2009: grounded

{at least I like to think so...}

dear 2009

au revoir sweet friend; you were good to me.

you will be remembered fondly. while it wasn't all high times, your {sometimes brutal} honesty was appreciated. even your lows came with strong, if not forced, learning moments and were followed by comfort and growth. you gave beauty and blizzards and friendship and blue moons and laughter and rainbows and risk and kisses and play and stargazing and knowledge and so much more.

you helped me discover more of who I am and I will always love you for that.

your friend,
lisa

p.s. I hear you are friends with 2010...any chance you can put a good word in for me?

l'heure bleue

most mornings, I've been at work at least an hour when this light show is performing over and slightly to the left of where my head rests at night.

rarely do I sleep in; but what a treat it was yesterday morning to open my eyes and find myself in a world which looked very much like an underwater paradise briefly lit by the sun above.

it was like my own personal shimmery mer world. and it made it really hard to get up in the dark today.

afterglow

call it whatever you wish...afterglow, drydown, linger...the purpose of the hazy time following grand moments of significance is to integrate back to normal with minimal re-entry damage. historically I have struggled in withdrawal after holidays, vacations, romantic dates and laughter-filled best girlfriend chatfests. each time I try to hold on to a tiny bit of the emotional perfection of the moment. the desperation can be palpable. do you know what I mean?

over time and out of necessity, I've learned that the transition is more easily accomplished when the big moment itself is tempered with reality. this is how the last few christmases have been for me. because they are not over the top full-on festivity, it becomes clearer that regular everyday life can be filled with the magic, dreaminess, togetherness, beauty and loving spirit of the holidays. like eating tuesday night tacos off the good china, everyday life becomes fuller with these moments once reserved for specific dates on the calendar. in return the actual big events become less pressured, more sweetly sedate. as celebration becomes a gentle routine practice of beauty and acknowledgement, regular life sweetly shifts from a boring midline spiked with dramatic events to an even and comfortable serendipitous journey.

like luminescent purpleblue filaments of bright lights dimmed, let's carry on with the incandescence.

{afterthought: I used two of my favorite words...serendipitous and luminescent...in one post. my apologies for the wordiness of it all. I am feeling immensely inspired. thank you for that.}

{afterthought #2: my most beautiful mister gifted me a new lens for christmas. this came at a time when my infatuation with photography was feeling a slight wane. the image above was one of the first shots I captured with this new beast. I am ridiculously thrilled and completely honored that it's featured on one of my most-loved blogs, decor8. and to top it off, the image is currently and happily posted in the numero uno spot on flickr explore. yet another sign that the wane, the afterglow, is where the beauty of life is.}

wishing you

{wonder}

{peace}

{beauty}

happy christmas dear friends.

♥lisa

happy christmas eve eve