sweet sisters of stone...

i am in love with statues that i find in cemeteries...

 

 

 

 

i see vulnerability and strength...sweetness and sadness...

every time i find one,

i wonder about who they represent,

and about the  family

who's loss is soothed by these beautiful statues...

 

To the sweet sisters of stone -

may you always stand strong,

and may you forever rest in peace...

 

each image has been enhanced with kim klassen's textures



double the fun

so this week has been intense...
it started out with the challenge to take self portraits on the beyond layers course with kim klassen.
 

my twin sister and i have done

the hold-the-camera out in front of ourselves

for the past few years

 and have loved having the pics to look back at.

so i thought this would not only be fun,

but a great project to do for a year. 

i called my sister, marilyn, and we decided that

we'd each do it individually for 365 days. 

it was a big commitment for each of us but it felt right.

we're 57 yrs old and looking for what we're calling 'fulfillment over fifty' and this seemed like a great starting point.  who are we, at 57? 

day 1 was a good time - we both liked it alot. we sent images back and forth through the beauty of cell phones.  fun stuff :)

day 2 was still ok -

the project seemed do-able, the pics were still fun...

i created a new blog to keep track of it all. 

and i was looking forward to day 3...

day 3 was a horror story. 
we both started to realize we have gotten older. 
good grief, we may even have gotten freaking old. 
and that f-word is the cleaned-up freaking (again, cleaned-up...) version. 
no amount of blurriness, or over-exposure was going to hide the fact, from myself anyway...
day 3 hurt.
 neither one of us was ready to give up the project but i can say that body parts other than my freaking (yes, again...) face were going to be center stage all year long.

day 4, i was wiser. 

feet do not look old,

when they are covered with shoes...

and i actually love this picture. 

day 5 was Friday. 

Friday the 13th.  i had concerns. 

my self-esteem was shaky.   i didn't want to feel like i looked old anymore. 

on the other hand, i can't take pictures of my feet all year.  and i really wanted the year to be a learning experience, showing me to myself, finding out who i have grown into.  

i had taken more than 100 pictures of myself this week. 

some i liked, some i hated but i did learn stuff. 

i learned like to walk.  and i need to get a haircut. 

and i can hide the belly fat at this time of year.

all good things to know... 

so i went for another walk at the river to find a good picture for how i was feeling... 

i wandered the roads and pathways, looking for something that would speak to me. nothing seemed meaningful. as i turned around to walk back to the car, thinking i would go home and take a picture of my hands with a beer in each one of them, i walked into the fading light of the day.  and all of a sudden, it seemed perfect.  utterly perfect. 

me, from behind, walking into the light...  

it felt like a picture of what i want to get out of this year. 

i loved it. 

i went home and drank the two beers, in honor of my breakthrough :)

and then, one last picture, to finish the week of painful growth...

 enhanced with kim's textures and brush.

thank you for the week of wisdom. i think :)

a m a z i n g...

time to catch up...
its been a busy 100 days since i wrote on here. 
its a beautiful morning, sun is shining and sky is blue. the storms are gone, and so is the humidity.

birds are chirping,

bunnies are snacking on the grass...

i'm sitting at cape cod, still amazed that we did it.  bought a house? with land to garden?? at the cape???  wow.  it is really hard to believe, doesn't feel real most of the time. 

i remember when we were as close to homeless as i ever want to be. we got a place, but slept on the floor for six months because we couldn't afford a bed.  ate tomatoes from a neighbors garden for breakfast lunch and dinner because we couldn't afford food. 

we have much to be thankful for... besides our family and our health, both first on the long list of things i appreciate. but we are employed. we have worked hard, saved - money and stuff - and now can bring a dream to life.   a m a z i n g...

a house at the cape.  i remember coming here as a kid, it was bigger than Christmas morning, more exciting than our birthday... a week of beaches, games in the cottage at night, singing in the car, sand in the pants, exploring on the rainy days...  we all cherish those memories and thank mom and dad for the joy that we all remember as cape cod back then.  

and i thank them again for the joy of cape cod today.  without them, and their legacies, i would not be sitting on my couch at the cape on this beautiful morning.  i hope, mom and dad, you are here with me now.  i hope you see how you touch my life, our lives, the whole family, still today... 

you may be gone from our sight but not from the cape. as you brought us here when we were kids, we each bring you here each time we come back... 
memories for a lifetime.
a m a z i n g....

a day to remember...

it's been so long since i posted here, i'm not sure i remember how...
happy birthday to mom, missed and loved and remembered forever... we missed your smile and dancing at the wedding, but knew you were on the dance floor with us during the twist and we are family :), heard you seeing blue bayou today, and felt your love and prayers lifting kelly and butch up in their fight against cancer...wish you were here, i miss you every day but most of all in november, come back and visit please, it helps :)

sunday has a feel...

apr 11
photo hunt word of the day was SUNDAY...

if ever there is a day that has a feel, that you can actually capture in a photograph, i believe it is Sunday.

i find that what others find in church, i find in nature. so i spent a good part of the day recognizing God in the world around me.

i started the day at the scary reservoir from friday's word and today, it was a perfect place for peaceful reflection. of course it was, because today was sunday. and as thoreau says - it's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

i visited churches and trees and lakes and watched families of strangers sharing their sundays.

then i went home to go to dinner with joey and shared the rest of my sunday with him, my family...