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!

Inner Excavate-along: finding community

On to the last two chapters 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.

The first sentence Liz writes in chapter 6 (titled “I open my heart…”) is “You are not on your journey inward alone.” How refreshing and encouraging! She encourages us to look at how we open our heart to other people in our life and how we might want to invite some people to be part of our creative travels.  WELL…

This is perfect timing because I just had the pleasure of meeting one of you in person! The community that has formed here on Poetic Aperture has been a welcome surprise and it’s been heartwarming to find and connect with so many fellow creative souls through your comments and your own blogs.  I feel solid friendships with so many of you and definitely do not feel alone in anything anymore, knowing there is someone out there who understands the need for creative expression, or the difficulties of being a stay-at-home parent, or the obsession with capturing life through the lens.

Most rewarding is that I have been authentic and wholely myself during this entire blogging adventure and have been blessed with that resounding YES you feel when you find real connections.

I accompanied my hubby to Chicago on a business trip and got to meet Eydie for a long lunch and some art store shopping.  I must admit that before meeting, even though I felt sure we would get along well, I was nervous.  Our afternoon far surpassed any expectations I had and by the time we hugged goodbye I was soaked in feel-good encouragement and support for my artistic journey and so much more.

Eydie and I talked about why we are holding back, waiting for just the right conditions before we move forward, whether it be starting an Etsy shop for her AMAZING jewelry creations or trying to do more with my photography on cards or in print.  I think each of us needed to hear from someone who believes strongly that we have talent and something original to express and that we should move forward.

We also talked about reaching out to artists we admire, how the community of bloggers and artists that we follow is small… and that it’s not too lofty that we couldn’t participate.  Eydie kept saying, “What am I waiting for?” and I got goosebumps each time, excited for her and for myself.  We listened to each other talk about how hard it is to let go in raising our girls, about various classes we have taken, about blogging, about energy healing, about our creative endeavors, and so much more.  We didn’t want to say goodbye and ended up in a bookstore poring over magazines with mixed-media art, altered clothing, and gorgeous photography.

Finding kindred spirits, and I have found so many in the classes I’ve taken over the past couple of years, is such an affirmation.  Meeting one in person makes me feel very brave and confident… like I reached inward and took a huge leap instead of sitting back on the sidelines as usual.

Chapter 7 of Inner Excavation is about creating something (like artwork or a journal) with the photos and poetry we have written over the past few weeks.  Right now, I don’t feel the need to do this, but I know that I will be taking what I have learned from Liz and the other contributors and incorporating it into future canvases and projects.  I am writing more now (poetry even!) and even if it’s just a phrase that comes to me, a word to add to my word list, or a quick thought, I’m recording it in my journal.  Overall, I feel good with what has come forth from within.  I know it is a life-long journey to know oneself and I have more tools now with which to explore.

In case you missed the other Inner Excavation posts, here you go:

• I begin
• I seek
• I gather and I see me
• I look closer

Update: Linking up with the July 2012 edition of the Post of the Month Club.

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.”

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.

I’d like to thank the Academy…

While I am excited to receive this blogging award from my friend Brian, I must say that I’m even more excited that he received it from one of his readers.  Way to go, Brian! I highly recommend that you check out his blog, “I’ve Never Heard of You Either… an uncommon look at everyday things.” It’s full of sharp wit and excellent music suggestions.    I’ve mentioned him here before, but that was prior to him jumping out on a limb and beginning his awesome blog.

I definitely put my heart into that gratitude post from 6 months ago, but it’s worth repeating because you dear readers have grown in numbers since then.  THANK YOU for being part of this community and for reading and sharing here.  I am perpetually amazed that you 1) care about what I write and 2) want to see my photos.  I used to individually reach out to each new subscriber, and I wish I could do that now, but you read the blog and you know that I love you and that I’m not exactly sitting around twiddling my thumbs these days.

I did a quick Google search and it seems to be that the Liebster Blog award originated in Germany, “Liebster” meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award, the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs.

