Photo-Heart Connection, journal love, and Weekly Photo Challenge

This is a catch-all post for three different fun projects: the Photo-Heart Connection, some journal photos that a group of friends and I are all posting and sharing, and the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.  I hope it doesn’t get too long!

My choice for the Photo-Heart Connection for July was tough… on the return flight home from Chicago last week, I took many photos of clouds from my little window seat.  There were so many different types and colors all layered together and I thought it looked magical.  The one below looked sort of like a little tunnel from a stormy situation into brightness.  Then I got to my car and was exiting the parking lot and saw the one immediately below, with a lovely rim light giving special contrast to the separation of the grey clouds and the bright blue sky.  And I drove through those storm clouds and rain toward sunshine where I got to reunite with my sweet girl.

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“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.” ~ Christina Baldwin

Some friends are doing a party this week of pictures of our journals… we were chatting in our Facebook group about being obsessed with them.  I learned I’m not alone in admiring them, buying them, and then not wanting to sully them with my scribblings.  This could probably be a post in and of itself, but I already have next week’s posts scheduled so we’ll just include it here.  

There’s just a sense of promise, of beginning, of possibility with a brand new and beautifully covered book, don’t you think?

All these pretty covers and yet I began by using boring spiral notebooks…

 I have several travel journals where I pasted ticket stubs, brochures, cards, etc. and wrote about all the inspiration I was seeing around me.  I even found an old Lira note.

I’m sure you all have a journal or two, right? If you like, share how you use them (or not) and what they mean to you.

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The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is PURPLE.  Well, by the time you read this, I’ll probably be behind again, but here ya go…

My favorite color!

 

Whew! Have a lovely weekend, friends.  Come back on Monday for a post I’m excited to share with you about how a tiny shift in persecutive can change absolutely everything!

Mindfulness music – August 1 OLW blog hop

This post is part of the One Little Word Blog Hop where members of Ali Edwards’ OLW class share their monthly assignments or something about their word.  Each month, on the 1st of the month, I’ll participate and then give you a link to the next in line (see the full list of participants at the end of this post).

Our assignment for July was to create a personal playlist for our word.  I’ve thought about “mindful” all month when in the car listening to music or even tuning in more when shopping since some stores play music.  Some of these songs are about paying attention to the present moment and some are simply inspiring to me right now.  Sometimes thinking about why a song is meaningful to you can lead to interesting revelations.  Ali told us it’s more about feeling and emotion than finding the perfect song.

1) Each and every time I hear this song, actually written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, I appreciate the physical world around me and how remarkable nature can be.

2) I’ve always loved the melody, but the words remind me, at least this month, to keep pursuing dreams and keep the faith that small wrinkles will get ironed out.

3) Simply true of me.  I think this came up in one of the Inner Excavation chapters and I decided to embrace this aspect of myself rather than try to change it.

4) A friend reminded me recently of a biblical teaching.  Each of us has two pockets, each containing a slip of paper.  On one should be written: I am but dust and ashes, and on the other: The world was created for me.  The secret of living comes from knowing when to reach into each.  The first phrase is spoken by Abraham when he realizes that he’s bargaining with God over Sodom and Gomorrah.  The second phrase is from the Talmud, illustrating that we are all unique individuals, though we are formed from the same mould.  We have worth as individuals and yet we are no more special than the next person.  I also love the that nothing in creation is an accident.  Did Chris Martin mean all this? Who knows.  See #3.

5) Hearing the peppy beat of this song simplifies my day.

6) The Shema is the most important prayer of the Jewish worship service and is also recited in the morning upon rising and in the evening before sleep.  Two reasons it’s related to mindfulness for me… First, my parents taught us to say it before bed every night as kids, and they would listen patiently afterward as we would spout off blessings for practically everyone we knew (“God bless Mommy and Daddy and grandma and grandpa and the grocery store clerk and my teacher and Kenny and Kenny’s mommy and …”).  Also, in the worship service, no matter who is following along in the prayer book and who is not paying attention, it seems that everyone pauses when it’s time to recite the Shema.  I close my eyes and hear the entire congregation singing the words together.  I picture Jews all the world over saying the same prayer and I feel solidarity and calmness.

7) I like the idea of “she’ll make her way” by pursuing these qualities.

8) A great reminder that if we just keep putting one foot in front of the other, trusting that it’ll be ok, it often will.

9) This goes back to the idea that there are no coincidences.  Love that!

I’m so glad to be part of this blog hop!  Some of the artwork these ladies do is just incredible! Now, hop along to visit Veronica for the next OLW post.  She (and each thereafter) will send you on down the list from there until you’ve seen them all.  The rest of the participants are listed below.  I encourage you to visit every blog for more creative fun.

