Luscious Living Blog by Kim McMechan

Happy summer, dear ones.

 Yes, it’s been so terribly long.

If you are ever looking for me and I’m not here, I’m often HERE.

 But these days, I have actually been away, or at the very least, not at my computer.  The summer has been filled with long beach days, road trips and music.  The highlight, I think, was an hour and a half of morning yoga on a bluff overlooking the sea, where I literally laughed out loud as a bald eagle circled above me.  One of life’s most exquisite moments.  The low point was definitely my attempt to take my 2 kids, alone, to the Vancouver aquarium, which I implore you NEVER to do.  But regardless, as August unwinds, I find myself trying to suck the marrow of out of its last sweet days.

 So I wanted to tell you about a few things I’ve recently fallen in love with:

For all you photography junkies out there like myself, this site will come as a lovely treat for you.  It’s a gathering of women, some mothers, some not, who chronicle their lives through photography and post them here. 

And this reminds me to tell you about a great photography posting site called FLICKR where you can set up your photographs and network with other photographers, and it’s all free.  I’m totally LOVING it.

 Also, I am trying very hard not to go HERE every day to see what Katherine Newman has posted, since reading her lovely little book this summer and found myself, towards the end of it feeling so so sad that it was going to be over.  You know those books?  Sigh.

 Now if you’ll excuse me, for some reason there is dried pee on my bed and I’m off to find out why and figure out whether or not I can cram a whole queen sized duvet into our regular sized washing machine…

Popularity: 13% [?]

When my first daughter was born, and I entered a year-long period of intense depression, I invented a list for myself called “10 Beautiful Things”. 

 I did this because the main quality of my depression was that the world seemed to be a grey, dreary place devoid of any beauty at all.  I was vaguely familiar with the concept that ‘what you focus on expands’ and in my desperation, I forced myself to focus on the beautiful things even though, at the time, it felt nigh near impossible. 

 My first list went something like this:

1.  I have legs  2.  I have arms  3. I have hair.

 I remember barely being able to get past number 4 the first few times.  But something magical happened with those lists.  I began to look for beauty instead of waiting for it to come to me, I began to search for it in every crack…. “The light on the floor” I’d write.  “The blackbird on the fence”.  Until after awhile, it seemed to be everywhere again.

 I’d love to say that this optimism stuck, but the truth is, my mind has this icky habit of imagining worst case scenarios for everything.  And so, I return to these lists over and over again to dig myself out of bad places. 

 I once had a blog where I posted these regularly, and recently, I’ve felt the need to do so again.  Here’s my list of 10 beautiful things.  Feel free to join me and post yours here too.   I’ll be posting these regularly.

10 Beautiful Things:

1.  My new white curtains

2.  That it’s finally summer

3.  The Peonies in the flower beds

4.  My green bike

5.  Sitting by the water today for awhile

6.  The new neighbors

7.  A stack of new library books

8.  The sound of the wind outside

9.  Ella’s eyelashes

10.  Iryn’s long whispy hair

Popularity: 29% [?]