More Snow, More Gray, More Mellow

February 15, 2016February 15, 2016 / Ally Bean / 30 Comments

SATURDAY THE SKIES WERE bright blue and it was sunny outside, but very cold. We spent the whole day driving every which way around the region, doing errands.

Not being at home, basically.

Then Sunday arrived, even colder than Saturday. We decided to stay inside, doing pretty much nothing worth talking about.

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LATE IN THE AFTERNOON it started to snow again, so I grabbed my camera and took some photos of winter scenes in the waning afternoon light.

As shown here, the midwestern winter colors are a natural earthy palette all their own. Very subdued, tending towards gray. Either you like them [I do], or you don’t.

To me, these shades of gray, which I only see for a few weeks during the year, are a reminder to relax and mellow out.

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Getting Jiggy With The Flakes. It’s Snowing Here.

February 9, 2016August 29, 2024 / Ally Bean / 29 Comments

I’ve never intentionally tried to photograph snowflakes before. I’ve photographed snow, of course, and I’ve snapped a few photos of some people who are flakes myself included. 😉

But to take on the challenge of going outside with the sole purpose of photographing delicate little snowflakes as they fall from the sky is something new for me.

I rather like these early morning artsy-artsy photos, even if they aren’t the most polished ones ever.

For me the value in this challenge wasn’t perfection, but to remind myself to try new small things as I move forward through this year. To step out into possibility. And to get jiggy.

A Conversation About Self-Awareness & Assumptions

February 4, 2016January 9, 2017 / Ally Bean / 36 Comments

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A friend, who was clearly absorbed in her own thoughts, got into my car, buckled up, and without so much as a Sherman T. Potter “howdy-do” said:

Do you think you were wanted?

Now I’m a good friend. Attentive. A natural-born problem solver, but you have to give me some context. So I said the first, rather inarticulate, thing that drifted into my head: huh?

Then the story unfolded as she went on to explain that she’d started reviewing her life, all of her life, in light of a recent setback in which her job ended.

While she understood on a logical level why her job, which she tolerated, had been cut, on an spiritual level this experience had sent her into a spiral of self-doubt– and a need to understand it all.

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We talked for a while. She explained that the question she had asked of me wasn’t about being wanted at work, but about being wanted within a family. That is, did I think/she think that our parents wanted us.

In my case, Yes. In her case, No.

Getting to the crux of her contemplation, she thought that being unwanted early on would have given her some superpower to automatically know when that sort of thing was happening again.

In other words, because she was so sure of herself had she missed some sign that she was going to be kicked to the curb by this employer?

We came to no definitive conclusion about her recent job loss, but we did stumble upon a good topic of conversation about self-awareness. That is, how we all make assumptions based on previous experiences.

And how those assumptions when applied to the here and now, aren’t always a good guide for how to live your life, even though it’s easy to delude yourself into thinking that they are.

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Proverbial Wisdom, Pithy Thoughts, And My Perfect 2016 One Word

January 7, 2016January 7, 2016 / Ally Bean / 23 Comments

I found this proverb while researching something else and I think it is charming. Obvious wisdom, of course– but delightful nonetheless.

I like it.

And inexplicably this proverb has reminded me that I need to decide what my 2016 one word will be.

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[Pepper comes to mind, but I think that might be a bit too literal for the uplifting abstract nature of the one word concept.]

[Besides if I used pepper this year I’d feel obligated to use Sneeze next year– and that would never do at all.]

[Unless I wanted to commit to Tissue the year after that. 😉 But I digress…]

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Last year my word was RECLUSE and I’m all the better for it.

Using it as my catalyst, I politely detached from most of my social obligations, then used the time I gained to reflect upon how people in my life, real and virtual, were treating me.

The result? Users + negative people everywhere are no longer welcome in my life. Sincere + friendly people, whose actions showed them to be on Team Ally, are now my sole focus.

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This year I’m confounded about what word to pick. 2011 was SMOOTH. 2012 was NURTURE so that’s out. 2013 was BALANCE. 2014 I didn’t even have a word.

So far this year I’ve thought about: harmony, rejuvenation, dream, plan— but those words sound pretentious to me, too vague, too much like what the smarmy voiceover says in a prescription medicine TV commercial.

No, what I need is a word that gets me focused on getting things done and enjoying that which I accomplish. A word that is easy to remember and implement in all situations. A way to know I’m on track to achieving my goals.

A word, perhaps, such as FORWARD??!

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[Why yes, that would do nicely. Why didn’t I think of that before?]

[Because it is only through the process of writing that you, Ms. Bean, figure out your life. Don’t you know that by now?]

[It would seem that I’m learning.]

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So there we have it, my gentle readers. A scintillating thought process explained. An encouraging word chosen. And a pithy blog post written.

Oh, ’tis a happy day– forward I go into 2016!