You can read other posts related to my OLW here.

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August 1 OLW Blog Hop Participant List

Margie    http://xnomads.typepad.com

Kara    http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com

Monica    http://scrapinspired.com/tag/one-little-word/

Lisa    http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/

Donna    http://holimess.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Wookie    http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Monica B     http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com

Ruth        http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Naomi    http://poeticaperture.com/ <— You are here.

Veronica    www.veronicanorris.typepad.com <— Go here next!

Carolina    www.micinnamons.blogspot.com

Cindy    http://seriousplay.typepad.com

Kelly    http://mindingmynest.com

Brighton    www.simplebrighton.com

Nikki    http://www.inkyart.com.au

Amanda    http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Tere    http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

Cheri    http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

A little poetry

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

~ Derek Walcott

Since beginning Inner Excavation and NOW YOU, I have been thinking about what version of myself I project into the world around me.  I think it’s different dependent on where I am or who I’m with.  Who is my true self? Do I even take the time to know her?

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

~ David Whyte

Don’t you just love that last bit?

Happy Monday, friends! Make it a good one.

The beauty of you: self-portraiture

you are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
and whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

~ Max Ehrman

This week I began a new class… on self-portraiture.  Aaarhgh.  Coindidentally, Chapter 5 of Inner Excavation (“I look closer”) is also about self-portraits and “a personal journey of discovering new ways to see yourself.”

The new class, NOW YOU, is 6 weeks of lessons with Kristin Zecchinelli and Meredith Winn (Shutter Sisters and all around awesome women and photographers).  Each week we will be exploring a different way of seeing ourselves through our viewfinders.  Their “ultimate hope is that you gather tools along the way that will have you loving YOU right NOW.”

I highly recommend reading this post by Liz about how powerful the gift of letting yourself deeply see yourself can be.  She says, “This is the practice of finding and using creative self-care every day so that when the hard stuff stacks up, you can lean into those tools and feel supported.”  How we think of our bodies is powerful stuff… check out this post from Sunni Chapman on Roots of She.

I am curves and contours, 

soft curls and sunspots.

I am a head tilt and a smile

with that one side dimple.

I am freckles and creases, 

proof of youthful summers spent outside.

 

I am curious, musical, creative,

a lover of words.

I am a seeker of a quiet corner.

I want to be known, nurtured, and loved.

OK so the poetry aspect in Inner Excavation is getting easier, thank goodness! That one only took a few minutes. 🙂

Self-portraiture, at least on day 1, feels selfish and full of self-judgement.  I am far from the self-aware point that Kristin and Meredith (and Liz) describe to be self-care: “a form of therapy, an artistic expression, a long deep look at what makes us who we are.”  The promise of all these things is keeping me going.  I also guess that some day I will want to remember the smoothness of my hands without wrinkles or the brown of my hair without the grey.  I want to appreciate and love my body for what it is now.

I deleted so many pictures in this mirror session except for this one; a face of frustration and doubt.

Lessons learned:

• Quiet your inner critic as much as you can.  When you look at the photos, let go of how you feel about them and try not to make any judgements about yourself.  (I know…)
• Crop out any distractions in the photos, like a red cup on the table behind you, so that the eye is drawn to you and the background disappears.
• Try other fun ways to capture yourself besides looking directly at yourself… perhaps your shadow or reflection, part of your face, your hands, or your closed eyes.
• Keep in mind that while you may not like how you look today, you may be glad to have these pictures 10 years from now.  It may be a privilege to look back at your younger self.

An announcement and a photo-heart connection: beauty is God’s handwriting

I am celebrating a private accomplishment today.  As Tracey Clark said on her blog recently, “it’s time we celebrate who we are, where we’ve been and where we are going and all the awesomely brave things we do along the way.” I can hardly believe that my little blog started a year and a half ago hit 100 followers last week. Talk about taking a risk to put myself out there! That people would like to see my photography and read my thoughts baffles me still.  But I am giddily jumping for joy and mentally doing cartwheels in celebration of this accomplishment. I am proud that I began, even though I wasn’t sure where it was going.  I am proud of sharing my photography, dreams, and motherhood struggles.  I am proud that I thought enough of myself to put myself out there… and I am rewarded with so many new friends… YOU!

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t, it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.  ~Barack Obama

It’s time for the June Photo-Heart Connection! When I looked through the photos I took in June, this one stood out for me.  I snapped it for a Picture Black and White class prompt, but desaturating this of color sort of ruined it for me. 

