Golden Hour-Weekly Photo Challenge

IN A NEW POST CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PICTURE TAKEN DURING THE GOLDEN HOUR.

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This picture was taken on our recent trip to the West Kootenays,  in a little place called Faulkier, British Columbia.  This is the lakefront at a 100 acre orchard nestled in the woods along the Arrow Lakes. I caught a picture just as the last bit of daylight was retreating into the summer evening sky.

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Monkey On My Back

Daily Prompt: Singular Sensation

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“Be yourself,  everyone else is already taken” -Oscar Wilde

If one experience or life change results from you writing your blog, what would you like it to be?Photographers, artists, poets: show us SINGULAR.

Writing forces me to put my messy brain in order, slow down and somewhat organize the thousands of thoughts playing pingpong in my head at any given time. The greatest change in me since starting my blog Dancing in the Rain is the confidence to be myself. When I began writing the series Thousand Acre Heart where I candidly talk about teen pregnancy,  adoption,  grief, marriage and motherhood I found a forum that I feel very confident in simply being me. It was sort of a “coming out” in a public way and saying “this is me, all of me, take it leave it. I am choosing to be happy”

Some of my confidence came with age and wisdom, some of it came with being reunited with my son and filling a very big void in me but a huge chunk of it came from acceptance.  Accepting myself, my choices and all the crazy little things about me. I don’t want to be anyone else but in accepting myself it makes me want to be me…only better. A better listener,  a better mom, wife and friend.

Blogging helps me refect as well as organize those thoughts and goals so it has been a big and positive life change for me.

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Somebody That I used To Know

Daily Prompt: Earworm

Write whatever you normally write about, and weave in a book quote, film quote, or song lyric that’s been sticking with you this week.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us INSPIRATION.

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You have lots of time to think when you are driving through the mountains as I did this past weekend. Contemplating the images that the clouds make as they hang  low in the sky, allowing the peaks of the mountains to touch them in such a way that is the earth intimately touching the sky. I pondered life and it’s delicate relationship to nature. I considered my own life and the people and things that bring me happiness. An old friend and  the memory of a private joke we once shared brought me a smile. For a fleeting second all the reasons we had drifted out of each others lives disappeared and all I remembered was that moment of simple joy where we simply laughed together the way only friends do. In the wisdom of my advancing years (haha I am 39) I decided that friends will come and go, some will always be there when you need them, some will live in your heart always, the memory of some will always have the power to make you smile. Some are toxic and maddening, draining the happiness out of your life till you are as useless as an empty ketchup bottle in the local greasy spoon. Others are as welcome in your home and thoughts as a bouquet of flowers on a day that you are not expecting anything at all. Others are just “Somebody That You Used to Know!”

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Daily Prompt- Keep Out

Daily Prompt: Keep Out

Who is the one person you hope isn’t reading your blog? Why?

I have been on vacation for a couple of days without internet so I have had to neglect a couple of posts, my apologies.

The obvious choice for this  would have been my brother because he doesn’t get blogging or sharing your feelings so he chooses to try to suck the joy out of it for me.

The less obvious choice but one I carefully considered was Nicholas Sparks. I do not under any circumstances want Nicholas Sparks to stumple upon and read my blog.

My life therefore my blog is full of  all the ingredients for a Nicholas Sparks bestseller. Love lost, love found, struggles, angst, the meaning of life, discovery,  rediscovery…

So while I am busy with my day to day and daydreaming the possibilities of who should play me in the movie of my life, Nicholas Sparks will already have a bestselling novel written and the screenplay  sold.  It will be bigger then the Notebook and I will get none of the credit for my own crazy life.

So while I am vain and love it when people read my blog please do not share it with the talented Mr. Nicholas Sparks.

Who should play us in a movie?

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Laughed my Ass Off

Daily Prompt: From the Gut

Tell us about the last time you had a real, deep, crying-from-laughing belly laugh.Photographers, artists, poets: show us JOYFUL.Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts.

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Last month we went on a mini family vacation to Nakusp B.C in the Kootenay Mountains.  We are actually on our way back again to celebrate our wedding anniversary so I am typing this on my phone.

We spent a very relaxing night at a fabulous 2 storey chalet overlooking the Arrow Lakes and the mountains.  It was a long drive but worth it. Waking up in the mountains in on my list of top ten things to do. Instead of waking up  when the city is going to work, I woke up to the steady drum of the lake water hitting the shore rocks and a warm mist hanging low over the majestic mountains.  I let my family sleep while I made a pot of strong black coffee, poured the largest cup I could find and climped up to the lookoff to watch the early morning unfold. The feeling I felt sitting there is the same feeling I get listening to Zac Brown Brown (Toes,  playing on the radio). It’s a good life, not a care in the world. A shot of coffee and a lungful of intoxicating mountain air.

My husband is hilarious,  sometimes I am too busy to one hundred percent appreciate his humour but there is nothing quite like a genuine belly laugh. The world’s most natural medicine. I always tell myself  I am going to live  in the moment more. Laugh when it’s funny, dance when I like the beat and actually take the time to see the things I look at. My husband works up North and is gone for ten days at a time so occasionally it is essential to take a break from the routine that sucks the life out of us.

I made a glorious brunch while singing along to the radio and eventually the allure of bacon roused my family from their slumber.

We cleaned up and toured Naskusp. We all experience that same feeling in the mountains,  like time is suspended,  it is very freeing. We decided to visit friends in Burton, another remote town in the Kootenays. They have a nice property and being there felt so homey and comfortable. My daughter Morgan and I decided to go for a little walk and her being a city girl she wasn’t at all content to walk in the woods. I think she watches too many scary movies at her sleepovers because when I went into the woods to inspect and take pictures of what appeared to be a small abandoned cabin she freaked out “Are you trying to get us killed”

This just made me want to be silly and poke fun at her ridiculous fears. Scenarios of doom and gloom and the possibilities of what heinous events could take place in the creepy little cabin flowed out of me as easily as the clouds hung in the sky. I decided it would be fun to take some pictures for Instagram to document our near death experiences in the woods. Morgan thought I was CRAZY but got caught up in the fun of it all as we gathered fallen trees for props. When I tripped during my antics we both were overcome with giggles that soon turned into full blown hysterics.  The early teenage years are so hard, it felt like forever since the two of us laughed like that. I was full blown crying and snotting. It felt good. We needed it!!

This trip started rather rocky with a collision with a gaggle of geese on the highway so hopefully that is the end of our bad luck. The sun is shining and we are driving in the heart of the rocky mountains. Tomorrow I will wake to the mountain air and carefree days that I crave.

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My husband and I just played the Michael Jackson Thriller CD and sang a duet to “The girl is mine” He was Michael to my McCartney.  “…the doggone girl is mine!” I don’t remember it being that cheesey. So funny.

Cheers to love and laughter. If you have nothing else in the world but those two things you are richer then alot of people.

Live
Love
Laugh
Dare
Cry
Feel Everything

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