Scintillating Beauty

today i read Martin Luther King Jr.’s thoughts in Letter From Birmingham Jail and was struck by their immense wisdom and meaning. i wanted to share some of my favorite lines and statements from it. there were some much larger passages which i especially loved but i refrained from stating larger ones as i want to encourage you to read it for yourself as a whole if you haven't. 
it is such an incredibly applicable and relevant piece for our world's present struggles.

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30 Days of Slow Living

30 Days of Slow Living

so remember that project i mentioned a few days ago?
well i'm ready to share it!

i talk about slow living on here a lot. it's a thought process and lifestyle that has honestly changed my health and well being in countless ways as it's become engrained into my daily life. 
what is slow living?
in short: it's living your life with intention and mindfulness. it's taking the time to enjoy life's gifts in the various, often overlooked, forms they take. even when it requires extra steps and time-maybe even especially when. 

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Incubation Time

earlier this week i read this post (thanks for sharing this with me dear Brian!) and i really really loved it.

it's an interview with Raf Simmons -the previous creative director at Christian Dior- and in part of the article he talks about the sacredness of having allowance and space for ideas to have incubation time.
and that's definitely an idea that tapped me on the shoulder and got me thinking.

especially because slowing down my life has been such a theme for me in recent years (read about some of the creative aspects of those excursions into this here and here and here and here).
but in relation to giving that slowness to ideas specifically, (especially to my constant idea-producing-big-dreaming mind) is somewhat revolutionary to me.
not necessarily in the practice of it but in the naming of it in recognizing that that is what i'm doing.

but at the same time, it's something i have subconsciously always sort of done.
to the point of it being a fault (mostly because of my over analytic i-don't-want-to-make-a-mistake tendencies).
this is definitely seen in my writing and photo work that i share publicly. i am not one to post in the moment, rashly, or without thinking about it for an extended amount of time. 
i tend to let things it sit for a few days.
however there are dangers with this sort of methodology. 
such as: losing momentum and passion for an idea (on your part, or on that of the short-attention-spanned viewer), having a message come across too premeditated, and the one i think i most often might be guilty of: forcing an idea out that isn't meant to be out there because of guilt you feel in having spent so much time on it... because surely it's meant to be, simply because of all the time and thought you've already spent on it. 
such tends to be my thought process.

which is somewhat reflected in the article from this quote: 

"Technically speaking, it works. Does it work for me emotionally? No, because I’m not the kind of person who likes to do things so fast. I think if I had more time, I would reject more things, and bring other ideas or concepts in. But that’s also not necessarily better. Sometimes you can work things to death when you take too much time."

and so there's a balance to be sought.
as with all things.
i just hope i can stick with the pursuit of that and not embody this overwhelming issue that i am also so familiar with...

"Everything is so easily accessible, and because of that you don’t make a lot of effort anymore. When we were young, you had to make up your mind to investigate something — because it took time. You really had to search and dig deep. Now if something interests you, one second later, you can have it. And also one second later you also drop it."

a few more thoughts i had on these words can be found here.

Noisy Quiet

this is from a post i re-came across on my tumblr the today (yes. yes i tumblr. yes i write moody things on there that i don’t put here. you can perceive that however you want) from the summer of 2014.

it fit my mood so perfectly this morning, as i woke up in the early hours of the beginning day, before the sky brightened and the birds woke up.

i’ve evolved into so much more of a morning person, ever since the start of my twenties, and even more so now that i’m in the middle of them, and the noisy quiet is a perfect depiction to why i’ve come to love them so.


it's not very quite here.

there's thunder and leaves rustling outside that window, folk music playing from a corner, someone cooking in the kitchen, and air shushing through the air vents.

there's coffee steaming in a mug, candles flickering and static filled carpet under my sock clad feet (because noise is also visual).

there's quite a lot of noise. but nevertheless it feels quiet.

it's calming noise, these noises. i've never really thought about noise evoking quiet. but these do. 

it's in this kind of quiet, when i'm very still, that i most easily remember who i am and where i'm going.

things that are easy to forget in the midst of other noises. 

i wish i didn't forget these things so easily. but sometimes i do. 

so i'm grateful for moments like this one to redirect me. 

i'm grateful for this noisy quiet.