The leaves have fallen...

Windy Leaves, originally uploaded by The Brothers Wright.

Off the trees and into my camera! I have taken so many photos as of late it has been great! I have made a vow to not go anywhere without a decent film camera close at hand. This is a recent little craft I was able to put together. It's a continuation of a series my brother and I put together a few years ago. It reminds me of why I love photography so much. It's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of living the dream of doing what you love for a living that sometimes you actually forget to dream? Don't ever forget to dream! Do what you love and if you can get paid along the way, go for it! Just don't forget to keep loving it. Just as in any real love and relationship with someone you have to make time to develop and go deeper more intimately with the person in order to sustain it's life, the passions of the soul are no different. Treat your love like an obligation or chore and the love will die... Quickly! Cherish your love! Live life without measure or regret. And never brew anything without mixing in some serious passion and a little bit of everyday, tender hearted, too gleeful to notice the scoffers, old fashioned joy!

God Bless!

Make Us Clean

I love the colors that come out after the rain... Rich earthy browns and the subtle greens of new life... The yellow rays of new sunlight contrasted by the pale blue unsoiled sky. The rain washes everything away. If only it could wash away those pollutants in our lives that keep us from doing and being the children that God has made us to be. Those things that keep us from doing the things we really ought. The things we love and those things of virtue that generations past used to know... once. Before technologies and entertainment became God. Well I hope this Christmas we all find time to do the things we love and love the things we do. Bless others and share in God's gift of life creativity & life.

Office Games

Adventura

Remember this?

A Puritan Prayer

"I live here as a fish in a vessel of water,
only enough to keep me alive,
but in heaven I shall swim in the ocean.
Here I have little air in me to keep breathing,
but there I shall have sweet and fresh gales;
Here I have a beam of sun to lighten my darkness,
a warm ray to keep me from freezing;
yonder (yes, yonder) I shall live in light and warmth forever.
My natural desires are corrupt and misguided,
and it is thy mercy to destroy them;
My spiritual longings are of thy planting,
and thou wilt water and increase them;
Quicken my hunger and thirst after the realm above.
Here, I can have the world
there I shall have thee in Christ;
Here is a life of longing and prayer,
there is assurance without suspicion,
asking without refusal;
Here are gross comforts, more burden than benefit,
there is joy without sorrow,
comfort without suffering,
love without inconstancy,
rest without weariness.
Give me to know that heaven is all love,
where the eye affects the heart,
and the continual viewing of thy beauty
keeps the soul in continual transports of delight;
Give me to know that heaven is all peace,
where error and pride raise no head
Give me to know that heaven is all joy,
the end of worrying, fasting, praying, mourning, humbling, watching, fearing, repining;
And lead me to it soon."

The Calm after the Storm

Photo by Serra and her trusty cell phone.

Joy

"The earth laughs in flowers."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Photo by Brandon

-Plant from God

-flower watered by Serra

close your eyes and remember

I miss being a kid...where anything was possible..really the sky wasn't even the limit. I felt like the world was so big and that i alone could conquer it. I planned on having ten million careers plus traveling every inch of the world. I made the best dirt and stick cities in the world and I collected black fuzzy caterpillars until i had a hundred and then they all died and i sat on my back porch and grieved the loss. I remember when i was five and i had this best friend Christopher who thought it was a good idea to kiss me in my amazing plastic pool one day. I got out immediately and told him he was gross and then he cried..and well that began a whole lot of bad luck...anyway, I had chickens too..only because every time we went to the feed store i had to have a chick. I carried those chickens everywhere...time just disappeared when i was little...i created an entire world of my own and told stories and when i got a little older wrote stories. One time i thought i was going to be a detective so i wrote mystery novels in my journals.when i was little the bigger picture didn't make sense and that was fine..i just went on.during Christmas i would always cry..Christmas eve my mom would sit by the tree and just look at it for hours..it was just the two of us and i just felt so sad for her..for me..in general..when i was 8 i met my one of two cousins Jeremy..loved climbing trees so we did for hours and hours and then played old maid and i won...only time i ever saw him... i loved to learn too starting in kindergarten because i hated preschool and sobbed all day until my mom took me home and said ..forget this..haha but kindergarten was great..i knew how to read already..my mom read stories to me ALL the time and i read to...i learned a billion things and liked my teacher.. I made homeade ice cream and walked around and around the playground with my best friend telling each other all our secrets.. and i was a cheerleader for one day until i found that i wasn't peppy and i preferred other things...then whenever my dad was around i would fall asleep just so he would carry me to bed...I had four huge trees in my backyard that were 4 different worlds...i dug at least 5 feet to prove to my friend that you couldn't dig to China....i wore a tshirt that said 'I live for Saturdays' when all the other girls wore fluffy dresses....i was competitive and adventurous and shy and emotional and smart and selfish and rebellious and had no sense of style...and it was beautiful.

This life we live is beautiful..exquisite really. It's filled with the deepest hurt and the deepest pleasures..times of letting go and times of gaining more than we could ever imagine or dream. Our lives are stories themselves and should be told often. A childlike heart is the key to heaven..don't let it go.

Over The Rhine In My Head

So last night we saw again, me for the fifth time Serra for the second, what I would consider the most significant and influential bands for me personally still here on God's green earth at an extraordinarily intimate venue with some really good friends. The band was Over the Rhine and I would highly recomend anyone who appreciates good music to look them up. Paste magazine named them as one of the top 100 songwriters alive. It was their first ever west coast Christmas tour in their 20 years of performing and we were fortunate enough to see them at special performance at Fuller Seminary. Before their performance they had a question and answer session that I thoroughly enjoyed. The topic was "spirituality and creativity." What really impresses me about them is their accessibility amidst their absolute brilliance. I have never before seen more talented musicians demonstrate their gifts with such sincerity and joy. And the joy that comes from songs of sorrow, pain and regret is inexpressible. I feel as if every time I see them it is a once in a life time opportunity. I am so blessed! And so excited to see them again!

Over the Rhine are the husband and wife duo of Linford Detweiler & Karin Bergquist.

Check them out at OverTheRhine.com

Christmas Creative

Upside Down from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

Honesty

So I looked up the literal definition of awkward today and after all the clumsy, uncomfortable, nervous..blah blah blah I found this jewel: A situation requiring great tact, ingenuity, skill, and discretion. Personally, I enjoy awkwardness..I find it thrilling and most of all challenging. Someone who allows themselves to be awkward, allows themselves to live....

Superhero lovers.....

Photos by uh...US obviously.

Look

If you haven't checked out my list of favorite things...you should..and make sure you visit Girl Meets NYC. She has a wonderful sense of style and a beautiful heart. She writes encouraging words that have moved me many times and I would love to share these words sooooo check it out:)

A snippet of her latest:

"If you want to influence those around you to be more optimistic, be optimistic. If you want to influence those around you to work hard, work hard. If you want to influence those around you to be be more compassionate, be compassionate. If you to influence those around you to be ambitious, be ambitious without doubt."