July 2025 – The Used Life
9 posts published by theusedlife during July 2025| The Used Life
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female) Since my last photography post, I made a few updates to the birds’ backyard space. First, I replaced two old feeders that had started looking dingy and/or that I was struggling to keep clean. I also did a thorough cleaning and disinfecting of all the feeders and baths, as well as raking […]| The Used Life
We’ve Never Been Here Before, paper collage, 2025 Intuition gives outlook and insight; it revels in the garden of magical possibilities as if they were real. – C. G. Jung On Wednesday afternoon, a shipment of fifteen 1950s National Geographic magazines I’d ordered from eBay arrived in the mail…and I couldn’t wait to dive in! […]| The Used Life
what does it mean to live a life?wash teeth. organize. set water to the plants. mimic this order for-ever and ever.make the walls sing, this i know, and dance while you cook,tossing salt over your left shoulder as you gohave patience, rise gratefully, and stir slowly—the cosmos are listeningdo laundry as stars fold into the […]| The Used Life
Mourning Dove I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. – e.e. cummings My bird feeders have been extremely busy over the past several weeks–so busy, in fact, that I am going through twice as much seed as I go through in the wintertime. There […]| The Used Life
A Long Forgotten Memory, paper collage, 2025 Here are some new experiments in collage art. I hope you enjoy this collection. Interface, paper collage, 2025 Natural Wonders, paper collage, 2025 Stuc…| The Used Life
I was sitting in bed having coffee this morning listening to the raindrops fall outside my window, the cat snuggled up behind my knees, when I was struck by a thought, or series of thoughts, that I believe are worth sharing. I grabbed my notebook and jotted them down. Here is a slightly more polished […]| The Used Life
In the beginning, in the time that was no time, nothing existed but the Womb. And the Womb was a limitless dark cauldron of all things in potential: a chaotic blood-soup of matter and energy, fluid as water yet mud-solid with salts of the earth; red-hot as fire yet restlessly churning and bubbling with all […]| The Used Life
Adult male I create a post about Ruby-throated Hummingbirds every summer and every year I run into the same problem: I struggle to get a shot of the ruby throat. Adult males of this species don rub…| The Used Life
To the Moon and Back, paper collage, 2025 Here are some new experiments in collage art. A few notes about this collection…first, there are lots of layers. I’ve been in the mood to work with layers lately. You may also notice more of the same spacey skies that have been recurring in my artwork over […]| The Used Life
A recipe has no soul. You as the cook must bring soul to the recipe. – Thomas Keller The kitchen, for me, is the center of the home. It is a sacred space, a place of ritual, intention, and celebration, a place where poetry is made. And cooking isn’t just about nourishment. It’s about comforting […]| The Used Life
Cosmic Swim, paper collage, 2025 I don’t like naming my collages. That’s one of the reasons I typically choose simple descriptive titles. I don’t like analyzing my work, and I don…| The Used Life
Sea View, paper collage, 2025 I recently scooped up a vintage book of undersea photographs at a local antique shop. The backdrop of Sea View is my favorite image in that book. In fact, it’s a…| The Used Life
Blue Jay Summer is the busiest time of year for me with regard to bird feeding. Most of that is due to weather: hot, humid days and frequent afternoon thunderstorsms mean cleaning and refilling fee…| The Used Life
I view the feminine within, first and foremost, as a source of vitality. When I am in sync with the feminine, I feel very strongly myself. I experience myself in a way that feels powerful, sensual,…| The Used Life
Artwork by Elowen Digital I do not have children, and for a long time, I believed that raising a child was the singular most important role of the “mother” or “divine mother” archetype. As I’ve mat…| The Used Life
Image from percepolegatto.com.br The harmony of the world is made manifest in Form and Number, and the heart and soul and all the poetry of Natural Philosophy are embodied in the concept of mathema…| The Used Life
Several of the self-fashioning narratives I’ve written over the past few months have been in response to life events. Nothing major—just some challenges and challenging emotions that needed to be d…| The Used Life
If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor. – Joseph Campbell A thought that came to mind this morning: there is a ritual taking place within you all the time. The quest…| The Used Life
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. – C. S. Lewis There are few activities I enjoy more than curling up with a good book. I’m always reading somethin…| The Used Life
just sit for a moment and remember that spring, too, hangs sideways and the moon on a length of threadhow often the evenings are love-strung and cloaked in unspeakable mystery the dipping birds asp…| The Used Life
In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety. – A. H. Maslow A thought for today: often, when we hope and pray for a change in circumstance…| The Used Life
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. – Anaïs Nin Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside of you …| The Used Life
