January Trip Recap (Part 2)

Second Installment on my adventures! This one is all about my Eatern-Caribbean cruise 😃

From Dec 31 to January 7 my mom and I were on board the Disney Fantasy. To be completely honest this is my least favorite Disney ship, but still a Disney ship and any of them is better than pretty much any other cruise ship out there hehe.

We had the best last day of 2016 chilling by the pool, riding the water coaster (the Aqua Duck) and overall just enjoying ourselves on deck. Minus the bits when we were also trying to get the last bits of cell phone reception to wish our loved ones a happy new year, which was a mess because of everyone's time zone differences and the afore motioned distractions 😜. At night we had dinner and as usual a massive deck party to ring in the new year topped with fire works at sea. It was so fun! Even if incredibly packed and we didn’t get as good a view of the stage or the fireworks as we did back in 2013 but no complains! If you’re not at the Magic Kingdom to receive the year covered in Pixie Dust, a Disney Cruise is definitely second best! 

January 1st and 2nd were days at sea (but at least we’re talking about 2017 now!) Which one would assume are nothing but relaxing, but in general cruises have so much happening on a daily basis, and Disney cruises much more so, that sea days are usually a mad dash to catch as many possible activities and shows and explore all the magical details of the giant ship in just those few "off" days.

As Gold Castaway Members we even got a special "mixer" with Captain Mickey to attend first thing Jan 1st!

The third day brought us to the British Virgin Islands and we visited Tortola. This was a new island for me which is awesome, I love that feeling of visiting a new place for the very first time! I am so blessed and do not ever take it for granted, but I was a bit disappointed on the island or rather on the services. As it is to be expected the landscape is the same as the US Virgin Islands, which is amazing!😍 No complains on that department but the service and friendliness of the people leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to other islands in the area. One lady even wanted me to go fetch her the ingredients she left away from the kitchen while preparing my smoothie! Also the cleanliness of the non-natural areas isn’t as spotless as one would want and expect in a paradise island 😕 

It was super fun though, especially going to Pusser’s landing to enjoy the Caribbean vibes and watch pelicans chill on yachts, then walking to the “souvenir market” and getting to watch lots of tiny, fluffy baby chicks trying to escape, climb on or burry themselves under their mom haha. 

That night after all the port fun we had the Pirates in the Caribbean party, which is super fun. Everyone dresses up in their best buccaneer getups and there are character’s dressed up in their pirate’s best all over the ship and there is a deck party/show before dinner, then themed dinner and later at night Pirate’s club, which is a different mini show before having it be an open air night club that includes more fireworks at sea, making Disney cruises extra special. No one else can have fireworks at sea, let alone two shows in one week😃

On January 4th we visited both St. John and St. Thomas. Since we had already visited these islands a few times before, I decided to put photography as my priority versus adventure. Big mistake! I mean yeah the views are amazing! But the way our tours were scheduled we had free time but not enough to go swim with seals or dolphins🙁 And as I realized way too late, on the way to all the fun animal encounters you also get some picture stops...So this was a live and learn situation. As it was, we ended up going on a super fun ferry boat to St. John where we got beyond soaked after 10 minutes, explored St. John’s ancient sugar mill and high island points as well as their newer areas and then we headed back to St. Thomas for lunch and to just enjoy the bits of island and shopping areas closer to the port.

Next time I’m going back to Ocean World or something similar so I can have more exciting stories to tell hehe 😜

January 5th was our last full day at sea which we finally took more for relaxing this time. We enjoyed ourselves by just going to a couple shows, playing mini golf on deck and having more pool time before the semi-formal dinner.

Next day our port adventure was Disney’s private Island, Castaway Cay! 

