Beauty Is....

The theme for my project 52 this week was 'Beauty Is'.  And what is beauty?  There is so much I want to tell them in answer to this question.  How beauty is the grit and the soul and the light we are all born with and not the stuff we use to hide behind because we are scared we will be seen, really seen, and not loved.  I want to tell them that they were born beautiful, were in fact the most beautiful things I have ever laid eyes on and nothing could ever, ever take that away from them, tarnish it or make me see them as any less than.  So much wrapped into such a word.  So much women do to chase what they already possess and should cherish.  So much to teach them and so much still to learn myself.

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again." Elizabeth Lawrence

Sunday Afternoons.

Sunday afternoons, be still my heart.  It's like the essence of childhood.  Afternoon adventures, sun, sticky face and fingers and the sweet promise of summer in the air.

Long week.  Still absorbing the Boston Marathon bombings, my father in law collapsed and will need heart surgery and ending the week feeling down but not out.  It's an interesting thing photographing and documenting your life.  The days and weeks get away from you sometimes.  You let little things become 'big' things and forget to remind yourself about how heartbreakingly, breathtakingly lucky you are until something bigger comes along to remind you to look, really look at all the beauty and love you are blessed with.  So you look back and pull out these gems and see that it's a process, life.  Sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down, but you can never forget to be humble, and grateful.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr.

Shell Shock

"When the world seems loud, we must be quiet. When the world seems evil, we must be good. When the world seems terrifying, we must comfort each other" Momastery.com

Hold your babies tight.