I published a short post yesterday about the dangers of allowing our tools and technologies to become defense mechanisms. It is my opinion that that’s what happens when we use technology as a subst…| The Used Life
What I am saying is that the danger exists that our technology will serve as a buffer between us and nature, a block between us and the deeper dimensions of our own experience. Tools and techniques…| The Used Life
Artwork by Elowen Digital One of the first self-fashioning narratives I wrote when I started this project eight years ago was titled, “On Feeling Like a Woman.” I’ve been thinking of revising that …| The Used Life
Ernest Howard Shepard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons when the madness knocks at your door, my child, never forget that your ancestors are butterfliesand the trees are your friends I hate the…| The Used Life
A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so muc…| The Used Life
Thrive, paper collage, 2025 A thought that came to mind while I was collaging this morning: if the world’s on fire, let it be. It is rare to feel that everything in our lives is as it should be. Th…| The Used Life
You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesfor a hundred miles through the desert repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your bodylove what it loves. – Mary Ol…| The Used Life
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous s…| The Used Life
Experiments in the Art of Mastering None| The Used Life
It perhaps goes without saying that there are certain archetypal influences, or trends, in our personalities that are more dominant than others. That emerge more frequently and that exert a more pr…| The Used Life
Cosmic Field, paper collage, 2025 All real living is meeting. – Martin Buber If you want to create a revolution within yourself, stop treating your environment like an “it”—like it has no sou…| The Used Life
I find it helpful to think of the feminine archetypes as potential sources of inner power. If I can consciously harness their energy, they will serve as a wellspring of richness, texture, and vital…| The Used Life
a wind for shipsif i am swaying in the shadowsand a ground to walk onif these feet and their quantum starfishfall silent in the midriff is it poetry that pours out of us,as memories play octagons w…| The Used Life
White-throated Sparrow I realize I haven’t posted any bird photos in awhile; although, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been out taking photographs. To the contrary: I have a huge back…| The Used Life
Artwork by Willow from Thelostcauldron Since I resumed this self-fashioning project in January, I feel as if I have been working at a break-neck pace. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see this pro…| The Used Life
Artwork by Willow from Thelostcauldron An old alchemist gave the following consolation to one of his disciples: “No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly an…| The Used Life
matter is zen; matter on kitchen countertopsand sidewalks leaping with artificial light matter is probable, even necessaryif you believe the newspapersmatter is dead, they say. only a poem kicks up…| The Used Life
If you’re sad, add more lipstick and attack. A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life. -Coco Chanel For me, Sunday is a day of slow, rejuvenating routines. I often spend Sunday morning…| The Used Life
Artwork by Elowen Digital if you see me in heaventell the gardener i lived sumptuously as pomegranates do I awoke this morning with a desire to publish a post on the subject of creating ambiance, o…| The Used Life
Northern Cardinal (female) If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough. – Meister Eckhart Feeding the birds is also a form of prayer. – Pope Pius XII It snowed yeste…| The Used Life
Tree Lounge, paper collage, 2025 Here are some new experiments in collage art. I hope you enjoy this collection. Between Worlds, paper collage, 2025 Stepped On, paper collage, 2025 Reading Spot, pa…| The Used Life
The receptivity of the artist must never be confused with passivity. Receptivity is the artist’s holding him or herself alive and open to hear what being may speak. – Rollo May I know a…| The Used Life
I often think that our capacity for complicating the stuff of everyday life is endless. And the chief result of those complications is that we are robbed of the ability to enjoy life. I think the r…| The Used Life
I take pleasure in my transformations. I look quiet and consistent, but few know how many women there are in me. – Anaïs Nin I have always been interested in Jungian psychology. I’ve read qui…| The Used Life
When I explore the feminine within, I find there are certain aspects of my inner experience that are difficult to qualify, or categorize. To feel pretty, for example, or sexy, or to feel soft, sens…| The Used Life
My thesis, then, is as follows: In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche…there exists a second psych…| The Used Life
Cosmic Cowboys, paper collage, 2024 As I was having coffee this morning, I found myself contemplating some of the ideas I encountered in Carl Rogers’s On Becoming a Person, which I was rereading th…| The Used Life
I’ve been talking on this blog for a long time about the importance of not only having basic life skills, but also of connecting with nature, especially through the senses. Collectively, I like to …| The Used Life
