get happy!

 

Summer is the season of play and yet I cannot even remember the last time I took the summer seriously with play in mind until this summer! Play can lighten our burdens, connect us, make us feel young again, and help heal our wounds. Play is an essential part of life and yet we can so easily shirk it off the older we get.

There are a million ways to engage in the power of play! Today pick one and do it up. We want to see you get happy!

oasis

I could be sleeping. But instead I am sitting cross-legged on the grass listening to the early morning crickets. The sun is just rising over our city, I came here this morning for peace. The type of peace you find at an oasis, at the edge of the water. I came here this morning to swim in the sunrise.

When I was a kid, summer meant swimming purely for the love of it... the freedom of loose limbs in water. Now, where I live in Texas, summer means swimming as a means to escape the brutal heat. It is one of the only ways to be outside during our dog days of summer.  Even though I am now a grownup, buoyancy brings me back to childhood. Floating on my back with my head in the clouds will always make me feel younger than I am.

On this morning I woke specifically to find myself kneeling in a field just as the rays of light spilled forth. And then I walked across the street to the golden child of our city, the oasis of swimmers and divers and fish and turtles.

I am most myself when I am in water. I realize this every single summer. Tell me, do you have an oasis? Whether it be the ocean, lakes, rivers, or pools ... where do you swim during the heat of your summer months? And if it is winter where you live, what summer memories do you treasure?

365 moments

When I started a photo a day project last July, I thought I would only manage a month’s worth of photos, so I set myself that goal. By the end of the month, I enjoyed recalling the memories and moments so much, I decided to carry on.

Taking it a month at a time, excited by the prospect of month of gratitude, the year long project really took hold and was the tonic I needed. Finding these blessings, things to be grateful for, everyday memories and the beauty in the ordinary. This project was opening my eyes, helping me when there were difficult times in my real life and teaching me to embrace how lucky I was, to be a partner, mother, sister, friend and photographer.

Many of you reading this may be on your own 365 journey, or may have well surpassed it, or fallen off the wagon even. Yes, there are days when it's hard to find the inspiration or motivation, but believe me when you look back at your year of captured images, the body of work that has challenged you and brought you joy, it will be worth it…

You are creating your treasure, a moment that challenged you, a poignant, significant moment or a moment that makes the whole 365 project mean something to you.

What things are challenging you right now? Please share the ups and/or downs with us

And never fear, we will be announcing our brand new word for the One Word Project for July so pop back over tomorrow and be challenged (in the best way)!

Memories of Love

 

I lost my grandma Lucy one week after Mother's Day.  It wasn't unexpected and we knew the end was imminent, but that didn't make it any easier.  I'm glad that my son's have many memories of her and I don't want them to ever forget her.  More importantly, I'm glad that I made a point during the last couple of years to photograph Lucy as much as I could as well as documenting her last few months for our family.

My youngest son and Lucy had a special relationship.  He was her 'baby boy'.  When she was at her crabbiest he would sing for her and make silly jokes, getting a giggle and smile out of her when no one else could.  When she was dying I told him he didn't have to go to the hospital to see her because I knew how difficult it was, but he insisted.  I'm doing it for her, he would say, tears in his eyes, she needs me.

I had been trying to come up with ways to somehow use my photos of Lucy as sort of a memorial to her when the opportunity came to get a canvas print from Hello Canvas. I knew immediately what I was going to do.  I showed my son all the pictures I had taken of Lucy over the past couple of years and told him to pick his favorite one to be used.  When our package arrived only 5 days later, we couldn't wait to open it.  I don't know who was more excited about it, me or my son!  Once it was opened, we propped the canvas up and stood back and looked at it in awe.  It immediately brought tears to my eyes.  Mama, my son said excitedly, MeeMaw would be so happy!  Not only would Lucy be happy, my son is happy and that is everything.  Thank you, Hello Canvas, for your help in keeping the memory of Lucy alive, just as it should be.

What about you? Do you do anything special with your photos to remember those that are no longer with us? Please share with us your ideas or show us in a photo what you have done.  We'd love to see your memories of love, too. 

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Hello Giveaway! It’s random giveaway time again from our friends at Hello Canvas. YAY!

Leave a comment here between now and Thursday at midnight and you could win a 20X24 canvas of your photo of choice from Hello Canvas!  Hello, indeed!

EDITED TO ADD:

Thank you all so much for the response on this post! Hello Canvas was so touched by this conversation of Love that they are now offering 40% off all orders when you use our promo code HELLOSISTERS! HELLO!

And thank you sisters, for sharing your beautiful, sweet, warm comments with us.  You have truly touched me. 

Hello You!

Anyone who has been through a difficult time can appreciate how healing (and thought-provoking) taking self-portraits can be.  Sometimes you just need to face yourself in the mirror.  Sometimes you need to be willing to see exactly what you look like in order to silence the constant critic who can't stop exaggerating your worst faults. 

The truth is, we are all more tender, more fragile, more strong and more beautiful than we can bear to imagine--but it gets one step easier if we're willing to pick up the camera (or the iPhone) and take in all of who we are, through a more forgiving lens.

I've been doing this everyday for the last few weeks.  I think it's helping me get grounded and remember who I am, after all I've seen and been through over the last year.

Do you need a nudge to turn that camera back around on your beautiful self?

Hello Contest!

It’s time for a June Mini Photo Contest. That means it’s time to share your best image that fits our theme this week. Today, it’s Hello You! So show us YOU in all your self-portrait glory between now and Sunday night at midnight PST over in our OWP Flickr pool and leave a comment here with a link to your shot. Only one image per person please and only those images shared through links in the comments here will be considered. There will be one “Grand Hello” winner that will receive a 36X24 canvas (Hello!) and 2 runners up will win a 20X24 canvas compliments of Hello Canvas, of course!

So hurry, hurry--don't be shy.  We're eager to see your sweet face--exactly as you are right now.