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Yearly Archives: 2012

They called them strawberrdies. I still do. One of those words that will remain forever changed by their youthful dialect.

Aaron is growing the tomatoes, him my little salad lover. I attribute his love for healthy food and aversion to sugar to the fact that I made all his baby food from scratch. I didn’t make David’s baby food and he loves sweetness, thus the strawberrdy plants are his project.

I love how they see the world. Phenomena that I have forgotten to stop and experience, they inspect with all the wonder of first time travelers on this miraculous globe. They work hard to tie shoelaces but wonder comes easy to them. I pause with my lens pressed to my face and the moments break down, like pieces of an equation. Add budding plant to curious boy, carry the glowing light and it equals awestruck. It’s a pattern he says, those seeds all lined up neatly in their places. He is seeing them everywhere since he learned about patterns in his math lessons, God’s order on display, tucked away in the essence of every living thing. And the red surprises me. Pops out like it’s the meaning of life hanging right there on a tender stem. All that beauty  for one bite of sweetness. One bite in a long string of life giving back, good gifts springing up from the earth.

Then it’s on to the next miracle. Spring full to the brim with rebirth everywhere. Little boys gathered around tadpoles, changing every second, tails shrinking, legs just popping out. They thrill to the newness of it all. The crazy cycle ever changing and surprising, rooted deep enough in order to sooth our fearful souls and give us a place to call home. This earth full of seeds, and strawberrdies and tadpoles.

6 – 3 – 12 . 85mm . LR + VSCO . cloudy afternoon light

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature. (from Wikipedia)

This is the second part of this post . . . a morning alone in the garden with my golden haired boy, a perfect moment in time. Confusion has been swirling all around me recently and I am always one to second guess, rehash and wish away contentment. This moment took me out of all that and the long march of day to day. Do you know that kind of time which is beyond time and space and the place and the moment you are in resounds with meaning and you know that you were meant to be there in just that way with every ounce of yourself? And you just want to linger forever in the loveliness but once the moment has passed its’ peace remains and strength has been given to soldier forth in chronos . . . because you spent a brief time in kairos . . . the right, the opportune, the supreme moment – when all is well and meant to be just so.

5-23-12 . 24-70mm . vsco + lr  . cloudy morning

He always wants to “day owdi” (play outside) He whines and screams if he can’t follow his big brothers into fun and adventure.

He’s happiest digging and throwing dirt. He grabs peas off the vine and stuffs them in his mouth.

He is amazed by ev. ry. thing.

He loves shoes, grown up silverware, small furniture and insists on drinking out of real cups.

He’s already too cool for school and all grown up in his book.

He throws his arms in the air and yells “yay” for anything he likes, which still include “mum mums” (take your best guess)

He adores Da Da and “dog dogs”. He called our new tadpoles fishies today.

He throws his whole body into running and his whole heart into loving.

He is our gift, our miracle. We have had almost two years in a lovely home with this precious man. We’ve had to work through a lot and it hasn’t always been pretty. We have both wanted to quit, to give up. But as always we keep pressing and our good Father has given us this time, this place to rest and heal.

Baby man thinks he is ready to conquer the world and we feel the season shifting, the winds of change blowing. We are leading big boys running into little men now, no longer babies. In the loosing there always comes the thrill of newness. New adventures, new challenges as we learn this next step. We wrestle with decisions and step cautiously into uncharted territory that will only look clear in the rear view. Our mistakes and trials brushed in bold strokes upon my memory, I struggle against regret to grab hold of all the blessings and lessons.

Learning, teaching always walk hand in hand. I pray for grace and wisdom in this day to prepare them for the next. We find His goodness, His whisper in the growing things, the rain kissed garden and the sunlit wild.

5-23-12 . 24-70mm . vsco + lr . cloudy morning

Something stopped them in their tracks, pretty intensely interested in  . . .

all the remote control planes in the sky!

and dolphins!!!

Yes, I was on the hike too. David tried to get them to wait for me while I took a shot of my shoes, what a sweetie.

Down the cliff we went . . .

dug in the sand, caught sea creatures, got wet and were perfectly happy!

Aaron telling me about the wave he encountered . . .

Oh no, the water got a bit to close to baby man and he was not pleased!

It’s Epic everywhere you look around here and I like that. A. Lot.

Amidst a lot of mayhem and stressful decisions recently . . . it was nice to just have a perfect day.

This is why we love it here . . . this is why we do what we do.

Don’t know if a perfect day was handed to us or if we just pushed away all the distractions and grabbed hold of it . . . probably both.

5-20-12 . 24-70mm . cloudy midday

I don’t have a lot to say.

Just that this is my white space. My days are full crowded with noise and work. Recently it’s decisions and worry. But everything has to drop and I pick up the lens to rightly see little boys in golden light. Night falling and they are still full to the brim with energy, running, running . . .

They say the most important part of a piece of art is the negative space.

When you’re putting pencil to paper or brush to canvas, what you’re actually crafting are the untouched areas. The decision to let lie at rest brings the beauty and the focus to the focal point, the point of importance, that one part that truly matters and has something to say in the work. The dancing play of white space lets the work breath, empowers it to speak.

The to do list looms, worries creep in. I try to think it all through, work out the puzzle, control the uncontrollable and I run on empty. Til I remember this cramming of it all in makes for kitsch and ugly paintings. The overworking of the brush strokes muddies the image. So I erase space to take a deep breath. This my white space, garden growing and capturing the moments, sitting with steaming tea and squares of chocolate to see where they will take me. I fell in love with editing my photos while I lay on the couch healing, baby snug on my chest, then as he grew, me at my desk with him lying snoring across my shoulder. Now he gallops through the day, nurses and falls to dreaming in his bed as I sneak downstairs for a few moments of quiet to soak up the day. For a few moments of white space . . . that helps me rightly see them

(I was inspired by  a photographer blogging his homemade slingshots. So I got my boys some slingshot bands but they are still in search of the “perfect” sticks for them. While they search they wreak lots of mayhem shooting playdoh from them with their hands. This night baby man joined in the craziness! What could be more fun for a toddler than a giant rubber band? And yes Baby Man’s other nickname is Ninja Baby! )

Do you have white space in your life? If not, get some quick! It could be anything, cooking, crafting, gardening, reading, running, anything you love that puts your mind at rest and lights your heart up . . .

5-14-12 . 24-70mm . dusk

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