learning to write love on my arms.

{grace}

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:31:13 -0400

{grace}

sabreglass: nemomeimpune-lacessit: The Nu Project’s Nude...

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:34:30 -0400

nemomeimpune-lacessit:

The Nu Project’s Nude Photos Tell The Truth About Women’s Bodies

The Nu Project is a no-glamor honest look at beauty and image in our world.

Female nudity isn’t hard to come by in the media, but the bodies we see usually represent a fairly limited scope of sizes and shapes. The Nu Project, a collection of nude photographs shot by Minneapolis photographer Matt Blum, seeks to add some variety to the mix. Blum started The Nu Project in 2005 but said it really took off when his wife, Katy Kessler, became the project’s editor. Blum sees the photos as filling a void. “When I started shooting nudes there was no project like it,” he told The Huffington Post in an email. The things that I had seen either used models with typical model bodies or average people who were made to look extremely unimpressive. I figured there was a way to treat women (of any size/shape) like models and photograph them beautifully, respectfully without a lot of sexual under or overtones. The women photographed are all volunteers, and most of the pictures are taken in the subjects’ homes — where they feel most comfortable. The Nu Project’s website showcases six galleries of nudes, three shot in North America, three in South America. Although Blum told HuffPost that he feels that they have a “good variety of people involved,” he and Kessler acknowledge on The Nu Project website that they’d love for the subjects to be more diverse. “The hardest part for us is that the project is 100 percent volunteer, so I do not see the women until I show up at their door,” Blum writes on the website. “We’re doing our best to encourage all types of women, but we need volunteers of all backgrounds and walks of life to make the project more complete.” Blum said he ultimately hopes that these images inspire the women who see them to feel better about their own bodies. “It’s been really exciting to hear people react to the images,” he told HuffPost. “We get a lot of feedback from women (especially) who have struggled to see themselves as beautiful, and this project has helped them on that path.”

http://thenuproject.com/

This is so cute I’m screaming

ama and red- i see a new project idea in your future.

Chris Cobb, an artist based in San Francisco, has created an...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:16:32 -0400

Chris Cobb, an artist based in San Francisco, has created an amazing installation in bookshop called Adobe Books- he catalogued every single one of the 20,000 books by color. The project is titled There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World. They were arranged by hand over a 10 hour period, and he enlisted the help of 16 volunteers. Such beautiful results, they transformed the bookshop overnight.

(via)

this is how my books are organized. by color.

little sleep. missing her. nightmares. old photographs. paper hearts. quiet my anxious soul....

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:13:17 -0400

little sleep.
missing her.
nightmares.
old photographs.
paper hearts.
quiet my anxious soul.
rest my weary eyes.
save my soul.
tattered dreams.

{come}

annmarieamick: itscolossal: Photographer Matej Peljhan takes a...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:30:31 -0400

annmarieamick:

itscolossal:

Photographer Matej Peljhan takes a boy with muscular dystrophy on an imaginary adventure.
those of us behind the lens have the potential to do so much in this world, and so often we are selfish with our lenses.

THIS. i would love to have someone do this for my kids at camp. {melt my heart}

lighting a prayer candle for a few special people in need of...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:29:35 -0400

lighting a prayer candle for a few special people in need of prayer. {if you want/need prayer too, please message me}

{oh mama Beth}

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:56:11 -0400

My faithful, most holy Father and my God,

With tremendous love I lift my sister to you. You know what stirs in her heart, what awakens her at night, what causes her to shudder, and what seeks to devour her. You have seen her in the secret place and you know her longings and her questions and her dreams and her hopes. You know the very place that doubt seeks to swallow her and deceit desires to seed in her. Spring her eyes open to cleansing, delivering Truth. Minister to her in such a personal way throughout the coming days that she is floored once again by Your all-knowingness and complete attentiveness. Sprout signs of harvest in a field where she has sown so faithfully and seen so little. Help her to see that her labor is not in vain. Soak the fleece in such a way that she’ll know You are with her. Send someone to encourage her in such a specific area that she’ll know You alone could have prompted it.

