Happiness is...

A Card

I haven't made a card in FOREVER, so it felt good to actually sit down and create this one:

My brother is so cool

The dude second from left with the sunglasses on his head? Yeah, that's my baby brother.

Transcendentalist 1

I'm developing a new approach to teaching literature by making photography/digital design an essential element. The last few sessions we've studied the Transcendentalists with an emphasis on Whitman and Thoreau. Emerson became the source for journaling.

The students had to choose a selection from either Thoreau's Walden or a selection of Whitman's poetry (Dover has a little book of them, which oddly, leaves out some of my favorites.)

I pulled a section of Thoreau called "Solitude." It reads, in part:

 I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can "see the folks," and recreate, and as he thinks remunerate himself for his day's solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and "the blues"; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.

Thoreau was, of course, talking about the benefits of solitude. As an introvert, I identify with the idea that society can be exhausting and that a respite is refreshing. However, I also identify the idea that it is possible to be lonely in a crowd, and so I used that idea in my piece. I used a student from another class as my model and took a timed exposure (without a tripod, by the way), having her hold still while other class members walked around her. I desaturated her image and increased saturation on the background students. The digital papers are from my collection (mostly Faith Sisters and DigiDesignResort). Add some word art, play with blending modes, and done. It captures the essence of being lonely and I think illustrates Thoreau's concept of social fatigue.

New Necklaces

I've been busy making new necklaces for 3Cs Design. Here are a few, but check out the shop to see them all! They're only $25 (and there's a wedding coming up that needs funding!)

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was a strange bird, but she wrote beautiful (albeit sometimes morbid) poetry. Since I'm teaching a new class that I'm creating as I go, I'm experimenting more with incorporating poetry into my photo and digital projects. It can be particularly challenging, especially right now when my Muse is on vacation. Seriously, can't she vacation when I'm not in dire need of her? Ah well...the weather and seasons will change soon enough, and I'll be out, camera in hand again. Until then, I will read poetry. And plenty of it.

Mother-in-Law?

Reflecting at summer's end

It's mid-August, but with schools starting this week, for me, the summer is at its end. It's different this year. Carrie keeps in touch more through Facebook, Twitter, and texting than in visits home, which is appropriate for a college senior. Her life is now her own, and we're letting go more and more as she begins to establish herself as the adult she wants to become. Corinne begins that journey this week. We moved her into the dorms yesterday, knowing that she will likely not live at home again. It's an exciting adventure for her. Caty Mae is the only one at home now, but school began for her today, and the house is quiet. It even feels emptier. And that's the way it is supposed to be.

We raise our girls to be strong and independent. They make their own choices and live with those consequences. Sometimes they choose well, and other times, well, we wish they listened better to us. Each has a future that is hopeful and positive; there is no reason to suspect otherwise. Yet I wonder what they will learn from their choices. Will Carrie regret not being more proactive in finding a fellowship of Believers? Will Corinne look at the grudges she holds and see how bitterness damages precious relationships? Will Caty Mae hold her ground on the things that matter and engage in conflict at the right time and in the best way? I can't know these things, but I can pray for them fervently, knowing that God sees through eyes even more loving than mine.

Everyone wants the perfect happy family, white picket fenced house and all. But the reality is that it doesn't exist. There are those who are blessed with happy children whose nature is to please. There are those whose marriages improve over the years without much effort. There are those who never deal with the tragedies of loss--whether it be lost jobs, lost opportunities, lost or wayward children, lost parents and siblings and friends--some float though life smugly assured that they haven't suffered because they are BETTER. Deep inside, though, even those will deal with loss, because they will not have experienced the depth of joy that only grief can allow. That self-satisfaction prevents them from a walk with God that is raw and real in many ways. So often they refuse to break out of that self-imposed "christian" bubble, limiting their experiences with God to the comfortable.

I don't want to be comfortable. I don't want my girls to be comfortable. I want them to live their lives with passion and fire and exuberance. Comfortable is easy, but comfortable is lazy. There's too much out there that God has planned for us to be satisfied with laziness. Strength and endurance come by throwing off the things that make life easy and running after God's best with all out heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's where the joy is. That's where delight comes from. That's what I want for my girls. That's what the Father wants for me.

3Cs Design--on Etsy

It's been a LONG time since I put anything in my etsy store, but I've been a necklace making manic, so hopefully these will sell (must support the addiction...)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/3CsDesign

Deep Sea Fishing