this quieter love

"Love as distinct from 'being in love' is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be 'in love' with someone else. 'Being in love' first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it."

~C. S. Lewis

{photo caption: two of the pages that contain quotes about love by c. s. lewis in one of my favorite books called the quotable lewis.}

. . .

i've never been too big on valentine's day. red is one of my least favorite colors, and the explosion of commercial red that is everywhere to be seen with the preparation of this "holiday" really gets to me by the time the day actually arrives.


plus, i've never liked to "be told" when to show someone i love them... or ask them for their love... or celebrate their love for me. i like to do those things on my own time... spontaneously. and so does my husband. so we rarely "celebrate" this day in the way that hallmark tells us we should.


but when you love photography and c. s. lewis's wisdom and writing and blogging and you are pregnant with an incredible love for a child growing in you and you are more in love with your husband than ever before, valentine's day becomes a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all those things... so that is what i am doing here today.


mr. b. and i have one of the most flawed marriages you'll ever see. he and i are some of the most flawed people you'll ever meet. but even with our shortcomings as individuals and as a couple, over ten years, we have come to know a love that i never knew i could. i'm so encouraged by the fact that, if allowed, love grows stronger and deeper over time. and it should. and if it doesn't, you have to question if there was ever love there to begin with.


b. and i have gone through a lot... are going through a lot. for all the great things i can say and share about him / us on this blog, there are almost as many difficult things i could write about. but i don't celebrate those things in and of themselves. i celebrate the fact that they are there and they cause us to love each other more each day by teaching us patience and long-suffering. but it is the good things i celebrate.


i'm so grateful for him. i've said it before here... this pregnancy has drawn us together like i never knew it could or would. and i laugh about it and call it hormones sometimes. but it's a deeper love i feel for b., now that we have made this little squirt together. don't get me wrong. there have been some reeeeeeally tough moments where we were "at each other's throats" {and i'll take most of the blame... i'm pregnant and hormonal}. but there have also been some tender, life-changing, bonding moments, too.


i had hoped not to ramble on... just let lewis's words say it all. but i feel like i have so much to say. in fact, i've barely begun. still, i'll cut this short{er} now and instead leave you with this video that my sweet friend jen {at hi kooky} once posted on her blog. i had always meant to put it on my blog for b's and my anniversary. but it works here, too.

this is where i hope to be with b. years down the road. {well, not at the mayo clinic... but making music together because that quieter love sustained us through thick and thin.}

the thing i love about what lewis says above is that it speaks to friendship in a marriage. and that is why what he says {minus the romantic part} could also apply to any relationship... friendships, siblings and other family relationships... even co-workers or relationships between church members. loving someone even when you do not like them... it's easier said than done. and you surely know it when you receive it!

happy valentine's day to all!

the bible in a year

...i TRIED to do it one year a while back, but i did not get all the way through. well, i'm NOT going to attempt it in 2011, either. i figured i'd only be setting myself up for failure. i think it's going to be a very busy and out-of-the-norm year... especially come june when baby gets here.

but b. is going to do it again this year. this will be his third time. he tried it several years ago, but never finished. then, he tried again in 2008 and FINISHED! it was a reading schedule that had him read the old testament once and the new testament twice. so he actually did more than read through the bible in a year. he read it once and then some!

well, he's on attempt number three and, i hope for his sake, success number two! i love that he is doing this again. i am uber proud of him for doing it. it means a lot to me. if he had just done it once and never again after that, i might think he had done it just so he could say he accomplished such a feat. but the fact that he is doing it again makes me know he wants to study the bible and know it inside and out. i feel blessed to be married to a man that is making that one of his year's priorities and goals. he could have a goal to learn a hundred more songs on the guitar {which i would enjoy, actually}. or he could have a goal to learn something in 2011 that he has never taken up before... like acting or racing cars or building furniture. and these would all be admirable things. but i can honestly say, i would prefer that he take this measure... to know more about the God he believes in through his word... more than anything else.

and i certainly prefer it to lesser {in my eyes} goals like becoming rich and powerful at the cost of neglecting his family and relationships or to fame and attention. i am honored to be married to a humble man who does not seek those things. i am honored to be married to a man who is rich in faithfulness and devotion and deep love for me and who desires to lead this family.

but this post is not about how madly in love i am with my husband more and more each day {though i am!}. it's about sharing what i chose to photograph for my "picture winter" assignment today. i hope it's okay to repeat it here, but for today's assignment, tracey wrote:

"promise and possibility might be intangibles, but you know that feeling you get when you see something that fills your heart to brimming. be on the lookout today for something that speaks of promise or possibility - something hopeful, touching, soul stirring. something that reminds you that anything is possible and we have everything to hope for."

