Project 365 Lately

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:37:30 -0400

It’s been over a month since I posted a few Project 365 photos, so I thought I’d throw a few up to fill the posting void. I’ve not been super-inspired photographically lately--or in any other way, actually. But I’ve persisted in taking a photo every day, more out of sheer doggedness than anything else. What am I really gaining from this project this year? I’m not sure, but I’d rather persist, at least for now, than stop and be sorry later in the year.

I don’t have much variety in portrait subjects, but it’s people I like photographing best. So here’s the Project 365 April-May people edition:

And one critter for good measure:

A Few Scrapbook Pages

Wed, 6 Apr 2011 15:47:22 -0400

It’s been quite a while since I posted a scrapbook page here. I’ve not been that prolific, but I do have a few to post, starting with one from way back in late February:

Maybe it’s obvious (or uninteresting), but the first and last are traditional paper pages; the rest are digital.

The other project I did recently was a mini book. Here’s just a sample of that:

My paper supplies are starting to pile up, but I’ve not been very inspired to play with them (except for that mini). I trust the urge will return, and in the meantime, it has been fun to get back into the digital groove a little.

I Went to Florida

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 10:07:59 -0400

My mom and a friend of hers rented a house in Florida in March to escape the mess that is March in western Massachusetts. She has a birthday in March, and her sister came up with the bright idea that her three children might show up on her Florida doorstep to surprise her for that birthday. I thought we wouldn’t be able to pull it off, and I worried some that even if we did, my mom--not the most sentimental or predictable of women--wouldn’t love it. I was happily wrong on both counts.

We had four lovely days. The weather was spectacular, and it was just fun to be together enjoying it all. Mom was really, I think, delighted to have us. We three offspring enjoyed a welcome break from our daily lives--two of us from northern climes basked in the sunshine and the third, coming from further south than Florida (he lives in the Dominican Republic for much of the year), enjoyed the luxuries of the U.S.A., with its readily available toothpaste in the preferred brand (Colgate, maybe?) and constant electricity. A bonus was getting reacquainted with Mom’s friend and housemate for the month, who was also our former high school English teacher. I hadn’t seen her since I was maybe 15, so that was kind of a trip. She’s still a favorite teacher.

(From left: Rick from Poughkeepsie, NY; Mom; Dan from the D.R.; Uncle Steve and Aunt Carol from New Jersey; me; Marcia the English teacher. The dogs are Wilson on the left and Molly on the right, belonging to my mom and Marcia respectively.)

Rereading

Mon, 4 Apr 2011 09:38:38 -0400

I have never been a big re-reader. There have been a small handful of books I’ve read more than once. Most notable is the Lord of the Rings trilogy; I’ve read those books maybe half a dozen times since my teen years. I always love them. I most recently reread them this past summer.

This winter I was at a loss for what to read one day and picked up another favorite book, one which I’ve read I think twice before: Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. This is probably my second favorite book, a sprawling fantasy filled with wonder and wisdom and wit and love and life. I’ve never read anything like it.

After those two successful (meaning, I still love these books) re-reads, I tried another one, this one a book I had first come across in the homeschooling curriculum we used for a number of years: The Great and Terrible Quest. This is a book for children. I think I first read it aloud to Aimée and Ben; I remember really loving it. This time around, though, it just didn’t quite live up to the memory. There were moments--but it was a little thin on the re-read.

Undaunted, I picked another old favorite to reread: Godric by Frederick Buechner. I had only read this once before--at least I’m pretty sure of that, in part since I never owned a copy. But as soon as I started reading it last month, I remembered it so well, and I loved it just as much this time around as ever. It’s right up there with the Tolkien books and Winter’s Tale in my ranking. The whole thing is written in verse that lies on the page like prose: this is why I remembered whole lines without effort after over 25 years. And they are all lines worth remembering. I’m so glad I finally purchased a copy of this gem of a book.

I have read over 6,000 pages so far in 2011. They have mostly been never-read-before pages, but I’ve treasured these old friends.

Project 365 Update

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:23:18 -0400

One of my goals for the year has been to take a photograph every day (Project 365). This is my third year doing it (I previously did it in 2007 and 2009), and it is definitely easier every time I do it again, but still: February and early March are just plain hard. It has been good in recent days to just be outside with my camera, to be able to stand still outside without freezing, and that has made mid March a tad easier.

