This week is an awfully patriotic week here in North America:  Today, July 1st, is Canada Day, and Saturday, July 4th is Independence Day in the United States.  I'm not Canadian, and while I've lived in the US for a long time, I only became a US citizen as an adult - so I've always felt somewhat of an interested bystander when it comes to watching American patriotic activities.This year is especially interesting for me, because we have friends staying with us from Australia over the July 4th holiday -- so I feel like I need to give them a good Independence Day experience.  In order to inspire some independence day emotion, I decided to look through the archives of my favourite photobloggers in my blogreader, to see how they've captured the spirit of their individual countries' birthdays.  

Remember how remarkable it seemed several months ago when a plane sat down in the Hudson River and the first news and photos of the crash came from Twitter? Then the fly ash spill in TVA's Kingston plant was covered first on Twitter. That was about the time that articles about how the old media just didn't get digital media started appearing.

When Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel,any remaining illusions I had of charmed lives for princesses did too. I was a teenaged Anglophile, one of the millions who woke up extra early to watch her wedding day on tv, and felt real sadness - whether I should have or not - in the years after as that initial fairy tale story crumbled.

It was 100 degrees in Houston today.  Did you hear me?  ONE HUNNID DEGREES.  And it's just JUNE.  It's been like this for the past week or so, and there seems to be no end in sight -- just sunshine and heat for days on end.  I shudder to think what July and August are going to be like around here.As a result, everything is starting to turn a dismaying shade of brown.  Personal lawns are still somewhat green (as we rack up our water bills), but the wild woods and other green spots are beginning to struggle.  People are staying indoors in the airconditioned coolness.  It's hard to enjoy nature when it's baking outside -- we Houstonians will wait until late September when it starts to cool down again, thank you very much.Luckily for us, I've noticed a trend in art lately:  incorporating imagery and lines borrowed from nature in prints and other beautiful decorative arts.   These beautiful pieces might be just the things to surround yourself when you can't bear to get outside in harsh or inclement weather.

Words. They have the power to move us. They open up new worlds and ideas. I really love words. There are good ones and bad ones, long one and short ones, easy ones and hard ones. Some words are fun to say (personally I'm fond of "schnitzel"). Words can also utterly confound us. The New York Times recently released a list of words that are most often looked up on their site and the world added the one millionth word to the English language.

Earlier this week the 2009 inductees to the Canadian Walk of Fame were announced. This year's inductees are Blue Rodeo, Raymond Burr, Kim Cattrall, Tom Cochrane, Dsquared2 (Dean & Dan Caten), Howie Mandel, Robert Munsch and Chantal Petitclerc.

Is it me, or is this year just flying by?  Late last week, it dawned on me that Father's Day is this weekend.  THIS WEEKEND, people.  How did that happen so quickly?  And while I might be forgiven for not immediately tweeking on this fact, it took me several more days to realize that Father's Day this year is falling on the Summer Solstice.  Which, you know, ordinarily, isn't something one would necessarily notice, except I got married on the summer solstice.  That's right, my anniversary.  How am I so out of it?Well, no matter.  For those of you who, like me, might  be trying to come up with a few ideas for this weekend's festivities, I've taken a quick glance around the internet for some inspiration.  For example:

Imagine yourself 144 years ago on June 19, 1865. It is has been two and a half years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  The place, Galveston, Texas. You might see federal troops coming into town or you might be one of the first to hear Gen. Gordon Granger make the announcement to enslaved citizens that they were free. 

Mention affirmations and visions of Stuart Smalley might start dancing in your head. Though it is easy to dismiss affirmations as the automagical thinking of woo-woo new age folks, they can serve as a very practical tool for even the most skeptical of cynics to use in achieving goals and even, dare I say it, making dreams come true.

One of my new recent interests is volunteering at a local fine arts museum once a week.  Recently, as part of my work, I came across an exhibit of beautiful jewelry, with designs from the early part of the twentieth century up to the present.  The exhibit was part of a collection previously donated by a patron of the museum.  And looking at the pieces were eye-opening.

We've all heard stories of the dreaded rejection letter, or rather, letters. I once read that by the time a writer publishes a book they should expect to have enough rejection offers to wallpaper a bathroom. Stephen King displayed his many rejection letters on a spike on his wall. Rejection is part of the publishing process. That doesn't mean it's warm and fluffy. Rejection sucks. Luckily there are many authors out there who can serve as role models on the rejection front.

Recently, I was struck by a comment left on the blog of popular blogger, coach and author Pam Slim. The anonymous (of course) commenter chastised her for seeking sales and for there being less free content on her blog as she worked on promoting her newly launched book. Then I was blown away by Pam's fabulous response. Calm, neutral, factual, non-reactive, honest, compassionate and not defensive in the least.