{ Retreat: final thoughts & a winner }

In the last post I shared some thoughts on retreat. And after reading through 300 comments, I see that this desire is common among us. To retreat means to recharge, reflect, recommit, review, remember … RENEW. To retreat helps (most of) us be a better spouse and parent and friend and giver. When we make a little effort to create soul-nurturing time, we are better for it. And everyone else around us benefits. Most importantly, our family.

So thanks for sharing your thoughts. Thanks for telling us how you retreat. And as always, thank you for stopping by and being a part of my blog. You are dear to me.

Now. People. All this talk of who needs a getaway scrapbooking retreat and it’s killing me. You ALL deserve one! So thank goodness this is a completely random selection because I could never hand-selected one winner based on their comment. Congratulations to Angela! Angela, your cousin Teressa nominated you and said this about you: “She is the toughest person I know. Her husband had an accident a year ago and has a very serious brain injury. She not only has cared for him, her 5 kids and all their school and athletic activities but also has had to take on a full time job. She could use some time because she is the most amazing woman I know.”

Angela, go ahead and email lorimuse2@yahoo.com and they’ll hook you up with free admission to a much-needed scrapbooking retreat in Utah next month! Teressa, you are thoughtful and selfless and a obviously a dear friend to nominate Angela. Thank you for your example.

……………….

{ Photo Challenge }

I want to emphasize again why I do this. The purpose of the occasional photo challenge is to inspire you to try something different with your camera … to keep photography interesting for us all … to encourage you to take more pictures of your everyday life.

This week’s challenge? LOOK STRAIGHT DOWN. Look at the difference between these two pictures:

Is one picture better than the other? Most certainly not. But I personally find the top view more interesting and more of what my actual view is when ironing clothes.

Another example:

Anything wrong about the regular view of Claire’s closet? For sure not. Again — it’s just trying a different angle.

So this week, stand directly above something or someone to take a picture. It may mean getting on your tippy toes. It may mean standing on a chair. Be sensible and careful. I don’t want any emails telling me you got on top of a chair and toppled over and cracked your wrist. None of that, okay? If you’re interested in submitting a picture to me, email it to projectlife@beckyhiggins.com. Submissions due by Saturday 10/9. I’ll post my top 10 favorites next week … for the love of sharing off your talent and keeping us all inspired.

If you’re not interested in going with the challenge or submitting a picture, perhaps you’ll at least now feel inclined to take a picture of something as mundane as your ironing table or closet. I would have loved to have a picture of my mom’s clothes in the 60s. Or my own clothes when I was little. Just something to think about.