oh... this is my bible! if is FULL of reminders to me that anything is possible and i have everything to hope for! full of promise or possibility... hope, touching stories, soul-stirring words... fills my heart to brimming... and my spirit and my soul!

so i knew immediately i would photograph my bible. but i had a hard time deciding if i wanted it closed or open in the photo. i chose to go with open {i submitted the shot above}. much more symbolic, no? it is when it is open that i find all that my soul thirsts for. and my soul was SO thirsty today!

so i was glad today when i happened to open up to these verses for my shoot:

"...his steadfast love endures forever." ~psalm 118:2

and

"i love the LORD, because he has heard

my voice and my pleas for mercy.

because he inclined his ear to me,

therefore i will call on him as long as i live."

~psalm 116:1-2

and one i purposefully opened up to in 2nd corinthians {because of a thoughtful comment that another blogger left for me yesterday on my post about strength}:

"... 'my grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.'
therefore i will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ may rest on me."
~2nd corinthians 12:9

anyway, here are the rest of the shots i took.

though i will not read it all the way through this year, i hope to be found here often... in it's pages so thin, but so full of hope and promise and answers for this life of mine. i'd like to be so often in it, that by this time next year, the cover's edges will be even more worn than they are now.

do you read the bible? have you ever read it all in a year? if not, do you plan to some time?

on peonies, storms and freedom

i was not sure if i would blog today, but it's raining outside, and i processed some photos last night, so i thought, "oh, why not?"

i wish i had something poignant and moving to say on this memorial day. but i do not. i only have simple thoughts... simply that i am grateful for the freedoms i enjoy, which so many men and women have fought for, died for and protected. and i don't want this day to pass without expressing that gratitude.

we have had the most amazing weather here for three days. today started out nice, but in rolled the clouds, and now i hear thunder. it's actually a bit comforting. i'm a sunshine and blue sky kind of girl! but today, for some reason, the distant thunder, dark clouds, soft rain, and that wonderful summer-rain smell are giving me a sense of peace.

thunder? peace? i know... two words you would not expect to see together. it's been a very reflective weekend. not much going on here. just a lot of time to think. {worry, too.} trying not to worry about money. thinking a lot about possibly relocating to another state. worrying about how in the world that could happen. there are only five-hundred+ question marks that go along with that possibility. i keep going back and forth between two major thoughts these last few days. one: how will we make it? {in regards to staying here and being unemployed.} two: how will we make it happen? {in regards to picking up and moving to another state should this job opportunity pan out.}

perhaps the reason the stormy weather outside gives me comfort is because i know that, much like the storms of life, it will pass and the grass will be even greener as a result.

so i sit. and i wait. because there is nothing i can do about all that right now.

anyway, i'll write more on that later. today, i'm just in summer mode. it's not officially summer yet. but memorial day always feels like the beginning of summer to me. and so do peonies.

peonies also make me think of vintage goodness. i don't know why. maybe i have a faint, tucked-away memory of peonies in an old milk glass vase at my grandmother's house. or maybe it's because they are often used in the many old vintage postcards that i thumb through at antique stores.

whatever the reason, i thought i would sort of antique my recent peony photos {except for this last macro shot } to go with how i see them. peonies are one of my favorite flowers for sure. i hope you enjoy... and i hope you all had a beautiful weekend so far, and that today will be that and more.

i was right... the path was still there.

but this time, instead of being covered

with the shadows of long, lean tree trunks,

it was covered in lacy shadows of a million leaves...

leaves made with the abundant rain we have been given this spring.

sometimes the path led me through dense groups of trees

and other times out into wide open spaces.

and as i walked along its twists and turns,

dirt in some places and mulch-covered in others,

i saw many a wild flower...

so many interesting things to see...

from the lifeless trunk of this large, old tree,

to one of the tiniest of living creatures.

but my favorite part of the entire walk was coming across

this small group of fern leaves

that were somehow left in the path just as you see them here.

it did not seem that they were there naturally,

rather that someone had picked them and then placed them down...

i have no idea why.

but i loved the way the bright green leaves

looked against the dark brown mulch,

and i was not about to pass up an opportunity to photograph them.

maybe this was what i was meant to freeze in time...

before the foot of a passer-by should disturb them.

so i did.

after capturing them as i had found them,

i gathered them up and laid them out in a line...

almost the way you might see them in a botanical drawing.

but then i felt the need to create a word.

