Two little sisters;
beauty in the setting sun
beauty in their art.
~Natalia
This is Summer {#41}
01 Jul 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Beauty, Little Sisters, Photos, This is Summer
This is Summer {#21}
04 Jun 2012 1 Comment
in Art, Camping, Photos, This is Summer
Long exposure plus
a flashlight in the night and
there you have it: art!
~Natalia
This is Summer {#10}
24 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Little Sisters, Love, This is Summer
Found this while cleaning,
it would seem that Larissa
loves her sister much.
~Natalia
Multicolored Catastrophe
13 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Art, Family, Friends, God, Mexico, Sovereign, Trust
You know those circle charts that represent the overlap between certain ideas and concepts? As in, the blue circle represents what boys discuss, the red circle represents what girls discuss, and the little sliver of purple in the middle represents topics that they both discuss.
You know what I’m talking about?
It occurred to me yesterday that my life is one of those circle charts. Except in my chart, all of the charts overlap. The work circle, the classes circle, the friendships circle, the family circle, the mexico circle; every little circle that my life could be divided into are swirled together.
The red circle is bleeding into the white circle, the green is splattered onto the blue, the purple is all spewed together with the yellow, and my whole life is a big paint puddle of intermingled colors.
Sounds rather poetic, and maybe even a little artsy, but it doesn’t feel like either.
Since school started on Monday, I’ve been struggling valiantly to push the sections of my life back into the circles that they belong in. Untangling the strands of color from one another, pushing the friendships into their circle, the homework into its circle; sorting the bits of color and life back to where I can fully understand them.
My life would be easer to navigate if I could keep each part of my life in the circle where it belongs.
But I don’t think life’s supposed to be like that. I’m not sure that I’m supposed to be able to so easily draw a line between where work ends and friendships begin, or the difference between family and mexico, to name just two blurry lines in my life.
God didn’t make our hearts to be boxes with drawers, and He didn’t make us to be Him.
He made you, and He made me, and He made our lives interesting, complex, and sometimes completely unintelligible. He didn’t make us to be Him, He made us to follow Him and trust Him, and be okay with leaving it at that.
Right now, my life is a colorful swirl of a lot of circles that I don’t know how to organize, sort, or make sense of. And sometimes, when it seems like I’m drowning in this multicolored life, it’s seems like a monumental task to put my life and my heart in His hands.
No, I think, if I keep this in my own hands, there must be some way that I can work it all out, separate all the colors, and understand my life.
But that’s not true, and that’s not what God wants.
So I surrender. I give Him my questions, and my wondering, and the multicolored catastrophe that often is my life.
And I leave it at that.
~Natalia
Alice is Engaged
27 May 2011 2 Comments
in Art, Blogging, Friends, Wedding
Katherine asked me a couple of weeks ago if I ever imagined how my future husband would propose to me. I told her that I had never given any thought to the matter.
“Really?” She asked incredulously, “Why not?”
I stopped to think for a moment or two; then replied, “Because I want to be surprised.”
And it is true; at least right now, I don’t care where I am, what I am doing, or what I’m wearing when that special someone proposes to me. All I really care about is that I am surprised when it happens. Not sinking-feeling-in-your-stomach surprised, but, I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening-I-am-so-excited-and-I-want-to-call-my-best-friend-right-now-and-tell-her-but-I-don’t-really-need-to-because-she-helped-plan-it-all-out-anyway surprised.
Along with planning how I will be proposed to, looking at engagement photos is something that I have never found incredibly interesting. But this evening, I found myself texting Tiny for the URL of a wedding and engagement photo blog she once showed me, for the sole purpose of perusing the pictures. I clicked through engagement photos with bubbles, balloons, and a handsewn fabric fish. Engaged couples posed as Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter, Allie and Noah from The Notebook, and pretended to go on a road trip. The pictures are beautiful and imaginative, the blog is fun, and I spent a bit of time flipping from photo shoot to photo shoot.
Don’t worry. I’m not planning on becoming engaged any time in the near future, but I am spending a little more time paging through engagement photos online and you may interpret that as you wish.
~Natalia
Life Right Now {#3}
17 May 2011 1 Comment
in Art, Clothes, Life Right Now, Photos
We did tie-dye last week.
~Natalia
Paris Daily {Day Thirty-One}
14 Apr 2011 3 Comments
in Art, Family, France, Photos
Rhinoceros statue outside of the Musée d’Orsay.
~Natalia
Paris Daily {Day Twenty-Nine}
12 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Art, Family, France, Photos
Having some fun with the sculptures at the Rodin museum.
~Natalia
The Louvre How-to
04 Apr 2011 1 Comment
It’s 4:30pm, chilly out, the line is long, and you really just want to just go in and see the Mona Lisa?
No problem, I have the solution for you!
1) Have a small child in a stroller. The stroller is crucial to this process, and it helps if the child is completely dead-to-the-world-asleep in said stroller.
2) Join the long line that snakes halfway around the open-air courtyard.
3) Be noticed by a Louvre security guard.
4) Follow security guard’s instructions to the stroller-friendly, elevator line.
5) Breeze past the 500 people waiting in the normal line. Resist the urge to look at them in a gloating manner.
6) Enter the museum building through the special non-revolving door that another guard opens just for you and your stroller.
7) Board the stroller-friendly elevator.
8) Arrive downstairs.
9) Enter the museum.
10) Visit the Mona Lisa.
~Natalia
