Friday, December 2, 2011

on gratitude


As November began this year, I resolved to re-dedicate myself to an old ritual that I had let fall by the wayside – practicing daily gratitude. I thought this gratitude practice would help me manage the stress of my daily life, filled with brimming-over work commitments, by helping me re-focus my attention (even for just some brief moment) on all that I have in my life. I decided to take a photo each day of November of something for which I was grateful. I also chose to make this gratitude project easy and do-able, meaning I was going to allow myself to take each and every gratitude photograph with my iPhone. Yes, I gave myself permission to not have to use my big dSLR, to not be bogged down by post-processing, to not be perfect. And I have to say, I’m grateful for this gratitude project.

Practicing daily gratitude has been a gift to myself. It has been a true gift to stop and take a breath, a moment to reflect, and snap a photo of something that has brought me joy each day. This practice has allowed me to see the parts of my life, big and small, that fill me up, that make me smile, that bring me peace. The content of my photographs and the images that are filled with my gratitude this month range from my sweet Labrador Retrievers to my favorite pie being made by my partner. They include shots of peel-apart photographs from my “new” Polaroid camera as well as a salty margarita. There are moments of rest on the sofa and of capturing the sun on my face. And all of them, so full of gratitude.

 It’s also been a gift to see all the images in the Mortal Muses Flickr pool capturing moments of gratitude. One of my favorites was shot by Libertad Leal in Venezuela. I simply love the openness of this photograph as well as the light and that gorgeous flare!

 Thank you, Mortal Muses, for letting me re-focus again on gratitude. Another gift to add to this list. This daily gratitude thing is just so good…I just might keep it up.

 xoxo,
Meghan of Life Refocused

Grateful

Grateful by Libertad Leal

_____________________

Thank you Meghan for musing with us today! You can see all of Meghan’s photos from her gratitude project on her Flickr page here. If you would like to muse with us as a guest,
email us at mortalmuses9 [at] gmail.com

12 comments:

leanne can blog said...

I love both of these photos- beautiful.

gina said...

What a wonderful November project! Cultivating gratitude has really brought me more joy. Great images!

Meghan @ Life Refocused said...

So grateful to be here today! Just heard from Libertad Leal that although she is from Venezuela, she currently lives in Houston, TX.

Wendy Tienken said...

Love this, Meghan! You are literally and figuratively glowing in your shot. I love that you gave yourself permission to use your phone. It can be so freeing! So many of my gratitude shots this month were on my phone, too, and I realized I was much more likely to shoot if I allowed myself to use my phone. And I agree, Libertad's image is fantastic :)

xoxo

Kat Sloma said...

Thanks so much for musing with us Meghan! Lovely post and images. :)

Unknown said...

so happy to see you over here Meghan and I love following you along your journey through instagram and your blog. Grateful for new connections made this year, you being one of them :D

Kirstin said...

Meghan, this is such a wonderful post. Yes, practising gratitude on a daily basis has been a wonderful project. I love that you did yours on your iPhone! Thank you. x

Becs said...

Love these words, very inspiring and both the shots are gorgeous.

urban muser said...

love this post meghan! thanks for joining us here today.

Gilly said...

Lovely post, Meghan; both these photos are so distinctive - that first shot is amazing.

Holly ~ Soupatraveler said...

Meghan! So beautifully said, and so true! I love that you gave yourself permission to shoot with your iphone, funny how hard but HUGE this can be! And these photos are perfect together, analog and digital side by side in beauty!

christina said...

this is so lovely. so glad you joined us.
xo

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