what matters most

Snowtober. Hurricane Irene. Wind, sleet, hail, relentless rain. A power outage occurs and we get back to the basics: warmth on a cold, wet day with a pile of blankets to crawl under; hot and cold running water...any running water for that matter; a refrigerator to keep our food from spoiling, a freezer to keep it even longer. It can be that simple, right? What matters most are often the "basics" we take for granted, these modern marvels that I barely notice or stop to appreciate until they're taken away. The dryer breaks. A power line goes down. Or I travel far from the western world. Many of you shared these very items in the theme pool for the past two weeks. You talked about your friends and families, your homes, and sometimes just making it though the day was enough for you. Yet, if you're like me, for all that we appreciate the beauty in our lives, we also spend as much time looking at just the opposite. We notice what don't have, instead of what we do. Our thoughts and judgement get clouded by advertisers, political squabbling or maybe the harsh reality of our bank accounts. We don't mean to get distracted. It just happens.

I once drove past a village in Nepal where the only running water was a spigot on the side of a busy road. Men and women, young and old, bathed themselves wrapped in sarongs, lathering the soap through fabric just to get clean. Instead of a tiled shower stall or smooth bathtub, they found muddy, gravel beneath their feet. In South Africa, thousands of people live in squatter camps and count themselves fortunate to have a roof over their heads. This is not to say that these people live lesser lives, just more difficult ones with less.

As we move into the busy holiday season where time seems to disappear just thinking about it, I'm hoping i can stop for a moment now and again to reflect on all that I have, and give many thanks for the miraculous blessings that come in and out of my life on a daily basis. It's this sentiment, from yzzilyzzid that moved me to write this post. After passing countless cotton fields on the side of the road, she reflected on the work of thousands that used to bring in this cash crop. "I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to pick those cotton balls by hand. They are so stiff and unyielding, and I'm sure that at the end of the day your hands would be cracked and bleeding." After making this observation, she reflects, "I am so grateful to work in an air conditioned office, and the greatest difficulty I have to face is completely insignificant in light of what I could face daily. How truly blessed I am." I couldn't agree more, and I'm hoping to hold on to these feelings of gratitude and maintain the ability to focus on joy, love and giving in the weeks ahead. And although at some point, I'll probably bemoan the fact that we still haven't replaced our dryer, I can gratefully say that I don't mind. Truly, I have all that I need around me, so I can enjoy the process of focusing on what really matters most. How about you? What matters most in your world?

Holly {Soupatraveler}

329:365 king cotton by yzzilyzzid

life refocused

 

I'd like to believe that I have a lot to be thankful for. Unfortunately, there are too many days that go by in which I forget how blessed I really am. It's days like these that I tend to focus too heavily on myself...the things I wish I had...and worry about things that are completely insignificant.

Truth be told, I do have a lot to be thankful for. Each morning, I am able to get out of bed. I can hear the sound of my alarm. I can see the sun rising out the window. I'm able to wash my face with clean running water. I have clean clothes to wear to work. I have food to eat. I have a roof over my head. I have a car. I can easily walk up the stairs without pain. When I want a cup of coffee to get my day started, I can have one. I have a job. I can read. I can write. I can laugh. I have friends. I have family that loves me. I am healthy. I am blessed.

Much like Pereira's photo below, I find that if we stop focusing on what we don't have, we'll better see all that we do have. Isn't that what gratitude is all about?

Until next time,
Ashley of Ramblings and Photos

"When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy" by Pereira

thankful for the magic

I have to admit that November's month of Gratitude has been tricky for me. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in England, so I felt some trepidation as I started on this month-long journey. Where would it take me? What would I post? Well, looking through the month, I have to admit I am thankful for many things. But really it was the magic of everyday moments that grabbed me. I didn't always manage to snap them, but I definitely tried to capture more of them than I normally would have. And I certainly appreciated those magical moments with more intensity.

For example, my best friend gave birth to her long-awaited son earlier this month. It's been quite a journey for her and it's lovely to finally meet her boy and slowly get to know him. I've seen many births and met many new babies as part of my medical training, but this time I just switched off my inner scientist and enjoyed the magic of it all. What better example is there of everyday magic than the birth of a baby? It's a miracle that happens thousands of times each day. Annette sums it up so well when she says, "I'm grateful for the magic that happens in my life everyday. I've been seeing more and more of it lately and my heart feels so humbled."

So it's been a magical month for me in more ways than one. In fact, I'm determined to shed that inner Brit next year and maybe do another month of gratitude next November, if you'll have me! So share your magical pictures today. The images that show the magic of everyday life, the things that have made you stop and think and be grateful.

kirstin of fleeting moments

day 12: magic by .:AnnetteB:.

grateful for four legged friends

"A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can't get it by breeding for it, and you can't buy it with money. It just happens along."

