The Weekly Photo Challenge | Sheer Joy Merge

So I’ve had a few questions as to what exactly is the “Weekly Photo Challenge”.
Since I’m getting quite a collection under that category I’m guessing an explanation is due. WordPress bloggers, you may disregard this for obvious reasons. You are considered an “Insider”. But I’d like to hear comments about what the Photo Challenge means to you.


Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue

For the rest of you, the Weekly Photo Challenge, by virtue of its title, may be self-explanatory. But for others, here’s the inside scoop.
The staff at WordPress came up this idea to stimulate creativity for those of us who handle a camera, be it the most humble cell phone camera—which is becoming not so humble anymore—to the most advanced, light years ahead of most.

Create

The Weekly Photo Challenge has just ONE rule.
Your photo must capture the one-word theme put out by WordPress. That one word is let out of the bag every Friday. I am stunned at how many are off to a running start. They answer the call with lightning speed. If you want to see some breathtaking photography drop by any Photo Challenge.
You will see some of the most incredible art.

Together

Me? Well, I’m just a bit different.
Let’s just say my right brain must be awakened slowly. I churn over things. I think. I ponder. As I’ve said before, most of my creative thought takes place in front of a sink. A light or visual catches my eye and I’m out the door, camera dangling, in a vast array of attire, all very incidental and unplanned.
It’s a good thing I live in the country.


Sun

Another thing—I don’t publish every theme.
I’m so busy with the day-job, chasing kids and pets, home creating, garden-keeping, and squeezing in a number of avocations that mine are a bit more random and, albeit … late. I usually have an idea but it sits on the back-burner until I can attend to it. But the great thing is …

WordPress bloggers are the most forgiving and patient of folks. I am humbled they still visit, even if I am two weeks late!


Friendship—The All-Time Favorite … naturally

I’d be honored if you’d hang out a bit at my Weekly Photo Challenge category place.

I hope you enjoy my visuals. They’ve been exceptional fun to create.
As for me, I eagerly catch many others that post and am impressed at the creativity that extends to a summit beyond my vision.

Purple

I find it all to be inspirational and quite simply— fun.
Sheer joy.

What about you?

Inside

“There is something that brings joy to each of us.
Find out what it is for you and work hard to get more of it.”
~ Stephen Deal

Movement

Fragile—Handle With Care

“Words and hearts should be handled
with care, for words misspoken and hearts when broken are the
hardest things to repair.” ~ Unknown

Ever do this? Say something then feel the immediate twinge of regret? You wish, how you wish, you could somehow take them back. But they stick like glue. Sometimes they are just casual, oh so casual, “I didn’t really mean it.” We utter them right off the top of our head, just because we need to talk–oh, how we need to say something—oh, how we always need to be saying something. Sometimes they are tinged with hints of sarcasm—just enough hint to hurt.

Sometimes we lash out in anger. And that’s the worst kind—so far from kind. And then there’s the so unkind kind that cuts … deep, sometimes scarring to permanence—like a car that’s been wrecked and declared totaled. Total damage. If we would but look into the eyes, we would see the heart of each. But no, we shrug away, whispering, “So what.” Our culture actually takes pride in telling someone off. We hang on to the brash words of reality television and celebrate the celebrity spewing trash-talk. Bullying is a problem among our children. It’s like we celebrate hate.

What have we become?

Yes, conflict is part and parcel of life. But my mother used to say “Fight nice.” The word hate was so repulsed it was never allowed in our home, under any circumstances. Words can build or destroy. Choose them wisely—to soothe, heal, protect, build.

Why not declare to say, today, words tinged with, dare I say, love? And if you have nothing to say, it’s perfectly
okay to just say nothing.

“Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent.” Proverbs
17:28a

“Let your speech be always with grace.”
Colossians 4:6a

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~
Plato

Weekly Photo Challenge | Love, With Borders

“Love consists in this–that two solitudes protect and border and salute each other.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
, “Letters to a Young Poet”


“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I Corinthians 13: 6-7

This is one my entries for the Weekly Photo Challenge for January 25, 2013. For more entries click on the following link. I have a new post in the works for this theme but for now I hope you enjoy this. It is one of my personal favorites. The photos were a glorious accident.
Peace,
Alexandria

Weekly Photo Challenge: Love

Spring Sings | Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

CenterPeace

“Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.” ~ Corrie ten Boom

“Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? … Look at the lilies of
the field and how they grow. … And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.” Jesus Christ Matthew 6:27, 28