Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts

Friday, 30 November 2012

In my 28th year...

In my 28th year, I've experienced a lot of beauty throughout the thorns of life...

Amid the deep grief of loosing what we excitedly thought we were going to be blessed with, I treasured my first wedding anniversary with my best friend. After a year filled with turmoil out of our control we knew we had each other because of His grace in our lives.

I shared incredibly sacred moments with my beloved as I met my beautiful step children Avery and Seth for the first time.






I have had the privilege of teaching numerous young people in my studio and even greater the opportunity to speak into life experiences with them as they find a safe place within the walls where we sing.

I have been apart of and directed musical productions, blessed to have opportunity to put into practise my passion: conducting.

I had the opportunity to attend my very first orchestral performance in Calgary with co-workers and students.


 






I have spent days in the majestic mountain range of our country exploring life and creation with loved ones.




I have celebrated with loved ones at the birth of children, parties for the added year each of us has, and honored my husband as he finished up his final studies passing to become a journeyman welder.







Despite the harshness that comes with loosing jobs, miscarriages, shredded relationships, children too far away and finding out who your real friends are, I know God is faithful and just. His will is not to harm His children but to give us hope and a future.





This past weekend, my dear husband surprised me with a trip to Banff where we were able to be inspired by the creation God has given us to enjoy. As Bradley and I drove through snow filled forests, walked along icy river front trails, and sipped on tasty Christmas flavored coffees to warm our hands, I was reminded this weekend how great His love is for  us in that He gave us even the most simple things to find joy in.



I am inspired.

I long to continue to be inspired in this next year. Looking to Him, who has made every good and perfect gift, for that inspiration in all aspects of my life.





Saturday, 27 October 2012

White as snow ...

Part of me longs for the crisp fall to linger... The colors that grace the trees high, the air that is fresh now that the farmers have finished filling it with the dust of their living, the bright morning skies that arrive just a little later so I can thoroughly enjoy them rather than dream of them...




All the while, deep down, I know there is nothing like the beautifully clean blanket that covers this hard, dirty, smelly land like the first real snow of the season.





Bradley and I love to drive... I have become good at my "drive by shootings". But isn't that just the paradigm... we drive to find a little bit of solace from the craziness of our lives and yet the highways loan themselves to be sped along.  

This time of year in particular, with the ice covered roads, we are forced to slow. And I am grateful for that. I don't absorb things quickly and easily as some others might. I have to look and feel and think things through from all angles before I am ready to move to the next image. This is not simply when I am looking through a lens but I tend to be this way in the way I work and carry out relationships and live my day to day life. Sometimes it drives my husband crazy. He is very goal orientated and so he knows where the finish line is and tends to bulldozes straight for it.  

We are learning... to take time to appreciate the beauty of each others differences. The simplicity that comes with one step at a time and maybe moving slightly faster or slower than we are comfortable with.




This season, I am thankful for. The reminder that no matter how hard things have been. No matter how much filth floats in the air from our own sins and the lies that surround my beloved and I. No matter how much pain  caused from the death that surrounds as life gets ready to surrender to the cold of this next season... 

There is beauty in this season. 

There is a sense of purity that comes with it. 

He washes white as snow and I am so grateful for this reminder. 

That He who loves us, loves us with an everlasting love. He does not hold us in a state of purgatory here on earth when we give over to addiction, pride and hurtful ways. He has given us the Holy Spirit to move and convict when need, Jesus Christ to cover us so we might be forgiven, and He chooses to extend grace and love us more than hate because of the sin we commit so that we can be in right relationship.

Yes, I love the fall... But there is nothing quite like the reminder of His pure love for us than the covering of the first snowfall. 




Psalm 51: 5 - 12

Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
 
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
 
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
 
Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
 
Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.


Thursday, 25 October 2012

My dear friend Tessa...

There are few people on this journey through life that you can pick up after not having opportunity to see or even speak to one another for lengthy periods of time. Friends that are really friends, who love you for who you are, trust you because they know you and love those you love because they know that legalistic worldviews are not overly becoming on anyone especially those who are attempting to follow's those ways of the One who gave it all for us! 

Tessa ( aimedattheheart.com , www.facebook.com/FaithfuloneDesigns ) is one of those beautiful friends who truly is that, a friend... Freshman year of college we were "linked up" during WOW week and it has been a journey since. We've talked all the boy talk, struggled with things of our faith, persevered together through family difficulties, attended one another's weddings, been there just as soon as I could after babies were born and I know that will some day be returned. We've chosen to love through differences and become more rounded people because of it, embraced each others loved ones and I know that even if months go by between coffee dates - it will continue to be as if no time has gone by at all. 

Love you Tessa... Thank you for challenging me and inspiring me to be a healthier, more God fearing, attentive, forgiving and loving person. I thank God for you! 

Here are a few photo's of that last time on your family farm before the move down south! 

Sorry, some of them are sideways - For the life of me I don't understand why they won't upload the correct way... 




















Monday, 15 October 2012

Foggy Fall Morning...

On an eerily beautiful foggy fall morning I was so glad to have remembered "Rebel". The electronic device that is so perfectly named with the grief it has caused us from time to time... Isn't that just how life goes however? The same thing that can cause such heart ache points us to a deeper beauty that we normally would pass by... 

These are a few un-edited shots of that morning, beautifully painted as only the Master Artist could... 



Drive by shooting... 

Drive by shooting...


Drive by shooting...


"Be Still"





"The eye of the beholder"



One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.

Psalm 27:4


Saturday, 29 September 2012

Summer Fun... Family Shot's

This summer I had a blast being able to sneak away to visit my family on Vancouver Island... Oh water and trees how I miss thee!


Soaking wet at swimming lessons


Smiling nice for Tante Jess in the flower gardens by the pool

Sleep over movie night in the living room with Oma 
 
 
Fun in the sun at the beach


Me and my beautiful Mama
 
My little Lyla...

Waaaaaaaaaay Up!
Seeeee Lyla, Uncle Bill isn't so bad...
 
Entertaining cousins