Author: Christine

Christine http://www.mombie.com I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Co-Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Walking Meditation

I chose to do a short meditation while walking today.

I’ve enjoyed them when I have done them before but I usually use a guided meditation recording.

Today though, I decided to just set my timer, breathe slowly, and pay attention to the world around me.

I noticed how nimbly Khalee was walking, how the wind felt on my face, how many different shades of green were surrounding me, the sounds different cars made as they passed, how my legs felt tired but ok and how comfortable my shoes were now that I am using inserts to reduce pronation.

I felt quite peaceful afterwards and I will definitely be doing that sort of walking meditation again.

Words and Pictures

Yesterday, while listening to the podcast ‘The Antique Shop,’ by Ghostly Thistle media, I had a great idea for a series of stories.

My plan is to draw a series of objects and then write a story about each one.

I started by practicing drawing bottles.

A photo of drawings and painting of a variety of bottles.
Image description: a photo of a coil-bound sketchbook with white paper featuring some rough pencil sketches of a variety of bottles on the right hand side and some drawings of bottles painted with watercolours on the left.

Selective viewing

Parts of my yard are still a mess but from this angle, things are starting to look quite summery and inviting.

A photo of part of my yard - grass, a fence, a swing, and a lawn chair and some flowers.
A photo of a section of my backyard. The foreground is mostly lush green grass and toward the back of my yard is an orange Adirondack style plastic lawn chair, my green circular swing, some trees with leaves starting to come out, some wildflowers, and a weathered grey fence.

I didn’t plant flowers last fall

I had good intentions but things didn’t play out the way I hoped they would.

I’ll be mostly buying flowers this year and maybe sprinkling a few seeds so they’ll bloom in late summer early fall.

But we’ve had such crappy weather for so long now that I don’t even know if things would have grown yet anyway.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

Do you know who *did* plant bulbs last fall?

My mother-in-law!

So I’m living vicariously through her garden.

A photo of pink tulips, white tulips, and a daffodil surrounded by greenery in a flowerbed.
Image description: a photo of pink tulips, white tulips, and a daffodil surrounded by greenery in a flowerbed.

Drawing and Listening

I spend a lovely part of Sunday afternoon drawing while I was listening to the audiobook Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia.

I highly recommend both.

Two drawings in a sketchbook, one of overlapping geometric shapes one of three mushrooms on a hill.
Image description: two drawings on a sketchbook page. The top one is a bunch of overlapping, patterned geometric shapes in a variety of colours against a green background. The bottom is three toadstools/mushrooms, one gold with a pink stem, one silver with a black stem and one black with a gold stem, all with circular or semi-circular patterns on their caps and stems. They are growing from a patterned green hill with blue sky in the background.