cross my heart
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
- François de la Rochefoucauld
i have a feeling this quote will be responsible for many pages of writing today…

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
- François de la Rochefoucauld
i have a feeling this quote will be responsible for many pages of writing today…
Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.
– Thomas Carlyle

“doubt. full”
© 2007 kelly angard
Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties?
Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope…
- Vaclav Havel
I found this post at My Success Company via Circadian Shift.
Ten Rules for Being Human
by Cherie Carter-Scott
| 1. | You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period. |
| 2. | You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.” |
| 3. | There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.” |
| 4. | Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson. |
| 5. | Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned. |
| 6. | “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.” |
| 7. | Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself. |
| 8. | What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours. |
| 9. | Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust. |
| 10. | You will forget all this. |

“Her job was to turn everything upside down to see what might fall out.”
- David Leitch
I dare each of you to gain a new perspective of something that is utterly familiar: sit in a different chair in your living room, drive a different way home from work or look at your face in the mirror with one eye closed. Better yet…go outside, lie in the grass and look up toward the sky…and tell me what you see!
Inspiration is everywhere!!!
Here’s a few things which have caught my eye, spoken to my muse or piqued my curiosity…
the blissful pixel has some great Photoshop links as well as beautiful digital scrapbook art…
life*fever features what’s hot around the world in fashion, art, trends and design…
the style files showcases something I can never get enough of: stunning style & delicious design!
Create a Connection is a unique, warm and welcoming place to connect with other creative spirits. Creative blogger, artist and visual journalist Melanie McMullen is a woman who is living her passion…and willing to share and encourage other creative spirits to do the same! I love this part of her bio:
Be Alive
Believe
Be You
August 2005 ~Melba McMullin
The mission statement behind Create a Connection says it all: The mission of the Create a Connection blog is to exchange knowledge and energy, to embrace each other and new ideas, and to expand participation and our relationships.
So I was honored when guest host and writer/author Angie Pederson interviewed me for it’s weekly Interview Tuesday column last week. Many thanks to Angie for thinking of me and for the thoughtful interview questions…and to Melba for providing us creative souls with a place to connect and learn and exchange ideas!
and last but not least…
The Blog of Me by author/writer and marketing entrepreneur, Angie Pederson. Angie combines her talent for writing and blog marketing with ideas and resources, intended to make life and writing easier, more productive, and more meaningful. She is a pioneer in the field of personal journaling before it became the “thing” to do, authoring three books, “The Book of Me”, “Growing Up Me”, and “The Book of Us” and someone I’ve had the pleasure to meet and correspond with over the past few years…this is one site you’ll want to bookmark for sure!

this poem was sent to me by photographer Allyn Edmonds…
such beautiful words! thank you, Allyn…
Perfect Peace
I ponder deeply in my mind
For thoughts of peace and how to find
It only comes from deep within
You cannot fake it or pretend
Real peace comes when your mind is at rest
Knowing through life you’ve given your best
Believing in a greater power than we
Holding no grudges, being totally free
Having no ill will against neighbor or kin
Knowing the peace maker is living within
Giving of self to help others in need
Looking for nothing in return for a deed
Being true to one’s self no matter the price
It’s better to give until it becomes sacrifice
If you want to feel that total release
Then try all of this and you know perfect peace
- brenda whitlock
More of my art & photography can be found on my new website:
kelly a. fine art & photography

Everything connects to everything;
therefore, as we change, the world cannot but change with us.
- Marianne Williamson
I think that when something like this happens, we all ask “why”? We struggle trying to make sense out of the senseless…and wonder, “what is the lesson here”? I look at my middle school-aged daughter and realize that this is the third school shooting she has heard about in the past six or seven months. And I don’t know what to say to her so that she will feel safe going to school tomorrow.