Our love Is-real

journal art

i found these scans of some of my old journals from peru. being there seems so long ago but when i read some of the stuff i was writing, i really could have written it today. they are still the same big questions about passion and balance and how to best handle suffering. i still find refuge in the small details, the tasty bits of life. it makes me think that maybe we don't really ever figure anything out. maybe we just keep asking the same questions in more interesting ways and keep calling it art.

it remind me of when one of my old friends from college came to dc recently to visit. i hadn't seen him in ten years and in the meantime, he had made some major life changes--become a buddhist, a vegetarian, finished school. he was eager to know all the ways he had changed but aside from some physical details, he pretty much seemed to be the same person. he had the same slightly biting sense of humor matched with a compassionate listening skills. we had a blast singing karaoke and eating basement thai food. after all that time, i still liked him for the same reasons i liked him in the first place. he was a little disappointed in my answer that he was pretty much the same but i really like the idea that we can't really change, can't really get it too wrong.

so i offer these few pieces like i made them today, next week and i know these lessons will still keep swirling about us all, like time taunting us for our faulty memory.

I want a soul train party for my birthday.

Happy in small ways.

Testing the photobooth set up (which came together so well--ask me if you ever need to make one)

“In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive along past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”--Edith Wharton

(My lovely friend Jaime, with whom I stayed in Little Rock, had this quote on her fridge and I kept reading it and saying "yes!" Now it's become my new manifesto for growing older and enjoying life just as long as I can. I would personally add yoga to this list but then I want to add yoga to every list)


Polly and Jaime with the beloved dragon hat.

Polly and Andrew in Little Rock

The loveliest people you'd ever hope to meet...

Aren't Polly's blue shoes the coolest?

Andrew didn't look too shabby himself.

Such beautiful mason jar arrangements.

This was payback!

Lily was the ringbearer! My worlds collided!

With friends like these...

Polly's bridal party looked like a sunburst :)


Relaxing after the ceremony.

I loved loved my weekend in Little Rock photographing Polly and Andrew's wedding. They are friends of my dear friend Jaime from college and are so fun and open that they wanted a pet photographer to capture their wedding. I'm so glad they did. All of the little details of the day were so perfect. They had a big table of board games, pies instead of a cake, and actually had a saw player to perform their processional music! I loved it all but really I was just so taken by the spirit of Polly and Andrew. Both of them have had to handle some serious health setbacks in life and they have dealt with them by dedicating their lives to love, creativity, and generosity. I was so taken by their ability to stay in the present moment no matter what (Polly was the calmest bride I have EVER seen) and how gosh darn generous they are. When I snuck into their room to capture their post-ceremony relaxation, not only did they let me but they also insisted on sharing their snacks with me. Anyone who is around them for any period of time can feel what makes them so special and are changed for the better. I definitely was.

dreams are awesome.

this book is the most important thing i've read in a while. it made me cry for all the people out there who have forgotten how to dream or that only dream of furniture and breakfast sandwiches (me included most days). i forget sometimes how important my personal dreams are for the larger whole. what would the world be like if we could never imagine anything better, more exciting, more daring? at a time when so many of my dreams are coming true--just because i went out there and tried it--i want to say that you don't have to be good or the hardest working person to make exciting things happen in your life. you just have to have a healthy respect for what you care about and faith that maybe it can happen. i think it really could be that simple but we are so good at keeping ourselves distracted that most of us have forgotten and then we wonder why we are so grumpy most of the time. and then we take a vacation or let ourselves play a little and suddenly life feels so much better. its a cycle--know, forget, remember and i think each time we remember, our powers get a little stronger and our faith a little bigger. here's to dancing wild animals with diamond coated wings for helping us all to remember more often.

unprecedented lamp dancing.