Friendship

What is a friend?  Maybe it takes a lifetime to truly grasp the definition of the word.  We have all had friends that behaved more like enemies, fair weather friends, one sided friendships, etc  I can truly say that I have a friend that has stood the test of time.  Mindy and I met when she was 7 and I was 9.  We soon became inseperable.  In the summers, we would spend weeks playing at each others houses: climbing trees, picking blackberries, playing in the creek, riding her horse, and playing M & R Gift Shop. (that was for you “Min”)  Mindy and I had a friendship that baffled our mothers.  We could communicate when they were around without words.  Our friendship survived me graduating high school when she was a freshman and thus being in different towns in different phases of life.  The key was that neither of us seemed to really change.  We could always pick up right where we had left off.  

Lately, Mindy and I have been talking about the importance of being grateful.  So many times, both people and opportunities pass us by without us ever communicating how thankful we are.  This will not be one of them.  

Min-DAY!, 

I am so incredibly thankful for you.  Your friendship means the world to me.  You truly understand me and yet, you still want to hang around!  You handle me at my worst and at my best.  Very few people can weather all the storms that life brings, but you have done it in beauty, intelligence, class, and true red-headed fashion.  You are a classic black dress and a comfie, warm sweatshirt. (Both are necessary in life!)  You are a truly, amazing person and I am so blessed to have you in my life.   Very few adults still have friends that have been around since childhood.  I am so thankful to have you.  I should have known it was a lasting friendship.  After all, we would stand in the pasture picking blackberries forever and you did not even like to eat them!  You picked them for your friend.  You are the definition of a true and selfless friendship.  I’ll love ya forever. 

PS- I could go for some blackberries now!           ~bec

I may be allergic to Miko, but Auntie Becca will always love him.  I hope you enjoy the pictures of you sweet boy.  Thanks for riding shotgun Sunday.

My Border Collie: My Heart, an unexpected lesson

Sometimes, when we least expect it, God brings something or someone into our life that we desperately need.  The best part is, we aren’t even aware of the void in our soul until it is filled by this gift.  

In September of 2008, I had just entered photography school and was preparing to move closer the following semester.  I had lost the two dogs that had grown up with me and now I faced living completely alone.  

Sara was a farm dog that “supervised” a 200 acre farm.   Unfortunately, she would be spontaneously attacked by the other female dog on the farm.  Urban sprawl has bled over into the rural area I love to call home. The farmer sold out and moved to Virginia.  Upon their arrival, the stress of the move triggered the other dog to attack Sara yet again.  This time the farmer and his wife thought little Sara was done for.  She survived.  They brought her back to NC and left her to live on the farm until the new owners broke ground on what would soon become a gated housing development.

My Dad used to deer hunt on this same property.  Sara faithfully would walk him to the edge of the woods, sit, and wait on him after dark.  My Dad, being the big tough guy he is, soon fell for her and told me about her.  I didn’t think I was ready to open my heart to a four legged fur-ball, not yet.  Working my way through school as a vet tech, I reasoned going to check on her was the right thing to do.  I looked into her eyes and immediately got in the car.  I mumbled, “She is going home with me.  She needs me.”   I look back on that moment and think about how ignorant I really was.  I did not know it  then, but it was me that truly needed her.

She became my constant in the roller-coaster ride of photography school.  It was her sweet eyes that would watch me flit around the kitchen, as I told her why I was stressed out.  It was Sara that would quietly lay in the studio at school while I worked on a project.  It was her I would run for when I pulled in the driveway coming home from my first summer in Montana.  She has reemphasized the picture of unconditional love.  She is  constantly by my side and sleeps on the floor by my side of the bed.  There have been days this winter when I have no smile to give, no hug, no pat on head, no words of love.  I just look in her eyes and it is only her that sees my soul at times.  She is ever faithful and loyal without demanding anything in return.  She has given me the look of understanding even though I didn’t understand myself.  This border collie is and has my heart.  And I am so grateful for the day that “she needed me.”  Only then did I see what was missing in me when she came into my life and made me better.

ps- Don't let the bows fool you.  She and I are country girls but, sometimes we like "gettin purtied up and accessorizing." Thanks for stopping in.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it is what you see." -Henry David Thoreau

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers. They are a symbol of hope.  After a season, these yellow “buttercups” are the first sign that new life can be awakened from the slumber of winter.    They look so small and delicate, but are actually tougher than most other flowers.  Daffodils are perennials.  They come back consistently, year after year, in conditions that most flowers can not survive in.  (Tough little suckers.)  They brave the inconsistent weather of March in the South.  They grow anywhere; from carefully tended flower beds to roadside ditches.  Wherever they are, they bring beauty and splashes of color to a once brown, sleeping  landscape.  

When I see them I can’t suppress a smile.  It may seem tiny sitting on my kitchen table but, it brings a smile to my face every time I pass by.  To anyone else the view on the right is possibly all they would see in my kitchen.  The source of my smile, the image on the left, is what I see.  Only if you stop and pay attention to details in life, can you truly appreciate how beautiful it really is.  

Progress Is a Good Thing

A lot of small businesses are going under in today's economy.  We have seen this across the US, take  for example your local movie rental stores.  The success of online movie rentals and access to movies through cable providers have progressively eliminated the need for late night, last minute runs to grab some new movie to see. Another example - one that hits close to home for me - is book stores.  I used to love sitting in the aisles of local book stores, hours at a time, browsing through the selections. Bookstores are becoming few and far between as we begin to utilize online media purchasing.  I love the convenience of purchasing without leaving the comfort of my home, and if nothing else saving fuel costs, but now I am starting to truly see what we are losing in order to gain convenience.

