My son leaves for the UK at 4.
He’s taking his phone, laptop, one humungous bike bag and riding his bike to the airport. That’s going too.
Thoughts and images of him fleeting in my mind today are amazing.
I am letting them stream over me.
I feel celebration for him and his leaving.
Go fine son.
Journey free.
Be tremendously safe.
I adore you.
Love. Mom.
I want to thank the lovely Jenn Savedge for the wonderful profile she wrote about me yesterday on Mother Nature Network.
I have given up fighting the fact that I am know far and wide as the burger lady!!
Jenn is part of Green Moms Carnival, a group of spirited, enthusiastic woman that I proudly write with.
I am hosting this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival and am posting our collaborative commentary on Valentines Day – stay tuned!
My prompt, just for the “heart” of it, asked my fellow green moms why are we doing what we do and to say so in 250 words.
Here is my from the heart rise to the challenge…
Green Mom’s Carnival Two Hundred Fifty Word Challenge:
Many would agree that the need to be heard can be very strong. Some thrive on being heard more than others. I am one of those. Add my curious, sharing and passionate self and my remarkable enthusiasm for oh…everything, and one will find that I am someone who cannot be contained. I often must say. While I knew this about myself to some degree, I didn’t realize at what level having voice defined my very core. Creative expression either in written form, in photography or my being more effusive, meaning way more verbally demonstrative than some often care for. Blogging has me expressed! I love to blog for many reasons, but mostly I blog because I can be me. We are all continuing to become. Would you agree? I know I am. The blog world is forgiving. It’s a very generous place and the truth is it isn’t particularly selective. It has infinite room for all of us! We get to choose who we read, like, follow, friend and comment with. The vastness of this has me in awe. The impact and reach continues to humble me. Each and every day a person, email or commenter tells me something I’ve shared, written or photographed made a difference for them. This is why I blog.
comfort tea
One year ago, under a variety of circumstances, not all of which were by choice, my blog was converted from a godaddy template to the WordPress platform. The conversion, a mighty, rather daunting and very detailed task was done beautifully by Luke Gedeon and his brother Matthew of Kdari Web Development. In addition to finding a sponsor to help fund the project, Luke worked with me to incorporate my “best of mother earth” branding and logo, my absolute love for photography and my personal need to have my blog be still be arty while being vast, informative and valid!
This has been an absolutely awesome year for my blog!
I am very grateful Luke for your mentorship, your patience with me, and your skills and creativity!!
evening rooftops by karen hanrahan
Found this in my inbox yesterday from the fabulous Naomi Dunford of Itty Biz
I asked permission to share….
Why? Because this was just the prompt I needed ….
Typically I feel determined to reflect on the year past and eager to launch into what’s next….
and yet
this past year wasn’t like most.
I admit some overwhelmedness here…
not sure if it was too many hats, not enough, or if my emotions were at high play…
On Dec 30, 2010, at 1:01 PM, Naomi Dunford wrote:
Hello, my lovely,
A lot of people didn’t have a great year in 2010. You are not alone in this.
It doesn’t really matter why 2010 sucked. What matters is what you can take away from it.
Stop and think for a minute about your Top Five 2010 Moments. This doesn’t have to be hard; you don’t have to do any ranking or anything. This isn’t going on David Letterman. It’s just five moments that you would want to live again. Go ahead and write them down if it makes them easier to think about.
Consider them for a minute. Roll them around in your mind like you’d roll a particularly good piece of chocolate around on your tongue. Remember how happy they made you feel. Think about why they made you feel happy.
See if you can find a common thread (or two, or three). Then – and I can’t stress this enough - write that common thread (or two, or three) down. Don’t just think it, and don’t type it; handwrite it. And then put it somewhere where you’ll see it every day.
You want that piece of paper in plain sight because that common thread is what you’re going to work toward in 2011. Keep thinking about it, remembering it, and returning to it. When you have a choice to make, think about which outcome would be more consistent with that thread.
If you do that – if you keep that common thread in your mind – I guarantee you’ll have a better year in 2011 than you did in 2010, no matter what else happens.
But tonight, just think about your top five moments, your common thread(s), and what you’re going to do to be consistent with them in 2011.
Truth is …
I couldn’t immediately encapsulate 2010 into moments because the year seemed like such a blur.
I went back to my blog as if I was going to do a best of or something and no wonder it seems like a blur…it totally was!!
I narrowed it down to these five themes rather than moments:
Freedom
Identity
Technology
Fame
Creativity
At this juncture of my life I am in a huge re-design. Midlife crisis? I’d say more like midlife opportunity! I have not only one door opening, but many!! I hadn’t put perspective on it but when I add the way these five things make me feel. Why do these things make me happy?? They as themes reinforce the “I can’s”!! It occurs to me how important to me it is to know who I am. Knowing is one thing. Doing “me” as in work, and life …is completely different. I need and thrive on being “me”
I am going to roll all of this on my tongue like a good piece of chocolate.
One thing I want to ponder is what does any of the above have to do with my work??
I have to say this …I am very grateful for blogging for many many reasons, but I am especially happy and i totally just realized this. Often I get about the doing….and while I have a semblance of a plan. My blog shows me what I’ve actually done. This past year was impressive and it makes me very very proud. There — the strongest feeling of ALL of this year?
Pride.
Way GOOD stuff madame Nadine!! Thank you!!!
image by karen hanrahan