{Spring in My Step}

“You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.”-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazo

Today is the first day of spring and it looks an awful lot like the last day of winter. But nonetheless I could not resist dusting off my real camera and recording March 20th the official first day of spring . I will not onslaught this blog with a million pictures of twigs like I did last spring...except one. which I love because it looks a pretty trippy 90's fuzzy hair lamp that were popular when I was in high school. You could put your hand over it and it would move and feel soft, light up....They were sold at Spencer's at the mall. That's all I remember.  So what else do you shoot on the first day of spring when honestly, even if you go to a lake, there are pretty much only twigs....The answer is in the second picture...

which is a snail. Or at least I think it is. I had to look real hard to find something a cute as this little guy just hanging out here in the cold lake.  I would have gotten even closer if I had boots on. It is was a pretty close distance a face plant as it was trying to get this with a 50 mm.  And that's really all I have for now except for the last picture which I just liked. Welcome Spring, I can't wait til you liven things up a bit.

{Metamorphosis}

You don’t need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Don’t even listen, simply wait.
Don’t even wait.
Be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
-Franz Kafka



The most beautiful thing about spring is the slow awakening of color, life, energy, movement-as in you start to really see people again. No longer held up in the tree branch, ground or their winter slumber. The city awakens with a big yawn and stretch to a fresh new season .
There is a vitality, new energy and I can feel the sluggishness of winter leave my body. Ahhh, so wonderful. Winter feels tight and heavy. That's the only way I can explain it, whether it's the low pressure or clenching my body from the wind and cold. I can relax and breathe with ease come spring.
Simply put, I love the color spring brings. Everywhere, there are flowers blooming! What else can I say. Seems like a good place to wrap it up!

{Grins and Giggles}

“Come clean with a child heart 
Laugh as peaches in the summer wind 
Let rain on a house roof be a song
 Let the writing on your face be a smell of apple orchards on late June.” 
 ― Carl Sandburg, Honey and Salt I can smell spring. Literally, it has been pouring all day and this scent embodies spring to me. In honor of this upcoming most wonderful time of year, I thought of posting some favorite spring memories. These two photographs contain three spring favorites-parks, play and pals. What can be better than that! (Maybe ice cream mixed in there?)

{Traffic Jams}

“I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even as you are reading you feel it and as you read you keep feeling it and though it be my story it will be common, though it be singular it will be known to you so that by the end you will think— no, you will realize— that it was all the while yourself arranging the words, that it was all the time words that you yourself, out of your heart had been saying.” ― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems This tattered rose reminds me of a heart-which reminds me, for some reason, about a lesson I did as a school counselor sometime ago about the effects of words on the heart. It was a great visual exercise to demonstrate to tweens how their behavior impacts someone and can leave its mark for years to come. Taking a piece of paper, clean and uncrumpled, I repeated words I heard in the hallway that were unkind or bullying in nature. With each word or phrase the paper crumpled and slowly formed into a ball. As I pulled it back to it's original shape, it remained crinkled and torn. Much like a person's heart after it's been hurt by another. It never is the same. It worked for awhile. The kids all were shocked, hugged and promised to be nice to each other from here on out:) A school counselor win. Thinking about my own life and having been on both sides of the coin, I know broken and bruised hearts are unavoidable. We grow up, carry more stories and more baggage. Hurt people, hurt people. Friends fight, divorces happen, parents fall off pedestals. And I know, with time, those wrinkles in the heart heal, toughen up and are our life story. The heart is a precious and powerful organ. It filters life into every inch of our bodies and is home to the soul. Personally, I don't want to be a person who intentionally damages such a remarkable thing. But, my mouth, can get me into a lot of trouble. When I'm tired, hungry, feeling threatened, irritated, overstimulated, being cut off in traffic, or perhaps you are in front of me in the grocery store express line with one over the allotted amount for check-out....oh boy that one does it. So there it is. Just a ongoing responsibility to censor my mouth with intention and awareness. Or maybe I'll listen more and talk less. That's where peace starts. And now I'm just starting to go off in a loop and ramble. So I finish with saying that the point of all this to reminds myself to mind my words (said in a teacher tone). The heart is precious and delicate. Like this beautiful and weathered rose. So the next time I am cut off on 494 after a long day at work, instead of shouting a very obvious profanity in exaggerated form so the other driver can tell what I said, I will blow that person a kiss or give a thumbs up and this small change will add more peace and love into the world (sappy sappy...:)..)

{Stillness Speaks}

“The child is in me still and sometimes not so still.” ― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

{A Curious Mind}

“I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt This little one was full of all sorts of wise four year old words during a session I had the other day. I hadn't seen her since she was one year old and the change astounded me. I suppose that is how it goes...She was so mild mannered and observant. We played a bit and took pictures for awhile. I enjoyed them both. I rarely ask people to pose during sessions, but there was a request to get a nice shot in her new spring dress. I got a collection of nice portraits-but this was my favorite...Gazing out the window. Taking the city in and processing it all with the four year old brain wired on wonder and curiosity.

{Gentle Reminders}

“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.” ― Donald Miller It was somewhat of a challenging day...people yelling at me, working long hours, cold weather, self-pitying poor attitude, can turn it around if I tried attitude. So here, to combat this pit I refuse to go into, I post a beautiful picture of pure happiness. As a reminder that "this too shall pass..." and over all my life is full of beauty. I have much to be grateful for But back to the munchkin in the tub... I mean look at this little pumpkin. It's my girlfriend's granddaughter getting a bath old school style. There were some shock tears but overall she was joyful and I couldn't take my eyes off her. Her energy and vibe was perfect. It was peaceful and curious. She babbled, stuck stuff in her mouth, sucked on the side of the sink. Explored absolutely everything. Just writing about it makes me feel good. With that I'll finish with a cliche. March might have come in like a Lion but today it settled nicely with a little lamb:) Peace.