This is usually my utmost favorite island in the Caribbean, there are so many things to do and enjoy, there's never enough time to have all the adventures and enjoy every hidden scenic gem, but some changes seem to be happening that not everything I remember was operational, and to my iggle dismay the post office closed early, way before I could get my special stamps! 😢

There was still enough adventure to go around and we started the day on the island parasailing. This was my second time trying it and therefore the experience was less nerve- wracking than three years ago, sadly it was booked solid and they didn’t offer repeats or single rides this time, but it was super fun for me and totally relaxing for my mom lol. After returning to land we were supposed to go snorkeling but mom had gotten sick the day before and as the day’s temperatures increased she started feeling worst. We hadn’t noticed it before but apparently a bug was making the rounds in the ship and some stresses we had over this week depleted our immune systems. My mom waited for me to snorkel on my own, but without a grown up to make sure I didn’t drift off to open sea or drown I was to stressed to enjoy it. Also, the floaty bag I got my iPhone worked great outside of the water but not under, it wouldn’t recognize my finger on the screen so it didn’t focus on the fish, which were also much harder to see than in Hawaii. So I ended up out of the ocean after only about 30 mins just in time to find my mom ready to return to the ship😞

I stayed behind with the plan to just take some pictures around the island, shop for some island-exclusive goodies and head back on board early. This is when the real adventure began…

For some reason while asking a cast member at the shops where the best vistas around the main area were, he didn’t seem to know and a lady overheard us and decided to give me directions for the look-out tower. My mom and I had heard about it the night before but she told me it was inaccessible unless you took a bike, I do not know how to ride a bike so it was out of the question. I told this to the random lady and she said from where we were it was close by on foot and sent me around a not very traveled loop. I ended up getting lost in the 5K loop, where no cast members patrol, hardly any visitors ever go by and if they do is on bike! So because of bogus directions I ended up making the 5K loop and then some, carrying shopping bags and camera equipment, completely on my own, under the 90 degree sun with no water and wearing water-shoes not made for walking!! There was hardly any one I could ask for help and those I did see were unable or unwilling to help! By the time I made it back to the main areas I ended up in the grown up beach which is super boring and isolated and full of drunk people so I had to wait for a tram to come get me as the one that saw me approach left me anyway! I’m sure in the future this will be a very funny story of my misadventures but I still get annoyed. I was so exhausted and dehydrated when I made it back to the ship! For a while there I was even worried of not making it to the all aboard time, my phone had no reception and I had not brought the sea phone with me to let anyone know I was in a marshy area of the island! 

The day ended with me passing out for a while before dinner and then having to go to the last dinner alone with my bear since my mom was still not feeling well.

I know it happens, but don’t you kinda hate it when life happens while you're on vacation? LOL

Overall this was the least super-amazing Disney cruise in general. There were definitely lessons in tolerance and letting go at every moment. Lots of buttons got pushed with the staff not meeting Disney standards of service, not speaking English when visiting only English speaking Islands in an American ship! Lack of vegan options which we had never had a problem with before, super rude, loud and intrusive guests, Disney’s weird allowance of so much alcohol everywhere which is pretty new and leads to obnoxious and inappropriate drunk people…the couple of misadventures and of course my mom getting sick… But as I always say, if I don’t travel it I don’t learn it lol. My biggest lessons usually happen while traveling. And I don’t think I truly managed to learn these lessons, they still got me pretty peeved so at least I know where to focus on my growth so things like these don’t repeat and we get to enjoy our next cruise as much as we have every other Disney one!

*For more pictures and random trip details from my traveling bear's perspective you can follow their insta account. If you scroll down enough you'll see the trip day to day. If you scroll down to Xmas in Manhattan you've gone too far 😜

Happy Earth Day

Animal Kingdom opened Earth Day 1998

It's Earth Day!
I know everyday should be Earth Day and we should strive everyday to do our best for our planet, the animals and our ecosystems, even if only for the selfish reason that otherwise we won't have a place to live anymore! But just as it's always nice to have one day to honor our existence, I think it's nice to have a specific day to honor Earth 💜

I think I mentioned before that at home we always recycle. I'm super proud to live in a green town where recycling is mandatory and we even have fun town events made to clean up our beaches and turn harmful plastic bags into art among other things. I also try to save as much water as possible, eat only vegan and organic and make sure to to not leave electronics/lights on when I'm not using them. Those are my every day things but I always like to do something on Earth Day to acknowledge the day.
This year I'm going to celebrate at a local forest reconnecting with nature and exchanging healing energy with it, as well as honoring life in my very favorite way, capturing it on pictures. Later I'm planning to see Disney's Nature Born in China. It's such a simple and relaxing activity that doesn't seem to matter, but as long as we see the movie on opening week donations from the each ticket go to support conservation funds! So go check out the movie, who doesn't want to see a baby panda roll down a mini hill?! And then you can feel good knowing your ticket helped save little cuties like the ones in the movie!

