16.

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered...

forgive them anyway

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives...

be kind anyway

If you are successful, you will some false friends and true enemies...

succeed anyway

If you are honest and sincere, people may cheat you...

be honest and sincere anyway

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight...

build anyway

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous...

be happy anyway

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow...

do good anyway

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough...

give the world the best you've got anyway

You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and God...

it was never between you and them anyway"

- the Paradoxical Commandments found painted on the wall outside of Mother Theresa's children's home in Calcutta

15.

"It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly"

- Isaac Asimov

I actually find very little assurance or motivation from this quote. Today I find myself once again surrounded on all sides with said difficulties and as much as I will myself to "put on my game face" and muster up my courage, I am not confident. Not in myself. Not anymore.

Honestly, I'd rather not see my problems shrink to the point where I can handle them.

I'd rather see God rise up and overwhelm them.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed... so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

14.

Loyal coffee shop companion.

I really need to start taking pictures of my new home...

but I've been looking forward to posting this one for some time now.

13.

12.

Beautiful,

Beautiful, beautiful,

Beautiful Boy,

Before you go to sleep,

Say a little prayer,

Every day in every way,

It's getting better and better,

Beautiful,

Beautiful, beautiful,

Beautiful Boy,

Before you cross the street,

Take my hand,

Life is just what happens to you,

While your busy making other plans,

Beautiful,

Beautiful, beautiful,

Beautiful Boy

- lennon

11.

goodbye

hello

10.

New packing technique: Organize clothes into piles by type (i.e. long sleeved shirts, skirts, etc) Then allow yourself to choose one and only one item from each pile. This reveals the essentials of your wardrobe. I found it most helpful and extremely simplifying. My wardrobe essentials have proven to be:

- red wool sweater

- black underarmor shirt

- favorite faded jeans

- yellow hemp shirt from Bethany

- grey cardigan

- green doorknob skirt

- work out pants

- black fleece jacket

- pea green hat

- black long underwear

- smart wool socks

- mom's purple down vest

- blue baseball t-shirt

- striped jammies

And there we have it! I'm packed!

if only...

However, it wasn't as overwhelming as I thought it would to sort through all my stuff, box up what I'm leaving behind, and pack what I'm taking with. Here is my "time to consolidate" look. It comes out every 4 months or so. With a vengeance! Look out closet!

9.

This really has nothing to do

with you

How dare you.

He. Hurting.

I. Can't fix it.

Not really.

Ache away.

It's not about me anyway.

But I'm all I can think about.

I want to know about sad.

What kind is it?

The exhausting sort.

So well mixed in, my hands move.

Like a reflex that my mind knows is coming.

It overrides

the urge to jump.

That's your voice to me

I went to hang your coat up

today

It was wet.

We have lonely hands.

8.

Undeserving I am.

7.

Things are about to change for me. Or are they? I'm only speaking of my surroundings. But it is those surroundings that make up my life. I'm preparing myself for the unfamiliar... by taking in, for one last ever-so-deep, look. My roots are being exposed once again - pulled up out of this sweet smelling earth.

Transplant me.

"When the music changes,

so does the dance."

- African proverb

I will soon be soon be an unfamiliar face, surrounded by unfamiliar faces.

But I've done this before. It was a different dance, to a different song.

But it was still a dance.

A song.

And I don't dance alone.

Community is to be found. To be joined. To be created.

6.

R: "Do you have any lovies?"

Me: "Uhm... what are lovies?"

R: "You know, lovies. You rub them on your face like this

(balls up hands and mashes them into her nose)

"They're nice when you cry."

Me: "Oh. Lovies. Well, yes."

5.

maggie and millie and molly and may went down to the beach (to play one day) and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and millie befriended a stranded star who's rays five languid fingers were; and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and may came home with a smooth round stone as small as a world and as large as alone. For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea.”

- E. E. Cummings

4.

"I will live my life as a lobsterman's wife on an island in the blue bay.

He will take care of me, he will smell like the sea,

And close to my heart he'll always stay."

- Ingrid Michaelson

3.

One day you'll find that I have gone
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun

And now the time has come
and, my love, I must go
And though I lose a friend
In the end you will know, oh

One day you'll find that I have gone
But tomorrow may rain,
so I'll follow the sun

- the beatles

2.

"...if I'm a crown without a king, if I'm a broken open seed

if I come without a thing, then I come with all I need..."

- mewithoutyou

1.

Go ’way from my window,

Leave at your own chosen speed.

I’m not the one you want, babe,

I’m not the one you need.

- dylan

Photo challenge

A friend of mine has this mother who is, to put it simply, amazing. I admire her so much - I want to achieve pilates greatness like she has, I'd love to live in a home as cozy as hers, and I am at awe that she seems to always have the time for the things and people that she loves. While I'm not even at yelling distance to this place that she lives from, I have found and believe that I can follow in her foot steps in one arena - photography. Upon discovering her blog, I found that she has taken on a "365 day Photo Challenge" in which she is attempting to post a photo of her own.

Every day.

For an entire year.

I have no idea if I'll be able to do this. Maybe it's crazy. But I do so love the world through my camera lens. And so I'll give this a whirl. Mostly because this blog is as anonymous as ever. So really, this is for my own sake. I said that this year I wanted to show my photos. I had an obscure coffee shop in mind. I'm not bold enough for that. Yet. This will have to be the wall on which I hang my photos. For now.

The future is a picture I have yet to develop.