The Beauty of Words

As I unpacked my suitcase when I arrived home from Shutter Sisters Oasis, I came across a moleskin journal that I had received while there.  I took it out, set it on a table near my couch and went about my business.  A few days later, I had heard something that I didn't want to forget, so I quickly reached for the journal, grabbed a pen and wrote down what I had heard, words that had really resonated with me: Whatever follows the two words "I am" is going to come looking for you. I had to write them down.  Those words were too powerful not to remember.  Then, because they moved me so, I wanted others to feel their power as well, so I grabbed my phone, snapped a photo and shared it on Instagram.

It's been a few weeks now and surprisingly, I find myself writing something in that journal almost daily.  Even better, I've noticed in doing so I'm feeling more calm and more centered.  For someone with A.D.D. like me, that's a big deal.  When I think it's something that should be shared, I again grab my phone, snap a photo and share it on Instagram.  Not only are these words beautiful to me, but the comments I'm getting on my shared words have been awesome: Thank you for this today; Keep 'em coming!; You have no idea how much I needed this today.   Aren't words just beautiful? What a gift.  

Today, write some words of beauty that mean something to you.  You can use pen and paper, chalk on a sidewalk, lipstick on a mirror.  Then, take a photo with your camera or phone and share them with us.  If you want to share your beautiful words on Instagram, be sure to hashtag them using #thewrittenwords so we can feel their beauty, too.  You can find me on Instagram at chris_sneddon.

I Love L.A.

I am a born and bred Southern California girl and have lived in the suburbs of Los Angeles my whole life. Where else on the same day can you go surfing in the morning and then skiing in the afternoon? Within a 90 minute drive I can be in Santa Barbara, Palm Springs or Mexico. While there are things I definitely do not love about living here (smog, traffic, prices), there are so many things I would never see or do if I lived anywhere else.  

When I heard the Endeavour space shuttle would be making it's final flight over L.A. before landing here for good, I knew there was no way I was going to miss this historic event.  The list of places that she (yes, in my mind, the Endeavor is a girl!) would be doing flyovers were many and I was close to all of them. Heck, all I had to do was stand outside my front door and I would have seen her but I wanted a bird's eyeview.  The flight would be low, only 1500 feet.  Griffith Park Observatory, which was on her list to fly by, is at 1100 feet. At only 400 feet above me head, I could almost reach out and touch her!

I expected a crowd to show up so I planned accordingly.  We left the house at 7:30 a.m. and 90 minutes later we exited the freeway.  What is usually a 10 minute drive up to the observatory took almost 90 more minutes.  When we finally got to the top of the hill with what felt like the entire population of Los Angeles, the excitement was palpable. 

Eyes turned to the sky for what seemed like forever, when first one person called out and than another. "There it is! There it is!".  There was a dot on the horizon that slowly grew larger and as she got closer, the crowd grew louder.  Hundreds (probably a thousand, easily) of cameras and cell phones pointed to the sky, awaiting for that one moment in time that would never repeat again.  When the moment finally arrived and she flew over, the jet engines so loud that you couldn't hear anything else,  it took my breath away.  I suddenly became emotional at the thought that a part of history was coming to an end.  There was cheering and clapping and the crowd began to chant "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!".  That glorious piece of machinery gave us a show and flew over and around us 3 times.  It was magical, awe-inspiring, amazing and I would do it all over again.  I mean, really, only in L.A. are you going to see a space ship right above the Hollywood sign and never think it's an odd sight at all.  I love L.A., I really do.  :)

How about you?  Everyone has something they love about where they live.  Today, share with us what that is. 

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My best friend of many years was here visiting from Alaska last month.  I've known her since I was in the 3rd grade.  We grew up on the same street, only 3 house apart.  Even though she went to a private school and I went to public school, we were inseperable and were together everyday after school.  When it was time for high school, she moved away, but not so far that we didn't spend most of our weekends together.  It wasn't until she married and moved to Alaska that that all changed.  She may have been thousands of miles away, but our friendship was permanent. 

Last month, on her way to Colorado for her daughter's wedding, she made a detour to California to see me.  It had been ten years since we had last been together.  I cherished every minute of the week we had together and before I knew it, it was over and she was off to Colorado.  After she had gone, I went through all the photos I took while she was here and wanted her to have something to remember our time together, so using some of the photos I had taken using Instagram, I first made a collage using the Diptic app. Then, using the Sincerely Ink app, I used the collage to make a postcard.  I sent one to her as well as myself.  I don't know when I'm going to see her again but until then, I have this postcard.  It sits on my desk where I see it every time I sit down at my computer and apparently, it's where she keeps hers, too.  We may live in a digital world, but thanks to apps like Sincerely Ink, I'm rediscovering 'snail mail', and that's a good thing!

Speaking of snail mail, who wouldn't want to receive one of these gorgeous necklaces in their mailbox from the lovely Stacy De La Rosa of Bella Wish?!  Stacy has graciously offered to give one away to one lucky winner. Just leave a comment here no later than midnight Wednesday, Sept. 26th!  Stacy's also giving our readers who wish to purchase a necklace a 10% discount.  Promo code: ShutterSisters10

UPDATE: Congrats to Shari Sherman!  You're the lucky winner of the the gorgeous necklace!!

Evening

There's a sweet relief that comes with evening. The light shifts from gold to blue and like clockwork, I feel my shoulders drop, the hard angles of my body soften. As the sun goes down, I know I can count on the routine of the evening to get me through. There's nothing particularly unusual about it-- dinner, conversation, laughter. Last minute playtime, last minute homework, a collection of bedtime rituals. And then the house is quiet. The sky, finally dark. We collapse onto the big green couch, my husband and I-- let it swallow us whole. Well, we say, we made it through another day. We look around. Dirty dishes, everywhere. Stacks of books, papers, dirty socks, legos scattered like confetti. We're exhausted but we made it through another day. And we're thankful.

Today's prompt is 'evening'. What do evenings look like at your house? Please do share an image or two with us today.

Embracing Family

 

With this month’s prompts all being inspired by Elevate the Everyday, I have been delighted by all of the images and comments you’ve shared. Obviously the contents of the book are near and dear to my heart which makes your responses that much more meaningful. Thank you so much!

Today, as you visually translate the poignant prompt of family, I am beyond excited to share with you that today’s post and prompt has even more collective energy than usual. Today, Shutter Sisters has the honor of being one of the stops along the way in the Blogust Blog Relay for Good. That means that each and every one of YOUR comments today will translate into a $20 donation to Shot@Life (also near and dear to my heart) to get vaccines to children who need them most. Yes, $20 per unique comment, up to a maximum of $200,000 to reach 10,000 children. WOW! And not only will your comment count on today’s post here, it will also count over on my personal blog as well. In other words, with 2 simple comments today (one here and one on my blog), you are inadvertently giving $40 to Shot@Life. That’s donating all of the vaccines that two children need for a shot at more family time. And that is pretty awesome!

And because we share our support, encouragement and responses through visuals around here, be sure to add the #blogust tag to your images too (in addition to #sselevate) to help show your support and spread the word so that other shutter sisters (and brothers) around town know to come participate too. The more the merrier when it comes to social good, wouldn’t you agree? And speaking of other shutter sisters, Anne Geddes is a part of the campaign as well. We're in good company.

So be sure to leave a comment today, go hug your family and take your camera with you to document it! Then tag your images and help spread the good word. We’re a part of something very special over here and we want everyone to join us! That's how we do it here...together!

To keep up in the Blogust relay, check out the calendar of bloggers so you can follow along all month long to help us reach our $200,000 goal!