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The heart and soul connection here for me is that I did not ever notice that this “weed” was so colorful until I visited it with my iPhone macro lens.  In looking at the photo on my computer, I was taken aback at it’s texture, rich color, and delicacy.  Quite a revelation… photography does that for me.  I didn’t see the beauty right before me until I had my lens there to translate it for me.  This happens so often that you’d think I’d be used to it by now, but I still pause in wonder every time.

I am currently participating in Liz Lamoreux’s Inner Excavate-along, and part of one of our prompts recently was to capture the world around us with our cameras, seeking patterns and nuances in how we see things every day.  I was immediately drawn to the words “you already know” in her prompt.  There is so much intuition within me when I’m holding my camera. 

Haven’t done it before? You can learn more about how to find your Photo-Heart Connection here.

See my May photo-heart connection post here.

Inner Excavate-along: I gather and I see me

On to Chapters 3 and 4 of Liz Lamoreux’s Inner Excavation: Exploring Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media.  Liz is leading a couple hundred of her friends through seven weeks of inner excavation on Flickr, on her blog, and through subscribed posts.  I’ve met some wonderful new friends already through this process and am enjoying seeing how they progress through the prompts.

In chapter 3 (“I gather…”), Liz prompts us to look at what we gather to ourselves and what we are drawn to repeatedly that fills the world we inhabit, gaining insight into who we are and who we want to be.  She asks “who are you?” “what inspires you?” and “how do you nurture yourself?” She is pushing us to “find clues and claim the truths within our thoughts that become tangible on paper.”

I chose to work on the writing exploration segment of this chapter, answering these questions “in poem” about the images and textures of my world right now.

I enjoyed a rare few minutes of quiet when my daughter fell asleep in the car last week.  When we got to our destination, I picked up a scrap piece of paper (yes, my car is a mess!) and jotted this down…

Having looked into our past in Chapter 2, Chapter 4 (“I See Me”) is about where we currently “stand in our lives.” I had fun with a photography series that literally captured my path… my feet and the ground beneath me, “playing with the idea of being rooted in the moment.”

I will be starting a self-portraiture class soon (“Now You“), which is not at all about the photos but more about how we see our authentic selves, and I am nervous.  It’s very difficult for me to be comfortable in front of the camera.  Liz reminds us here that we are in control of how we see our own beauty.  “Give yourself permission to let go of [the assumptions you might have about what photos of our bodies have to look like.”

In the poetry section, we “delve deeper into what the body says, how the body feels, what the body knows.”  It’s a way of looking at ourselves in a different light.

Here are links to previous chapter posts: “I begin” and “I seek.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is CREATE.  “The best part about creating something is being in the moment, relishing the creativity you’re experiencing, and letting your actions guide you to an end goal.  Then you can step back and admire your work!”

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” ~ Scott Adams

And hence, this card that I made for my best friend’s birthday.  It’s so busy because I had to keep adding additional elements to cover up mistakes!

Soon (Sunday, July 1 as part of our One Little Word bloghop) I’ll be able to share with you a fun project I’m working on.  In the meantime, here’s a couple of “process” photos that give nothing away.  I found that it’s the process of experimentation that is the opportunity to grow.  I was having a blast playing and using a completely different part of my brain than I usually do.  

Both of these photos make me absolutely giddy because I’m usually “creating” on the computer, editing pictures, making scrapbooks, participating in online classes, blogging, etc.  It’s quite fun to create with tangible supplies for a change.  I’ve been motivated to organize my craft supplies, which is awesome because then I’ll use them more.  Still, this piece of machinery spends more time with me than my husband does, so allow me to portray it as well…

Share what comes to mind when you hear the word “create…”

If you liked this, check out:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Close
Weekly Photo Challenge: Today

Inner Excavate-along: I seek

On to Chapter 2 of Liz Lamoreux’s Inner Excavation: Exploring Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media.

Liz is leading a couple hundred of her friends through seven weeks of inner excavation on Flickr, on her blog, and through subscribed posts.

Chapter 2 is titled “I Seek…” She prompts us to seek clues from the past: where do we come from? Where are we? Where are we going? Liz writes that “through the senses, we can tiptoe into memories and suddenly find ourselves unearthing aspects of a moment we never thought we would remember.”

As I get older (and wiser?), I am more interested in the stories of those who came before me.  Looking through some old photo albums for pictures of me to compare my young face to the almost-identical face of my daughter (uncanny really!), I was reminded of time spent with my father’s parents.  When I worked on this prompt a year ago, I wrote this post about exploring the senses, this post about noticing the here and now, and this post about memories of my grandmother.

Here I have some photos from her wedding album and some words that this prompt inspired (click on each thumbnail if you’d like to be swept into the 1940s):

Sense memories

She is a woman of soft linens, long nightgowns, and decorum, her thin body of sharp bones draped with beautiful fabrics and jewelry.  She thinks nothing of playing on the floor with her grandchildren… spreading out couch cushions to jump on or cards for Go Fish.

