Author: naphtalia

I am an artist, a friend, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a creator.

Cool People

There are a great many people in the world cooler than I.  Not a huge reveal, I know.  Yet somehow this fact surprises me from time to time.  As a writer, I do spend a great deal of time by myself and am therefore, by default, often the coolest person in the room.  Today I was reminded of the great coolness out there.

Yes, there is a long list of people I personally know who display great coolness in their art, poetry, dwellings, cars, and literary references.  However, here are two strangers who just struck me today.

First, I met a teacher for whom I substituted today.  I was no match for her J Crew-catalog-shoot presence.  She’s together; I’m not.  I have no idea how she teaches 1st grade in heels and perfectly pressed slacks.  I wear wrinkled Gap pants, a menswear flat stained by the denim I wear the rest of my life, and the same two sweaters every week.  This girls owns her presence and I think that’s cool.

Second, I was up-ed by the bagger girl at the grocery show.  Whatever her story is, her unmitigated confidence cleverly tattooed across her body told me that it was worth listening to.  She’s got guts; I don’t.  It took me three years to come up with a tattoo idea I thought I could handle the rest of my life.  I really liked it, but I didn’t get it for want of extra cash.  Then, surprise–the idea base was broken to bits this year and I wouldn’t want that heritage on my back right about now.  This girl owns her story and I think that’s cool.

In this, I see coolness as an ownership of self. I am who I am and I do what I do because it makes the most sense to me. Further, it somehow makes me more of a person, growing more interesting with each decision I make.

Me? I own my comfort. I am comfortable in my clothes that can stand to be messed with finger paint. I am comfortable with my silence, holding my story as my own for a time.

You just never know who you will run into out there in life’s little adventures.  I am reminded today to go boldly and go humbly.  I am not that cool, but I am cool enough.

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I Don’t Even Have An iPhone

As I walked into work today, I spotted something gorgeous in my co-worker’s hand.  It wasn’t even her sleek iphone.  It was her even sleeker iphone case.  It was wood.  Bamboo, to be exact.

I know that I am quite often un-hip, so I’m not surprised that I have never heard of this before today.  However, I am delighted that companies like Grove in Portland, Oregon are crafting natural accoutraments into our technological lives.  It is grounding to hold part of a tree in your hand.

It’s a pricey option, but if your already spending all that money on your coolness, you may as well add a little depth of soul.  Besides, you can actually have your own artwork engraved on a case like this–so say Grove fans.

I’m envisioning a Rilke poem to match my iPod.

Two asides:

1. The first picture is birds and I love birds, but only in pictures or in real life, if they are raptors.  The second picture is an iPhone case made from a recycled skateboard, which was not made from bamboo, as far I know.

2. I believe that iPhones do not merely reflect coolness or a desire for coolness (hipster coolness or otherwise), but also often reflect busy-ness and/or a desire to connect with one’s virtual community of friends acquired by simply living in the 2010’s (real life made virtual, combined, or merely virtual).  All these are valid in my book, Naphtalia Does Life: 2010 edition.

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Thanksgiving Games

Games I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

Yahtzee
Cadoo
Name the States and Capitals
Spelling Bee

Without these games, Thanksgiving would have been a knotted mass of nerves.

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Silence In A Book

I am currently reading Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris.  Thanks to my dear friend who passed this book to me over the weekend.  If you have a good book, pass it to your friend today.  You know you’ve been thinking of it.

Here’s my favorite line so far from this blessing:

“Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go.”

This is page 17; I am full of hope for the encouragement I will find in the rest of this book.

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All Things

All things define me and I define all things.  Just as images break free other images, I am constantly breaking out of myself, running into something else, which changes into a new substance, which, in turn, changes me again.  I am constantly being defined and redefining.

In this, I have a great deal of choice in what I am and my affect upon the world.  I can redefine myself by positively redefining my surroundings.  The process turns in on itself and eventually spreads to greater reaches while at the same time deeply changing me.

Since I am clearly discussing the meta-physical self here, it makes sense to apply this concept to spirituality.  Spiritually, I used to feel like an orange being pressed through a juicer.  Whatever came out was my natural, unaltered spirituality.  Over the years, my natural spirit dried for too much pressing.   (By pressing, I generally mean “meeting expectations.”)  I was unsure how to be re-formed into more fruit.  How do I become more of an orange when all my juice is gone?  Don’t get me wrong, I was trained on how to do this.  I was well-acquainted with Aquinas, Finney, and other great examples of fervent faith.   I went to Bible college.  But somehow, in the midst of all this literal teaching, my spirit did not learn how to leap into newness each day.  My spirit did not learn how to seize opportunities for redefinition.

I thought, if I am an orange, I must always be an orange.  My imperfections are faults that I must strive to eliminate.  Little did I know, I did not have to be an orange.

Today, I am choosing a spiritual reincarnation.  I choose to no longer be an orange, but a mixture of flour, water, and the yeast of God’s encouragement.  I will take what is around me today, mix it into myself, and become new.  I choose to leap forward with the joyful knowledge that good is around me and I will be redefined into more good.  I will be kneaded, let to rest, then kneaded again by the goodness that I find physically in my home and spiritually in my heart.

This is my magic: I am never the same from moment to moment, being defined by all things and defining all things around me.

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