it's okay... you can take a peek inside...

{click photos for better views}

sometimes i just like to go around and take pictures of some favorite nooks and corners in my home... my haven... my shelter from the "storm"... my favorite place to go when it's cold outside... or too hectic and loud... or even ruthless. so i just wanted to give you a glimpse of what i call home.

mostly i love the light in my home throughout the day. in the morning, it comes brightly into my bathroom and dining room. in the evening, it casts a warm glow into my living room and the bedroom.

i treasure my home and many of the things in it. not in a materialistic way. we don't own the house we live in. and most of the things in it are hand-me-downs or second-hand purchases, so there are not a lot of expensive things. but i treasure what i have done with it and what i get out of it. when it is clean and organized and simple, i feel the most... well, the most at home.

and it is a place where i can completely be me. the real me under the layers and barriers we put on before we go out into that world. i'm truly grateful to have such a home.

in my bedroom, i have a photocopy of a page from one of my favorite books displayed in a leather frame that is worn and weathered and perfect. on the page the author pictures an old-english-like calligraphy work of something written by an unknown author under which she wrote "words i aspire to". i aspire to them also, which is why i hung them on my wall. here is what the calligraphy work says:

"humility is perpetual quietness of heart. it is to have no trouble. it is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. it is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when i am blamed or despised; it is to have a blessed home in myself where i can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is trouble."

i simply love this.

{have a happy weekend, everyone. saturday morning, i'm off to nature day 2009. can't wait! i'll certainly write and share pics on that later. here is what i wrote and the photos i posted from nature day 2008. and sunday i'll be staying in. and i look forward to it! it's supposed to snow! see you for sooc sunday.}