Seven Things on The Seventh.

Lizette on 35mm film

I went on a run & here are seven things.

1. When we first look at someone, we look into their eyes. When we look into eyes, we can’t see their flaws. Now let’s just stop there for a while. To see someone, all we need to look at, are their eyes. Since they’re the gateway to the soul, done, we found the door! So let’s talk there for a minute and then they can welcome us inside to their depths and strengths and insecurities and into who they see themselves to be. Let’s not assume we know them by just looking at them. 
2. Notifications. I didn’t have my phone on my run but I could feel notifications lighting up my brain. I don’t take my phone sometimes because I need to physically take it off my body and be “phone free” for an hour. But the notifications don’t stop. They’re right here, lighting up my forehead and sometimes I wish I had my phone just so I could type everything out so I don’t miss a notification! When I say notifications, I mean I am hearing a little voice in my head say, “Me! Me! Look at Me!” It’s some sort of magic. (Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. If you know, you know.) 
3. Stop looking, start feeling! I know you see my photos, (I’m talking to Instagram users mostly) but did you read my caption, did you see it during a quick scroll or did you actually sense something from the act of looking at my image? I blush and I grin and I laugh a little when I hear a comment about how “beautiful,” “hot,” or “stunning,” my subject or I look (APPEAR) in the image. Thank you, thank you! I made that photo, or I’m sharing that photo, because I think it’s beautiful too! Yay! We both see beauty in this world! I so so appreciate that and you, so maybe next time, read the caption, sit with some of the words for a bit and then make a comment about how you feel! 
4. Photographing People: I want to do more of it! Stay tuned for this; it’s coming. I saw a photographer with a couple at the park and I’ll keep it at that, I want to do more more more. 
5. Are you self-taught? Heck yeah! I’m definitely studying photography in college right now, as I type, but ahh I see “photography” is something that everyone is self-taught at. Yeah, I have the best instructors and professors and mentors right now, if you talk to me for five minutes I bet you’ll hear something about how much I love the arts community I’m finding here at Seattle U. But in the end, we’re all individually learning things on our own. So yeah, I’m self-taught, and I’m teaching myself through other people, right now, just like you are! 
6. And the last one has escaped me. Darn. I knew it was a good one. I was two blocks away from my home and I could hear it speaking but even the pick up in my stride couldn’t grab it. Whoever finds it, I hope you nurture it. Along my run I was counting words on my fingers when a new idea would surface but some of the words didn’t resonate… enough for me to pull the idea back. 
7. Just kidding, I remembered! Following. I run in the city so every so often I have to wait for a light to change to cross the street. This one instance, there were two other women at this light with me. There were cars buzzing past and speeding just to catch the green light. Then there was a wave of no cars, and we ran/walked across the intersection even though the lit up man on the sign hadn’t told us to go yet. I did’t go before the woman in front of me went for it and the woman next to me didn’t cross until I started. We are followers, we do as we see others do. Just a testament to women right now. If we see others going out there, not waiting for a SIGN or a SIGNAL to tell them what to do, other people are going to be behind you, supporting you, with you. 

And with that,

Happy Saturday.

xo, Hallie