LIVE felt most appropriate,

and was not too long a word

for the amount of leaves i had to work with.

so LIVE it was.

just a few steps further along the path,

i realized where the leaves came from...

a very large patch of wildly growing ferns.

it was rather lovely... almost jungle-esque and very magical.

i do love ferns.

i tried to grow them at our last house on a hill,

hoping they would take over a shaded area of our yard.

they make me think of southern, warmer climates.

i guess that is what i love about them.

well, maybe it is their detail and pattern, too.

anyway, please don't report me to the forest preserve police.

i swear i did not pick these...

but seeing as they were already detached,

i decided to bring them home and make some cards with them.

i thought of leaving my LIVE there for someone else to see.

but then i realized that this little happenstance was just between me and the path.

and so i kept them.

in my hand.

in my heart.

in my mind.

and in my camera... that i might share them with you, too.

our little secret.

and there you have it... my sunday {photo } walk.

have a happy week.

and LIVE!

{i was not all that happy with how most of my photos turned out,

but this one was definitely my favorite of the bunch.}

just a few words

i'm short or words today... thinking about the very thing i am short on. contemplating the power of words. the power they have to heal. the power they have to tear down or hurt. the way people can use them carelessly, even when they think they are using them for good. the way they are so loosely thrown around in this day and age of facebook and blanket statements.

colossians 4:6 says, "let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man."

after reading something that left me feeling disheartened -- something someone wrote on facebook sunday morning -- i have thought of this verse several times. i recalled the verse being in colossians, but could not quite remember the chapter and verse number.

while searching for the verse's reference online, i also came across something written about it. it said, "to speak with grace is to speak words that are wholesome, fitting, sensitive and purposeful."

i'm thinking very much on these things today.

rain dropped

happy {macro } monday. ready for another week? i'm not. but despite an emotionally difficult weekend and feeling rather tired and run down, i'm going into this week with some really great things to carry with me... little treasures, if you will.

our first thunderstorm of the season. pure decadence in the best {and most expensive } cupcake i've ever had from a new little cupcake shoppe just blocks from my house. raindrops so small and delicate, they seemed like they might disappear at just a mere breath. {the drops pictured above couldn't have been more than a couple of millimeters across.} capturing those raindrops with my macro lens. the honor of attending a baby shower of a dear friend. a drive through the country with nothing in sight but big white fluffy clouds and seas of dandelions and lush green {thank you, rain }. listening to evgeny kissin's piano performance along the way.

i'm off to bed {because it's actually sunday night as i write }, hoping to sleep better than i have been. hoping you found some little treasures over the weekend, too.

synonymous : labyrinthine

have you stopped to look at a leaf lately?

{see more detail by clicking on image}

such amazing detail in all those maze-like veins that carry life throughout. whether spring, summer or fall, we tend to look at the trees as a whole. but how often do we stop and appreciate just one leaf?

i haven't done a "macro monday" post in a while, so this will serve as yesterday's macro monday shot and this week's tuesday synophotography shot. i'm guessing my sister will have fun with this one.

{see her synophotograph here.}

macro monday

happy macro monday.

i'm sorry i've been so absent from your blogs. i've been working on something sort of important. i look forward to catching up on all you blogs now, though.

have a great week!

{photo taken at the flower gardens next to millennium park in downtown chicago}

macro monday {+ mosaic monday}

{click on image to see detail}

i was going to say "today i'm taking a break from macro monday to do mosaic monday." but then i realized that most of the shots in my mosaic were taken with the macro setting on my little camera. so i can still call it macro monday. {by the way, when i had started my macro monday series, i thought it was an original thought. but i should have known someone else already thought of it. i'm not even sure who started macro or mosaic monday, but regardless of who it was, i'm joining in on the fun.}

i tend not to do a lot of mosaics or collages, because the column width of my posts is somewhat narrow as is, so i feel like the photos would be too small to see after being shrunk down even smaller to fit in a collage. but i forget that you can click on the image to see it better if you want––see the caption under this collage.

the big clock shot is of the giant clock in the center of the historic downtown where i live. the rest of the shots are my husband's stopwatch and a wristwatch {bottom right} that i gave him for his birthday one year.

here is another shot of the stopwatch.

i really liked photographing this piece. it was so much fun to try it from all kinds of angles. i like stopwatches. i wish men wore them more. they just bring me back to a simple time––when i was a little squirt. my dad used to wear one. i can still remember him taking it from his little suit vest pocket on sunday to check the time. it just seems so old fashioned and makes me think of the good old days.

speaking of dad, how was your father's day? mine was nice. my husband's parents came over for dinner. they were here from florida for a wedding in buffalo, but made sure to stop through to see us. i was so happy to be able to spend father's day with my other dad––dad-in-law. he calls me "cutey" and that always makes me feel special. while we sat and ate, i put on some al hirt in honor of my dad {who was a huge fan}. because of that, i had to fight the tears from welling up while we sat talking and eating together.

