I had a dream last night where I saw the embodiment of ideas. My ideas, your ideas, or maybe all the ideas of Earth or the universe. Not really sure. But I got the vibe that ALL THE IDEAS was what I was looking at. And so, here goes:

It started out like a spirit guide, only a spark that I followed in darkness. It didn’t speak to me. Instead, it circled like a firefly—tiny and glowing. It had no true form and was made up of the elements. Fire, water, air, and even scattering bits of earth. It soon grew so that I could see its details better. Like a tiny galaxy, floating around the blackness where I stood.

Quickly—BAM—it expanded and surrounded me. Then it took me inside it and enveloped me so that I became part of it. I couldn’t see my hands or be sure that I still had a body. All I had was an intense warmth and the sensation of water washing over me, air I knew I was consciously breathing, and the view of what looked like a million little worlds before me.

Very super cool. I mean, I was a speck among specks, but it was awesome.

Now that I’m awake and back to reality, I’m left with a sense that we’re all so small and yet so powerful. Dreams like that drive me to not waste a moment of life.

Although I did take some time to create what I saw so that you could see it too.

Do you ever have dreams that stay with you and inspire you?

I understand that award nominations come from a place of affection and are a great way to share links. However, I don’t want to pick and choose favorites or make anyone obligated. It’s not how I blog. Roll? Blogroll? Well…

It’s award-free blog time. I’ve had it posted as text on my sidebar for a while, but I’ve just added an image. I don’t want sore feelings. It’s just not my thing.

While I appreciate folks thinking of me when it comes to nominations, I must decline. I’m not the only one in the blogosphere who feels this way and I hope that my blogging friends aren’t offended that I don’t participate.

First, awards are time-consuming. Second, many blog awards have requirements that I’m not comfortable with passing on like a chain letter. Also, some of my blogging friends have blog formats that don’t allow for answering or posting lists of questions without ruining their blog style (experimental art, blogging from a fictional point of view, filmmaking, business professional, and so on).

But! I want to thank those who have recently nominated me. These are all writers I follow closely and I try never to miss one of their posts:

Chelsea Brown (who nominated me for the WordPress Family Award) — You need to check out her Jenny Mac series!

Andrew Toynbee (who nominated me for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award) — A fellow writer who shares my passion for metaphysics.

Kristen Mazzola (who nominated me for the Liebster Award) — She inspires me daily and is one of the most productive writers I know.

I follow so many of you. So many blogs that some days it’s hard to keep up.

Yet, I darn well try. I also drink a lot of coffee.

You’re all so brilliant and talented and I think it’s fantastic that we have technology to weave our experience together. I never really thought I’d love blogging, but I do. And that’s because of the pure awesomeness of the blogging community. I just hope you’ll still love me back when I don’t accept awards.

It’s a cell phone picture—not artwork. Not a bad catch, though.

Behold! The glorious cowcod.

What? You’ve never heard of him? Well, he’s mounted on the wall of our local King’s Fish House. My husband took me there for a delicious dinner.

I’d never heard of cowcod either, but they’ve got conservation areas in California and are an ESA Species of Concern. Overfished. Poor things.

Hence, King’s didn’t offer us any cowcod soup.

Wait. Cowcod soup (click for the wiki) has nothing to do with this fish.
As George Takei might say: Oh my. (YouTube: 0:06)

Check out the real (or at least non-mounted) fish in vivid color. Whoa, huh?

Lastly, because I’ve been throwing Red Dwarf quotes at everything lately:

FISH! (YouTube: 0:29)

At the Phoenix Art Museum this past weekend, my husband David took some fantastic photographs of the Black Cloud multi-room installation of Order, Chaos, and the Space Between.

Butterflies. Swarms of them. Over the walls and ceilings.

So striking. I think the angles he used for these shots help convey what it’s like to be there yourself. I hope you enjoy David’s photography as much as I do.

We continue to be fascinated by this room of infinity lights.

It’s like being out there in space. As I said last year: it becomes complex and you become small. The specks of light in the depths of darkness… beautiful.

Yes, we still plan on having a room like this in our home someday.

In the meanwhile, we visit. This installation is one of the primary reasons we haunt the museum. This last trip, my husband took some photographs. Nothing said they weren’t allowed (sign outside of the entrance) and he tried it only when we had the room to ourselves, so we didn’t ruin the experience for others.

Here are two of those shots:

My hands, cradling a ‘firefly’ on a red-yellow cycle.

Might be a person—possibly myself—in the middle of this blue-green field.

Reblogged from Natania Barron:

I recently downloaded this stock photo. I really want to know where this place is. The information on the file doesn’t tell me and there’s no contact information for the photographer. Fotalia’s keywords got me searching online with no results.

I suspect the location is Spain—but where?

Because I’d love to have some real estate with that view someday.

Update:
Thanks to Andrew Toynbee being so helpful in his usual witty way… I finally know the location is Ronda. It’s in Spain, so I had that right! The reason I missed it on the stock photo file itself was because I read it only as round in Spanish and didn’t realize that was actually the name of the place.

I’ll go there one day. I’m certain of it.