Speaking of pandas, you can join the WWF Panda Nation to start your own fundraiser in fun ways like walking or running with your pet, be part of a team or set up a birthday/celebration fund in your name and instead of receiving gifts, you raise money for your favorite endangered species!
Next weekend there will also be a march for climate you can learn more about here
Or you can apply to become a panda ambassador here

https://www.worldwildlife.org/

If becoming actively involved is not your thing there are still little things you can do in your everyday life that will help the earth, yourself and possibly your wallet in the long run.
- Walk or bike to places more often.
- Group as many of your errands as possible to same areas to avoid several car trips back and forth.
- Switch to energy efficient light bulbs, they might be more expensive up front but last forever and your electric bill will go down.
- Ditch the polluting and hazardous plastic bags and bring your own cute reusable bags when shopping.
- Drink tap/filtered water to avoid plastic bottles, but if you can't then remember to ALWAYS recycle them responsibly. If your town doesn't recycle, a lot of large grocery stores do it for free, you can bring your recyclable trash to Target, Whole foods and Stop and Shop, or google your local chains that offer recycling bins. No need for the hassle of driving to a plant and having to pay to be green 😉 
- Compost when you can.
- Don't buy more food that you can eat, who wants to throw food and money away?
- Switch to rechargeable batteries and dispose of regular batteries at responsible places like batteriesplus.com or similar, don't throw them away with your regular trash.
- Try buying sustainable or recyclable only household products.
- Try minimizing your animal-based consumption in your diet. Animals are friends not food.
And here's the surprise one that no one mentions but it does make a difference:
If you are an energy healer of any sort send healing to the planet and the animals,  if you aren't prayers and good vibes whenever you can remember work too! Also, if you're having a bad day, you're in pain or in general feel any bad vibes in your body or energy field, let them go into the Earth or a nearby tree, set the intention of having whatever is bothering you leave your life for good and give it up to nature with the intention of that energy being transmuted into the Highest and Best. It's like composting for your energy!

Hope everyone has a happy Earth Day and that even if it's just watering a plant outside your home we all do something to help our planet feel loved after all it does for us. Don't take it for granted! I know a friend that is more science-inclined and is attending a science rally for those areas of science that do care about our future and what happens to our planet, some people in town are holding an energy circle to send healing to the planet, another friend sent her potted trees to be plated out where they have space and benefit everyone and a couple of other friends have been working on personal gardens to help out pollinators, kudos to them honestly, I'm so terrified of bugs I could never do something like that, but it comes to show that whatever your interests are there is something out there you could do and enjoy that will help our home planet, even shopping! Check these awesome people that channel their art and creativity into upcycled wonders that help our planet😃

💙www.planetlovelife.com
💚www.afrodutchpaperstone.nl
💙www.natureartists.com/buy_art/
💚www.etsy.com/shop/LandfillDzine


Love and Light

The New Year Trip Recap (Part 1)

Finally sitting here to recap my latest long trip! I’ve decided to break it into small installments  focusing on the highlights or it’ll be too much and would end up being a novella lol. So part one is all about the first week of the adventure. Road tripping down to FL before a week long Caribbean cruise to ring in the new year!

