Just stopping in to say hello and to congratulate you on your recent nomination at the BoB Weblog Awards 2004.

www.blogmechanics.com/bob

Hi Keri, in the summer I was very unhappy here in the UK where I live, in between jobs and needing new direction. Your journal cheered me so much I printed out chunks of it and kept it in a pretty file. I think the best medicine is to actually read back over your own journal! Especially all the inspirational quotes you've collected.
Jayne

Hi Keri,
Up then down, then up and on and around and so it goes. Life is not always what we expect and the choices we make do not always bear the fruit we envisioned. Nothing stays the same, ever, and this too shall pass. I think it is time for a good things list! That will move your focus and help brighten these dark days.

doodle moodle muddle - put on some music - dance - lie down. Watch a sunrise or sunset. Accept that this time of year is laiden with sadness.

Hi Sister. Here is some exciting news, I just mailed your Christmas package today, so it will be full of fun Christmas prezzies!!! love you little sister in Whistler. bye J

The smell and warmth and feel of a wriggling little month old puppy, flopping in your arms and trying to lick the skin off your face.

*sigh* She was so little then... just seven months ago.

Happy Thought:
Baby kisses, before they really know what kissing is and how it works and they just come at you with their mouth open and slobber on your cheek.

There's nothing like a good nap to silence the brain, clear the cobwebs and refresh the spirit. If you have a cat next to you (or on you), even better.

I'm wishing you some rest, Keri, for your weary spirit.

Happy thoughts-warm cocoa, red mittens, white sparkly snow. Look at all the colors int he snow-blues, pinks, violets. Sip some coca and take in the entire sensory experience-the color, the warm steam on your face..and buy yourself some new mittens-just because!

happy holidays keri.
hope that you are keeping warm with good teas and hot coa-coa, but i also hope you are finding the time of a good ol'fashion toboggan.

cheers
rhya

The lid fell off and clanked on the floor. Seven very happy thoughts ran out of the jar as fast as their pudgy little legs could carry them. It was all I could do to keep from stepping on them! I reached down to snatch them up, and off they flew. Suddenly so light and free. If you close your eyes just so, I'm sure you'll hear the sound of their wings fluttering. Right there. Just beside you. For you.

i just emailed you some cheer keri!
best wishes to you.

liquorice,yogi liquorice tea from Holland is so warming and invigorating.
Last night on our street here in the uk we had a power cut, no electricity for 5 hours.Arggh, what shall we do? Partner and daughter got guitars out and we caterwauled in the flickering candlelight to Bowie and the Beatles and the Kinks and many more.
Bad singing and crazy voices often help.
Sometimes this optimism stuff is hard to find so heres a small bit to thankyou for your inspiring work
many blessings.
(((winter)))

keri,

i too echo the words of many who have written in response to this post. i read your blog regularly and am so often inspired by you and it. of all the people in my life right now, you probably most embody the life i aspire to: living in nature though close to the city; supporting yourself by living your creative dreams; filling your days with curiosity and making; being in a loving relationship. i know too, it's easy to romaticize other peoples' lives as perfect, when of course we all have our hardships.

like one of the other people who responded, i was also recently laid off from a job that was slightly deadening and am now "free" to write full-time. life can deliver funny packages at funny times.

finally, i've been listening to bjork's new album a lot lately and am often struck by these words from track 6:
carry my joy on the left
carry my pain on the right

love & encouragement to you, sparky,
susannah

keri,
like everyone before me has already said - you have been a source of inspiration and joy by selflessly sharing your creativity and warmth with all who are lucky enough to read your journal (and book). i wish i could send you some of that back. perhaps you are at a point of great spiritual growth right now. i once read that the most honest and profound spiritual growth only takes place through tribulation.be kind to yourself and know that blessings are being sent your way...love, lyn
ps. have you read "A Circle Of Quiet" by Madeleine L'Engle?

