HAPPY NEW YEAR

What is your 2012 New Year's resolution? Pretty easy question.

Now imagine me saying it like it's a dare. Does it change your answer?

Sure, we all have the usual: lose weight, don't gain weight, save money, etc. But what would you do if someone DARED you to make a resolution, instead of simply asking what it was?

I ask myself, "So Annie, what are you going to do with 2012?" But I ask it like a dare. Like I want me to prove something to myself. Dream big. Go on. I dare you. Prove you can do it.

I see dares everywhere. Look around.

A limitless sky? Go on, touch it. Find it's limits. You can't fly? Do something about it. A measureless ocean? Innumerable worlds under the waves? Go visit them. You can't breathe underwater? Do something about it.

Why would God have created this space - the sky - and made it so vast, so infinite, and filled it with more mysteries than we can fathom, more stars than we can count, planets of every colour of the rainbow, if he didn't want us to see it? To explore it. To be as limitless.

Why would he make coral gardens more vibrant than flowers, underwater species more unique than land animals, and the whole world under the waves so fascinating, if he didn't want us to be fascinated by it?

The sea and the sky are so inviting, I think that's the point. We are invited. We are dared. There are no limits, so be limitless. He didn't create us to breathe underwater or to fly, but he gave us the creativity to make those impossible things possible. In that, we are limitless.

So, imagine 2012 is the sky. Or the sea. Spread your wings, or dive straight in. Imagine the countless colours in the coral gardens you'll see, or what is around the corner of that one, particularly sparkly star.

Imagine YOU are the sky. Or the sea.
PS: I love my iPhone camera :) It's perfect for when I don't want to carry around a big, heavy SLR with me.

The last two collages my friend Laura made on her iPhone from some underwater shots we took at the beach a few weeks back. I love them!

O NIGHT, DIVINE

Merry Christmas. X

DANDELION & DRIFTWOOD

I've heard this name mentioned several times in several different circles, but since I am not a coffee or tea drinker, I hadn't yet made the trip to check it out. I'm glad I did today. Such a sweet little coffee house! Dandelions, birds, vintage keys? Yes please! :) I had a vintage soft drink - a Peachee - and it was amazing! I took a few snaps from where we sat outside, next time I will hopefully take some shots inside.

IT'S NOT GROUND I'M STANDING ON


Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

This video reminded a friend of me.

On the new Alice in Wonderland movie, Alice stares at some birds and says, "I was wondering what it would be like to fly." This reminds my mum of me.

Birds remind people of me. Or I remind people of birds. Flying birds, it seems. I don't know why. I don't mind, actually, I quite like it. But I still don't know why. I know why I think I should remind people of birds, but I also know that my wings are hidden and I am, for the moment, grounded.

I journaled the other day the questions: "Why do I remind people of of birds?" and "What can a bird learn from being grounded?"

Yesterday at work, I had finished the mopping and went back upstairs to put back down the chairs I had stacked on top of the tables. But when I got there, a little baby bird greeted me from the floor with a cry. He had one wing out, and couldn't fly. I picked him with gentle hands and took him downstairs. He fought against my hands a little, but I kept him safe. I waited for my boss, who eventually took him outside and put him in a tree.

A little while later, the bird was carried back inside, having fallen out of the tree and been unable to get back up. My boss got a very tall ladder, and, with the baby bird perched on my open palm, I climbed up into the tree and gave the bird back to his swooping parents.

Too much of a coincidence to have been just a coincidence... right?

When I feel like my wings are hidden, and, though I try, I am unable to fly, could it be that I am being kept safe in gentle hands, by Someone who knows that I can't fly just yet, and would only get hurt if I tried? And, when I'm not fighting, maybe it's not ground I'm standing on. Maybe I'm being carried to the heights I want to fly to on a scarred, open palm.

3 WEEKS EARLY

Daniel Eli Wotherspoon, 3rd of December, 10:14pm, 2.840kg. And Auntie Annie ;)