We (my mom and I and my travel bears hehe) set out right on Xmas eve. We had our little dinner and gift exchange celebration the night before and on Dec 24 we packed the rental car, my mom prepared a special festive dinner and snacks for the road and we left home towards Albany. There is not a lot to do/see on Xmas eve and Xmas day since everything is closed! But, we did find out about this holiday light show they put on for cars to drive by in Albany which was perfect, festive, new for us and happening at night! So we didn’t have to leave home too early or rush on our way there😀 The lights were fun although the "trail" was too short in my opinion 🙁and we were a bit disappointed that there was nothing else to see that night after the car excited the loop of lights. But we had fun anyway 😃 and I was grateful there was at least something to do that offered photo ops haha.

The next day after opening gifts from Santa (New 3DS thank you!!) We headed towards what we thought was our next stop in NJ, but as it turned out the only thing to do that day somewhat in the area-ish was in Brookline... So back to New York we went to finally check out a movie-like neighborhood covered in holiday lights and displays! It was so fun and a good walk, much needed after two days in the car. Plus I've always wanted to see one of those neighborhoods that go all out and only seem to exist in my screens 😜

The day after was a longer drive down to Baltimore both on miles and traffic. Who would have thought traffic could be so bad the day after Xmas! We were so bored moving at like 10mph, we ended up just pulling into Delaware’s visitor center while the traffic cleared a bit. The unscheduled stop and crazy traffic made our Baltimore arrival a really late one (for normal business hrs that is.) So we just had time to check Ripley’s Odditorium on the harbor and have dinner in the same area. It’s such a fun area that it was worth it anyway. And we learnt about Baltimore’s own Nessie-like legend, Chessie the Sea Monster 😆

We had about 24hrs or so in Baltimore, so next morning, by googling what we wanted to do (apparently google suggest self-tours with all its routes for you, who knew?) we modge-podged our own "tours" to see as much as possible, even if it was just driving through to take a picture on some spots. We had fun, but if you’re not going shopping or have time to go to the museums, a big city has just so much appeal before it's just another city... The best area was definitely the harbor and we found out as we were leaving they had little Chessie boats to explore the bay, just for that I’d like to go back. 
The one museum we did get to see was the Geppi's museum which is all pop culture and had a lot of Disney history and a special exhibit on Alice in Wonderland! It was so fun to get to see comics, toys and random items from every decade!! I wanted all the disney ones!!! Especially the 50s ones, why don’t we have cool toys like that anymore? 😞

Next stop was Richmond VA, and since we only had that day for it and in previous years we had already done the city, we decided to explore new areas which landed us in the Maymont gardens and mansion. It was gorgeous and very much needed. The weather was fantastic, there were animals and lost of nature all around to walk and reconnect with, and the mansion has Italian and Japanese gardens, which I can only imagine how they must look during any other season. Also if you plan your visit in advance you can get tickets to see the inside of the mansion just as it was in the 1800s 😀 So fun! As it was, it was tourists season and so crowded we only got to check out the servants quarters, but even that was impressive and fun. I love seeing old timey stuff hehe. We spent the first half of our VA day there. After Maymont, looking for something photography-worth it and still in the festive spirit we went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical garden and OMG! It’s the best botanical garden I’ve been to, at least the way they dressed it up for the holidays made me like it better than the NY(Bronx) one, it’s ranked 4th in the country and now I NEED to go find the first three. It was amazing! We went at night for their special holiday lights display, but having just done something similar in Boston before the trip I could see the huge contrast and just wow! 

After the botanical garden closed we were on our way to somewhere in SC lol, that was just a sleep stop and we spent the whole next day on the road on our way to Savannah. We barely made it to dinner on River Street at what used to be our favorite place there, which is still pretty good, but the fried green tomatoes were much better the last time we were there, and played a little taking pictures around the street, getting the most amazing pralines and stretching our legs. 

The morning of the 30th we went to visit Forsyth park and Wormsloe since we had never given ourselves the time, grabbed breakfast at my new favorite place, a small vegan spot called Sentient Bean and headed down to Cocoa beach for our last night on land! Unfortunately after Savannah the whole day was spent on the road, and had such an early morning the next day and had to re-arrange our luggage deciding what went on the cruise and what stayed, doing our nails for the new year, etc that all I saw of Cocoa beach was the hotel room lol. 