Progress is one of my 3 chosen topics this week.  Again, I am not being negative or pointing a finger, because I love Amazon as much as the next girl...but lets slow down for a moment.  Let's look at a progression of books.
This is my Great Grandmother Rebecca's reading glasses on an old book that now rests in a curio cabinet in my home.

Next, I chose one of my favorite books, "The Last Lecture," (by Randy Pausch) and my reading glasses.  Since it is my copy, I write notes in the margins and highlight what speaks to me.  When I read, I enjoy the feel of the book in my hands, turning the pages, and I have to admit... I love the smell of its pages.

I remember used/old book sales at my local library. As a child, I was just as excited as I would have been on Christmas morning.  I would carry as many books as my little arms could hold.  My mom would make me choose 12, and it always took a long time to narrow down the decision. I was happier than a fox in a hen house! Today, as books and technology merge into one venue, our children will also download books.  It is easy, quick, and super convenient!  My question is, will they have the same sense of value in books as past generations?  Will they get tired of reading on an electronic device?  Will they know the joy of looking through shelves and flipping through the pages in order to decide which book they want?  Will they know the smell of books?  Yes, technology and progress are great, but I have been thinking....what is convenience worth to me?  I do know this....there will always be books in my house.  I am not ready to be a mom right now.  However, someday, in the future (if I have children of my own) I want them in my lap with a BOOK in their hand.  If they want a Kindle later, okay, but I want the wonder of the story lighting their faces - not the screen.

Teachable

Learning never exhausts the mind. -Leonardo da Vinci 

To stop learning is to "die."  We are all students and teachers.  When we get to a point in life, when we feel we have all the answers to give others, well it is a dangerous position.  The truth is, as we say down South, "There'z more'n one way tuh skin uh rabbit."  No one knows all the different ways or even the best way.  They just know the best way for them. (By the way I never have "skinned a rabbit."  A deer, yes.)
I have learned in my short lifetime that being teachable is important. It is contingent on our attitude.  We do not have a lot of control in what life brings us, but we control our responses.  The response can make all the difference in the outcome.  
The challenge stated: I shoot or revisit 3 images a week.  
This is Quinn.  He is one of my 2 little brothers in Montana.  This was taken my first trip to Montana, over Labor Day weekend.  My host family and I met in Bannock, MT to camp.  During the tour Quinn was so focused.  He just seemed to drink in the information about the silver mining and how the town was governed back in the old days.  His expression wasn't a bored 8 yr old, it was a boy thirsty for knowledge.  His expression, stance, and demeanor made me "do a double take."  That is when this photograph was taken.  By the same token Quinn has the mind of an engineer.  He can build anything.  He is humble enough to ask for help, after he has tried to solve the problem himself.  There isn't an arrogant bone in his body. He and I have worked on projects for the last 2 summers. No matter what it entails he is always a pleasure to be around; whether he is asking me a question or answering one of mine.  You see being an humble student is as important as being an humble teacher.  Quinn has mastered both.  The 8 yr old must have taught the 25 yr old something.  Who would have thought huh?  After all, I am proud to still call myself a student of life.

Day 2: A Blank Canvas

A ray of light is easier to spot in a pitch black room,
A drop of water is more appreciated by one who is dying of thirst,
The value of freedom is truly comprehended by one who was bound, but is now free.
Sometimes emptiness is a great place to start, it is a space all of your own;  a blank canvas to create on...

Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of my favorite writers.  I choose the title "writer" because he seems to be more than just the author of books.  His heart comes out in his writing: be it a quote, story, poem, or book.  I have a book that I write the quotes I like down in.  It is great to review for inspiration, encouragement, laughter, etc  Within the last few months, I have realized that many of my quotes are in fact the words of Emerson.  I find myself writing more lately, something else that has been newly inspired.  I don't feel much like talking, but those that know me, know the words have to get out somehow :) so writing it is.  So with that said it is not what we say or do not say, it is the follow through that matters.  Something so simple as a promise kept, no matter its size is invaluable.  We are only as good as our word.  However, the value of our word is measured in our actions.  No matter how big or small.

A Personal Challenge

There are phases of life when things seem heavy, uninspiring, and that we just go through the day to day motions.  In the last few months, I have been giving serious consideration to "putting down my camera."  A lot of soul searching has been done.  I have not reached a conclusion as of yet, but decided not to sit idly by.  A personal challenge:  to shoot or revisit 3 pieces of my heart a week, for me.  Subject matter/Goal:  Find beauty in simplicity, pay more attention to what is around me, and to find the rays of sunlight in the clouds.  I truly believe if you can not appreciate the little things in life, you don't deserve the big things.  So my quest: "the little things, to become inspired and renewed, to find my heart again."

"Photographers shoot what they are or what they hope to be." -Rebecca Helms

Day 1: My Southern Belle: Life is Tough.  Smart Girls Carry Their Own Sword.

This little one is the sunshine in my life.  Her laugh and love of life brightens the lives of all she is around.  We think we are placed in children's lives to teach and guide them.  This much is true but, if that is all you think the relationship brings, then you have missed the bigger picture.  Children teach us so much more than we think:  To love unconditionally.  To find joy in the simplest things: bugs, flowers, goldfish crackers, nerf footballs etc.  It takes so little to bring a smile to their face.  They don't want you for what you can bring...they just want you, your time, and your attention.  This means put down your cell phone, ipad, get off of Facebook and PLAY!  

This little girl reminds me: my favorite things in life are pretty and useful.  Southern women like to be treated with love, respect, and chivalry.  But don't be fooled a true Southern Belle wears cute shoes and a tiara, all the while wielding her own sword.  She awaits her handsome prince, but he will not find her sitting on a soft fluffy couch, oh no she is a Princess from the South hear her roar!