Journey

The SECOND photo is Linking with  Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art, -self portrait

The first photo is linking with: 

Studio Waterstone~ I Heart Macro  the last one. :-(

ABC Wednesday , -J is for Journey  

Our World Tuesday ,Wordless Wednesday NC Sue,, 

And down below a heart  image for Random Heart Thursday.

Huckleberry Trail, Blacksburg, VA- 03-06-2012

Unplanned Journey

This journey started from a point I know longer remember.

How many curves have I slammed straight into?

  To see elegance in this bending and winding

I must find a still space.

Is a trip unplanned if it is just a trip you have avoiding?  The reluctant traveler sagas continue. The night before my trip, I thought I would actually become ill with panic. This was a trip to Buffalo. Time to bite the bullet and get in the car for that 10 hour drive. Of course there were snow squalls before we (my 18 year old nephew on spring break made the trek with me) even hit the West Virginia border. There were at least 10 of these delightful and blinding white outs on the 70 mile per hour curves of West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. By the time we reached the flats of I-90 the snow had pretty much abated. The family was all visited and seen.

I was as always most happy to be home in my own bed on Sunday.

Self Portrait - taken by my dad, edited by me

Coffee Stain Heart on the Counter

Kitchen Counter, Buffalo NY- 03-14-2013 

And just one more thing-

Returning

First image below for the following prompts: Macro Monday- Lisa's Chaos, ,ABC Wordless Wednesday ,Our World Tuesday ,Wordless Wednesday NC Sue,, Ruby Tuesday,
and Tina's Pic Story "A little Piece of Heaven" further down in the post.

Chartreuse into Yellow and  Rose into Coral

Crown of Thorns -Euphorbia

I have returned from being away.  I wonder if I should mention how much I like to be home. 

Memories of places collect like the last bit of  honey at the bottom of the mason jar. There, just through the glass you can see the remnants. I have just under 4,800 non-client images for the year. 

I have just returned... from dosing off ... in the middle of my very own blog post. I have been back for nearly a week but I am still not over jet lag. My body paused.

There are so many reasons we go from one place to another. And just as many ways to get there.

 Just west of the South China Sea-the Singapore Strait

So this evening, just before we sail off into a new year, I am thinking about this past year. This year I dedicated to the word pause.  I maintained my resolve to observe the pause where ever I found it. I found that a pause could be self created or not. The self created pauses were most often conscious breaks to stop and sense something beautiful in the world. 
 

 Manggis, Bali- Dec 2012

The "or not" pauses could be welcome respites or interminable conditions. I puzzle over how a pause can feel welcome or unwelcome. I pause and remember how just a few weeks ago I experience a most dramatic and unwelcome pause. 

I was all set to make my journey across the world to meet my husband in Singapore. But at 2 AM in the morning (just 3 hours after going to sleep and 2 hours before I was to awake at 4AM) my husband called saying the airlines had notified him that my flight had been cancelled. Heart pounding, brain still fuzzy with sleep, I contacted the airlines and re-booked my flight for the next night. I went back to bed in a state of panic. How could I calm down? How could this be alright?   

... In the pause of prayerfulness.

In the most merciful moments, prayerfully, panic is subdued. There in the pause of prayer (desperate prayer for calm at this point) we may be blessed to find a grace filled and blessed moment of pause, with access to the divine. Our very own hearts hold such a precious gift. Of all the things I did and saw on this trip, this moment of discovery was the most incredible.

Ubud, Bali- Dec 2012

 

    

Ubud, Bali -Dec 2012

Ubud, Bali, Dec 2012

 

Ubud, Bali- Dec 2012

Tirta Empul Temple , Bali Dec 2012

 Hot Chili, Widya Batiks, Ubud, Bali- Dec 2012

 Manggis, Bali

The place you have left behind falls away~ you recall all the blessings you hold in your heart. xo Happy New Year everyone!

Away

 Charleston, SC, Nov 10, 2012 Betsy and Jim's wedding

I have been away. Let's be definitive, my last post was exactly one month ago-maybe. I am not quite clear what day it is. It could be December 13 or it could be the 14th. I have gone beyond all bounds; around the bend and over the edge. There have been moments this past month of complete joy and utter fragility. Honestly, I think November felt like spring, too much coming forth and bursting out.  The coming and going. The impending leaving of everyone.