Next morning super early, we took the 20min drive to port canaveral to sail away on the Disney Fantasy and straight into 2017😃 More on that on the next post. 

*For more pictures and random trip details from my traveling bear's perspective you can follow their insta account. If you scroll down enough you'll see the trip day to day. If you scroll down to Xmas in Manhattan you've gone too far 😜

Disney Tag!

So I've been recently tagged by one of my best friends and pen-pal extraordinaire, Jennifer from The Unicorn's Delights, to play Disney tag. Of course instead of setting pen to paper and catch up in all the letters or write the promised posts on travel recap, I'm using this tag as a perfect excuse to keep procrastinating, so enjoy! 😇
*Some of these questions are SUPER hard! Lol 

Favorite Character: Donald Duck

Favorite Princess: Ariel

Favorite Heroine: Kim Possible

Favorite Prince: Eric

Favorite Hero: Probably Aladdin... things are starting to get complicated lol

Favorite Animal: See? SO hard! Can I say all of them? If not I guess at the moment I'll go with Figaro

such a cutie!

Favorite Sidekick: Pascal, Pegasus, all cute animals make excellent sidekicks... Lets go with Tink on this one just because I love her hehe.

Favorite Villain: Maleficent and Scar have always been tied

Found this perfect image online :D

Favorite Original Character: Aren't all of them original? I've already said Donald, Tink, Figaro, Kim P, so Marie, Moana, Pua, Simba...Just assume I love them all!

Favorite Love Song: If I Never Knew You from Pocahontas or Love Will Find a Way from Simba's Pride, I think...

Favorite Song: Could these be any harder?! Recently How Far I'll Go and the rest of the Moana soundtrack.

Favorite Villain Song: Scar's Be Prepared or Zira's That's My Lullaby

Least Favorite song: Hellfire from the Hunchback of Notre Dame

Favorite Kiss: Tied between Hercules & Meg, Ariel & Eric or Tiana Naveen

First Movie I Ever Saw: Either Dumbo or The Many Adventure's of Winnie the Pooh, it's all I watched for the first two-ish years of my life 😃

Favorite Classic: Alice in Wonderland, but really all of them. I love being able to see the pencil lines and hand painted backgrounds, all the art of true animation.

Song That Always Gets Stuck In Your Head: Shiny, It's a Small World, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Tiki Room, there's always something playing in my head, it's hard to identify them all 😜

Favorite Pixar Movie: Ratatouille

Least Favorite Movie: Valiant and/or Good Dinosaur 😞 They're just not up to par with Disney standards and it makes me sad.

Favorite Sequel: Lion King II: Simba's Pride

Overrated Movie: Right now, live action Beauty and the Beast ugh

Underrated Movie: So many! Oliver & Company, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, Meet the Robinsons, Tomorrowland...

Movie That Makes You Laugh: All of them, but I guess if I want to watch something and giggle the whole time it has to be the Adventures of Mr Toad!

Movie That Makes You Cry: Most of them, they're so full of emotions! I cry the most with Dumbo when Mrs. Jumbo is in jail though and I have to fast forward that bit before I become a complete mess.

Saddest Scene in Your Favorite Movie: If it's only in my fave movie then when Mufasa dies.

Saddest Death: Bambi’s Mom, Bing Bong and Ray!! 😭

Favorite Quote:

Favorite Theme Park: Tie between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom in FL. That being said, I haven't been to the Asian ones yet, and I love ALL the Disney Parks.

Favorite Attraction: Expedition Everest and Splash Mountain

Favorite Show: Kim Possible, Lion Guard, Sophia the First, Tangled the Series, Liv and Maddie, Star Darlings and Phineas and Ferb

I Tag: Well since my two Disney friends have already been tagged and the most loyal of Disney fans I know don't have a blog or these kind of posts don't fit into what they write about, I guess I'll leave it open to anyone who wants to play with us. 😉 Maybe I'll find some distracted iggles to tag on twitter LOL. 

