Keeping Your Word

"Everything in life is a battlefield. Fight with anger and you are the problem. Fight with joy and you are the solution." --Santana (I think)
I was reading today about relationships and keeping your word. It was talking about how important it is in relationships in life to follow through with what you say because everytime you don't, you chip away at the foundation of what you share with that other person. It also struck a chord with me because it talked about the importance of being able to count on people and that's true. If you can't count on the people that you love then what do you really have?

introducing Ben

for christmas i struggled endlessly over whether to get my mom a dog or not. "it's such a huge commitment," i thought. and "are you sure?" i heard from people i had talked to about it. i was met with more doubtful reactions than i would like to think about now. i definitely was not sure, and doubtful myself, but something just told me to check the times once more before erin and i ventured out on a last minute shopping trip on the 22nd.

and i'm so glad i did. because that fateful ad led me to our beautiful sweet ben. both my parents are thrilled and i am so happy to be able to have been a part of bringing him into their life. i received an email from my mom today that erased any doubt i ever may have had. she wrote, 'you changed my life, thank you". i almost cried. i'm so thankful for the christmas we had together, i can't remember one that i enjoyed more (and i have had some good ones).

so here is one of ben's first photographs. i think he'll become pretty used to being a model because i'm starting him out so young. best.

twinkle

i love christmas time so much. publisher of the magazine insists that we listen to christmas music all day every day, and everyone talks about how awful it is and how they are going to stealthily plot to turn off the christmas music. i go along with it so they won't think i'm crazy, but i really love it.

"The Divine has no body on Earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the Divine compassion is to look out to the world; yours are the feet with which the Divine is to go about doing good; yours are the hands with which the Divine is to bless men now."
St. Theresa of Avila

This seemed of interest on a day that I might choose to forget the divinity that lives within me. Good thing I didn't. I hope I'll see you a little later.



In addition. I don't know if anyone else is as excited as I am about the fact that flickr added some editing options, but I'm pretty excited. I always thought the watermarks on people's photos were a little lame (some of them) until I tried it. Okay so maybe I was just jealous. I really think the font could be better but I haven't bitten the bullet and paid the extra for the good fonts. but anyway, just so there's a record of my first shot at editting on flickr, since i haven't seen editing software since I lost photoshop CS2 when my hard drive crashed. sweet.

sampson's best shot

i shot around some with sampson and greta in the backyard today.  there were clouds that filtered the light really well.  sampson proved to be a much more willing model this time.  it always varies though.  the fur on his face is so soft it feels like velvet.  i hope it will always stay that way.  they are both sleeping at my feet right now.  i love it. 

the reactive mind

"the fact is, there is a single source of all your problems, stress, unhappiness, and self-doubt. it's called the reactive mind - the hidden part of your mind that stores all painful experiences, and uses them against you."

i wrote down this quote last week some time because it made me think of a couple people in particular at the time. but i'm posting it here today because today, and probably every other day, but definitely today, it would have been ideal for me to have remembered this a bit earlier than 6 o'clock this evening. i hope i'll keep it further up in my mind in the future.

i took a lot of pictures last night, but nothing spectacular or even noteworthy revealed itself. awesome weekend! last night though, we met up with melissa and maddison, which redeemed the weekend's value altogether. i miss them in my life, and last night definitely reminded me of that.

i hope i'll have more time for you later.

my first blog EVER

today at work, my editor said something like, "i'm computer literate of course, but i'm not all young and hip.  i mean, it's not like i blog" ...

i'm 22 and i've never blogged so i felt like this was something that needed to happen. 

 

i love journaling.  but this is scarier since you could be reading this and i have no idea who you might be.  so, we'll see how long this lasts.  i don't even know what i'm supposed to be writing about or who i'm writing for.  i know nothing about blogging etiquette.

 i'm going to post and see what this looks like.