gratitude and memories and friends, oh my!

i find the reverb10 prompts to be thought-provoking, but find them even more so when i let them accumulate for a few days (and that is not just an excuse for laziness, nuh, uh).

december 14 – appreciate: what’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? how do you express gratitude for it?

often, you only realize how grateful you were for something when you don't have it anymore. when i used to step into my blue room, i always whispered "i love you room," and so it knew i appreciated it. now, after a week of crafting and creating in little corners all over the house and leaving small piles of threads and sharp needles on the arm of a chair here and boxes of supplies there and covering most of our dining table with projects in various stages, i find that i am REALLY MISSING my old blue room. its entire purpose was to be a place where the projects could cover every surface and it didn't matter - no one complained that we couldn't sit down to eat dinner because there was fabric everywhere on the table. no one had to go digging through five different boxes to find the thread or the pretty paper, because it was all at hand, right there. so i have come to appreciate what a luxury it was to have a space devoted entirely to creativity and i am more determined than ever to have that again before 2011 is out. bigger and better than ever.

remembering 2010

december 15 – 5 minutes: imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

i think i'll actually let the mosaic above from my 2010 365 photo project speak for this one. each photo triggers a memory that i'd like to keep from 2010. memories of home and horses and walks on the beach and laughter and travel and moments of beauty and creativity. those stand out from 2010.

december 16 – friendship: how has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

i could tell a tale of a friend that wasn't really a friend at all when it came down to it, but a different, more positive and uplifting tale of a real friend comes to mind. the last blog camp in the aforementioned blue room last january was both a joyous and a bit sorrowful occasion. everyone who came had been to blog camp before, save elizabeth, who bravely made her way across denmark to join us. we were glad to gather in that magical room one last time, but we were all a bit sad it would be the last time there in that place.

being the only new person in a group of talkative women who all knew one another well could have been an intimidating situation, but elizabeth is the most calm and easy-going person that i know, so she took it all in stride. lucky for her, she's a listener and a thinker, because we scarcely let her get a word in edgewise. but she drank it all in and interjected with the most spot-on comments on whatever topic we were discussing (we did, after all, have to stop to take a breath sometimes). and she shared with us her beautiful soul food embroidery project - a symbolic journal of her innermost thoughts, hopes and dreams. and truly a thing of beauty.

her ability to see through the words and images i post on my blog to the true heart of the matter continues to astonish me. she'll email me and ask me how i'm doing because she can sense between the lines that i'm not ok. although we don't see one another that often, she is one of my best friends. she grounds me with her quiet wiseness. she makes me laugh. she inspires my creativity. and most of all, she makes me think. she's there for me, as a friend should be, offering advice and guidance and most of all, insight. she's my zen master.

and just to get back to answering the reverb10 question..i think she has gradually helped me change my perspective over this year...seeing what was going on even before i did, being all in the middle of it as i was and gently guiding me back to my creative path. thank you for that, E!