Grant her a heart to love You with an abounding affection that could only be supernatural and cause her to feel her heart teeming with love toward someone who is loveless toward her. Protect her heart and heal her mind where it may be bent or twisted. Take all shame off of her and cast out her self-loathing once and for all and lift her chin to see her redemption drawing near. Give her faith enough to believe that she has truly been forgiven and that You who began a good work in her will most assuredly complete it. Put a new relationship in her life that brings much joy to her in You and revives her faith-walk and makes her laugh. Healthy friendships, Lord! Help her to finally release a relationship that You have clearly brought to an end and to do so without resentment or bitterness, trusting You entirely with the future. Be radiant upon her face. Tell her forthrightly how lovely she is to You and how significant. Quiet that part of her that seeks to perform for acceptance. Give her joy in a more honest version of herself. Reveal Your gorgeous self to her, Lord Jesus. Let every false Christ in her life bow to the One and Only True so that she can see it is You. Make every competing voice hush to Yours.

In Your beautiful, saving, redeeming Name, Jesus, I bring these earnest requests. Amen

hauntingly beautiful.

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:03:06 -0400

hauntingly beautiful.

i wish i could draw.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:00:41 -0500

i wish i could draw.

"Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by..."

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:05:19 -0500

“Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by talking to another person. One other person you can trust, one other person to whom you can unfold your soul. One other person you feel safe enough with to allow you to acknowledge things—to acknowledge things to yourself—that you otherwise can’t. Doubts you aren’t supposed to have, questions you aren’t supposed to ask. Feelings or opinions that would get you laughed at by the group or reprimanded by the authorities.”

- Words from a lecture delivered by William Deresiewicz at West Point in October 2009. Read the whole thing here, if you have not already. (via melissafitzpatrick)

{26}

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 07:28:13 -0500

{26}

when a three year old shows you Jesus

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:49:12 -0500

So I wrote what happened today to put into j’s book. This kid teaches me about Jesus so much:

Today was a rough day baby girl. You were over tired and instead of napping you screamed, cried, hit things, and refused to stay in bed. Raised voices and tears came from both of us in our exhaustion and frustration. But you finally fell asleep and when you woke up we were both in a better place.

When you woke up you said “nini I’m sorry for not listening and being mean. I was tired.” And after I forgave you, I asked you to forgive me for being frustrated towards you. And in all your grace and love you said, “oh nini. It’s okay. I forgive you. I love you even when you are frustrated and mad and sad. I just love you.”

Thank you for showing me Jesus, baby girl

I miss my taylor. The smell of his shampoo. The way he could...

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 12:46:27 -0500

I miss my taylor. The smell of his shampoo. The way he could always convince me to enter one more race with him. When you love some like I loved him, they’re a part of you. It’s like you’re attached by this invisible tether, and no matter how far away you are you can always feel them. And now every time I reach for that tether, I know there’s no one on the other end and I feel like I’m falling into nothingness. Then I remember Taylor. I remember a life led with no enemies, no resentments, no regrets and I’m inspired to get up out of bed and go on. I miss my Taylor so much. It feels like piece of me has been ripped off. Just one more time I want to see him. Ten more seconds - is that too much to ask? But I can’t, and I won’t, and the only thing keeping me from being swallowed whole by sadness is that Taylor would kill me if I did. So for now I’m just going to miss him. I love you long time, Taylor.

sometimes remembering is hard.

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:55:20 -0500

beloved,

you are beautiful. you are precious. I delight in you and I long to see your face.

sweetheart, talk to Me. that’s all I’m asking. you don’t have to have the “right” words, you don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to have it all together. I want you to come to Me just as you are: lost, heartbroken, beautiful. you are beautiful. you are precious. do not hide your tears, bring them into the open so I can wipe them away. you are loved beyond all measure. I will never leave you or hurt you. you are My Beloved and I love you.