I almost always take more than one picture a day but choose one to be part of the official (such as it is) project; that picture I upload to Flickr with the day number. I’ve also been using Shuttercal, but I find it harder to use than Flickr and may just abandon it, since it duplicates what I’m already doing.

Anyway, I just thought I’d post a few of my daily shots here as well today.

January 1:

I deeply regret starting the year with a food picture. I did that in 2009, too, and my Flickr project uses the first photo as the icon for the whole set, so I had to look at broccoli for all of 2009. Now I’m looking at shrimp for all of 2011. It was tasty, but still...

January 8:

January 21:

(No shortage of snow pictures this year, that’s for sure.)

February 1:

February 7:

March 2:

March 3:

March 13:

(Nine of the seventy-five photos I’ve taken for Project 365 this year have been iPhone photos; I’m actually surprised the proportion is that low.)

So: if you’re interested in following along on my photographic journey through 2011, Flickr’s the best place. But I’ll post a few here as well from time to time just for kicks.

Listening

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:17:15 -0400

Click “read more” for the YouTube video that follows:

And:

The Holy Land of the Broken Heart
(Michael Kelly Blanchard)
Jesus in this life of mine, more and more Your Grace I find  In the kingdoms I decline...in the battles lost.  All that I would hold on to...hide away and keep from you  Fade like diamonds made of dew...underneath Your cross.
All the useless ways of my will, claiming peace while peaceless still...  all the dreams so unfulfilled, bitter empty air.  Hollow brag...ambition's boast, haunt the heart like tired ghosts...  leave their lessons and their yokes and their cold despair.
(Chorus)  Jesus, Lord of all I am, hold me with your wounded hands.  Keep me in the Holy Land of the Broken Heart.
Victory's an empty word, success simply seems absurd  When compared to You my Lord and Your hope that heals.  No conditions but the truth, all the shackled shame let loose.  Forgiveness the living proof ...that Your love is real.  Oh the eyes of human kind, show the pain that numbs the mind,  search the sorrow for a sign of mercy in the maze.  Then there in tears of our sin confessed, wrapped in humble blessedness,  Lord You live the honored guest of Your peoples' praise.
(Chorus)
And when my dance of days is through,  when my oldest hour seems brand new,  when all desires are for You... may my story be...  That my treasures weren't of gold,  that my pride lost all its control...  to You, oh lover of my soul... Jesus all to Thee.
(Chorus)

What Freedom Feels Like

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:30:11 -0500

At our church, we’ve been talking about freedom in Christ--what it is, what it’s not, what it looks like, why it matters. In my small group last night we were groping around these questions, trying with a kind of quiet desperation to nail it down. I feel like I can just barely, almost but not quite, kinda-sorta see it. If I squint. In tiny glimpses. I treasure those glimpses--but I want to see more.

I have had a couple very small moments in the past week, though, where I felt it. A word on the tip of my tongue almost made it out, to a stranger--that was almost freedom. I hung up my husband’s dress shirt without thinking about it--without thinking either, I’m a good wife today, hanging up his shirt, or Why do I have to do this annoying chore? (I did say these were very small moments.) I spoke to a friend a word of kindness and love, with a touch: to her it was likely nothing at all. To me, it was freedom.

Freedom feels like loving an infant. When my children were very small, I simply loved them. If they were crying, I wanted to be there, holding them. I’m grateful I was reading the right books (thank you, Dr. William Sears) and being encouraged that I could not spoil my babies with love. I remember reading early on that even if we can’t fix what’s bothering our babies, we can be there for them in their pain or discomfort or sadness. I gave myself to that freely, never wondering if I was doing the right thing and never worrying it would be taken the wrong way and never second-guessing myself. I didn’t do a perfect job of loving my little ones, but my days were filled with completely spontaneous done-without-thinking acts of love toward them, and I rarely held back.

What if I loved all the people around me like that? What if I just loved, without holding back, second-guessing, working over the potential consequences in my mind, wondering how it would be received, fearing rejection, worrying about looking sappy or saying the wrong thing or doing it wrong? Maybe that would be “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Maybe that would be freedom in Christ.