i cant remember how many times your words have echoed the feelings in my heart, which i couldnt quite verbalize. I cant thank you enough for the many times you helped me just shift perspective so tha things didnt look quite that bad. your journal has been a true comfort, and i am using all my energy to send you good karma!

yhea , it is all too quickly when one's mood changes, and the out settings out there really affects my emotion, yesterday i saw the light moon suspending in the deep-blue sky, quite slim,and bright. when i look at that moon, i suddenly felt like not living in this world , not staying in this school campus at all, but some place far away where entity and even emotions could touch.and when i got back to my classroom, i got a quite calmed heart , leaving all the tough things away , i think that is just how some little things, little change of behavior can change a person.
by the way , i am looking forward for a snow here now, how lucky you are to enjoy the snow for such a long time.
have a good time:)

yeah . . . I second all of the kind words from your bloggish people who love you so. . . and may I confess something? Sometimes I read your blog and I feel envy - for your relationships that seem so incredibly nurturing, for your home in the woods, for your creative career, for your love and surrender to flow in your days, to the creativity that flows through you, to how organized and disciplined you are. And then you post about your wonky plumbing and money worry, the jagged places where you get caught inside, the sadness that weighs at you, too. And I remember that living is challenging for all of us, even someone as beautiful and radiant and full of creative vibrancy as you are :) Thank you so much Keri for sharing your salty and your sweet with us . . . :)

Sorry Keri, I forgot...The quote is from Chateaubriand. Mémoirs d´outre-tombe.

"Les moments de crise produisent un redoublement de vie chez les hommes.Moments of crisis produce a redoubled vitality in men"
I send you; right now, one big happy thought!!
n.

I'm sending you hugs and the gentle passing of time until you feel right side up again. Hang in there- "This too shall pass."

Keri,

I am sending warm sunshine from Los Angeles. I know how you feel. I was 'let go' yesterday from a job I really didn't like. I kept wishing that I could write fulltime. I forgot how powerful wishes are..Now I need to wish for a publisher..:) Julie

Reading your blog and your book has meant so much to me. I hope my good thoughts reaching out to you can return the favor a little

i think it is working. i feel slightly stronger today, able to do a little more than yesterday.

thank you so much. my heart is so very moved by your words, the pain in it lessened. i am not alone. don't we all need to know that sometimes?

much love
k.

sometimes one just needs a hug and a pot of tea. i hope you get both.

There are shootings stars everywhere

Silent winter
Hush my soul
Show me what really matters....

Thank you for sharing your life and your creativity. You are an inspiration to me....

"This too shall pass...."

Snow angels to join the snow turtles, hot cocoa or soup and remember to breathe (sometimes the most difficult part of it). Wrapping you in happy thoughts.

Happy thoughts coming at you! I hope you feel better very soon.
xo,penelope

happy thoughts! freshly squeezed orange juice on a wintry morning (and new peels waiting to dry)... pretty papers for books... a flash of red as a cardinal perches on the nearest tree... warm ginger cookies... a steady needle!

and many thanks for your gracious sharing of your art, your thoughts, and your life to inspire the rest of us! you make a difference, even when you think you couldn't possibly reach beyond yourself some days...

bundle up, and let the silence of the snow give your soul some rest...

spend time with someone who makes you laugh. and ill share a favourite quote with you, "At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities."
Jean Houston
and another one...
"You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants."
Stephen King, "Hearts in Atlantis"

big hugs & warm, fuzzy happys comin' atchya!
blessings a. xxx

Can I send you a bar of peppermint handmade soap? Or a chocolate lipbalm? Will those perk you up? Hope so.

Happy thoughts winging there way to you right now. Actually I'm feeling a bit stagnant too just now. I haven't drawn in days and I have a pile of dishes waiting to be washed (can that really be mould in one saucepan?!). Ho hum...