The requirements are:

1. Show gratitude to the blogger who nominated you and link back to them.

2. Post the award on your blog.

3. Nominate five other bloggers you would like to pass the award to, also with fewer than 200 followers.

4. Tell your readers ten random facts about you.

I love getting the opportunity to share some of my favorite blogs with you.  I just counted my Google Reader subscriptions and it came to 194, up by 66 since I last counted in December.  Holy moly! No wonder I am always 800+ posts behind.  (By the way, I use Flipboard on my iPhone to read posts on the go… check it out!) Maybe I’ll design a page here of my favorite blogs, if anyone’s interested.

A problem with these awards is that I end up finding MORE wonderful blogs to follow.  Oh well.  Check these out and then let’s all look forward to hearing which blogs they recommend.

• What We Create
• Lori Moon Studio
• PurpoSoul
• Four Deer Oak
• Minding My Nest

In my Googling of this award, not one recipient I saw had a list of 10 random things about themselves, so I thought I’d compromise and make it 5 instead.

1.  I clearly remember the day in 4th grade that I first walked into school in glasses.  I was embarrassed but I could see! (I also was astounded to realize that carpet is made up of individual fibers, there were boats out at sea and that trees had leaves rather than being a big blob of green.)

2. I am proud of the fact that I took BC calculus my senior year of high school, but now I don’t know what the heck the purpose of that was or even what a derivative is.

3. I had a professor in college who was elegantly worldly in her demeanor and dress.  I started wearing several rings on my hands to be like her.  I couldn’t carry that off in the slightest.

4. I didn’t really come into my own until college.  I’m sure that’s a common thing, but at the time, I felt like the odd one growing up.

5. I took twirling lessons when I was 8 or 9 and even went to a competition.  I remember my dad taking me to class one time and we were getting fitted for our costumes.  The teacher said something about putting the sequins in a V on my (then non-existent) chest and I was so embarrassed my dad heard that.

Note to self – May 1 OLW bloghop

This post is part of the One Little Word Blog Hop where members of Ali Edwards’ OLW class share their monthly assignments.  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).

I must share one other funny thing my daughter said.  I told her recently that I am really trying to slow down and enjoy the many great moments in the day, rather than organize the garage, pot more plants, deadhead some flowers, weed the garden, do the dishes, or whatever… you name it.  She said (no idea where she got this), “Yeah, Mommy, because your head might explode.” I hadn’t laughed that much in a while.  She is so right!

Check back on Friday for photos of some recent house projects.

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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 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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MAY 1 OLW Blog Hop Participants (FINAL)

Margie   http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/one-little-word

Monica   http://scrapinspired.com/

Jamie    jmpgirl.blogspot.com

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

Jenn     www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Jill    http://jillconyers.com/

Veronica     www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Cheri    http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Monica B    http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Ruth     http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Kaylea    www.myscrappylife.com

Cindy    http://www.cynthiacrysdale.com/

Donna    http://holimess.blogspot.com/

Kelly    http://mindingmynest.com

Carolina    www.micinnamons-en.blogspot.com

Cindy    http://seriousplay.typepad.com

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

Nikki    www.inkyart.com.au <— Go here next!

Amanda    http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Rebekah    http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

Tere    http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

Kimberlee     http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

Brighton    www.dearbrighton.com

Kristina     http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.ca/

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

Self-talk: be mindful of my tone

When I hear one of my friends being hard on themselves, it is so easy to recognize that she is being unreasonable in her expectations and she needs to take it easy in one way or another.  It’s quite a different thing to recognize it in myself though, or to give myself the same compassion I would give to a friend.  One way I think that I could change much of my outlook is by talking to myself in a nicer tone.

I often feel impatient with myself and want to be getting so much more accomplished than I actually am.  If a friend of mine were putting herself though such aggressive pressure, I would envelop her in a big hug, make her a cup of tea, and try to get her to see why she needs to be nicer to herself, much like my own friends do with me.

