My friend talented Amy Grace of A Beautiful Life Photo asked me to be part of a very special project she has begun called "The Chorus":
"this is a project that has been burning a hole in my heart. we all sing our pure and shaky and earnest songs, to ourselves, our kids, our pasts. we sing because we need to hear our voices out loud, because it gets lonely sometimes, because it hurts, because the joy cannot fit in our bodies. mothers are always and never alone. i want to focus on the never part. i want to hear the voices together. i want to start a chorus."
Amy is a true artist...and an amazing photographer and out of this world writer. The combination of her words and her soulful images leave me speechless. Really...
I'm so so honored she has asked me to be a part of this project this week...a member of the "chorus" so to speak...a group of mothers who are photographers sharing their thoughts about wonder this week. Here are mine:
Funny how the things I associate with the word wonder have changed over the span of my life. As an adult I wonder about things…wonder if I’m doing OK as a mother…wonder about the future…wonder if I will ever feel caught up. The kind of wondering I do spans from silliness to more important things. When I think about the wonder I felt as a child, there was something different. I distinctly remember my first airplane ride. I looked out the small little window at those clouds and wondered if I could run and jump in them. Imagined how soft it would be and fully believed it was possible. Anything was possible. I noticed the beauty of things around me more consistently than I do know. I remember seeing dust bunnies in the light in my room and being totally and completely fascinated by them. So much that I ran to get my mother and asked her what it was. She replied “That’s just dust”. To me is was magic. My two year old reminded me of this last week when she noticed the dust in the light of her room. The animation and excitement as she pointed it out to me helped me to recall this long buried memory of my own childhood. How often do I reply to my kids discoveries with “That’s just dust”? More often than I should. I strive to see the beauty and wonder in things always but as an adult is sometimes a struggle to let go of all of my “to do’s” and be present in the moment and aware of all the wondrous things around me.
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eye are closed.” Albert Einstein
I don’t want my eyes to be closed. When I am open the wonders and beautiful things around me, I feel alive and present and connected. Once again my children are my teachers…teaching me to throw caution to the wind, outstretch my arms and soak in all the wonder around me.
PLEASE go visit "the chorus" and read some pretty inspiring thoughts along with some amazing images.
xo,
Summer