My sweet child. nothing you confess could make Me love you less. get it out. tell Me the deepest and darkest parts of you. I already know them, but I long to hear them from your lips. I want to hear your broken words bring light into the darkness. I will never leave you. I will never love you less. you are My Beloved. I have chosen you. I will never let you go.

I am not mad at you. I have not left you. you are not alone my child. as you lie in bed all day crying because you feel lost and alone, I am there. I am lying next to you, holding you in My arms. I will never let you fall. come to Me. trust, Beloved.

you don’t have to take away the parts of you that you believe are bad, I want all of you. I want the bruises, the hurts, the brokenness- I want all of you. I want the smiles, the laughter, the tears, and the anger. I love you always.

I do not expect you to be perfect and I don’t want to take control away from you. for I am patient and I am loving. I will wait for you, but most importantly, I will wait with you- calling out to you, asking you to come closer to Me. asking you to trust Me. put it down sweetheart, you don’t need it anymore. not when you have Me to hold onto. these things you are doing to push Me away, won’t make me leave. I’m not going anywhere.

I’m not mad at you. please stop thinking you have to fix yourself before you can look at my face again. you must look at me in order to change anything. these things you are doing to push me away won’t make me leave. I’m not going anywhere. let me hold your hand when you are doing them and they will be burned away. please stop running from me. I don’t need you to be anything other than what you are. I see you. and I just want you to let me love you. why are you running? why are you trying to earn what is already yours?

I will never leave you. you can’t push Me away. look at Me.

look at Me.

I won’t let you drown for I love you beyond all words. you are beautiful and pure in my sight. I love you

forever and always.
God

i am so incredibly angry with you. as far as you are concerned i was the only one who did anything...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:44:25 -0500

i am so incredibly angry with you. as far as you are concerned i was the only one who did anything wrong. lost my way, made a mistake, screwed up. and there you sit, claiming that you pray for me to find Jesus again. can’t you see that i never lost him? i still love him and worship him and he still loves me.

it is so hard for me to show you grace but i have decided, that even in the midst of you causing me pain, i’m going to give you grace. i will be friendly towards you, even when you choose not to speak to me. i will pray for you when i want to speak ill about you. i will show you kindness when i receive none in return. i am incredibly angry with you, but i choose to show you grace.

grace.

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:32:07 -0500

i’ve always been good at holding onto resentments. staying angry, justifying my selfishness as a way to protect myself. i readily and eagerly cry out for mercy and grace when i mess up, but rarely do i freely offer it to others. especially those who have broken my heart and soul.

but deep in my heart, a word has been stirring. a thought, a tickle, and challenge. as my journey through the word vulnerable came to a close, i realized just how much i need grace and so this year i want to offer grace to others. expecting nothing in return.

when that friend lets me breaks another promise to me, when plans fall through again, when hurtful words are spoken in anger- i want to respond in grace. when fear fills my soul, when nightmares attack in the dark nights, and when patience is no where to be found- i want to respond in grace.

so here is to a new year. of challenges and heartbreak. of joy and possibilities. of continuing vulnerability and undeserving grace.

happy 3rd birthday baby girl.

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:15:57 -0500

happy 3rd birthday baby girl.

vulnerable.

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:09:45 -0500

you have taught me so much this year. you opened my heart to love and pain but you also helped start to heal some of my deepest wounds. you humbled me and once or twice, i was sure that you were going to break me. but i found that i can bend. so as this year ends, and i leave you behind, i welcome what this new year, this new word will bring. and i thank you. for showing me that being vulnerable is a gift. and i too can survive.

i’m lost in the mysticism of the south and the healing of...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:42:18 -0500

i’m lost in the mysticism of the south and the healing of the marsh. #nofilter

I met god today. She was a new friend saying come sit with us. I met god today. He was a daddy, head...

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:21:58 -0500

I met god today. She was a new friend saying come sit with us. I met god today. He was a daddy, head over heals in love with his children. I met god today. His spirit drew out my voice, singing words I cannot speak. I met god today. His laughter rippled over our lunch and soothed this jagged heart. I met god today.