The One Little Word assignment for April is to write ourselves a letter about where we are with our word and where we’d like to be one year from now.  So I’m thinking I will write about being forgiving, patient, and kind to myself, trying to treat myself as if I am my own best friend. I wrote a similar letter to myself a few months ago and I think it has helped.  I am actually eager to think more about where I am in my life right now, if I’m where I want to be, and what I can celebrate about myself.

Why we read and write a la Katrina Kennison

Results of my recent trip to the library

In this recent post on her blog, Katrina Kennison, author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother’s Memoir and Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry,
wrote about how she recently holed up at her mother’s house in her old room for three weeks in order to write her next book.  Her entire post is great, but this part especially resonated with me:

“We read,” wrote C. S. Lewis. “to remember that we are not alone.” It is also why we write.  To remember that we have much to learn from our most difficult conversations with ourselves and with each other.  And that in sharing the truth of who we are and how we struggle, we remind another struggling someone that they do not journey alone.

Does it also resonate with you? Feel free to share… I know most of you peeps are avid readers too.

Happy blogiversary, Poetic Aperture!

Ah, the power of a year. Today my blog is one year old! I love it more than ever and have been surprised at how much it means to me. I’ve been crafting this post for a long time, looking forward to sharing it with all of you!

48 Now 52 people receive an e-mail each weekday with my blog’s content, a fact that astounds me (I am still very pleased that my husband and my mother follow along too). What baffles me even more is that I do not personally know most of you. When I started this blog last year, I didn’t even dream that anyone would be interested in my thoughts, my life, or my photography. I wanted to do this as a record for myself of my growth and to collect pieces of poems or quotations and always have them. I published it (rather than keep it private) because I was working on getting some of my writing published and a blog seemed a prerequisite.

Now look at how things have changed! The blog’s focus at its outset was on motherhood, photography, and writing and it seems to have morphed along the way to be mostly about photography and LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS (hence the new header). Poetic Aperture has helped me to develop my photography business, to learn a bit about HTML and CSS and hosting platforms, and has brought me to new classes and creative pursuits and most important, to new friends. I now spend a large chunk of my days on the computer reading comments and blogs and editing pictures. My mindset is positive and hopeful rather than overwhelmed.

That what I write every weekday resonates with others is an immeasurable bonus for me. Every time someone takes the time to leave a comment, I feel like clicking my heels together in gleeful abandon. That encouragement helps keep me going. Brightening someone’s day is the only reward I need. And all my new friends in blogland… it’s impossible to determine how much they’ve added to my life.

I have gotten addicted to checking my stats each day to see who stopped by to visit, how they got there, and what they clicked on. I even made a goal of reaching 100 subscribers someday (see Life List), which seemed so farfetched then but now actually seems attainable.

I’ve created a Statement of Purpose for Poetic Aperture (see sidebar –>), a list of my favorite (and your favorite) posts, and designed a new banner that reflects the new direction this blog seems to be moving. Finally, I created a page of lovely comments I’ve received that I want to remember when I’m feeling less than confident.

So thank you for coming along on this journey of mine. Please let me know what you think of the not-really-so-new purpose and if there’s anything you’d like to see here in the future. Happy day!

Between Interruptions is now an e-book

You may remember that I took two writing classes from The Momoir Project and found writing about motherhood to be cathartic.  The online group of women in the classes became a supportive sisterhood for me and I am still connected to some friends from the classes.

Cori Howard, who teaches The Momoir Project, edited a compilation of essays and had it published a few years ago.  Titled Between Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth About Motherhood, the book is full of essays that explore what is unspoken, cut off or lost in the years spent raising children.  I recommend buying it.

The sad news here is that the publisher of her book recently went bankrupt.  So Cori has hundreds of copies of her book sitting in her basement.  Cori says in this post that she cares first and foremost that these stories get out into the world and that these heartfelt stories are not lost.  So she decided to turn her book into an e-book.  Now that it’s even more affordable ($3.03 on Amazon!!!) and accessible, perhaps you’d like to read it?