- E B White

This is my dog Willow. My best girl. My photo-walk assistant. My constant companion. We had a real scare earlier in the year when we almost lost her to a ruptured spleen. I won't go into the details here, but we came frighteningly close to putting her down, and then things turned around for us. We had wonderful doctors who didn't give up on her, we made some difficult (but what turned out to be the right) decisions, and we were able to get her through a tough recovery period.

Four months later, that is her on the beach with my husband...the wind blowing so hard it makes her usually floppy ears stand up, the constant goofy dog-grin on her furry face. My Willow isn't getting any younger, but every day with her is a gift, and I cherish each moment that I have her in my life.

It looks like ajbbents has a couple of canine companions of her own--in her flickr post she said, "they bring smiles and comfort and a happy canine grin and smooch just when it is most needed." Yup, I couldn't agree more!

Woof,
~christy {urban muser}

13 of 30 #fromwhereistand #paws beggars by ajbbents

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 by Libertad Leal

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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

gratitude for music

I'm sure most of you could say the same, but without music, I would not be the person I am today. The ways in which it opened my eyes, connected me with the important people in my life, and inspired me are endless. The way it can make me feel: more alive and authentic than I feel at any other time, and the way it reminds me how worth living life really is, and how limitless its wonder and beauty, I simply could not be happy without music. Recently my photography has taken me closer to the music. Shooting band photos for a Colorado bluegrass band and getting up close in personal at many a live show to "get the shot" has reinforced for me the importance and intimacy of the smaller venues for experiencing a magical live show. For that I am awash with gratitude.

And I can tell that gonzomama gets this, in her similarly framed shot below, an homage to music. Feel free to let us know how music is something for which you grateful, too!

16:30 days of gratitude by gonzomama

the feeling of gratitude

I’ve been finding it so difficult to write on this theme. On the one hand, there are so many things to be grateful for in my world that I couldn’t decide on just one to single out. But it’s also been difficult because even though I know in my head that I have so much to be grateful for, my emotions right now aren’t following suit. I know I’m grateful, but I’m struggling to get the feeling of gratitude up and running. Have you ever felt like that? I’m guessing most of us have.

Things go wrong and life doesn’t always go our way, but there are always two ways to tell the story. This year has a been a difficult one in many ways: my husband’s been made redundant, I’ve been ill for most of the year and not able to work, we have the resulting financial problems, we had the death of a close family member, and we have the current stress of what sometimes feels like fruitless job searching, with the accompanying worry of ‘what will happen if?’. But there’s another way to tell this story: unlike some, we have a decent redundancy package; we’ve had more time together in the last few months and have become closer; we’ve talked in depth about the things that are important to us; we’ve had to cut back in so many ways that it’s clarified our values and what matters most; although we lost someone, we’ve also given thanks for a life well lived; and we’ve realised how very much we really do have. There’s always two ways to tell the story, and to me that’s what gratitude is about: spending at least as much time focussing on what we have, as we do on what we don’t have.

When I get into this state where I can’t get at the feeling of gratitude any more, there are two things that save me – photography and getting outside into nature. Photography helps me lose myself and my worries for a few hours, and being in nature puts it all into perspective and makes me realise that in the big scheme of things, it’s all very small beer. And there’s always some little miracle of colour and light to lift the spirits, as in anngeedee’s lovely shot of swimming birds.

gilly of the camera points both ways

traveling companions

I am grateful for my guys. My husband and son, my perennial traveling companions. Oh, the miles we've travelled together, over the last couple of years. Countless flights and subways, days filled with maps and occasional mishaps. They patiently wait for me to capture my photographs as we wander along and give me a gentle nudge to keep me moving. Sometimes they go off on their own, as they did this weekend, wandering ahead of me in this historic cemetery, as I read the tombstones of those who lived and died many years past. Looking up ahead of me this day, I was filled with gratitude for them, the best of traveling companions.

There is something special about the memories we create when we travel. They become links of the chain that holds our lives together, unique from the repetition of our daily lives. Something as simple as a walk on a dusty road or a nap on the airplane, as pmaelee captured below, become elevated to special stories that we tell and retell of our travels together.

Lucky me, to have such companions by my side for journeys near and far through life. I hope and wish the same companionship for you.

Kat of The Kat Eye View of the World

Good flight planning {30 Days of Gratitude} by pmaelee

and the next theme is...gratitude

It can be a state of being, taking some time out to find your own, secret place...perhaps your favorite spot to shoot your favorite scene with no one else around, where you're simply grateful to just be.

Dream of Paradise by Pixelmama

Or maybe you just want to be alone, with no plans, no hurries or worries, to savor the moment in your own special retreat.

calm by lindsey (modchik)

It could be something that makes the days go smoother, where everyone is getting along.

8/30 My Dog by Holly {Soupatraveler}

Or it could be something big that can change everything for your family.

relief by Superdewa

Or something small, but can make your day. 

Sea Urchins by ~Roxanne~

Whatever it is you are grateful for, help us finish up this month by flooding the flickr pool with images that make your heart sing with gratitude.

Lindsey (modchik)