hello there, friend,
interestingly, i didn't really start to notice the world around me with intention, until i started reading blogs, which was after my children were born. i didn't pick up a camera until much later. what i found when i read blogs was appreciation for the every day bits of life. when i read essays about mothering or creating and i looked at the accompanying images, i was struck by the way such simple things could be so profound. i would pour over images, thinking about the way i felt nourished when i did, realizing that life's simplest moments were the ones to really savor.
i've written before about how this kind of noticing led me to thoughts about gratitude and how i have been so heavily influenced by anne voskamp's book, one thousand gifts. i started my gratitude journal in 2011 and finally picked up our family's camera in 2012, starting a 365 project, which allowed me to practice taking pictures and learn about our camera, as well as having a place to document daily snippets and often, gratitudes.
what i know for sure is the practice of noticing with gratitude the simple things around me, whether physically written down on paper, captured in an image with a camera, or made with a mental image in my mind, it grounds me, and nourishes me in a way i've come to find necessary. it's something i return to over and over again.
xo,
b
