Tag: if

How-To: Take a Break with WHIMSY

Sometimes when we’ve been working hard or spinning our wheels, rest it what we need most.

But, never forget about WHIMSY!

This week I was working on a new project and I could just tell I needed whimsy.

What is it exactly?

Whimsy is caprice. It’s playful or humorous behavior. It’s the opposite of work and taking yourself too seriously.

If you are burned out, give it a try.

Here are some ways: 

• Do something you did as a kid (a game, an activity, a piece of art, hopscotch, legos, build a card house, color, whatever you want.)

• Whistle. (People don’t whistle much anymore. It’s a crisis of scarce whimsy. Just pick something and do it.)

• Create something for nothing but the fun of it. No one even has to see it. Exuberance and a no-holds-barred attitude is key!

• Sing or hum or play an instrument.

• Whatever made you belly laugh last time? Do that again.

• Tell a friend or family member a funny (or whimsically embarrassing) story and invite one from them.

Just 5-10 minutes of pure whimsy works wonders!

What did I do? I made something whimsical. I call it a “Whimsy Box”.

(People have said that just looking at this makes them feel a creative burst coming on!)

Each Whimsy Box is one-of-a-kind and tells a story.

It’s part art, part whimsical tale, part conversation piece, and part interactive inducer of creative tsunamis. Some Whimsy Boxes have a bona fide riddle about them or mystery to solve. Others play music, make a noise, have moving parts, or light up somehow–like this one!

whimsybox
(Sorry…this one is SOLD. If you’d like one, though, contact me.)

So, that’s how I took my break.

What will you do?

Results are in: Wife Beating Endorsed!

I’m glad I live in 2013 in the U.S. It’s not a perfect time with no problems, of course. I get that.

Most of the time it seems people say they “remember the good old days,” you know, when things were simpler and better.

Sometimes I get nostalgic too.

This idea that things were better in the past is, of course, a myth generally speaking. Every era has its benefits and its downsides.

This clipping is my favorite recent example. (Buzz Feed featured it.)

It’s a newspaper clip which appears to be printed in The Mirror of New York. They ask ordinary men if it’s a good idea to “spank their wives.” (Meaning hit them, of course.) Their eyewear fashions point to a time in the 1950s or early 1960s, which might be why I remember driving in the car with my grandpa as he hauled off and cracked my grandma in the head or arm when he got upset with her. (When he was lost or frustrated, and she should have told him where to turn?) He was just a man of his times and she needed it, from his perspective.

It makes the women’s rights movement a little more palatable now, right?

Manhood is seen differently now, in this century, and for that I am immensely glad! You too?

You like the qualifier in this headline? “If she needs it,“? Priceless.

Good luck telling the police that line now. “Yes, I hit her, officer, but she needed it.”

Funny, right?
(Only looking back, and only laughing so you don’t cry for yesterday’s women.)

beatyourwife(click for photo source)

 

Right-side up? (crucial thoughts on perspective)

map

North is not “up”.

The sky is “up”.

North is “that way” or “over there”.

(Maybe your maps have been all wrong and you just haven’t realized it.)

I thought I lived “up” in North America. If I lived in Australia, though, I would NOT think of North America as “up” at all.

Depending where you are in the world North can be to the left, to the right, to the back, or to the front…but it’s never “up”.

Sometimes you have to turn everything on its head to see better. When you do, the switch may be more “right-side up” or rather “proper-side up” depending on where you are at the time.

Don’t believe every map you’ve been given; be that an actual globe of the planet Earth, or some sort of path someone or some culture has told you to take.

(click photo for source)

That Carol Jones!

Carol Jones

Yet another kind review for the new book  “Dog in the Gap”? Yes. But, this time it’s different.

Carol Jones isn’t just a writing and idea guru, she’s a 20 year friend of Doug Jackson and his wife Becky, and she has the pictures to prove it. How splendid that she wrote this special post. It’ll warm your heart.

Here’s an Excerpt:

What is most beautiful about
Dog in the Gap is how it “probes questions about trust, mutuality, ownership, personal and spiritual growth, grief and joy through the acute lens of canine care-taking and guardianship.”

I believe Doug says it best in his introduction, “Man with dog,” writes C.S. Lewis in “The Four Loves”, “closes a gap in the universe.”  This book is written from inside the gap.

Written from inside the gap.  I love that.

Read the rest here.

I  hope you’ll grab a copy of our book. And, please, leave us a review on Amazon and help us spread the word.

Thank you from Doug and me!

OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED! “Dog in the Gap” book

the Wait is Over!

You can  buy the book! (and it’s cheap too)

Here’s the BONUS EDITION (It contains TWICE the awesomeness. For Super fans or underdogs only!)

Doug and I thank you.

Please remember that purchases will also benefit 2 non-profit organizations that care for dogs in need.

Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. If you are reading this, you’ll be able to read the book too. Download the Kindle App for free here. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

 

BONUS EDITION

Or learn more at the splash page where you can read reviews and get the…um scoop. (Not THAT kind of scoop)