Trompe l'oeil

In art there is a term called trompe l'oeil. It's a fancy French word

literally meaning to "deceive the eye," and its an awesome technique
that artists use to create optical illusions. It is achieved by painting the
object to be intensely realistic and three-dimensional in a two-dimensional
format, which is usually flatter looking. What its ultimate goal is to trick
the viewer into seeing the thing as not just part of the painting, but
part of reality, something real and tangible.

For example, an artist might paint a ceiling to look like clouds
or a plaster wall could be made to look like elegant arches.
What is cool about trompe l'oeil is that the way the artist succeeds
in executing the technique depends on his mastery of
PERSPECTIVE,
but the way a view sees it is by losing perspective.

My wise advice, cuz I know you're all waiting for it,
is that we allow ourselves to lose perspective all the time,
especially when it comes to things we expect or want to see.
Our expectations fuel our interactions,
and sometimes we are surprised when the results are different
than what we expected. One of the biggest pieces of wisdom
I have is that we shouldn't let ourselves believe that we deserve
anything from anyone- don't take advantage of the fact that people
are there because they care.

And really there is a lot that we could learn from the idea of
trompe l'oeil. It is starting to make my head hurt.


All in all, I just wanted to say that this last weekend was
a treat. I had an amazing friend from Utah up to visit, my
favorite Mr. Friend by my side, and awesome words that
filled me up with hope and gave me some new perspective.

A change of perspective is sometimes a great thing to experience.

It was one of my favorite weekends in a long, long time.

My Best Friend Home with Honor

My best friend is coming home this week from Canada.

ON THURSDAY!!!
And my best friend happens to be my little brother.
And if you saw him, you would laugh at my calling him
little. We are about 14 months apart and I use to tell
everyone that we were twins, which we could have been
because we look alike:
Yes?
Don't you just want to pinch him?
See I haven't seen my best bud in about two years.
And ironically, I am not much of a writer. So, I feel kind
of like I am getting my long lost friend back that I don't know
anymore. But I can definitely think about all the good times
we had. See Seth (my little brother) he is really slow getting
ready in the mornings which just irks me to no end. We had
many a fight about being on time, he punched a hole in my bedroom
door, and I drove really fast out of rage.

But that was made up with all our many conversations. I
would tell him all about girls and who to date (it was my duty as
big sister.) My friends were his friends, and I liked how he use
to come to me for help. I'd tell him how to pass Mrs. Scott's
English class with an A and what to wear.
And I would get him to lift things for me and protect me.
I miss him a great deal.
Can't wait to hug him to death.
Maybe a kiss or two on the cheek.(doesn't he have massive hands?)

But the weird thing is that I feel that I don't know
him anymore. He is all adult now and why would he
needs his silly older-sister-by-only-14 months help him
or give advice? I hope he still likes me.
He is a man now.

My little Setherloo has been what we call a missionary
for the last two years. Elder Setherloo. Cute.
He is all wise now. He was called by a prophet for a special
purpose to spread the gospel.
I never did that.

Guess it is time he taught me.

I can kiss him though. He never liked doing that.