(Very Belated) 2016 Recap

Coming to write a different post, I found I had this one in my drafts all ready to go but never got published. Wrote in on the go somewhere between Savannah and Cape Canaveral the day before I sailed on my New Year's cruise with my mom, but I lost access to the internet and then totally forgot abut it! Oops...Lol.
So here it is now with some minor editing, even though it is belated I hope you like it 😉

Despite what social media seemed to portray, 2016 was such a wonderful year for myself and most people I personally know, filled with love, new beginnings, adventures and learnings. It's been a year so full of life that it'll be hard to see it go but as I literally sail into the new adventure that 2017 will be I thought I'd share some highlights form 2016.

I started the year in the mountains, connecting with Nature and trying out new activities like Snow Shoeing! I also started my freshman year at the school of Earth Medicine and met a new friend at a Spiritual event in town, even though the friendship didn't last the entire year it was still a wonderful sign from the Universe that even though few, there are young people my age that have the same Spiritual approach to life 😊

In February I got my port removed finally closing the cancer/chemo cycle for good! The area hasn't totally healed yet but life is so much better without that metal and silicone pain device in my body! And to make it even better during my birthday celebration back in the mountains, I ran into my chemo  nurse so I was able to thank her and have a proper goodbye since I couldn't go back and see her at the hospital, as just driving by that place makes me nauseous. It was such a nice "full circle" kinda feeling.

March was the month I got represented by an art gallery in Manhattan! And a new chapter for my photography started 😀 I also got to meet new IGGPPC friends because of the club's birthday celebrations. Finally, by the end of the month and running into April, I got another mini-vacay to VT this time.

www.colibreephotogrart.com

April was great since it started on Spring break with one of my uncles, his whole family, my mom and I all together, so I got to play and catch up with my cousin before she finished her senior year of HS and moved to London! It was a very fun break for all of us to bond 💖

May was the calm before the storm, it was a lovely month to celebrate my mom's birthday and get a breather before everything that came with the second half of the year.

June meant the beginning of my summer classes and one of my cousin's destination wedding which not only turned into a hectic, 40hr getaway that was well worth it, as I got to see my siblings(cousins) and a few people I hadn't seen in years, but it turned out I could stay in Orlando on the way back and  see my bff as well as spend time in Disney with my strange-relationship person lol

July was a month of a lot of growth and adventure! Started in DisneyWorld and ended at a Roaring 20's party back home with an intense week of intuition classes on a retreat in upstate NY in the middle! This is where things started feeling like time was picking up speed and lessons were coming at me faster than I could process them! Who would have thought I could jump from 30ft high with just a tiny bar to hold on to?!

August was a trying month, it was so busy and I could not catch my breath but it had great lessons and opportunities for me to practice what I had learnt throughout the year so I'm putting it into the positive column as a month of growth.

September brought the last of my summer classes that despite me not liking them at all, they helped me decide on a lot of things for school on 2017, so they were really helpful after all, and the month also brought lots of beautiful photo opportunities as well as a new book club in town for all ages that meets in one of my favorite places around, a vegan bakery called Jodi Bee Bakes! So even though no new, local lasting friendships have been formed, the opportunity to have some energy exchange with new people has presented in the safest environment for me and I'm grateful for that.

October was Halloween month! That alone is the biggest highlight! Love, Love, Love. I also got some interesting, if painful life lessons that will help me grow stronger and energies shifted with Samhain :)

November, aside from Thanksgiving, had my first ever Manhattan art gallery show as its biggest highlight!

December was an ongoing lesson in Balance between my heart and head, and mind and body. Trying to finish everything I thought I needed to do before the end of the year and listening to my body's needs was tough. As well as trying to discern between all my jumbled thoughts and what really makes me happy. But of course it's biggest highlight was the last week of the month as I was road tripping down to Cape Canaveral! It was such a fun week and a great end of the year.

