A Second Round of Captivity Pictures

Our two week pandemic lockdown rolled out into a two month self-imposed incarceration as we await our governor’s recommendation for how much longer we will stay safely away from society and it’s disease contaminating state. And to think I said, “I just have to run my household for these two weeks without losing my mind.”

I have kinda lost my mind a couple times but I’ve also been impressed with the way I was able to shed my fear soon enough to start to blog and make my own sense of all of this. It’s the 24/7 parenting and lack of alone time that are the killers. But I’m still living a pretty first-world life here despite.

More captivity pictures because a certain blog reader I saw at the grocery store said she likes them.

And as I said in my first pictures “in captivity” post,“I hope you are all keeping yourselves happily occupied during your self-imposed distancing. The suggested activities to hold your anxiety at bay are Creativity, Cozying and Curling up, and Communing. As you can see, we are actively doing those here at my house.”

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Every Picture Tells a Story…

And an even better one when the picture is pretty.

I have always loved taking pictures. And after I birthed this blog from a need to practice my writing, I soon became aware that I needed to put my own pictures with my words. It made sense.

And just as my writing benefited from perpetual practice, so did my pictures. I discovered it wasn’t in the taking of the picture necessarily, although you do need to have something captured on your camera, but in the editing of the pictures.

At first, I used my picture program in my computer to pump up the contrast and colors for each picture. But when my old computer began to lock up with too many pictures, I started to use my phone camera and other photo editing apps to do all of my picture editing.

I’ve tried Snapseed and VSCO but in the end, I just use the phone edit program, Square InPic which puts any picture into a square format, and then the edit program attached to Instagram. That’s it.

I have a new computer as of a year ago and would love to get a better photo program to use, but for now, I can use my phone with all the pictures being backed up onto my phone via OneDrive.

Maybe one day I’ll get back to film, or even own a DSLR camera, but for now I am contented to just keep doing what I’m doing. The best camera is the one you have with you.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

Driving Through the Doubt Storm

Through the work of the magnificent Sas Pethrick, I received a huge aha about myself recently. I took her quiz on my self-doubt archetype and, BAM, I was exposed. I do have a tough time believing I can do the hard things. I do believe I need someone’s help for everything or it’s impossible. And I know that I am very vulnerable to any criticism. I do procrastinate to avoid proving how unqualified I am at being an adult. She said I was an Innocent archetype. And she was spot on. While I am optimistic, loyal, and spontaneous, I struggle with self-doubt and self-belief.

Although I have begun to heal some of this behavior (I no longer time-debt and have begun proving I can do hard things, see the Wholehearted Living story I wrote for Terri Connelan’s Quiet Writing blog), I can feel the oppressive shadow of doubt looming. A constant companion that no longer serves. So, two days ago I set myself to creating vignette pictures for a blog site revamp that’s held me hostage for years.

As I stood there looking down at all these little pieces of flowers and whatnots and began to arrange them and take pictures, the chatter began. Negative comments about how the light wasn’t right or how I wasn’t sure if this was how I needed to do it “right”. And I made myself stand there and continue to work through those mean nuisances that were my thoughts. Kept standing and kept rearranging and kept taking pictures. Until I was done. And I felt better. My resistance was futile as I drove through it.

The next day, I sat at the computer and I began to edit and upload the pictures. And I felt better as I did this because I saw how pretty my pictures were. I did a good job of doing the work and driving through the wreck that was my self-doubt storm. Every time I do the hard things, I kindle a spark of trust inside for my reliability and my ability. And that feels like pride. Stay tune for the results of a long long road to my self-recovery.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

The First Our Creative Selves Challenge Begins

Today is the first day of a week-long creativity challenge I am hosting on Instagram running from February 13th through February 19th, 2017. If you have followed along with my creative endeavors since last year, you may remember the September Creative Challenge I gave myself where I made art a non-negotiable. Read the wrap up here. By committing to practicing my creativity daily and posting my results every day in September with the hashtag #mycreativeseptember, I was able to indulge my inner six year-old with enough playtime to trust me again. As many people who had joined me throughout the month wanted a way to continue being creative together, I created the hashtag #ourcreativeselves to continue our creative connection.

A hashtag conveniently puts every post that includes that hashtagged word onto one page. So in this case, the creative endeavors of everyone who’s participating will show up on this Our Creative Selves page when they add #ourcreativeselves to their post. This way, we can visit other participants pages and cheer each other on. That is what a challenge is all about. To hold yourself responsible to do something because you said you would and then feel great about it when you follow through and get such lovely feedback from other people. Balm for the creative soul I can tell you.

The prompts were chosen from a bunch of words thrown into a virtual hat. And the idea is to take inspiration from them or use them as an excuse to do something daring. Any creativity is welcome. It could be writing or knitting or creative spitting if you are so moved. There isn’t such thing as perfect. All creative efforts made are a wondrous joyous thing. It’s all so good.

Thank you dear readers for all of your support in my creative endeavors! Hope you enjoy your week and I’ll keep you posted with my/our progress.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter orPinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.

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My Spring Soul Selfie Instagram Challenge

I have been a bit quiet on the keyboard for the past couple days. My brain exhausted and mulling over this past week’s Spring Soul Selfie Instagram challenge I hosted. Which is to say I came up with the hashtag #soul_selfie, created 7 days of prompts, and asked that people join in and post a picture and talk about their interpretation of the words in a deeper more meaningful way. And let me say that the results and participation blew my mind.

I was sincerely nervous about leading something. I had mulled it over and knew that I love to dig a little deeper into my soul’s answers and hoped maybe other people might. I only slightly trusted that there were a few people who would join me who liked me and maybe pitied me. The turnout and results far exceeded my expectations.

After sending out a private “pep-me-up-please” message to some friends, I dared to claim my intentions and I posted a challenge announcement. And suddenly people were saying “Yes” they would join. This was a seven-day commitment to post daily and read others’ posts but when I built it, they came.

They shared amazing insights and powerful memories. They shared sadnesses and gratitudes. They shared wonders and grief. And I was possessed by such a feeling of calm. This was exactly where I had wanted to be, reading and sharing and commenting on the marvelous words and thoughts of all these people.

I am immensely grateful that these near 30 lovely people were there for me when I stuck my neck out to do this. By the last day, my soul was filled to the brim. I read and took in their gratitude and just sat with it all quietly for a couple of days.

The things you fear most are in fact those things you really must get done. And once you allow for the first action, it will all fall into place.

I am extremely humbled that these marvelous men and women thought well enough of me to join in and I thoroughly enjoyed and was grateful for everything they offered. So much love goes to those people who validated so many parts of me. I was rendered speechless. Until next challenge.

If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

And, as always, Thanks to you for your visit.