We've got a few of the beauties left - check this out and get yours below! And stay tuned for the February kit, launching Tuesday!
Design Team Creations
For more from the Design Team, and detailed close-ups, check out the
January 2011 Design Team Gallery
Journaling Prompts
Upon Reflection: As you look back upon the year that has passed, what lessons have you learned? What can you see today that was invisible to you before? How did the passage of time impact your understanding of events? What other elements of looking back, other than time, cause you to see things differently? How much time do you spend reflecting, and in what ways? Are you gentle or harsh with yourself when reflecting on your behavior?
Mirror Image: In what areas of your life does seeing things backwards make a difference? Do you ever take a purposeful look at a situation from the opposite angle you'd usually take? If you could write yourself a note in the steam on the bathroom mirror, or have someone else write it for you, what message would you want to read, knowing that it would disappear and you only had a few moments to take it in?
Water: Water can take many forms - solid like ice, liquid, and vapor - steam or fog. Even on its surface, there can be stillness, rippling, waves and tsunamis. How does the image of water affect you? Is it calming? How does your reflection appear in different literal and symbolic states of water, and what does that represent?
Focus: Our kit includes a small looking glass. What in your life helps you to look more deeply, to focus? Does the image of a monacle have some symbolism for you as one piece of glass vs. looking through eyeglasses or a microscope? How does seeing through one lens work for you? Is your vision restricted in any way? How does glass symbolically reflect your inner world? Does reflection require quiet?
Cataloging: Is there a system of classifying or labeling that you use to make sense out of life? Do you compartmentalize when refelcting on your past or present, or do you synthesize and put pieces together?
Nature: What do the images of birds, eggs, branches and botanicals say to you? Do you feel close to nature or removed from it? Is there a different power and meaning in live plants and animals vs. those recorded in books and in museums? Do these images make you feel more alive, or not?
Music
Quotes on REFLECTION
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. Thomas Merton
Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter F. Drucker
In water one sees one's own face; But in wine one beholds the heart of another. French Proverb
There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. Thomas Paine
Reflection is the business of man; a sense of his state is his first duty: but who remembereth himself in joy? Is it not in mercy then that sorrow is allotted unto us? William Shakespeare
Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance; but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed. Desiderius Erasmus
The brightest light moving away from us, unless it be reflected, is darkness to us. Unknown
A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it. Frederick Douglass
A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral. Maynard James Keenan
A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living. Rudolf Steiner
A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions. William Kingdon Clifford
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. Confucius
A soul without reflection, like a pile without inhabitant, to ruin runs. Edward Young
The unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates
A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted. George Santayana
Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism, and doubt. Henri Frederic Amiel
Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race. Giambattista Vico
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him. John Locke
Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding. David Hume
Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us. Alan Cohen
I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values. Sidney Poitier
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. Thomas Paine
Philosophical reflection could not leave the relation of mind and spirit in the obscurity which had satisfied the needs of the naive consciousness. Wilhelm Wundt
'Pure experience' is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories. William James
Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realization of impotence: knowing that one is nothing. Theodor Adorno
We cannot observe external things without some degree of Thought; nor can we reflect upon our Thoughts, without being influenced in the course of our reflection by the Things which we have observed. William Whewell
With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves. Eric Hoffer
Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people. Albert Einstein
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. Margaret J. Wheatley
When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine yourself. Confucius
Whereas the average individuals often have not the slightest idea of what they are, of what they want, of what their own opinions are, self-actualizing individuals have superior awareness of their own impulses, desires, opinions, and subjective reactions in general. Abraham Maslow
People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another. Rumi
Only by much searching and mining are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul. James Allen
If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations? Thich Nhat Hanh
Be harsh with yourself at times. Seneca
Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach. Seneca
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. St Augustine
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy
I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself. Francois Truffaut
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