Archives for March 2012

I’m counting down to the next Photo-Heart Connection with a week of features from participants in January and February. These connections touched my heart, and it is with gratitude that I share them with you. Have you tried to find a Photo-Heart Connection yet? The March link up opens tomorrow!

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“Who are you?” asks the graffiti artist.

What would be your answer?

Would it be the list of labels that describe your important relationships? Wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother, aunt, cousin, niece, friend? Would it be in terms of your education and career? Straight-A student, college graduate, systems analyst, graphic designer, retiree?

I have never been a person blessed with great self-awareness. At age 55, you would think I would have a ready answer to this simple query.

And yet – this question, scrawled in red paint on weathered wood, abandoned to weather and rust, pulled me up short.

Who am I?

I have been given a great gift – retirement at an early age. And with that gift, I now have the time to pursue my life, within certain financial restraints, in a way that makes me happy.

Am I making the most of that gift? Am I using this time to truly learn who I am, what makes me happy, what makes my heart sing?

Or am I filling my life with busy-ness which only distracts me from being here in the moment, discovering the true me? The me without labels, without agendas, the me in the here and now?

I do know that photography is critical in connecting to who I am and who I want to be. My guide on this journey to self-awareness.

Helping me ask the right questions. Teaching me to listen for the answers.

Searching for “me”; connecting to my heart.

— By Brenda of How to Feather an Empty Nest

I’m counting down to the next Photo-Heart Connection with a week of features from participants in January and February. These connections touched my heart, and it is with gratitude that I share them with you. Have you tried to find a Photo-Heart Connection yet? The March link up opens in 2 days!

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I took hundreds of pictures in January. Some I like, some I don’t. I took pictures in places and moments that I enjoy. I really like some of my images from my photowalks in the city and some from my beach walks. They speak to me for different reasons and I do feel a connection to them. I was thinking I would most likely to pick one of those images. But after going through my photos and searched for my feelings and thoughts about them, I ended up with the picture below; a snapshot from my kitchen.

I remember being cranky and down that morning. I had gone to bed feeling stressed out about many things and I woke up in a really bad mood. It was quite early. I tried to enjoy the quiet of the morning while I sipped my coffee and read my book. This is something I like to do every morning and usually puts me in a good mood but didn’t seem to be helping that morning. I decided what I need is more java (i love coffee) to make me feel better. When I stepped in the kitchen, I noticed the beautiful morning light and the shadows on the wall which immediately lifted my spirits up. I loved how it touched parts of the kitchen and made it look so lovely. I loved how it hit the plants and my pile of corks in the windowsill. Of course this is not the first time I noticed the light in there. But the touch of light is usually a very fleeting moment in our kitchen and not very easy to catch. So it made me particularly happy and feel positive that morning; changed my attitude for better. I just ran upstairs to grab my camera and snapped few pictures before it all disappeared quickly.

This image tells me to pay attention to my surroundings. It reminds me that if I take my time and be aware, I’ll be rewarded with little moments like this. And sometimes a little morning light is just what I need.

— By Esra of Cafe Mistral

I’m counting down to the next Photo-Heart Connection with a week of features from participants in January and February. These connections touched my heart, and it is with gratitude that I share them with you. Have you tried to find a Photo-Heart Connection yet? The March link up opens in 3 days!

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Okay, you know this leap of faith business, you’ve done it a number of times, probably enough to realize it’s not all that romantic; the magic fades. And now that you’re 42, it’s not alarming to be a little cynical. You don’t know how this cynicism rubbed off on you but it’s telling you: “it’s just another one of those stupid concepts’” people use for the event to sound miraculously foolproof. Not only does it address itself as a message from something divine and all-knowing, it assures you that everything is going to be just fine. Cynically speaking, if there is such a thing, you really don’t know for sure if you can be okay with that.

You are lousy at being cynical by the way. Stop buying time. You have mastered the leap of faith method and it doesn’t matter if it is stripped off of its once so intense and charming appeal. You know it has to be done. Gather courage from all the places in your heart. Take a look at its robes and strip these off. You know that one must leap with a trembling courage; naked, open with only your life stories to guarantee the feathers for your wings or the feathers to cushion your fall. And fall you will from a place of once was comfort. Fall you will to no one knows exactly where.

Are you willing to accept that faith isn’t going to assure you it will always be around? Do you realize you must do what you are most afraid of doing and it takes a little more than faith to help you with this?

You have bargained for time all too frequently. I hate to say this but you’ve used up all your credits here. You could try and come up with a new scheme and negotiate with a new strategy. But time has already been bargained for and it’s decided to let you know it has spent much too long in the future for you. Oh and try not to use the phrase “I know time will come” which you shuffle around by also saying “the right time will come”. Those phrases have expired. Today. Time is now revealing itself to you and it doesn’t need you to describe it as right or wrong. Time says NOW. Stop waiting. Trust you have what it takes to FLY.

