Saturday Bliss List (It’s been a busy week!)

Quote of the day: ““Following all the rules leaves a completed checklist. Following your heart achieves a completed you.” ― Ray Davis

Diversity and beauty

It’s not that I’m not feeling full of gratitude that makes me a day late in posting my bliss list. It’s been an amazing full week! Full of lovely ideas, learning, companionship, photo sessions, and time in the woods. Here’s my list for the week:

• Flower Communionat church on Sunday was wonderful. We have a lovely once a year tradition where everyone brings a flower to church and places it in a vase. The flowers are brought forward in a processional and blessed. After church, everyone chooses a different flower to take home. This wonderful celebration of diversity was first created by Norbert Capek (1870-1942), founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. Capek, who lost his life in a Nazi death-camp during WWII, wanted to create a ritual that would bind people closer together. Just like every flower is different, every person is different. Viva la différence
  

  Mpls Photo Center

  

  Mpls Photo Center

  

  The Intimate Portrait Workshop

• Monday, I attended a workshop at the Mpls Photo Center called “The Intimate Portrait.” It was my first time working with photographic models and my first time at the Mpls Photo Center. The studios there are marvelous, containing sets and lighting, and a bank of windows with marvelous natural light. The second day of the workshop is this coming Monday. I’ve had 3 portrait sessions this week, practicing what I learned in the workshop—lovely!
  

  Creating Sacred Space Together

  

  Friends Cooking Together

• Tuesday, four women friends came to my house for a grown-up slumber party! What fun to share cooking and dancing and play with four lovely friends. Here’s the funny part. If you attended any slumber parties as a child, you know the biggest part of the fun was to stay up all night or at least until the wee hours of the morning. You’re at a grown-up slumber party when everyone starts yawning at 11:00 PM and by 11:30 PM everyone is sleeping 🙂

This is what I saw. Transit of Venus photo from scientificamerican.com

• This week was a once in a lifetime event – the transit of Venus in front of the sun. My friends and I went down to Medicine Lake to view the sunset on Tuesday. As luck would have it there was an astronomical photographer there with a setup that we could actually view the sun through. I got to see the transit! Venus looked like a little black dot against the huge bright sun. Wow! What a miracle our universe is
  

  Sacred Space in the Woods

• Sacred, healing work with my camera. A friend asked me to go with her to the woods to take semi-nude photographs of her scars from breast cancer surgery three years ago. In her words, “I’ve just kind of been ignoring the scars and disfigurement. I haven’t wanted to look at it. I’ve felt betrayed by my body. Now it’s time to claim my whole self again.” We went to the woods and made sacred art. It was beautiful and healing.

Linking up with gratitude with Liv Lane’s Little Bliss List.