...and 100 of my favourite photos.
If you would like to purchase any prints, I'm offering 20% off all prints until the end of July 2016, so just use the coupon code "10YEARS!" when ordering.
If you're one of those who just look at the pics and don't read the text, I'll just say this quickly first: Wonderful! I love that the Pic of the Week can be unobtrusively enjoyable, it gratifies me knowing you're taking your enjoyment in whatever form you like it, and I hope my images will continue to bring you a measure of pleasure. Now scroll down and enjoy!
And for those for whom, for whatever reason, my words have appeal as well, here's a few more...
Like a hug, the Pic of the Week has turned out to be a gift that goes both ways. I so appreciate the emailed treasures I receive in response each week, from the one-worders which make my heart glow, to the deeply personal shared revelations that make my soul swell with empathy, recognition and gratitude.
I had no idea, when I sent out the first Pic of the Week email to a few family members who I knew wouldn't object to receiving some random photos of mine, how the Pic of the Week would grow. And I'm not talking numbers so much as how, over the years, it has grown me. (And—going by some of the responses I receive—some of the recipients too.)
What started out as a way of sharing a few digital photographs that would otherwise only gather virtual cobwebs, over time became a point of consistency in my freestyle freelance life, the one (slightly erratic, sort of) regular thing in my life. But what was really unexpected for me was that it would also turn out to be a vehicle of self-discovery as well as self-expression—and not just the surface stuff, the beautiful picture of my life, the parts I deemed to be acceptable to share with such a varied audience that includes family, friends and acquaintances, clients and colleagues, and complete strangers. Through articulating my thoughts and ideas, both in words and photographs, I came to notice that the more one dares to share of oneself the more people relate and feel comfortable sharing of themselves, and that in doing so a precious reciprocal flow is generated of that particular type of security and confidence that comes with recognition of the familiar, which in turn creates an opening for the realisation—and feelization—of the commonality and okayness of the things we feel are not so okay. As Ian McCallum succinctly expressed it to me: "You're not different. Unique, yes, but not different.".
Ever wary of being wearied by down-in-the-dumpsness, and especially wearing down other people's tolerance, I have a tendency to look for and point out positive and beneficial aspects of experiences, even if it is merely to note a beautiful sunrise that my mind knows is gratifying, but that my heart is, at the time, unable to feel. And so you, as part of the widely diverse audience I'm connecting with and thinking of as I write, have unwittingly been an external motivator, indirectly aiding and sustaining me during those times when I might have otherwise been mired in miserable thoughts, since maintaining a gentle positivity in the Pic of the Week has helped me steer my attention towards those thoughts that are more helpful and healing than harmful.
So I am most grateful for this unusual community and the reciprocity that comes from it. Thank you!
Here's to another ten years of pics, ideas and sharing!
