Pentax k-1000 | Kodak Portra 400 film

This message from fine art photographer Paul Sanders speaks to me. I love that Paul is passionate about the benefits of photography to mental health and wellness, and this seems like a meaningful way to begin the new year.

“Photography is important to me, but it is not the be all and end all, the most important things in my life are gratitude, love and an open heart. Through each of these creativity is generated, whether that is writing, photography, gardening, knitting - anything creative is born out of things that we often think of as unimportant in this busy world. We see success as winning competitions, getting the promotion, pushing our children to be who we weren't, making money and having stuff.

Success today is really about recognising what you need in your heart and following that, it is about acknowledging you are vulnerable and working with it rather than hiding it, it is allowing yourself to make mistakes and learn from them, it is about doing what you love, it is noticing the change in seasons, it is not about being the best but by embracing that you are the best you can be and that that is enough.” —Paul Sanders

— Happy New Year —

Pentax k-1000 | Kodak Portra 400 film

"I know now, after fifty years, that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning, never stops. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance." —Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Dear Mother Earth,

Each morning when I wake up you offer me twenty-four brand new hours to cherish and enjoy your beauty. You gave birth to every miraculous form of life. Your children include the clear lake, the green pine, the pink cloud, the snowcapped mountain top, the fragrant forest, the white crane, the golden deer, the extraordinary caterpillar, and every brilliant mathematician, skilled artisan, and gifted architect. You are the greatest mathematician, the most accomplished artisan, and the most talented architect of all. The simple branch of cherry blossoms, the shell of a snail, and the wing of a bat all bear witness to this amazing truth. My deep wish is to live in such a way that I am awake to each of your wonders and nourished by your beauty. I cherish your precious creativity and I smile to this gift of life.

—excerpt from Ten Love Letters to the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh, Emergence Magazine