a lot of people have said a lot of nice things regarding my dad and what i wrote about him over these last few days because of his birthday and father's day. if you were one, i thank you. i have to say, reading this e-mail from a friend before i went to bed last night was just about the best thing i could have seen after a long, difficult day. it said this:

"hey george {that's me}- wanted to encourage you this day as i thought about your dad and the way he touched the lives of all around him- looking forward to seeing him in Glory."

wow. that blessed me beyond measure. thank you.

okay, back to our night––after dinner the hubby and i played guitar and sang {respectively} for his parents. that was a lot of fun! {note to self: next time, wait at least an hour after stuffing your belly with tacos before trying to sing if you want to sound half-way decent.} i hope your father's day was good.

happy {macro + mosaic} monday.

~ ~ ~

oh, and this too. i keep forgetting to post this for kath over at soeurs du jour in response to this post. this is my play along shot.

mine was not an intentional blur like hers, and the face is not in focus, but i still loved how this shot turned out. i love the way it captured color and good times––laughter and dinner with one of my friends and her kids in the back yard on the deck on a warm summer-like evening.

there you go, kath. thanks for the invite to play along.

macro monday

macro monday is officially here––it's 12:10 a.m., but it still feels like sunday night. i had such a wonderful time at my friend mary's house. another friend {jenny} who is in town from texas was with us. we all went to high school together. although, in high school, they were better friends with my twin sister––which is why i was so sad that she was not with us for the evening. i wrote more about it over on jorjah-b. i'd post pics here, but they were not taken by me, rather by jenny's nine-year-old daughter.

so i'm off to write about that now. have a wonderful monday and week. see you tomorrow with my florida pool series. {ahhhhh... a pool sounds so good right now, doesn't it?} oh, sorry. it does to me. i was drifting away to pool land. i'm back. have a great day!

-georgia

{photo caption: detail/close-up of lily pad. it's not a real macro as in a shot that i took with my macro setting––sorry. but it is a close-up detail of a lily pad that i zoomed way in to get.}

florida 6: macro 3 {macro monday}

this has always been one of my favorite quotes. i love flowers and love looking at them intricately. it's one of those small things that i was talking about a few posts back. appreciation of small things is sometimes what keeps me going. having a camera with a good zoom and/or a macro setting sure helps me appreciate the small things in more ways than one.

and i love the part about taking time to have a friend. to me, that's part of what blogging is about—making time to have some unexpected friendships enrich our lives.

this is a close up of a flower that i took in florida. i know it does not look very tropical. but i had to tone it down. when i left the photo in its color state, it looked soooooo saturated no matter how much i played with it in photoshop. i think it just started out that way because the flower is a bright, tropical red and the picture was taken in the blaring, mid-day sun.

here is the cropped photo before i changed it to a sepia...

here it is before i cropped it or did anything to it...


anyway, happy {macro} monday. i hope you have time for flowers and friends.

florida 4: macro 2 {macro monday}

more hibiscus. i told you, they were everywhere in every color.

happy memorial day! {and macro monday}

florida 1: macro 1 {macro monday}

the grander scheme from up above

the intricate details down below

while preparing this post, i was wondering why pictures of of tiny objects or intricate detail are called macros, when "macro" means large. so i googled it. i found this:

what do 'macro' and 'micro' refer to when it comes to photography?

the word macro means big, whereas the word micro mean small. so how is it that these two terms are related?

if the subject you are photographing is small and you want to make it look big, you end up with a 'macro' view of a 'micro' subject.

ah-ha! now it all makes sense. so both of these photos could be considered macros. the first is a micro {or smaller, far-away} view of a macro subject. the second is a macro view of a micro subject.

this is the first of my florida series—just a short one. i wanted to tie it into macro monday. so i used a photo of the key in the gulf from the flight in and one of a hibiscus flower—one of the first shots i took after we settled in at the condo. hibiscus shrubs were everywhere there.

happy {macro} monday.

macro monday

this macro monday i am:

• home from florida
• more tan than last monday
• sans knots in my shoulders
• relaxed
• recharged
• ready to take on lots of things
• missing the blues of the bay and the gulf
• missing the colors of gorgeous long boat key
• missing my dad-in-law and mom-in-law
• grateful that they flew us down to see them
• anxious and excited to post my florida pictures
• thinking about moving to florida for good {wink wink}
• glad to be home and able to visit my blog friends
• happy

macro monday

rings and things

{actually, just rings—but it sounded better to add "and things"}