So, overall, even though like everything else the year had it's obstacles and at moments I felt a bit isolated and anti-social, I managed to see most of my entire blood-family, two out of three of the friends who are soul-family, did not quit on school which is huge for me, have worked on developing a more positive relationship with my body after all it's been through, got completely cleared of anything related to cancer, went on lots of adventures, and even though by the end of the year I was mostly just hanging with one single friend, she is so magical and fun and we get to be 5 and 6 y/o respectively that she is the right company. And before the trip, I did get to touch base and hang out with a few other friends so not bad at all.
The main lessons this past year seem to have been about Trust, Clearing the ego, Flexibility and Boundaries. I haven't "aced" them yet but at least I am aware of what I need to focus on resolving now.

So thank you 2016 for all your beautiful opportunities and lessons and thanks to all the cast of people in my life, whatever your soul contract is with me, whether we're still close or not, my year would not have been what it was if even one of you were missing.

Hope everyone had the best possible start to the new year! And now the most amazing first three months of 2017 💗

PS- Also it's been a great year for hair!! It started 2016 like on the left and now it's like on the right!!

A "Letter" of Apology to my Pen-Pals and Readers

Can’t believe it’s already the end of March and I’m just now returning to my blog (and most of my letters!)I’ve been busy traveling, having guests from out of town over, catching up with a few local friends, applying for new art contest and galleries and playing lol. But all my recent adventures will be recapped in upcoming posts, and none of these things are an excuse, I'm sorry for being so MIA lately. 

This post is to apologize to my readers, and most of all, my pen pals. I’ve been horrible lately at getting back at people. I know in the world of snail mail and blogging we all get behind sometimes, life happens and that’s ok. But I’ve seem to have developed a bad habit of late responding despite my promises to do better, and I feel bad about it cuz I have the best pen pals ever!
So here’s the deal that applies to both letters and blogging: Not so long ago I was talking with one of my teachers and she seemed to notice I was very stressed for putting too much on my own plate despite having way less to deal with than most people. I was aware of this but didn’t know how to fix it, (long story short I'm a Pisces with a Gemini moon which means my OCD goes from all to nothing while drowning in all the feels good and bad lol!)After a good talk she helped me realize I was making writing a chore, not that I don’t enjoy communicating with my friends and readers, but I kept adding it to the “work” pile rather than the Joy pile. My teacher made me revaluate things, making me ask myself and really remember why I got into writing letters and blogposts in the first place. 

I started writing letters as a way to form real connections and meet new friends all-around the world while I was going through chemo, and because I didn’t have the strength to pick up any big art projects, it was a way for me to get back into t my creativity and share it with others, spread joy! My first letters and envelopes had a lot more art in them than just washi and stickers.

Early 2015                                                                     Now😕

I got into blogging because there is still a writer in me somewhere and this seemed like a fun way, away from my family's, school's or general society's pressure and expectations to relate my soul journey to others, as well as serve the double purpose of giving big recaps of certain events to all my pen pals at once 😜

However, somewhere along the more recent line, my letter writing became all about “ticking them off” the to-do-list and always using pre-decorated paper; and I was racking my brain trying to come up with something meaningful for my blog every month. For this, I am sorry. You guys don’t deserve that, I don’t deserve that.
So I apologize for writing under that energy, even though I love you all. And I apologize for the delay in my responses. However, if I’m gonna be late responding, I might as well make it worth it and send you something beautiful that I’m proud to send and hope that it will be a source of cheer. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m re-focusing on quality and Joy over quantity and grouchiness lol.I’m not saying I’m expecting mail art from everyone, each of us have our own style. But neither you nor I deserve for my letters to you to be rushed, thought as something I just need to do, or not be the creative outlet I wanted it to be. I'm not saying either, I will never take advantage of stationery sets, I'm addicted to them haha! But I'm saying I will always strive to satisfy the creative in me one way or another, with every letter I write.As for my blog readers, I’m still here and excited to soon be sharing this trimester’s updates. But just as with my letters, I’ll come around only when inspiration really strikes and I can enjoy every second of sitting by the computer. I will not force myself to write on a gorgeous blue sky day when all I wanna do is play outside, nor will I submit you to read something that is not written in the highest possible energy. So aside from my apologies for my long interludes between writings, I am asking to all my readers, penpals or otherwise for your patience. And know that I’m often thinking of you and will always, always respond, no matter how long it takes. Know also that I am always grateful to have you in my life! 💗


Love and Light🌟

Happy Winter Holidays (On the Road)

Happy Winter Holidays from somewhere in NJ!

