inspiration and stimulation for our current projects
Are there really plans to discontinue Elf on a Shelf? Terrible news and rotten timing - 2024 has been rough enough without this downer.
Has humanity lost its sense of humor? Elf on the Shelf was intended to create cheerful holiday moments and precious family memories to last a lifetime.
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| Russ Toys vintage troll elf |
The Elf on the Shelf is the title of a 2005 American picture book for children. Written by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell - comes complete with a scout toy elf.
It's Thanksgiving Day in the US - as the nation grieves the loss of an imagined future we held such high hopes for. Hard to count blessings in grateful thanks under the thunderous revenge rhetoric of Republicans hollering their hate and democrats spewing their disappointment.
As the world quakes and crumbles in the wake of yet another Trumpian win - we are forced to root deeper in search of source and spirit. It is here, always and eternal - hard as it is to reach for and realize in the haze of too much smoke and mirrors of late.
wonder | wander | world willfully puts together a gratitude list - as we mindfully recreate time honored traditions of thanksgiving. Remember those special moments when families gathered around the Thanksgiving table?
At its heart, Halloween is an astronomy holiday. It’s a day rooted in Earth’s orbit around the sun. It’s a cross-quarter day and a testament to our ancestors’ deep understanding of the sky.
October 31 marks the approximate midway point between the September equinox and the December solstice. This means Halloween also an astronomy holiday, and one of the year’s four cross-quarter days.
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| Learn about the four seasonal Quarter Days in the ancient Celtic calendar. |
Some historians are divided as to whether the ancient Celts observed the solstices and equinoxes (quarter days). Some believe that the Celts divided the year into just four major sections: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh (cross-quarter days).
Our wonder | wander | world pick of the week is the latest bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell's "Revenge of the Tipping Point." Building on a familiar idea from his books, he continues doing what he does best - poking the bear.
You may think you know how the world works, but you're wrong! The provocative Gladwell talks with correspondent David Pogue about why he's refused to change his approach, his work ethic, or his contrarianism.
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| the latest release |
Its title proclaimed an alluring idea - a social trend or behavior might spread slowly until a tipping point, when it reaches just enough people, and then suddenly it's everywhere, like an epidemic.
Businesses and activists loved this, even as critics questioned some of Gladwell's findings. Recently, he started an update to that book and decided instead on a total rewrite.
"The job of a journalist is to go and talk to people who know something specific that the rest of the world needs to know about and to translate what they say in a way that makes sense to a broad audience. That is the job description. I'm like, yes. Of course. That's why I wake up in the morning, to do exactly that." ~ Malcolm Gladwell
Equinox has arrived, 22nd September. It marks the entry into a new season and chapter of life.
Dorothea Lucaci image
Equinox is a day of balance, and when we come into stillness, to deep listen and align to the natural laws that govern the orbit of the earth around the sun, the orbit of the sun around the galaxy, the orbit of the galaxy around the universe, the orbit of our protons, neutrons and electrons around the nucleus.
We begin to see lasting change.
When we are in flow we are no longer swimming against the currents.Colors have been used to stand for major human traits of love, purity, innocence - as well as death, destruction, and loss by artists, poets, and authors throughout the ages.
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| seven & twelve color circles - 1708, attributed to Claude Boutet |
These are basically similar to the original symbolism of colors, like red stands for love, yellow stands for energy, green for a new life as well as jealousy, blue for beauty, and purple for royalty.
It is meteor shower season and summer skies are ablaze in their glory - where it's clear of thunderstorms, that is.
The final, infinite frontier of space has captured the imagination of humanity since the days of prehistory, and it seems the more we learn about the universe, the more we realize just how little we actually understand it.
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| the expanding universe - NASA image |
From black holes to giant stars to distant planets, there are innumerable celestial objects out there for us to study, probe, and marvel at. Certainly, the most visually beautiful and awe-inspiring of all, are nebulae.
In 2020 when COVID-19 was so new to many of us wonder | wonder | world heard an episode on The Shaman’s Cave centered on summer solstice.
In a wind journey that wound us back to the previous solstice in September, Renee Baribeau discussed the change in season and led us to reflect on our lives from the solstice in September to the solstice in June.
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| tropical arrangement from our backyard |
Sandra Ingerman led us on a ceremony to honor the Earth and reflect on regaining our space in life to stay in balance - providing some tools to navigate the upcoming changes.
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| singing in the rain - bird on a wire & a restive Mt. Kanla-on |
“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.” ~ Anaïs Nin.
We are born of water - its salt and brine are in our blood and veins. The tides work their constant ebb and flow on us. The waves wash over us - carrying us to distant shores from our island home through rough or calm oceans of great depths and vast expanse.
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| Annette Kellerman in Queen of the Sea, 1918 |
It is no wonder that we are daughters of the seas - wild and untamed, willful and free. We wander in wonder - exploring what the world has to offer, delighting in our own self discovery. We plumb the currents of countless coasts, we slither sleek and smooth through dreamtime, daydreams, and visions.
It is no wonder our power animal is a mermaid, at least one of them. These sirens of the sea - half-human, half-fish - legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures, ancient and ageless.
Although no evidence of aquatic humanoids has been found belief persists that we swam in oceans before we ever found a foothold on land.
The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. Magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 30,000 years ago - when modern humans gained dominion over the land and presumably began to sail the seas.
Atlantis, Lemuria, Mauritia, Thule - these lost lands still have their hold in our veins and lively imagination. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples?
A question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists? Or one best answered by questers, seekers, and dreamers? Who is to say? We can all dream up whatever we desire.
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| a collection of poems |
hot! Hot! HOT! April has us burning up - inside and out, inner and outer worlds on fire. As we move into May we are eager for a break, ready to breathe easier, pull back and retreat.
