leaves

November 27, 2014 by Kat

A Thanksgiving Wish (no deals attached)

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

That was going to be all I wrote. But this morning as I sat here, reading the barrage of Black Friday emails offering me deals a day early, I started to get frustrated. So many stores are opening early this year, on Thanksgiving. Apparently, all of the online stores are following suit. Couldn’t miss the opportunity to make a dollar or two, now could we? I hate to see this wonderful holiday of gratitude, one of the few days we all celebrate together in this country, regardless of religion or background, taken over by consumerism.

And then I realized, the best way to prevent this from happening is if I don’t spend money today. Don’t browse websites and order from home, don’t visit stores for those early deals. Just don’t engage. If businesses didn’t make money by doing this, they wouldn’t do it.

We, the consumer, can make or break this day for the retailers. Vote with you wallet and don’t shop today if you want to keep Thanksgiving as its own special day. It’s the only way we are going to keep Thanksgiving from becoming the new Black Friday.

So I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family and friends, good food and safe travel. No strings, or early Black Friday deals, attached.

November 18, 2014 by Kat

The Trouble with Mornings

Sometimes my mornings start out slow. I wake up, and snuggle down into the warm covers, drifting off to sleep again. But some mornings, my body, once awake, does not drift off again. It lays there, ready to go, waiting for my mind to catch up and realize it’s time to start the day.

Sometimes my mornings start out quick. Up and at ’em. Things to do, let’s get started. Sometimes though, I sit in my chair and let my thoughts drift. No motivation to write or to read or to create. Just observing the quiet. Noticing the stitches of my quilt, the tick of the clock, the warmth of the tea cup in my hand.

I had plans for this morning, this blog post. But this morning had other plans for me. No matter. There will be another morning tomorrow, to make good on all of those plans. For now I will sit in the quiet and ponder the personality of mornings. How each one unfolds in its own way.

And that’s ok.

The only trouble with mornings is that they come just once a day.

September 11, 2014 by Kat

Empty Space

I love open space. That’s no secret, huh? My art has lots of it…

It’s just a little weird when the empty space is where where my kitchen used to be…

Our kitchen remodel project started on Monday with demolition. We now have an empty room instead of a kitchen. It’s the beginning of the end of our kitchen story. Three months of waiting, now one month of construction to go.

Our refrigerator is in the garage, our sink is in the bathroom, and we’ve created a little kitchenette in the dining room. I see lots of microwave and crockpot meals, and likely takeout, in our future.

It will be exciting to see daily progress. I can’t wait to have a fully functional kitchen again!!

August 1, 2014 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: July 2014

Heat. That’s what I feel in this image. The heat of summer, direct sun, scorching and uncomfortable.

And yet… the promise of coolness. Once you get away from the edges, move through that heat, there is a deep relief.

There is a saying people use where I work: “Run to the fire.” It speaks to the idea that you shouldn’t run away from challenging things, but run to them.

This image speaks to me of running to the fire. Of running to the heat, dancing at the edges where it is uncomfortable, seeing how far you can go. And knowing, always, there is a retreat to come back to. There is relief away from the hot edges.

I think you can’t fully enjoy the delicious respite of that cool retreat if you haven’t felt the heat. If you haven’t pushed yourself into the intensity of it, seen how much you can take, you can’t relish the contrast. Cool becomes cold quickly when you stay too long in the deep shade.

Run to the fire. Feel the heat. Relish the cool. It’s the contrast that makes life interesting.

It’s no surprise to me this would be my Photo-Heart Connection for July. My life is on the busy side lately, between taking on new challenges at work, in my photography world and a kitchen remodel. I’ve definitely been running to the fire, and, knowing what I have lined up, I will be hanging out near the hot edges for the next six months or so. There is a small part of me that views everything with trepidation, worried about my stress level and whether I can do it all. But there is a large piece of me that says, “Bring it on!” I know I love a good challenge and will rise to the occasion. In the end, I’ll be able to look back and see what I’ve accomplished, truly enjoying the respite of the cool shade. I am encouraged; my Photo-Heart Connection tells me I can do this.

What is your Photo-Heart Connection telling you this month? What message do you find in your images? Share it with us here, and then visit others. We all have much to learn through our photography.

An InLinkz Link-up

December 1, 2013 by Kat

Photo-Heart Connection: November

Hope. Sadness.

Two sides of the same coin? Perhaps. I see mostly hope with some sadness on one side, sadness with bit of hope on the other. They touch in the center. They echo each other; reach one to the other.

Can you have one without the other? Is the experience of one healthy without the other? For sadness, alone, seems to me depression. And hope, without sadness to temper it, is delusion.

Perhaps the best is when they touch in the center, balancing each other out. Hope and sadness. Sadness and hope.

Well, my Photo-Heart Connection this month is filled with melancholy, isn’t it? I couldn’t decide between the two images this month. They seemed to go together, and reflect one another. When I listened to the words they whispered, it was the mirroring emotions of sadness and hope. I don’t quite understand why I needed this message today, but I’m not going to try to analyze further. This is just the message from my heart this month. It will be clear in time.

What is your Photo-Heart Connection telling you this month? Does it speak of sadness? Hope? Or something altogether different? Link in here and share with us.
Please note I won’t be by to visit until later in the month, after the link up closes. I’m off to China and Taiwan on a business trip this week, and I’ll catch up when I’m back.

November 28, 2013 by Kat

Giving Thanks

Today, in the US, we are pausing to give thanks. At this moment I’m giving thanks for my son snuggled up next to me under the quilt, for sunshine, and for creating art. My list will change throughout the day.

For those of you in the US, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends. For those of you outside the US, I hope you can take a moment today and give thanks for what is good in your life, what makes you happy, and the beauty of the work around you.

And for the US expats, my heart is with you today. I remember the feeling of going to work, having a regular old week day, while my home nation was celebrating my favorite holiday. But I’m also a little envious, because I look back fondly on all of the work it took to make Thanksgiving in Italy happen, and I see how much more I cherished the holiday, even if celebrated two days late.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, wherever you are. I am giving thanks for you today, too.

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