Last Saturday I opened one of my journals and discovered I wrote the above. I forgot to put a date, but it was probably written some time October last year. I felt a big ‘wow’ inside and instantly knew I had to share it here along with the photo that spoke clearly to my heart in February. When I say clearly, I also mean loud – loud as in bold. I went out there and said, “I am an Artist.” Is that perfect? Nope. It is about embracing all the imperfections, and discovering the gifts. And feeling scared and certain and oh so vulnerable at the same time. A lot of texture in that, I must say.

If you are in a place that is asking you to take that leap, it is my sincere wish this journal entry of mine will help you in some way. We can fly together!

— By Jennifer of The Divine in Everything

I’m counting down to the next Photo-Heart Connection with a week of features from participants in January and February. These connections touched my heart, and it is with gratitude that I share them with you. Have you tried to find a Photo-Heart Connection yet? The March link up opens in 4 days!

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today you are you, that is truer than true.
there is no one alive who is youer than you.
dr. seuss

we are dealing {big time} with the winds of change at my house. transitions take careful consideration, and a lot of evaluating, and then re-evaluating, and then re-re-evaluating.

my weekday evenings are no longer occupied with homework checks, or next-day multiple calendar issues {how can i be at three places at one time?}, or last-minute laundry crises.

my saturday mornings don’t start as early as they used to, and rarely include cartoons.

my driving time is relaxed, with my choice of music playing in the background, and usually no other passengers.

things are shifting and rearranging around me…and within me. my heart feels contemplative, and reflective, and in need of some time to evaluate, and re-evaluate, and then re-re-evaluate.

what exactly do i want to do with my saturday mornings? a yoga class? an extra-long run? a photo walk? a trip to the dog beach? coffee with friends?

yesterday, when i went through my photos looking for a photo-heart connection, this one stood out: me…alone…not a lot of color…not a lot of composition…just me…and a whole bunch of stuff swirling around in my head that you can’t capture in a photo…as i evaluate and re-evaluate and re-re-evaluate.

— By Tamara at Smiling for Grandma

I’m counting down to the next Photo-Heart Connection with a week of features from participants in January and February. These connections touched my heart, and it is with gratitude that I share them with you. Have you tried to find a Photo-Heart Connection yet? The March link up opens in 5 days!

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This photo really spoke to me. To be honest I had no idea why until people started commenting on it. Then I got to thinking about what they were saying and how I felt about the image. I love that parts of the photo are very dark while other’s are very bright. I love that it almost looks like night and day in one photo (because of how the light was hitting the water droplets). I love that the tree vines look tangled. Why do I love those things about this photo? Mainly because it is so incredibly representative of how I feel about my life right now. There are some things in our life right now that are very hard and we are struggling to get through. I will be totally honest, that is mostly our finances since Kevin went back to school. It seems our entire married life has been kind of tangled. We have moved a lot and tried a lot of different things as for as careers and so on. None of them ever felt like they really fit our life. When we moved to NC we finally felt at home. When Kevin made the decision to go back to school for Emergency Medical Science and Fire Science it just felt right. Of course, for me, my photography being my career has always felt right. Our kids have always been a magical part of our lives as well as how strong our love for each other is (and believe me when I say at times it has been tested). The brightness in this photo leads me to think of God’s gracious hand on our lives. Put all of that together with the fact that finally our life seems to fit and all of the pieces finally seem to be falling into the right places and it is truly magical! However we do still have to go through the darkness a bit until he gets a job as an EMT and until he finishes school. The financial issues will be lightened once he gets a job as an EMT (which hopefully will be soon as he just took his state boards last week) but even then we will be spending a ton of time apart while he finishes school. The great part about that is that in the end it will totally be worth it. I am really thinking of having this photo printed and framed to hang in our room. I truly think it represents all that we have been through and are going through. It’s amazing how an image can speak to you isn’t it?

— By April of My Captivating Images

I’m counting down to the next Photo-Heart Connection with a week of features from participants in January and February. These connections touched my heart, and it is with gratitude that I share them with you. Have you tried to find a Photo-Heart Connection yet? The March link up opens in 6 days!

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My heart sings when I look at this picture. It tells everything about what I love. A colorful, dynamic, happy, active family-life with kids who never get bored and where everyday activities are as much fun as anything else.
Moje srce kar zapoje, ko vidim to fotografijo. Pove vse o tem, kar mi je všeč. Barvito, dinamično, veselo, aktivno družinsko življenje, z otroki, ki jim ni nikoli dolgčas, in kjer so vsakodnevne aktivnosti prav tako zabavne kot kar koli drugega.

This picture is a reminder that Life is Life. You can make it wonderful or you can make it miserable. Depends how you see things and what you do about them.
Ta fotografija je opomnik, da je Življenje samo Življenje. Lahko si ga naredimo čudovitega, ali pa si ga naredimo nesrečnega. Odvisno od tega, kako vidimo stvari in kaj storimo glede na vse to.

Life is colorful, I say. What do you think?
Življenje je barvito, pravim jaz. Kaj pa mislite vi?

–By Jožica at Creatissimo Lab in Slovenia