I sit in the front seat of her long Buick, spacious and velvety, as she drives me to Marshalls for what feels to me like a shopping spree from heaven.  She knows what looks good and what is proper.

She tends to her garden, walking on the long path or stepping stones, pointing out elephant ears and naming flowers, picking mint for my tongue.  I love to follow, marveling at the tree leaves that fold at my touch.

She has a countertop filled with glass jars of licorice, mints, and candies, a drawer of spearmint gum and always a bowl of mixed nuts with nut crackers placed nearby.  A hall closet is full of shoes, velvet bags with delicate clasps, and blankets, all smelling like her.

Her nightstand is small, the glass top holding pictures in place forever.  Every morning, this is where she paints her features, a magnifying mirror reflecting back her soft skin.  She is not dressed until her lipstick is in place.

She reads the newspaper every morning at the white wicker glass-top kitchen table, a porcelain cop of coffee and her gold-sequined cigarette case not far from reach.  She passes on a biography by Camella Sedat that I still have.  I now have her favorite book, The Little Prince, describing a love and loneliness that she must have known.

I remember there was always a freezer full of food and rice unlike any other, a Sephardic blend of flavors.  “People come from miles around” to this kitchen.  Vanessa, the cat, slinks nearby… young in her 17 years.

I was treasured there, with my grandparents.  I remember the scents of perfumes, soaps, lipstick, and mint.  She gave me gifts of bath beads and silky nightgowns.  Presents for everyone, even though it was a birthday for one, our names written with elaborate curves.

I imagine her youth and young adulthood.  My grandfather’s courtship.  Raising four children while her husband worked so hard.  Happy times and lots of smiles.  By my childhood, they were separate… my grandfather in a cave of radio stories and books of Jewish folklore and Talmud; my grandmother in her cozy bed with the TV news blaring and books all around her.

A memory comes forth unbidden… That last Passover seder with her, near the end of the night when most people had stopped following along and she and I volleyed responsive readings from the Hagaddah.  I feel my eyes fill with tears just as they did then, remembering the love she poured into my childhood and how much I will miss her when she’s gone.

How much of my memory is true? Were she here now, I would ask her about her early days living on the farm, what her parents were like and how she met my granddaddy.   How did she get through her days ironing and cooking, working in the hosiery shop, writing and being active in the community? What was her driving philosophy? What were her disappointments? I would love to put my sweet daughter on her lap and let her paint her nails as she did mine so long ago, or decorate her in beads and purses and shoes, creating a new generation of memories.

In case you missed last week’s post, “I begin,” here it is.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Close

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is CLOSE.

Close. It’s a feeling, it’s a proximity…it’s people, it’s a place, it’s objects. They’re close. 

“they do not kiss
but they both want to
instead their feet touch and so do their arms
it is electric magic
their tiny arm hairs tingling
happily lying together
the sun warming them
watching sky through green-leafed gum branch
close enough to hear each other breathe
sweet togetherness
this lazy lying down dance of love” 
― Brigid Lowry, Guitar Highway Rose

What comes to mind for you?

Inner Excavate-along: I begin

The only book I took to Italy last summer was Liz Lamoreux’s Inner Excavation: Exploring Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media, along with a journal.  I enjoyed sitting with the first two chapters and being taken in a few different directions with them, first writing some poetry, then making lists of favorite words, and really looking at the world around me.  It wasn’t nearly enough time and so when I read that Liz decided to work through her own book again and invited people to come along with her, I thought it’d be fun.

Liz is leading a couple hundred of her friends through seven weeks of inner excavation on Flickr, on her blog, and through subscribed posts.  I certainly don’t have time for this, so I’m getting ok with the fact that I can’t watch her videos, probably won’t post anything for others to read (besides here), and I won’t be completing nearly all the assignments.  Ok then.  Let’s begin!

Actually, Chapter 1 is titled “I Begin…” I decided to accept Liz’s invitation to really look at what you see in your world on an ordinary day and document scenes from this one day (Saturday, June 16) in photographs.  If life is truly in the details, then why not tell the story of a day?

I’ve always loved looking back at the little things from years ago… what shampoo I used to use or how the carpet looked where we used to live.  These old photos tell stories and bring to life all sorts of memories.  So why not create them purposefully? Today I am looking around me as if seeing the present from the future.

I just received my pre-ordered copy of Tracey Clark’s Elevate the Everyday: A Photographic Guide to Picturing Motherhood and I opened it right to this quotation:

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life and elevating them to an art.” ~ William Morris

How fitting.  Tracey writes about seeing your life for the magic that it is.  Well, here’s a little ordinary magic…