Imagine a little wooden airplane, painted all sorts of colors in tempra paint -- navy blue, black, fuschia, neon orange, yellow and kelly green. Imagine the paint dripdripdripping as it dries, and a little boy's panicked shouts: "Catch the drips! Why is the paint sticking up?" Imagine fixing the paint drips a bit, but not wanting to fix them entirely -- there is the rest of life to perfect the process, and besides...perfect is boring. Repeat this last part: Perfect is boring. Come back to peace. It is right where you left it.

I send you a cup of really hot yummy tea and a perfect shortbread cookie to go with it. An hour with nothing on your to do list except read a great book and watch the snow fall outside. A cozy warm blanket by the fire. Some great music playing softly in the background.

"I began cramming my brain with all kinds of deep poems. It seemed like I'd been pulling an empty wagon for a long time and now I was beginning to fill it up and would have to pull harder."

I just read this, from Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume 1. Good reminder that growing is hard work, but once that wagon is full, man, look out!

Pa~Zing! Happy thoughts sent across the airwaves from Aus!

I felt the same way a few days ago ~ I wrote in my blog (http://www.leonielife.com/journal/journal.html)

"THE RAINS

Feeling really emotional lately. And tired. Let's not forget tired. Tired like, if I closed my eyes I'd fall asleep. And emotional. Let's not forget emotional.

Emotional like, songs on the radio make me well up. As do Christmas carols in the bookstore. Anything remotely sad. Like if someone said my name, I might just burst into tears. For no real reason but I'm emotional.

So today at lunch, I took my tired, emotional self out for a walk. We went and got a Boost juice ~ strawberry, pineapple, orange ~ called the Waterfall Juice. And we drank it and it felt damn good.
And we rode escalators, and I could feel myself just wanting to keep on riding those elevators for a while. The wonder of the concept of standing still, but still being moved soothed me. And we looked at pretty things and books
Things to calm me. Block out the world. Cushion the thumping in my head. And we kept drinking our juice until we could face the day again.

I am in my moon phase at the moment, intermittently wallowing and rejoicing in it.

It has been raining and storming all day
and as I stood in the pouring rain waiting for the bus this afternoon,
the weather reflected me
the rain within my belly rained with the outside world
it was one of those poetic moments in life.
just me, at the bus stop, rain inside and out.

And that's okay."

Dearest Keri, the snows, like the rain, will pass.

blessings to you,
leonie

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

~Eleanor Roosevelt said that in a book to me tonight, and i have been feeling so extremely sad these past few days and it lifted me a little...hopefully you are feeling some of the love that so many others obviously share for you Keri! ~

(snow angel hugs)

some happy thoughts flying at you from southeast asia! hot chocolate for melancholia? hot chocolate for everything! :-)

Happy thoughts are found among snow turtles scattered on front lawns. The building of snow turtles must commence.

Happy words, greasy fryed delicious latke, candles in the window, All in the Family reruns now that was acting, glorious sky meets glorious land, family, friends, just the in breathe and the out. I like your heavy heart words today, just remember to be tender with yourself and to know heavy heart comes to those that feel deeply, and would you feel any other way?

Keri - Awww.... You are not alone. We all feel heavy and lonely or unenthused(sp?) about our lives @ times. It always helps to tell myself when I feel in a funk that everything is temporary and there is no permanence (sp?) to the state I am in.
~If it helps at all, you have a couple of times taken me out of my funk just by reading your journal. You are inspirational and live such a lovely life.
~Hope you feel better soon!! You will!! Cheers - and fake feeling better to make it!!

Dear Kerry,

I have been reading you and enjoying your great drawings for a while now, but too shy to make myself known.
Here is my favourite recipy against the episodic "snow blues" : wrap yourself in your favourite scarf, buy a hot drink to keep you warm and find a nice schoolyard or ice ring to enjoy and share the energy and joy of kids!
Take care,

Delph

words for you:
scrumptious. middling. puddle. liquid. cushion. martial.

and please send the snow this way. thank you.

Ahh, I've been there... catch, here are some happy thoughts!