everyday beauty

 

This month in Hand to Heart we're exploring the beauty of the everyday moments and we're using our cameras to collect the evidence we find.

This focus is shifting the way I'm using my phone each day. I'm using my timer and remembering the spots where there is more natural light in my home. I'm seeking evidence of beauty even in the messiest moments (like a little one sick with hives for most of Spring Break). I'm pausing to take a few deep breaths and then snapping a photo. And I'm soaking up color even more than usual.

I love how simple prompts can re-energize us and give our creativity just the starting place it needs to blossom. And getting back into the photos (like the one above with Ellie and me chatting in bed) is so important. No it isn't the best photo of me, but it is a photo full of love as I listen to her tell me stories while she plays with her stickers. 

The love is what I always want to remember.

Yes.

Come over and connect with me on Instagram. It is my favorite favorite favorite place to be these days.

And if you want to join us in seeking beauty this month, you can join Hand to Heart at any time.

the beauty of the everyday moments

In April, we'll explore the practice of finding the beauty in our every day and capture these moments through our camera lens. Along with all the other good things you receive with a membership to Hand to Heart each month, there will be a simple photography prompt to explore each day. This is one of the prompts we'll be exploring:

Last week, as the late afternoon eased into evening, we took a walk around our neighborhood. One of my favorite things to do is to take my camera along to gather evidence of how the season's are changing right where I live.

While we walk, I pause to quickly capture colors and textures and sounds with my camera.

Often I don't look through the lens, I just snap and look later, as I try to tap into my child self who isn't thinking about "how good the photo is" but is instead just looking at the world with wonder.

With the photo above, I just pointed my camera up toward that gorgeous blue sky and the forsythia blooms and snapped without looking through the viewfinder.

Sometimes I put my camera right on the ground to see what I can find at an ant's view. The photo above was taken with my camera right on the ground, me bending over just to press the shutter button. 

When I stood up, I realized I'd really just been taking a photo of a patch of grass. Who would have thought that this field was just waiting right there?

Try it today: Get outside and find the simple beauty and wonder of your world. And then come back here and tell me all about it.

*****

Hand to Heart is an invitation to stop signing up for another ecourse or two or three that will sit in your inbox. It is your invitation to start practicing what you know.

This ongoing offering is a soft space for you to land daily as you listen to the wisdom within you and practice what you know. When you join, you become a member of a community of kindred women who will be exploring a new soul care practice and theme each month. These practices will light the way as we find the YES in our beautiful, messy lives. Learn more and join in here.