30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 5 - From a high angle

We're always looking down at these little people. In their world, we are always coming from a high angle. Everything is so much bigger. It's hard to see where you're going. 

This little guy was also on our camping trip. We trekked into Duluth on Sunday, and, in the time it took all 6 adults to blink, this little one stepped out into the street. Mango called his name and ran after him. His daddy got there first and swooped him up into safety.

Later, I mused with Mango over the close calls in life, the "might have beens" and the "what ifs." You see, not only did my high school friend, Gabe, die in a horrible and completely unforeseen car accident two weeks ago, but his 2yr old daughter came within inches of losing her life. And then there's the phone call I received Monday morning, while we were still camping, letting me know that the teenage daughter of a friend of mine attempted suicide Saturday night.

So little separates us from what might be and what actually is. We are so fragile and so strong all at once. We never know what might actually be from one moment to the next, and yet, we are called to live deeply and fully, in a strong, steady, and even fearless kind of way.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."  (Joshua 1:9)

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 4 - Something Green

I wasn't thinking about the photo challenge on Sunday...when I managed to catch such great clouds shots. I discovered, though, that by focusing on the green in the forefront, I could get the sky to show up in the photo the way I wanted it. So, here's my something green...


What a beautiful night it was. The lightning was flashing across the purple sky, the wind was cool and fresh, the hills were covered with tall green grass and wildflowers, full of life. ...and we thought of Gabe, our dear friend, tall as the truth, his memory full of so much life, and his life gone. The last time T. was in this place it was winter and she was skiing with Gabe.  We ended up camping here this weekend because of the government shut-down. Our plan to stay at a state park fell through, and I made reservations for this place. Strange how life brings us around sometimes, without us really intending it.
 

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 3 - Clouds

The whole sky was clouds on Saturday, and our campground was entirely engulfed in cloud. So, I took a picture of clouds through the trees in order to give your eyes some relief from the sheer white.


There were actually a number of better cloud photo ops over the rest of the weekend...

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 2 - What I Wore Today

Since I'm not all that interested in fashion, and I can't tell you where most of my clothes come from because I bought them all at Savers, I'll tell you about this one little item that I'm wearing today, and I wear it every day, and I've worn it for the last almost 13 years. Mango designed it...with a rose for my birth month and a thistle for his family's homeland of Scotland and a cross in the middle and a diamond in the center of that. It's a symbol of us. It's a symbol of who we were, who we wanted to become, and what we are slowly becoming. The vines grow together with a deep and shining faith at the center, a guide for our tumultuous life on the edge. If everything else changes day by day and hour by hour, we cling to these 3 things that remain: faith, hope and love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 - How's that for some unlucky numbers, but the way? Lets you know you'll be living on the edge if you follow this path. And our 13th anniversary is just 10 days away.)



"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned." (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)

30 Day Photography Challenge - Day 1 - Self Portrait

I wanted to leave yesterday's post at the top a little longer...as a tribute, you know...but I also wanted to get started on this 30 day photography challenge and invite the rest of ya'll out there to join in. For me, it'll be a chance to channel the emotional energy that currently surrounds me into something creative. Strange how I find that I'm most creative when I'm tired, sad, grieved, depressed, angry...pretty much anything other than happy. I find that I pay more attention to my internal self when there's dissonance. And I'm more motivated to work it out on the page when there's something that needs working out.


Day 1- Self Portrait

*****

30 Day Photography Challenge

A great man is gone...

Two girlfriends and I packed up in one of their cars and drove out to Colorado this past weekend to go to the funeral of a dear, old friend...except he wasn't old. He was way too young.

In week before we left, I was handling all those high school memories of him gingerly, like old parchment, afraid it would all crumble between my fingers. Maybe I would crumble. I strained carefully at those faded memory pages, through the blurred lines and found him all over the place, the places where our lives intersected, where he knew my other friends, where the things I learned from him are written into the rest of my life.

You can't go to school with someone for years and years, with only 5-7 people in your class, and not have them be part of the story of your life. He is written into my story everywhere. That smile, that mischievous grin, those overalls, the red hair, basketball games, bus rides, camp, Mexico, skiing...it's all there. And there he is.

I once said to someone that I will forever be grateful to my guy friends from high school for teaching me what I wanted in a man, for teaching me that men with wonderful qualities were really out there in the world, men who could be trusted. I knew I wanted the depth and conversation of P., the faith and integrity of E., and the adventure and steadiness of G..

Yes, Gabe. On June 25th, the Gabe, who taught me adventure and steadiness, went out of this world. All week I had this e.e.cummings poem running through my head:

 a great


man
is
gone.


Tall as the truth


was who:and
wore his(mountains
understand


how)life


like a(now
with
one sweet sun


in it,now with a 


million 
flaming billion kinds
of nameless


silence)sky;

His parents described him as a "mountain man," and when we were in high school his favorite catch phrase was, "Let's talk about the forest." He was a man connected to the earth, who saw the wonder of creation and reveled in it. He was outfitting his SUV with a bunk in the back to take his little girl camping. So, I'm glad we went to his farewell in the mountains, in a place that seemed full of his spirit, though he is no longer there.



When we left the funeral home, the clouds broke apart and the sun shone down on us like a gift, and cold, wet raindrops fell from the sky.  Heaven's tears. Heaven's healing sun.




We visited the scene of the accident, where he was hit and run off the road by a drunk driver, and I was struck by the peacefulness of the scene. It was so pastoral. So surreal. So unbelievable. But it had his name written all over it. And, again, raindrops splashed on our toes as we walked the length of road.




A great man is gone.

Drizzle

Creativity Boot Camp ~ Day 9

*************************************************

I much prefer the storms, a great tantrum, a good cry, to the whining drip, drip of drizzle. Sometimes I imagine I'm in England or Scotland, and then I feel somewhat better. Then the drip, drip drizzle feels exotic, especially when I can enjoy a mug of warm tea and a good book. Still, though, I love the howling wind and a driving rain or a blinding blizzard. It feels cathartic, like something gets to unwind and release. Drizzle feels like there's something holding back, miserable and depressed. Drizzle is what we do when we're trying to keep it all together because we're too busy to let it all out. Unless we're talking about drizzling chocolate syrup over ice cream. Then drizzle is a whole other matter, a delicacy, like snowflakes, a luxury rather than a tight grip.

Which drizzle are you today?

***************************************************

As an aside, maybe I'm being set free from trying to finish Creativity Boot Camp. The links seem to have disappeared. So, I can't get the assignments for the remaining days. Guess this one just took me too long, huh?