Please just wait for it to load. I really have no idea how this happened, but I think I like it. Potentially NSFW, even though it involves my little sister.

This is Abhi. When he was three weeks old, he met Bodhi for the first time and while his sisters were scared out of their minds and hid in the crate, he marched right up and snatched a treat right out from under him.

Of course Bodhi bopped him right on the head and knocked him over. Undaunted, he charged right back to do it again. He would’ve done it a third time if I hadn’t swooped him up.  

He was fearless. And so he is Abhi – fearless in Sanskrit. And our tiny family just got about two pounds bigger.  

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
[Rainer Maria Rilke]

My freckled little sister. I took this shot in color and you couldn’t see the freckles (they are actually quite difficult to see in real life), but when I converted to b&w, bam! out they popped and became my favorite part of the shot.

Oh, hi.

I go and post that emotionally-charged memorial and then up and disappear! Fear not, I have just been busy spending my evenings laughing until I snort with the joker pictured above.

My sister has been here for the last week – sleeping in our loft, shopping for maid-of-honor dresses and generally having adventures / disasters with me. She patiently let me take some shots with my old camera contraption before we went down to the pier for some more traditional picture-taking adventures (and by more traditional, I mean they involved a lot of mud and a gas pump)(what?? see: adventures / disasters)(yes of course I’ll let you see them).

She just left this morning and I already miss her.

*I’m sorry I posted this one, Sage. You’re too cute when you yawn!

Well hello! Back in California after much rich food and time with families. It was wonderful to see everyone (including this little guy, my cousin’s brand new son! expect more pictures of babies soon because omg so many delicious, delicious babies!) but I am thrilled to be home and detoxing from the frantic holiday pace.

It’s a new year and I feel compelled to make the obligatory new year’s resolution, but I’m actually not one for resolutions. I’m rather ruthlessly goal-oriented, and already have quite a few small, practical, do-able goals, as well as wild, out-of-this-world dreams that I’m working on.

However, I thought I would use this excuse to make some changes on my blog. First, I am totally bringing back Love Thursday. I wrote them for quite some time and then allowed it to die, but no more! It’s such an important exercise for me, to write about things that I love on a regular basis – it opens my eyes to the incredible love that surrounds me.

Second, I’ll be keeping a photographic gratitude journal here. I’ve gone through periods of doing this before. It’s always been sporadic, just jotting down several things that I’m grateful for. When I keep it up, it changes the way I go through my day. I find myself searching out small pleasures, looking for small acts of kindness, noticing the way that Bodhi nudges his head under my hand, the way Steve takes care of rough things so I don’t have to.

It makes me more present, and focuses me sharply on the positive. So I’m going to join 52 blessings and once a week, I’ll search out and share a blessing in my life. I’d love if you shared a blessing of your own with me, either in the comments or on your own blog.

I’m so excited for what’s ahead and I’m so grateful that you take the time out of your day to join me on this journey.

Thank you and here’s to the new year.

Here’s to always being a year younger than you thought!

The surprise is that a few years later, I still feel this way. I look back fondly of course, but the idea that the “best years of my life” are behind me is comic. Of course adulthood comes with its own set of drudgeries, but still, each year manages to be better than the last. And with a marriage to begin and art to create and new places to explore and babies to be had, I cannot imagine a time when I won’t feel this way.

My mama, at Stinson Beach. This is how I always picture her, laughing, with the sun in her hair. This one is totally getting printed for my new wall gallery (remind me to tell you about my new wall gallery, because it is totally wicked).