one of the first photos taken with my NEW Sony Cybershot DSC-W80!!! I loooooooooooove her!


me kissing Spydra!
Spydra is a cousin of my now deceased Spyder (He lived for 3.5 years, which is a pretty good lifespan for a digicam!) -- he was a DSC-P92 -- so I can use the same memory stick. *beams* She has so many amazing features, I'm in awe! I can take photos in a nearly dark room and have them actually come out! (I never use flash) When looking back through photos on the camera, she FLIPS THEM so that you don't have to move the camera all around!!! omg, seriously. And she takes care of unsteadiness and (to some extent) movement -- I got clear shots of Kanika's face for the first time ever (well, I've done it maybe twice with Spyder, but never more than one at a time!). and she has face detection, so I can capture Ben's face even when he moves to try and wreck the photo, haha. AND she takes nice videos that aren't all orange despite the undesirable lighting of our apartment. and she fits easily in her case in my lil purse. ANDDDDD she focuses smartly -- when shooting something close up, the background is blurred out (Spyder didn't do that). I have yet to learn all the settings, I've been mostly using auto so far, but I'm very excited about it. YAY!!!

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About a year ago, I stopped going to Liberty because of an argument I had with the pastor. After a week or two, the co-pastors of the service I went to sent me a card saying they missed me, and then two weeks after that, sent me a plant (along with another card). I was very touched by the fact that they noticed my absence and went to such trouble to reach out to me (and I wondered if pastor Beth had told them, since she was around during the argument). I kept the plant, and it slowly became symbolic for me. It seemed to wax and wane according to the health of my spirit (probably because when I was spiritually low I never remembered to water it). So now I think of it as my 'spirituality plant.'

I had been meaning to re-pot it for ages, and finally got the pot and soil day before yesterday. In the bottom of the pot you're supposed to put stones or something to allow for better drainage, so I looked around for something to put in and saw these five stones that someone in my support group (from 2 years ago) had given me, with words on them -- 'peace,' 'you are beautiful' -- etc. They seemed ridiculously appropriate so I put them in along with some glass beads that I probably wouldn't use. When I tapped the plant loose from its old pot, there was almost no soil left! it was all roots! and they were so thick! I have no idea how that plant managed to stay so healthy with no nutrients. Loosening the roots took strong pulls because they were so tangled. I've replanted quite a bit thanks to my mom, but I've never seen roots so hard to separate.

It all seemed very symbolic of me -- I've outgrown my old 'pot' and have been living in too small a world, for so long that my roots have gotten tangled up with each other and I have run out of nutrients. By exploring new churches, making renewed effort with friends, and starting this women's group, I'm untangling and stretching out my roots to be nourished again. You should see how happy that plant looks in its new pot!




nourishing light


can't believe I actually didn't have to do any color correction on this :-O


it looks as if the leaves are caressing my face ♥ ♥ ♥