Monday, January 31, 2011

Beginning at the End


“Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” Anne of Green Gables

Your suspicions are correct this is a sunset and not a sunrise as one might expect to be paired with this quote. I chose this picture on purpose and with several justifications.
1. I am not and will never be the kind of morning person who gets out of bed early enough to have a sunrise photo shoot

2. Anne shares this nugget of pre-teen wisdom at the end of a particularly trying day

3. The comfort in knowing that the new days is mistake free has its most balm at the end of a day full of mistakes, not in the morning when the day is new and mistakes are waiting to be made. No, to be able to go to bed at the end of a hard day and be able to sleep peacefully comes about with the hope of a clean slate in the morning. 

4.I took this photo on my honeymoon last summer. We were on a sunset cruise on the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast. It was toward the end of our trip and was the most peaceful I had felt since I started planning the wedding and the move to Kentucky. It held the hope of new beginnings.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Hope

"Well, that is another hope gone. `My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.' That's a sentence I read in a book once, and I say it over to comfort myself whenever I'm disappointed in anything."
"I don't see where the comforting comes in myself," said Marilla.
"Why, because it sounds so nice and romantic, just as if I were a heroine in a book, you know. I am so fond of romantic things, and a graveyard full of buried hopes is about as romantic a thing as one can imagine isn't it? I'm rather glad I have one." Anne of Green Gables


I remember reading somewhere that in Victorian times a popular "date spot" was the local graveyard for twilight walks. That always struck me as a little weird, and then I started walking around graveyards (not as a weird hobby, but rather when the opportunity presented itself). I myself was romanced by the histories and stories I found. This particular photo was taken at St.Andrews, Scotland. It was next to the ocean. Being surrounded by history and the sea my New England bred nerd-dom was in its glory!

On a deeper note, although a young Anne uses this phrase lightly I can't help but reading more into it. The idea a graveyard of buried hopes makes me look heavenward with the everlasting hope that saints who are buried will rise again. God is good and His love endures forever--even when the disappointments of life hit hard.

Monday, January 24, 2011

the color red


“I love bright red drinks, don’t you? They taste twice as good as any other color” Anne of Green Gables


I'll take it one step further, drinking from red cups makes me happy too! Oh and flowers...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Praying


“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep woods, and I’d look up into the sky-up-up-up-into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there is no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.” Anne of Green Gables.

 Not a recent picture, but recent editing. My childhood 30 acre backyard that saw me through my teens and held many such felt prayers.

Although I can't help but agree with Anne that felt prayers while surrounded by the vast beauty of creation have a way of expressing a hearts cry that nothing else can, there is also something to be said for regular knelt prayers. Especially those in corporate worship. Where as felt prayers make me feel safe in the arms of my Everlasting Father, knelt prayers gird up the loins of my soul for the dailiness of life.

The Challenge


For Christmas my sister gave be a boxed set of the Anne of Green Gables books. This may seem like a simple thing, but as with most events in my life has much deep implications and symbolism than what lies on the surface.

I am Mary. I want to be Anne. Mostly because there’s more than one way to spell her name and I wish I could say “Mary with a y” the way Anne says “Anne with an e”. I feel like that one letter holds all the magic that is Anne Shirley Blythe and desperately wish that I could explain all that I am in just one letter.

My connection to Anne started at a young age when my sister and I discovered the movies. My connection to these books however, started when I was just out of college and worked as a teacher’s aid in a 3 year old pre-school classroom. During naptime I had literally nothing to do and so walked up to the elementary library and for once and for all picked up that “Anne of Green Gables” book I had said so many times I wanted to read and dove in. I never looked back. Surrounded by cots of sleeping children I would escape the new life changes, work stresses and stupid boys of my 22nd year of life and find myself surrounded by kindred spirits, pine forests, and peaks of the ocean through a garret window. 

What does that have to do with me now….3 years later, married and working in a different state as a lead teacher of waddlers? Simply, Anne grows up and so do I. She marries and moves away and meets new people and so have I. Anne and I will always be kindred spirits. And knowing that there is a race that knows Jacob keeps me on the look-out for new faces that belong to it.

In addition to loving the Anne of Green Gables stories I also love art. And since being transplanted from New England to Kentucky and setting down roots I have been searching for ways to feed the art part of me. So with more inspiration from my beloved sister I will endeavor to join these two loves.

The challenge: Beloved quotes of deep truth or simple joy married with photography. One picture for each quote.  Sometimes obvious and others not.  Not always in the order they fall in the book. Pictures to be taken by me on my very not professional digital camera and edited with very not professional software. One post a week for as long as it takes me to read through the whole series. (Note: I work full time and have a house to keep….I will not blow through these books. I promise)