baby love letters

Friday Letters...Baby Love Letters 142

               "Lean on me, when you're not strong

                And I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on."

                Bill Withers 

 

For some time I have been wanting to work on a project about sisters. These two little girls became my first subjects for this idea. A trip to my favorite lavender field, Mountainside Lavender,  became the backdrop for the day. It was close to 90 degrees and the bees were so active in the fields that we headed for almost any place that said shade. Throughout the two hours we spent together, there were many times the girls took turns comforting one another whether by laughter, hugs or just holding onto one another.

One of the most touching moments came when there was a bit of a meltdown and the children headed down the road separately with different parents. At one point the youngest realized her sister was crying. She ran back up the road and held her in a long hug. The older sister swooped down, picked her up and off down the road they went together.

Amongst what seems to moms as endless bickering... these moments of comfort are what we all live for.

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Friday Letters...Baby Love Letters 141

 

 "Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them."

Richard L. Evans

As a little child, trips to my grandparent's house were frequent...almost daily. One of the favorite attractions sat on the coffee table in the living room. It's art deco pattern immediately grabbed the eye, even though it was just a modest hand-painted ceramic jar. Under its lid, and filled to the brim were brilliant colored pure crystalized candies.

Of all of my grandmother's things this is the most cherished nicknack. It's not the jar that has meaning but rather the memories that filled it with love.

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Friday Letters...Baby Love Letters 140

"He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed."

William James 

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Last week I had a unique opportunity to travel to Montana to take a photography class with 11 other women. I have been following the career of Barb Uil for several years and promised myself if she ever taught in the USA I would be there for the workshop. Our styles are very different...yet learning from someone else can be so much fun and can help push me to cherish my own unique perspective.

Although I normally see in illustrations, the top image begged to be a close up. The mom said they only had pictures of the back of this child's head, as she always ran away from a camera.

The baby below was in the most gorgeous garden, meadowbrook farm and yet I had to go for the essence.

I can hardly wait to see how this class changes my life... as every new step forward eventually does.

Thanks Barb and Teresa for making this opportunity possible!

 

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Friday Letters...Baby Love Letters 139

 

"Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children."

Pablo Casals 

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Children have always been special in my life. I knew very young that I wanted to work with them. I thought being a teacher and a mother would be my career path. Never did I dream that my Dad and husband's love for photography would rub off on me. But when photography crossed paths with my children and their friends...there was my passion. And when words sharing a parent's love of their child intersected with children's photography... there my life work began.

The above quote so shares my heart. 

 

Friday Letters...Baby Love Letters 138

"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?

Pablo Casals 

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I grew up in an incredibly patriotic family. My Dad arrived in the USA via Ellis Island as a nine year old child. Even though he was born in another country he adopted America, and all it stands for, with his whole heart. He came not speaking English which put him way behind in school. His family had to do menial labor for years to make ends meet. Yet he saw such hope, opportunity and promise here for not only his childhood family but the family I would be born into. 

We each take our native countries so for granted...for it is often all we have known. 

I've loved sitting in my daughter's orange draped family room as the World Cup has played out, cheering for a country that has become dear to me through the eyes of my son in law. So glad I won't have to choose sides this year.

Our little family includes children from four different continents... so my love is not allowed to stop at this nation's border.