Tonight we’ll watch a movie, maybe two. We’ll eat the pizza and perhaps have some fresh fruit for dessert. We’ll probably chat with comfortable silences in between where we’ll read, write, or craft something new. We’ll shut the door on the storms of the week and take/make sanctuary in our own cozy little world. For a short work week it’s been extra filled of the madnesses of our day jobs – stuff that in a few weeks, maybe even days will be irrelevant or at least forgotten beyond bad memories and an unpleasant aftertaste.

And that’s the magic of pizza made from fresh ingredients and seasoned with love. Like work we won’t remember the exact pizza, but we will easily remember the atmosphere, the flavour, and the aftertaste.

Manifesto
05. Every day is now. The present moment.
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.

These sculptures down on post office square always entertain me. The shining stainless steel reflect the blue neon and the lights from the surrounding buildings. Definitely far more engaging at night than in the day. The mad squiggles remind me of reflections in water. I also can imagine them being expressions of people – tall, aloof, wanting to reach out, and then horrors – recoiling away with a shudder and a shiver.

It’s not always easy to reach out to people. You have to stretch out beyond your comfort zones.

Manifesto
04. Every day is an opportunity to cultivate the promise of the future.
10. Every day connect with somebody.
18. Every day express love. Some people need to hear it. Most people need to see it. Don’t take it for granted.

Except for the poor guy who was upset at me taking photos of “him” and retaliated by walking up and taking a photo of me with his cellphone. Hey, mate, if you want to do that kind of thing buy the rights.

Manifesto
27. Every day pain is a sign of growing.
28. Every day you will be tested.
32. Every day have a laugh.

According to the media today, biosecurity have announced 400+ new organisms attempt to enter New Zealand each year. Snakes, spiders, scorpions – the list of horrors (from the average New Zealand perspective) continues.

On the way back to the car tonight I discovered a small invasion bid had taken place outside the City Council. Skillful camouflage during the day gives way to the glowing luminescence in the evening. Must be an interplanetary kind of glowworm.

Manifesto
09. Every day learn something new.
14. Every day the ordinary can be the extraordinary.
32. Every day have a laugh.

This afternoon, the sublime pleasure of a nap in the sun. When I woke, this is the first sight. So beautiful. Next time you take a rest, by day or by night, have your camera handy. Take a shot or two of what you see when you wake – it’s the universe that can’t be seen in any other way.

Manifesto
05. Every day is now. The present moment.
19. Every day make time for yourself.
20. Every day say thank you.

As a kid I loved not only Modest Mussorgsky’s compositions ‘Pictures at an exhibition‘, I loved the whole idea – walk around, consider the works, walk and reflect through to the next work, pause, consider, repeat. What more typically happens is I cruise through less like a genteel and delicate meal, and far more like speed sushi. Zoom through quick look here, read there, and gone.

Tonight, the Six@66 exhibition opening, was different again. The photo here with the photographers milling nervously fine tuning the catering, the drinks ready for serving (my job), and a sense of waiting in the air – this scene did not last for long. Soon the first guests arrived, and then more, and more, and more. It was so crowded it was almost impossible to see the walls, let alone the works. A terrific success. Everything you do is a self portrait.

Congratulations and thank you to all.

Manifesto
10. Every day connect with somebody.
11. Every day do something for someone else.
49. Every day is a good day.

lying down
      with quilts over the head
such a cold night — Basho

As if to celebrate the long weekend (more, more) the roof was hammered all night long by the rain. There’s something soothing about being in bed with the sound of rain on the roof, however I could feel a cold growing away in me.

Sure enough, in the weak dawn, I’m up for a hot lemon tea and back to bed to try to fend it off. Go, you immune system warriors, go! I pull the covers up and flag work for the day.

Manifesto
13. Every day be better than you were the day before.
19. Every day make time for yourself.
28. Every day you will be tested.

Manifesto
04. Every day is an opportunity to cultivate the promise of the future.
29. Every day eat, drink, rest, work, exercise, play, love, create for your own good. And the good of others.
50. Every day has an ending.

If we were the size of butterflies, we would be able to rise up in the cool stillness of the early morning. We would be able to take our first breaths of the morning air and we would be able to breathe as if it were the first day ever. We would feel the clean air rushing into our bodies and with each escaping breath we would release the staleness from our souls freely. Gratefully. Calmly.

We would feel the warming day and the cooling night parting company. We would smell the dawn rain and the damp earth and we would feel vibrantly energised and alive.

If we were the size of butterflies we would be able to sip the cool water and be cleansed and we would drink and drink again until our thirst was quenched. We would feel the refreshing purity of the water reaching the very essence of our being.

We would hear the hum of bees and the rustle of insects and the birds calling the way that they have forever and our world would be filled with the joyous noises of life. We would hear the stems of plants squeaking, rubbing, stretching as they grow past each other.

If we were the size of butterflies we would care a great deal more about the vibrations of green – the tone-on-tone harmonics – and our world would seem like a very, very large, mysterious, and beautiful place indeed.

If we were the size of butterflies.

Manifesto
01. Every day is a fresh new day.
05. Every day is now. The present moment.
39. Every day trust that there is a bigger picture. You are a part of it even if you may not know what it is.

I worked late this evening in an attempt to get some things finished for tomorrow. As always I could have worked all night and still not have made much of a dent in the pile needing my attention. By 7.45pm I was starting to slow down and I knew it was time to call it quits for the day.

As I was waiting outside our office building for my husband to pick me up I stood there staring at the curved walkway ahead of me. People were appearing and disappearing around the corner.

I realised I turned a corner today; albeit it a hypothetical one. I made substantial progress on a project I am working on and it felt good.

Manifesto
06. Every day you make choices.
07. Every day making no choice is a choice.
22. Every day refine, clarify and simplify.