 

 
That emptiness of Thanksgiving leftovers; I am left feeling hung over. Maybe I should drink more alcohol. I have exactly one photo of my whole family together this year- and this is it. I am blessed. Thank you person who was walking by, thank you cell phone for having a camera.
 

 Lane Stadium, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA- Go Hokies! Nov 24, 2012

As a self described homebody, someone who craves all things still, this last quarter of the year has severely tested my need to be still. The list makes my head hurt to even consider. 

Singapore, Dec 13, 2012

cell phone photo 

This is my husbands list, I left mine home. 

As I sit in a hotel room in Singapore, with intermittent internet connection, I cannot fathom how I got here. Besides the one hour drive to the airport, the 2 hour flight from Roanoke to Atlanta, the 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Norita, Japan and the 7 hour flight from Japan to Singapore. Oh and the layovers, I forgot the layovers. This is my husbands life on a regular basis. The world slips away and he moves forward in grace, with one planned footstep after another.  I have come to be with him. My first solo international flight. As always he figured out the logistics and made the arrangements. I found a way through all my photo client work and fear of travel. I made it here, albeit a day late. (A long story of airline imagining fog and flight cancellations.) 

My husband had one more day of work. So I strolled the grounds today, alone. 

 old bench Singapore, Dec 13 2012-

cell phone photo

Small Stone 
This time by Teri H Hoover

Blown down in last nights rain, tiny white blossoms have faded into the color of old paper, reminding me of the origami cranes I saw yesterday.

 Singapore, Dec 13, 2012 
In the distance you can see the barges and ships so indicative of the worlds busiest port.

From Wikipedia- Singapore-An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore (新加坡) is a city-state in Southeast Asia. Founded as a British trading colony in 1819, since independence it has become one of the world's most prosperous countries and boasts the world's busiest port. Combining the skyscrapers and subways of a modern, affluent city with a medley of Chinese, Malay and Indian influences and a tropical climate, with tasty food, good shopping and a vibrant night-life scene, this Garden City makes a great stopover or springboard into the region.The country is highly urbanised with very little primary rainforest remaining, although more land is being created for development through land reclamation. Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial centre, and its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing, which constituted 26% of Singapore's GDP in 2005.

In Time

`

Huckleberry Trail, Blacksburg, VA- Nov 22, 2011

I-81 North, Virginia, Nov 23, 2011

Haverford, Pa- Nov 24, 2011

`

   Bradywine Conservancy,Chadds Ford PA- Nov 25, 2011

Haverford, PA-Nov 26, 2011

Just a Handful of Miracles

Rainbows showing the way

A baby baptized Therese Marie - God are you talking to me? 

 

                                           a 100 year old grandmother               says-"one day at a time."                                                                                                  

The pink orchid blooms without worry

 Lost balloons in the snow. 

The old barn wore its heart on it's sleeve- and we just happened to notice.

~It seems there are a lot of unplanned trips when you walk in faith~




 

Last week I was detoured to Buffalo, NY. I am just to the bottom of the laundry basket - thanks to my husbands help. These are just a few of the photos from that weekend.  I am beginning my second week of my writing e-course "Writing as a Spiritual Practice" over at  Writing Our Way Home.

The core of our writing is focused on personal faith, how we experience it and how to write about that.  I can tell you I am much more comfortable with images than words. I cannot promise you will see much of that writing on these posts- but I have added a page to my blog with some of my daily posts for that group. I hope each of you finds a some small miracle today and holds it close. Blessings- teri

 

Writing Our Way Home

Returning

Blackcreek NY- February 28, 2011

~walking through

the snow~ 

    together

a moment of bliss~

I have been away a lot... It seems I have been going away most of my life. And all I want to do is stay. I want to stay home. This last trip was an unexpected but necessary one.

My bother D~  has  been suggesting (for quite some time) that I head back to Buffalo. I have not been back since my nephews funeral -( a year and three months-) every time I thought about going my stomach tightened and my brain short circuited.  Long story short I went back to Buffalo over the weekend and just returned last night.

