So, I had this posted, and then I erased the intro in a panic and replaced it, but then I felt like a liar so I am putting the original intro back. I’m sorry if it’s too negative but in the end I really felt like it needed to be said.
On Saturday night Tom and I witnessed a gruesome accident in which an 18 year old boy drove his car into a tree in what can only be described as an attempted suicide. (But for your sake and mine that’s all I’m going to say about that.) As a result I didn’t do much work yesterday. I deep cleaned my house (it’s therapeutic), cleaned out my fridge (also therapeutic), chased my cats (sense a theme, here?).
I’m sharing some older photos from the Spurred project, but first I just want to say that this whole experience has left me feeling extremely grateful for my life and everything in it. I normally consider myself a very grateful person but over the last few days I’ve found myself thinking even more of the little things. I am glad I have the privledge of spending my life with Tom, that we together enjoy wholesome food, that Tom likes it when I sleep on his chest, that Pumpkin sits at our feet when we hug and wants to be picked up and pressed in between us, that Morn chases me in the morning to play, and that our beautiful apartment has lots of light and feels like home. I’m grateful that I have found something I love and enjoy doing every day, and have a project worth getting frustrated over, and have a wonderful camera and lens in which I can capture my moments with, and that I can use my arms to pick up that same camera. I’m so very grateful for everyone and thing in my life, especially the man I want to grow old with, and I’m so very, very grateful that our lives did not end on Saturday night.
“Fire”
This is a photo of my Shepard firing her Singularity ability in Mass Effect 2 for the PS3. What?
=P
“Behind”
I’d like to practice my composition, and pay more attention to what’s around or behind my subject of focus.
“Bridge”
Morn’s favorite spot is to have the bridge of his nose stroked.
“Half”
Sometimes Tom and I make a quick stop in to Goodwill or other trift stores to see if there’s anything good (me: cameras him: classic video games). Sometimes we get lucky, and then sometimes we get lucky and it just happens to be “half off” day. This was one of those days.
The camera is in mint condition and the lens spotless. It even still has a UV filter on it, with “Toronto Camera” almost rubbed off. I guess I can mark the Minolta off my dream collection list. Now if I can just find a Hasselblad and Canon AE-1!
“Ugly”
It’s like my poor laptop has dandruff. She’s getting old and rugged, but I love her. She’ll always be beautiful to me!
“Royal”
This isn’t something I talk about very often, and I debated even using this for this prompt, but for the sake of getting to know everyone better- I figured it would be okay. This is a copy of my grandmother’s papers on our family history, and that history can be traced directly to King William of Orange. Consequently, Tom and I jokingly call each other “Prince” and “Princess” and think we’re being clever. It’s about the only family history I have, though, which is unfortunate because I’d love to have even half the documentation (family photo albums) that Tom’s family has. I wish I knew where my mother’s side of the family came from.
12 Comments
Christopher
21 Apr 2011 at 11:51 pmI’m so sorry you had to witness such a disturbing event. Your thoughts though, are not negative but natural and genuine and I’m glad you put them to paper (so to speak). I’ve been a pediatrician for nearly 20 years and it’s still unbearable for me to consider the many times I’ve been heartbroken by unthinkably devastating events. These moments, as terrible as they are, do remind us of how fortunate we are to be alive and that life is all the sweeter when we can share it with those we love. Take care.
jackie
21 Apr 2011 at 12:45 amWhat a traumatic thing for you to witness and I feel really sad for the 18 year old. As tough as life can be, it’s never worth taking your life and I just hope that someone tried to reach out to him and it was just a failure.
I think the biggest lesson that comes out of tragedy is to enjoy our time being alive and to know there’s always a little light at the end of the tunnel. The little family you’ve established seems to be the little light at the end of that tunnel :).
Kim
20 Apr 2011 at 9:13 pmGoodness, I cant believe you guys witnessed that! I would be feeling very grateful for the little things, too. And I can totally relate RE: family history. My mom was adopted and didnt re onnect with her biological mother until recently, and I dont know my bio-dad. So MUCH of my historyis riddled with big fat question marks. Stinks!
miss alix
20 Apr 2011 at 8:17 pmi’m so sorry you had to witness such a thing. how horrible.
i am in love with your grandmother’s writing. i personally would love to know more about my family tree, but have very little information myself.
Sarah Nice
20 Apr 2011 at 1:20 pmIt’s terrible you had to witness that. I think that would have totally messed up my weekend. Things like that hurt so bad. We had a terrible storm on Saturday and three young men died in a car accident. One of them, my sister used to work with. It’s just really sad.
Beautiful photos, though. I’m extremely jealous you found an old Minolta. I can say, however, that my old film camera (the one I used before buying this digital one) is a Canon AE-1! : D
Sarah
19 Apr 2011 at 9:45 pmi’m truly sorry you had to witness that. 🙁 I can’t imagine. I saw a dog get hit one day and it messed me up for a long time after.
Beautiful pics.
Jackie
19 Apr 2011 at 7:08 pmWhoops – “commenter below”, not the first. Most recent before mine? Sorry bout the mixup!
Jackie
19 Apr 2011 at 7:07 pmWow, that’s really sad about the accident. I’m sorry it happened. So sad that a life was cut short. So young too.
But I am glad you are taking care of yourself – so important when awful things like this happen. I hope you are doing okay; as the first commenter said, life is so precious. Thank you for continuing to share your photographs – they are precious moments, indeed.
Maggie
19 Apr 2011 at 5:14 pmI’m so sorry, that’s terrible. I know how tough it can be to bear witness to that sort of thing. My family and I were visiting the Hatteras lighthouse one year when lightning struck and bounced off the rod atop the lighthouse, then hit some kids that were surfing on the beach (back before they moved it further from the shore). Two died and one was severly injured, and the burns he sustained were unreal. I couldn’t imagine being present for a suicide attempt like that–I sincerely hope he is both okay and, if anything, he finds some way to fight his depair from this experience. Life is too precious. *hugs*
Ashlae
19 Apr 2011 at 3:51 pmWhat a beautiful post! I especially love the “Behind” photo – thank you for sharing. And how exciting that you can trace your family roots back to royalty. I’ve been meaning to trace my roots, but have been lazy in doing so – you gave me just the push I’ve been needing. 🙂
Mom
19 Apr 2011 at 3:24 pmThey came from… are you ready for this… Canada! My mom’s mom’s family was French Canadian – Serrett was their name. And there are still relatives of hers living in Brandford. I don’t know where they came from before that, perhaps France. My mom’s dad was from Germany and so was my dad’s dad.
Sara
19 Apr 2011 at 3:43 pmOooh, Serrett is such a beautiful name! Do you have any photo albums from when your mom was young? Or YOU for that matter? I’d love to see little Lynn running around!