Here in our little world, the humid heat and hectic doings in our island home leave us panting and plastered. wonder | wander | world pick for this week is a regular and reliable site we rely on to guide and focus us.
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| post on Instagram |
When it comes to intuitive astrology and spiritual wisdom, Forever Conscious has been our go to fave over the years.
Up above and all around us we've been inundated these past months with Eclipse Season, Mercury Retrograde, and the rare and special alignment of Jupiter and Uranus.
May is a good month to slow down and focus on what we truly value. As we journey through the cosmic energies of May, we are eager to gain greater awareness, expansion of some kind, and a deeper clarity on the journey of transformation we are moving through.
As Mercury stations direct, we may receive deeper insights and see a clearer path forward. A new or higher truth may also be revealed to us, helping to change our thinking or the direction we’ve been traveling in.
Here's to a new month and new beginnings for us all!
Back when we were young and impressionable, the writing of Rachel Carson introduced us to topics and issues that opened up our world. At wonder | wander | world we are forever grateful for sharing her stories and insights with us.
a classic introduction to the wonders of nature
Author, biologist, conservationist, and leading pioneer of the global environmental movement - her life, legacy, and revolutionary writing have greatly impacted the world. We give homage to the literature and environmental education she shared - which still remain our treasured and eternal companion.
Rachel Louise Carson is well known for her Silent Spring book (1962) that challenged the use of chemical pesticides and launched an environmental movement. Not many knew that before she wrote about the silencing of birds she was a marine biologist and wrote a trilogy about the ocean.
In her essay and book The Sense of Wonder - when her grandnephew visits Carson for a summer at her cottage in Maine - together they wander through the surrounding woods and tide pools.
Teaching Roger about the natural wonders around them - she relates to her readers how she too experiences them anew - sharing these same magical moments of awe with us, her audience.
Learn more about her story and legacy. Read her writing for yourself - it is the ideal way to honor her on Earth Day this April 22.
Mandalas are a fun an in-depth method of tracking personal cycles of growth and development. Throughout the ages the most admired and discussed symbol of divinity and art is the mandala.
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| a fully colored mandala |
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| original uncolored mandala on Behance |
Mandala Cycles now has its own community page as well on Facebook. Created to provide support and collaboration among colorists of all ages.
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| invest in women & benefit all |
2020 "I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights" 2021 Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world 2022 Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow 2023 DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality 2024 Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress
In conversation today we wondered and meandered over human dynamics and how they have come to be. Especially within families - how we perceive and are in turn perceived, what bonds and binds us, what stories are told, embellished, and retold?
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| some women diarists featured in the new anthology |
Sarah Gristwood's Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries, is a captivating anthology of women's dominant emotion in the past 400 years - a recurring theme in their journals written between 1599 and 2015.
This book is a collection of extracts from women’s diaries, looking back over four centuries to discover how women’s experience has changed over the years and how it hasn’t.The variety of entries, the process of women writing in diaries and how they were preserved, the importance of daily records, how it's changing in the digital age, and what Sarah hopes people will take away from her latest release.
This book is an enthralling retrospective of well-known diarists and more obscure ones. The rich mix of incredibly voices often echoing down the centuries sound eerily familiar today.
wonder | wander | world thoroughly recommend this fun and fabulous read. Read it! Read it! Read it!
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| Quinglong, god of the East, Green Dragon |
Here at wonder | wonder | world we regularly share a week pick that inspires us or something special we recommend to our viewers.
The thriving and insightful community of We'Moon is one of our regular favorites. These wise women are a constant and deep well filled to overflowing with artful illustrations and insightful ideas.
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| 2024 We'Moon Datebook |
We recommend tuning into the weekly Star Codes - beautiful and insightful lunar news released every weekend. Daily predictions and planetary interpretations are paired with a lovely art feature.
Anne Brontë, the last of the Brontë children, was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England on 17 January 1820. Meek and more religious-minded than Charlotte or Emily, little is known about her life compared to the lives of her more popular sisters.
The Brontë sisters like many women writers at the time published their poems and novels under male pen names so that their work might be taken seriously in the male-dominated literary world of the 19th century: they were Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. ~ The Attagirls on Twitter
Anne Brontë: the radical sister overlooked by history
Anne's first novel was Agnes Grey (1847), based on her experience as a governess. It didn't get much attention, but her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), was an immediate success. She met with fierce criticism for her work despite its huge popularity.
Aside from being book worms, here at wonder | wander | world we are great fans of movies and television as well. It is a joy to discover that LitHub, a favorite go-to - has now released their recommended list for 2024.
Their 2024 literary film and TV preview features 53 shows and movies to be on watch. From what it looks like we are definitely in for a wild and fun ride.
Check them out here as posted on the LitHub site.
"Happy 2024—may it be better than 2023 2022 2021 2020 you expect. To that end, here are a selection of literary films and tv shows hitting screens large and small in the year to come. Might as well entertain ourselves while the world burns. (NB that premiere dates are subject to change, and plenty haven’t been announced yet, especially in the second half of the year.)"
Thank you Emily Temple for her succinct and delightful previews listed here - well done. We eagerly await their release.
Dive in folks - for the best entertainment of the year!
As we strive to connect with the universe to unlock its secrets and our innate potential - the divine feminine has been a potent concept in human history.
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| Goddess Maat, Egyptian, date unknown via the British Museum |
The manifestation of feminine energy in the universe is the energy inside everyone associated with creativity, fertility, and intuitive thinking. It is a sacred power source that is both integral to the nature of the universe and inherent in ourselves.
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| Goddess Tellus relief, Ara Pacis, circa 13- 9 BCE |
