Weekly Photo Challenge: Friendship

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
~Henri Nouwen
“Silence make the real conversations between friends.
Not the saying, but the never needing to say that counts.”
~Margaret Runbeck
“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
~Shakespeare
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you.
You have to go to them sometimes.”
~A.A. Milne
“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”
~Gloria Naylor
“We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet.
Even longer,’ Pooh answered.”
~Winnie the Pooh

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today; After the rain

Need a shave?

Spider gets a drink

The little drop that could

Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer

Summer in the south is many things.
To capture them all would mean hundreds of photos.
The word summer brings up many emotions and awakens certain memories in my senses.
Here are a few of the things that I think of when I look towards summer…

The fragrant gardenias in the flowerbed that greet you when walking to our front door.

Gardenia

With the flowers, come the bees
the beautiful butterflies
and other interesting insects.
Summer in the south means, popsicles on the front porch
Sticky fingers and faces.

It means little lizards soaking up the sun while blending into the grass.
Summer means that everything is green…winter has passed and spring has brought new life.
The birds return to the feeder and sing their songs of thanksgiving.
Summer means blowing bubbles in the grass until your lightheaded.
It means dirty feet at the end of the day from running around barefoot until well after bedtime.
It’s different now, as an adult, experiencing summer.
Not bad, just different.
My children get so excited about summer! That is by far the best part of the record temperatures and soaring humidity.
There is much to come in the next several weeks.
There will be watermelon and ice cream sandwiches, water balloons and cook outs, slip n slides and human cannonballs into the pool.
When my boys come in from a long summer day smelling “tired” I know that it has been time filled with moments that they will one day recall and smile.

Interpretations of summer by some other stellar photographers and bloggers:
Where’s my backpack?
Nature Through The Lens
Chronicles of Illusions
The Great Escape: Life from behind a lens

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children?

We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.” ~Pablo Casals

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue

For this week’s photo challenge I decided to go with nature. Enjoy!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Though my eyes began to cross after looking at pictures out of focus, I like the challenge this week. It goes against everything that I consider “great” photography.

Thoughts flash through my mind like, “What if someone who is seeing my work for the first time thinks that this is what I consider acceptable?”

I then realize how silly that is. Anyone who is creative knows that the best way to become better at your craft is by being the willing student and viewing the canvas of the opportunity as if there is no box in which to conform. For some of us, in order to do that, we must approach life through the eyes of a child. What better way to do that than at LEGOLAND Discovery Center?

That said, here is my interpretation of unfocused. I’m not going to title these. I want to hear your guess on what they are.

Always remember to play. If it’s the best way for children to learn, why not for those of us who are children at heart?

This post was inspired by a prompt from WP Daily Post: Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused. You may curse or cheer this week’s theme. We’re looking for that picture which is unfocused. It may be completely intentional, or accidental. You might have thought about trashing it, but in the end it definitely conveys something.
~Be sure to visit the comments section of Sara’s entry for fellow bloggers interpretations.
~

Weekly Photo Challenge: Together

Don’t ever underestimate the beauty of retail therapy.
After talking with a friend this morning about all of the “stuff” going on in life, we both agreed that the circumstances warranted a little retail therapy. Well…here’s what I came home with. After wearing them around the house, they were a top pick for this week’s photo challenge of “together.”

These make me feel like a badass
A force to be reckoned with
A superhero with style
Dorothy had ruby slippers…
I have spiked stilettos.