Out of the Bag, Onto the Road

She pressed it into my hand before she left.  You'll need this, her eyes said, if not now, later.  I nodded, the cold edges of the token warming to my touch.  I waited until she was out of sight to examine it and then stuffed it deep into my jeans pocket.

I didn't think much of it after that, but every then and again, when I was feeling particularly low, I'd come across this little charm--in the bottom of my purse, in my coat pocket--and I'd remember how my friend wanted me to know that I wouldn't be alone, even when I thought I was, even when I was sure no one was noticing my life unravel one fabulous thread at a time.

It's been months since I came across my trinket.  I don't know if I dropped her in the grocery store or if somewhere in my travels she tumbled out of my bag and onto the road.  I miss finding her in unlikely moments.  I wish she would find me now, in this instant where it's hard to remember everything will be all right, when I'm wondering where I am.  When I'm imagining where I'll go.

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Do you have a tricket, a charm, a tiny thing on your dresser, on your windowsill, that makes you a little bit stronger, that leaves you a little more happy?  Show us your treasures in the comments below.

Because All the Little Things You Do Matter

It's Saturday morning, and if you're like every other woman in America, your to-do list has already been set for days.  Here's a friendly reminder from your Shutter Sisters community to make sure you make the list--because all the little things you do to bring hope and light to the people you love, make the world a much better place.

Today we want to see your photos of what you did for you.  Have a great day, sisters!

just be

By sweet synchronicity, as I was reading the words that Lilia shared in her post yesterday, I was packing my camera bag for a little photo excursion with one of my dear Shutter Sisters Kristi of A Life Photographic. We still live in close proximity to one another and were dear friends long before either one of us got serious about photography but these days our mutual passion has only enriched our relationship. And even still our busy daily lives often keep us from spending time together.

But on this day, we spent our morning strolling and shooting, catching up and clicking and laughing about the laundry we should have been doing, shirking the emails we should have been returning, and delaying the work we should have been getting done. Instead we took the long way around the Nature Center and kept walking. And talking. And enjoying the sunshine, our love of photography and our friendship. I mentioned that I had been really making an effort to slow down and just let myself be for a change. To let magic unfold. It doesn’t mean my to-do list is getting smaller, it’s just taking me a little longer to get through. That’s OK, right? I urged of her.

She replied without hesitation, Tracey, I just lost a good friend to cancer. It can go so fast. Yes, it’s OK. In fact, simple moments like these are all that really matter.

I cannot tell you how glad I am that I allowed myself a day of reflection and wandering, and most of all connecting with a soul sister. It’s going to be part of my new routine of just being.

I ask of you today to take some time to yourself. Breath deep. Appreciate the vibrant miracle of life that you are and all the gifts that you are given unconditionally each day. Look around you and capture with your lens of few of the things that you are grateful for. The kind that remind you that you are allowed to just be. Delight us with your visual reminders.

To Stop, To Breathe, To Listen

Spring is passing as quickly as it came and everyday I panic that I'm missing it, that I'm not paying close enough attention, that this is the last time there will ever be this spring, this flower, this sky, this particular green grass thriving once again through the cracks in the sidewalk, the little bits of ground between the bricks on the patio and my back door.

I worry about all this and then I worry about the worrying and then spring is gone, gone, gone away, just like the moment calling me to stop, to breathe, to listen.  The only thing that helps is grabbing my camera on my way out the door and taking time to notice the flowers, to lean in to this very second, before it's too late.

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What lovely bit of new life are you noticing this spring?  Let's gather up the goodness of this season before it passes.  Show us what's blooming wherever you live and your images will remind us that everything we need is always right here, right now, in this one perfect moment.

in the dew of little things

Grade twelve, it was, when we met, both of us The New Girls in the last grade of high school. And so we joined forces, cliques be damned. We were shrill with beer and opinions, bristling, ants in our pants, trailing conspiratory snickers wherever we went.

Wait. Now we sound insufferable. C'mon. We were eighteen. We were cool, if only because when uncool has company, it becomes cool.

This is Daphne, truthful and fierce and completely without drama, quite possibly the most sensible, go-anywhere person I know. As maid of honour she spoke at my wedding. Afterwards, we cracked up at the self-fanning she instinctually attempted to fend off the tears. It didn't work. Daphne, you see, is both ruthlessly graceful in the calling-out of bullshit and is easily verklempt. At her wedding, guests introduced me as her sister and we giggled. It wasn't the first time.

Please, for the love of god, do not make me do the math of 1991 to now. Let's just say A Long Time and take a deep slurp of wine. I watch her with her Sadie and the shock never fails. Were we ever those girls? Are we really these mothers? Either way, she is my sister, because I say so.

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This week, let's see the camera turned upon longtime friends. Has it changed with life? Have you?

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.  ~ Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), The Prophet