Everything went well-  I rode up with my brothers step-daughter - she has a lot to say so I had no time to be overcome by anxiety about going back.  I stayed the first night at my brothers house and then went to my parents house for lunch on Saturday. At 2 I went and had a nice visit with my 100 year old grandmother- I brought the quilt her mother made and turned the conversation to her childhood- it was a special time.  I then returned to my parents home and we went out to dinner and had a wonderful meal and lovely time.  I then stayed there that evening and slept with a dead pope, just kidding- (My mom is into Pope John Paul II and the room I slept in is filled with books about him or written by him.)

In the morning I went to my childhood church for mass with my parents. In the "that is not a coincidence department" there was a baptism planned for that day- the child's being baptised had my name, Therese Marie.

I left my parents home after lunch and visited with my youngest sister for a while- she showed me all the rooms she has painted and we went to an antique store. I left there at 4 and headed 2 hours away to visit my other sister and spent the night there and the next day. (The photo above is from our time spent walking on her land.).


My next trip is not unitl March 17th-

Back to the Beginning

Blackcreek NY-July 29, 2009

Continuing  contentment 

in between 

 

 

I sit in bed in  Buffalo, beneath the same white ceiling in the dark.. computer screen glowing. But things are all different now. It was summer then- the tangle in the days as they collided together made me seek solace. One year and three months later I have been escorted back by a caring brother-(who I suspect came to visit me in Virginia only to facilitate my return). My 100 year old grandmother was the card he used... and he was right. I made it through the 10 hour drive, the chicken wings and beer and sleeping in the bedroom of pink. And today I entered my parents home, my childhood home after much careful breathing in the driveway surrounded by quiet snowfall.  A bubble of blessing and all things absurdly calm. Details to follow- I am exhausted but content- the snow that falls outside the window only serves to muffle any discord in my heart.

On the Move

Dulles Airport, Washington DC- Jan 29, 2011

Movement

of person and persons stuff

Still smiling-

A River of Stones- A 30 day challenge in observation

Observations

Bedroom, Blacksburg, VA-Jan 28, 2011

My suitcase waits -open
He is so quite -eyes closed
The light of the computer screen
I am typing in the dark.

A River of Stones- a 30 day challenge in observation

Two more days of being indomitable- For 28 days (and 2 more to go) I have been more observant than normal to my surroundings. I attempted to not focus solely on the visual during this time- but old habits die hard.  I have such a strong connection with the visual - because that is where I feel most connected to Gods grace-(where have I heard that before- see the top of my blog).  

 

It is rather ironic I leave for a 2 week trip to Switzerland and Cyprus. Ironic because when I travel I go into hyper drive with trying to take in all the visual details of my surroundings. Seeing God in new ways... hmmm that just stop me in my typing tracks.   And that will have to be enough. I have gotten pretty good at typing in the dark - but I am sure I need to get some sleep.

Transitional Status

New Haven Regional Airport

New Haven, CT-Sept 28, 2010

Isn't it just like life to be like life-

I made it back home - one day later.

Thankful to be feeling non-transitional  at the moment.

Descent

US Airways Descent-

It is just a delay- but it feels like a descent.

Wrestling with my choice -

I will stay in here one more night-

 because I am

uncomfortable-well ok terrified 

with the re-route they suggested through DC.

Stay tuned for for my less than stellar travel melt down.

Tarrying On the Tarmac

Philadelphia Airport, Philadelphia, PA- Sept 22, 2010

I crack myself up-

No I did not dawdle on the tarmac- 

This was shot completely on the fly. Is that not amazing!

The photo was taken on the second leg of my trip to 
New Haven, CT to visit my daughter. I made it without any outstanding setbacks.

We then commenced to head over to campus-

 Yale, New Haven, CT- Sept 22, 2010

and after that a pre dinner drink- 

Yes it is blue.  

 

Ignoring the Signs

Roanoke Regional Airport- 

Roanoke, VA- Sept 9, 2010

Even those not here in southwest Virginia

are beginning to know when I have been to the airport.

Now he is somewhere other than here-  

Yup the longest time he has been home in years - 
has come to an end. 

Life with a traveling husband I could write a book.

Oh that's right-

I did.

Angled Away

   

Roanoke Regional Airport, Roanoke, VA- 

June 5, 2010

The sound 

of a metal zipper 

dragging along  the metal conveyor belt.

I angled away from these things.

And heading off to see my adult children for a week in New Mexico, and then on to Durango, Colorado to photograph a wedding.  Thankfully I have a husband who knows how to do the planning for trips-

-Away-

Because angles are hard for me.