One of the World's Greatest Thinkers....

When I think of the people's who's works have inspired me over the years I think of people like Gandhi, Buddha, Emerson and Thoreau. Surprisingly though, another person I find very inspiring is Dr. Seuss. Now, I am actually serious here.

I have always found his stories to be quite profound and meaningful in addition to being entertaining and fun. I love his rhyming text and quirky characters, but the messages are really the best part.

Last night we went to see the movie "Horton Hears a Who". It was such fun. Combine the story-telling genius of Dr. Seuss with the comic talent of Jim Carrey, Steve Carrell and Carol Burnett and you have one great movie!

I love Horton the elephant's great wisdom after he has discovered a whole community living on a speck. He says "A person's a person no matter how small" and he reasons that "if you were way out in space and you looked down on Earth it would look like a speck too". I also love his motto that "an elephant's faithful 100 percent". What a great story of self-reliance, integrity, compassion, acceptance and peace.

This is such a great movie and it is really accessible to everybody. I don't think anyone could be too old or too young to enjoy it.

I love Mondays!

I really enjoy new beginnings. I may be a little odd, but I like coming home from a vacation and getting back to regular life. I like New Year's Day and I even like Mondays.

I really like taking breaks to reflect, but then I equally enjoy getting back to life. For me, weekends are the reflection times and Mondays are the new beginnings. I usually work at home on Mondays so it is a quiet day of computer work and homeschooling. To me, it is a very pleasant way to start the week.

Unfortunately Daniel, like many others, does not share my sentiment about Mondays. I usually wake up to his groaning about it being Monday. Today I put my foot down and told him that I don't want to hear any more complaints about it.

In addition to the moratorium on negativity for the morning, I thought I would also do something to inspire (read bribe) him to embrace the day. So this was our fabulous feast this morning for breakfast. Crepes with a strawberry compote. This is definitely a favourite of ours and I hope it will help him to appreciate the beginning of the week.

Now after a breakfast like that who wouldn't love Mondays? ! ?

Apparently I am not an Autumn....

While I was staying at my mom's house this weekend. I picked up this book.

Now I know that 'getting your colours' done was all the rage in the early 80's but frankly that was before my time. In the early 80's I looked like a boy and I was still at an age where I resented having to bathe regularly. Having my colours done was just not a high priority.

The colour thing fell out of fashion some time between then and now and I haven't thought much about it since.

Once I got past my 'gothic' phase in my teens where everything I owned was black, I developed somewhat of my own style. Fashion has never been a huge thing for me but I like to look good and somewhat up-to-date. I love earth tones and warm colours - which it turns out are flattering on 'Autumns'.

I took the colour test in the book and much to my shock I am not an Autumn - I am a winter. I am a little disappointed. It turns out that brown is "boring on me" and that I should be wearing bold colours and stark contrasts. Yikes!

Anyway this does explain a few things, like my University Card photo where I was sporting an orange t-shirt. Ouch! I looked a bit like I was dying from a rare tropical disease. It was so bad that even if I COULD find the picture, I am not going to post it on here. Now tell me.... why didn't I see that when I looked in the mirror after I had put the shirt on? But no, I had to wear that shirt for a few months until I saw the horrifying effect immortalized on film. There have been a few other incidences like that which I guess had led me to pick up that book in the first place.

Anyway, I am not sure what to do now. Being an autumn has been such a part of my life for so long. I wear autumn clothes, I have warm red highlights in my hair. I have even decorated my house with autumn colours. I also paint with autumn colours. How am I going to become a winter? It seems so very... well... cold.

I guess I could choose to deny all knowledge of ever setting eyes on the book and carry on in ignorance - although I have already started to notice evidence that I am, in fact, a winter. I think it will start to haunt me if I don't face it.... so next time you see me, if I am sporting some fuschia lipstick you will know that I have converted. Hold me back!!!!