Project 365: Day 47

My Claddagh ring that I wanted for a really, really long time.  Conrad surprised me with this one six years ago on my birthday (six years ago today!).

I have been following along with Me Ra Koh's SOAR recipients since halfway through last year.  I try to do some of the exercises they do, but I've never posted one on my blog before today.  I just thought this one was perfect to share, it being an anniversary of sorts, and I was trying to find an object as a self- portrait.  

I liken this ring to a self-portrait not only because of the obvious symbolism (if you don't know the story behind the Claddagh, look here), but also because the photo looks like an object coming out of the shadows with a single source of light shining on it.  That is the way I feel lately.  I feel like I am just now leaving the shadows and starting to become the person I was always created by God to be.  There are still shadows surrounding the ring.  I'm not out into the light completely, and I probably never will be in this lifetime, but just as the ring seems to be doing, I am starting to move closer and closer into that single source of light.

I am a little sad because I cannot wear this ring anymore unless I get it sized down.  That's not very likely to happen.  The irony is that the reason I am sad and cannot wear it any longer is because I am finally losing this weight, which is part of my feeling of emerging from the shadows.  Emergence stings, but it makes you shine brighter.  Full circle, baby.

Inanimate Object Day: Birthday Aftermath Edition

IOD is back! Submitted for your amusement and droolishness, I give you:



Exhibit A

Found last week on my bedroom carpet. Somebody started sending me envelopes stuffed with various-sized "30" confetti before my birthday. The dime is placed for scale. I swear I've since been picking them up off the floor for going on two months now...thanks somebody.



Exhibit B

Somebody else made me a chocolate mocha crustless cheesecake for my birthday. Thanks, somebody else. And this time I mean it.

Inanimate Object Day: Goodbye Summer Edition

I say Goodbye Summer Edition because it is so not summer here anymore. It's that awesome slight chill in the air that makes me want to wear hooded sweatshirts and sleep with the covers on. So I bid adeiu to summer by remembering a big summer event, the Midsommar Celebration at hubby's grandparents' country church. It is always a big joyful event of summer.

The Swedish Flag



Portrait inside the church of Jesus in the Garden.



The first official Summer '08 sunset over the South Dakota prairie.

Inanimate Object Day: Leaning Towers

A building in downtown Minneapolis




The girls in front of the fountains.
(They're not, of course, inanimate, but this picture goes with the rest.)





More buildings in downtown Mpls.





And more of the same.