No matter what you celebrate, I hope that you are having a beautiful season and last week of the year!
This year I had to celebrate Solstice on the 18, partly because I couldn't find a celebration happening on the actual Solstice and partly because I was so busy getting ready for this trip, (I'm on my second day of road trip down south!)

Even though Halloween has always been my absolute favorite holiday, (when I was little I used to dream of growing up to design casual outfits for the entire month, because I assumed everyone wanted to be dressed in Halloweeny apparel all month without the burden of a costume at all times lol,) Winter Solstice has always been very important to me.
The Holiday season seems so magical, even if energetically it is less so that Halloween, people's mindsets shift and you can feel that in the air. I loved the Holiday season as a littler kid because I always felt like ghosts and badness could not get into the houses as long as you had the Xmas lights on, in my mind ghosts don't like all that cheeriness, nor Santa haha. I still love how the world feels safer during this time.

I've never celebrated Xmas religiously. But I've always loved the Pagan side of it. The tree, the holy and mistletoe decorations, the lights, the gifts and Santa!! All these are always so wonderful and magical and available to all because they have nothing to do with Christianity or any modern religion.

www.ColiBreePhotogrART.com

Winter Solstice is such a sacred time; as we experience the darkest day of the year, and get together to welcome the Light again, we acknowledge and thank the darkest parts of ourselves. The darkness brings a slower time of introspection, to sit with our own darkness, thank it and accept is so we can let it go into the Light. Things that have always been there surface for us to akckoledge them and heal them when the time is right, without this darkness there would be no growth just as it is in Nature.
This year I got to celebrate Solstice with one of my favorite persons and we went to an open Wiccan Circe in Rockport, (which is a beautiful town and looked even better with all the seasonal decorations) and in a sacred space by the fire and next to the ocean we got to raise energy for the World and the Universe, and welcomed the new Light into our lives :)

Christmas, despite the religious meaning people put into it and whatever extra rituals it follows that I may not know about, is most popular for the Pagan traditions it follows. When Nature seems to be dead, we bring an evergreen into our homes to honor the abundance of mother earth, and remind us that there is still hope and life persists, green is the symbolic color of life that will come back again with the Light. We use holy and mistletoe because they have always been considered sacred plants that are still used to this day for different medicines, physical and spiritual by some Native American groups and they guard against negativity. And all those fairy lights we decorate with shine on us when the Sun doesn't. Much like Solstice, there is a very strong significance between Light and Darkness in our Xmas traditions, because even though it's the darkest time of the year, these tiny lights shine brighter and look prettier when it's pitch black out. The dinner tradition is to share with our families and "clan members" the bounty that harvest brought and to sing and celebrate by the fire all that Earth has given us throughout the year until the darkness has passed and the Sun is "born again." And we also have the beautiful magic of Santa Clause, which even though it started with a real person in Nordic Europe, I do believe the jolly guy in a red suit does exist now a days as we all know him. Millions of kids believing in one thing every year and the collective unconscious do materialize something magical, even if it's only in the form of a spirit of wonder and generosity grown-ups rarely have otherwise.

Despite religion, these traditions are ancestral and very special in their own way. Whatever else you celebrate religiously during the holidays that's a different matter, but most of the rites we follow to these day are beautifully Pagan. And despite the extreme commercialization of the one holiday over all others this season, and the fact that a lot of people break away from any spirituality this time and focus only on material goods and alcohol, we can shift our perspectives and realize most people are breaking away from their mundane lives into a happier, more generous, more peaceful states of mind and all that energy combined does raise the entire planet's vibration.

So whatever you celebrate, hope you are enjoying the season and you take on some of the qualities you like the best abut this time of the year and carry them over throughout 2017.

Love and Light to all <3