All posts tagged: Hope

The Jubilant Journey

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This Alphabet Game is great because it prompts me to explore words. Words link to other words and—as I follow the trail—ideas literally spell themselves out. I thought it would be fun to share my journey through the letter “J” today. While exploring Joy—the first “J” word that came to mind—I found that one of its synonyms is rejoicing. Rejoicing is defined as: Great joy; jubilation. There’s a word you don’t see every day—Jubilation: a feeling of great happiness and triumph. Aha! That really caught my eye. I love the word triumph. Triumph: a complete victory or success achieved especially after great difficulties, making the result particularly satisfying. Maybe I’m filled with so much happiness and joy because of jubilation; I’m forever celebrating the victory that I’m living in. After great difficulties, the result is particularly satisfying—to say the least. But… it’s not just the joy of past victories; it’s also the hope of those to come. New trials bring opportunities to experience new triumphs, and failures pave the way to success. It all circles …

Birds of a Feather

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—Feathers of Hope Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul— and sings the tune without the words— and never stops— at all. Emily Dickinson This image is something I’ve been itching to do for days now. Every bird photograph I’ve taken has some sort of detail in it that I love. Eyes, beaks, legs, wings… even some claws. I see so many different angles to approach. So… tonight I worked on feathers. It’s an extreme zoom, so I hope it doesn’t get stretched and pixelated, but—other than that—it’s exactly what I was hoping for; lots and lots of feathers. Maybe this is a test. I’m trying to decide if this is something I want to perfect; to make a print. Would love to hear your feedback, as always. That is all for now. Goodnight! I’ve had some issues with images shrinking down to nothing in the mobile reader. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this, but if it ends up being a microscopic thumbnail… HERE is a link to …

Come Together

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Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. —Henry Ford This is a bit of a mishmosh of thoughts, but it all ties together. First of all the image is just something I was toying around with. I combined three different photos I took of kids playing at the beach. Then I did some tinkering in Photoshop and Illustrator to create the look of a drawing. I added outlines to give it a poster kind of look and to (hopefully) tie in with the “come together” theme. I had my first writing class last night and I have to say that it already has me thinking about how writing may (or may not) fit into my future. I’ll repeat what I shared in the class, as we each had to talk briefly about why we took the class. Since starting this blog, a recurring thought I’ve had is “Can I really WRITE? OR do I just know how to write about myself?” I WILL say that the reason I started …

In This Moment (Trust)

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Separating topics is not easy. Not on the blog, anyway. I did some tinkering and there is no logical way to do it. I think that going to regular A.A. meetings (and looking to be of service) was the real STEP that I needed to take, and I’m doing that. At least I’m gaining clarity! Anyway, it’s been four whole days since I started studying the word TRUST, and I want to share my first day. I chose Psalm 40, verse 4. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! What REALLY struck (and amazed) me were verses 1-3. I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put …

TGIF

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Hello everyone!! I’ve been spending a massive amount of time experimenting on Photoshop and I almost hate to say it, but it’s really hard for me to come up for air. And I’m only in the beginning stages…  I just love learning new things! I’ve mixed a Utah field, one of my many taken from a moving car photos, with a moon shot taken here in California- in our back yard. I’ve actually posted the moon shot in Howling at the Moon. It was one of my—oh my gosh that actually came out good—photos of the moon, so I hope I never lose it. After my “meltdown” awhile back, when I pretty much closed up shop on my virtual business, I turned off my computer and had no desire (whatsoever!) to ever open it up again. It sat collecting dust for months actually. In fact, the only thing I used it for was journaling, and then in October when I started this blog. That being said… this past four and one half months has been different. It’s kind …

A Tale of Redemption

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A few things happened today that really moved me, but I’m only going to talk about one for now. Tonight was the meeting that I co-secretary for, and it turned out to be a pretty emotional meeting. There’s something that I’ve been wanting to talk about, but I was never sure if the time was right, or if bringing it up was even the right thing to do. Tonight I got the answer (and permission). I’ve mentioned before that I have three grandsons. A photo of my oldest grandson (who is eight) is here in the blog, buried back in an old post. I have far fewer photos of him than I do of the other two, because I don’t see him that often. He lives with his mother and grandparents, and his father (my son) is now married and has the two younger boys. His mother is a recovering heroin/meth addict. I was in my four years sober without a program phase when I met her over eight years ago, and she had just gotten clean at the time. I …

Signs of Change

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Now that I’m back in the realm of randomness, I’m messing with alterations. This is a street sign by my old High School. Actually, it’s the street that I used to hang out on when I would cut classes, and do other experimental things. I’ve always said that I hated school. I really DID back then—but I thought of something today. When I was hanging out there recently and taking pictures, I watched the kids for awhile. Some were practicing their sports, joking and laughing, and others were talking and hanging out while waiting for their parents to pick them up. They all looked so happy. For a moment, I was a bit sad (or disappointed) that I hadn’t experienced that kind of enthusiasm in my school days. It appeared to be a fun place now! Looking around, I thought why did I hate it here so much?!? Today I knew the answer to that while I was modifying this sign. There was only one reason why I was miserable back then, and it had nothing to do with the school- or the people that I went …