible.

May your December be filled with sparkles.

Monkey in the middle.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:24:00 +0000

Kick back and chill today right beside this big guy. I know I sure wish I could.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:10:00 +0000

I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time - just one, one, one. So you begin. I began - I picked up one person. Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand...The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin - one, one, one.
~Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Thanks today.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:53:00 +0000

Well wishes of a Happy Thanksgiving to my friends just south of the border today.
May you enjoy good food, great company and many thankful thoughts.

Where the Sidewalk Ends.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:19:00 +0000

The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself.

Whatever I do, I hope it's quality, I hope it's something that's class.

I want to get within myself and write. I really, really want to write.

~All quotes by Garth Brooks
(how I'd love to catch his Vegas show)

Music makes me think.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Does it ever. While I'm no where near a music connoisseur, I will listen to just about anything and I find this spills over nicely into my flow of life.
In any spare moment I can swindle, I'm buried in my studies. Life is busy and finding a balance is hard. The pursuit of any designation requires determination, perseverance and some mad study skills. Add to that a busy household, two active kidlets, a hubby and the dog and it's a recipe for this mamma to lose most of her mind.
The Study Music Project created this play list which I find helps me zone in. When I hop on the one-track-mind-train into the books, this music blocks out the noise around me and sets me up in the study zone. It's also an nice play list for so many other occasions. Maybe you're an artist needing something with a soft flow or a writer who hears unwritten words in the melody. Perhaps you're hosting a few people for dinner and want something in the background. It also works if you've got a friend coming for tea. Grab a book and curl up in a cozy chair. The potential for this play list is endless.
I hope you enjoy.

Learning discipline.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:06:00 +0000

Behind the desk, beneathe the books, connected and yet not.
An urgency settles in.
I am there.

On my mind.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:53:00 +0000

The shell must break before the bird can fly.
~Alfred Tennyson
The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.
~Author Unknown
The best helping hand that you will ever receive is the one at the of your own arm.
~Fred Dehner

Pillow, popcorn and a cozy couch.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:14:00 +0000

No, this is not a love story.
But it is a story about love, and the power it has over our life.
The power to heal or destroy.
And this is where the story begins.
**
Mr. Vargas? Luis Vargas?
You don't recognize me, do you?
Miss Russell?
Yes.
Julia Russel?

Original Sin is a movie I fell for the moment I heard of it many years ago, so many actually that I owned a VHS copy. From the first few lines that are read to the music that had my heart pumping and me gasping in the same melody to the choice of actors and the locations, it was all delivered with just the right am
ount of desperation. As Angelina Jolie reads in the opening lines, it is not a love story but it is a story about love. I don't get caught up in what's "wrong" with the movie. I choose, instead, to get lost in everything that's right about it.
It's a late night movie or a rainy day one or one I can pop in when I'm looking for an intense heartstring story. It is thought provoking. Is it love? What is love? How far are some willing to go for love? What sultry deception or naive smile are we each willing to fall for?

Have you seen it? Tell me, what are some of your favourite, go-to movies?

You cannot walk away from love.

Elise, oh, Elise! C'est Fur Elise.

noreply@blogger.com (~Kristina) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:29:00 +0000

Another one of my favourites. I could listen to the sounds of the piano forever. Again, this piece fills my soul with snippets of stories, moments remembered and wishes for tomorrow.