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Category Archives: Thoughtful
I can’t believe that 2011 flew by as fast as it did. It always seems to do that, but this year seemed to speed like racing cars, right in front of my eyes.
It also seems like there wasn’t that much accomplished when thinking back on 2011, and that is one of the reasons 2012 is like treasure to mee. A chance to start again, a new chapter, a new page, a new breath… and I can’t wait!
Resolutions for this upcoming dance party I mean year:
Blog, BLog, BLOG, and journal like my fingers/thoughts depend on it.
I have been tiptoeing around so much, I am going to stop, really stop. This is my blog, I don’t care if spellings and grammar and my thoughts are all over the place. I am not perfect, but I am not pretending or saying I am either. It’s the real life that is THE FUNEST and I love the ride.
Study health.
Man we did it this year. We watched the movies, “Forks over Knives” and “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” and changed our motivation and entire perspective on Health, Nutrition and what we put in our mouths. I still can’t believe what an impact they made on us. My Husband too.
So this year, I am going out on it- Studying Raw Foods, Nutrition, Sports, Running, Rebounding, Health and everything like this I can get my hands on.
Grow a Garden.
This is HUGE people! I am a CITY girl, and I thought living in the country was a risk! This city girl, turned rancher/country is really going places. And I kinda like the view too
Love on my kids/husband go all out.
Make more dear friends.
These are some of my 2012 goals. Man I love resolutions. When I feel “off” through the year, I go back, refocus and remind myself what the journey is going on. It motivates mee, encourages mee and lifts mee up. I hope you have an AMAZING new year and that your Resolutions are good for you and your family this year. Big Time
How the Shooting Star, Ran Away with the Doodle-Doo
Wish I May, Wish I Might, Wish upon a Shooting Star tonight? Or am I thinking of the wrong poem?
Maybe I wasn’t listening as a child when this was said because I was far far away in dream/wish land.
However I do remember that when you see a Shooting Star, you must wish upon it with all your might.
One of the benefits of running at night (don’t do this in the country, girls, unless you have a strong handsome man with arm muscles as big as Pop-eyes, bulging over his sleeve-ok in the winter that might be kind of odd and awkward… and a dog that is willing to go to war for you) in the country, is that it seems, like the heavens open up and there, lo and behold, is a story-pop-up book (except better cause it is of the real kind) in front of you- the stars. And yes, they really do shine for you. (If you don’t know that Coldplay song, have it on play when you do a country run with the stars in front of you)
I am such a beginner runner, it isn’t even funny how I could bend over and puke my guts out after running a total of…5 STEPS. Ok that is an exaggeration, but you get my point, beginner runner who feels like everyone should run on ahead of mee, because even my dog is like a mile ahead of mee by this time.
Not Falling or Anything
And so, here I am pushing myself along to not breathe like a looser and keep my correct running posture, and step on the correct places of my feet-not to land all of my weight on my heels, all the while trying not to faint, throw up, and make it to the end of the driveway at least because, face it! We just started this run. All of sudden, almost by mistake, I look up and see to my surprise, a Shooting star. I am in awe. There was a point in doing that 8 pm run after all! I feel like I am walking on air, astonished and my breath is about to be taken away from mee, because I look down and yes, my feet are in the air because I just ran over ice, not watching where I was going, and now Bamb! I am on the ground, and yes, the wind is indeed, taken out of mee.
Click to continue reading “Doodle-Doo Star”
Merry Christmas to you and your family. I hope you are surrounded by loved ones and laughter this year
Just in case you are seeing all the I love sweet things and maybe don’t know where I am or have gone, well I am still here! It seems like right now, life is getting so busy, and I was hoping that the “Sweetness of Summer” would show a side of mee even in the midst of the crazy months that are ahead for mee, can help mee slow down and enjoy it before it passes by.
Click to continue reading “Mee Tumblr Photos”
I love sweet things
My forth reason to be sweet on summer:
To go outside and enjoy it
Really-this is the reason that makes summer, well summer 
Click to continue reading “I am ( 4 times) Sweet on Summer”
I love sweet things, I always have, beginning with my father’s sweet tooth that he “trained” mee with lot of hours in the very important school of sweet tooths.
It continued with my aunt calling mee her little “cookie” while growing up, a name that was very hard to shake at all family gatherings and meetings. To my mother, I was called her “Sweet Pea” and was no surprise when I was 11 years old to find out that my name actually ment “Sweet One full of sweetness and showing sweetness.”
I found out the embarrasing way though, when I was a tour guide for a Norweigen team of teenagers who just laughed and laughed when they heard what my name was. They said that in Norway, my name is what they call a sweet desert; so you can imagine all the teasing I got about kids wanting to taste mee to see if I was sweet or not. One boy told mee I was lol.
So in honor of all things summer, all things “doors open wide, widows letting the air through,” “flowers peeking,” “birds singing,” “little girl’s giggles,” “lemonaide stands,” “hopscotch…” you know, all things bright, beautiful and summer. Things that Make Mee Sweet on You.
In honor of summer, I am going to attempt to devote 25 posts to things “I am sweet on”
Love you all, hope this inspires you to be sweet on summer too
I believe was written and created by Mee, Melissa E Earle. If you would like to read the typed out original list, click here.
“Beliefs, from what I am finding are different than emotions or feelings. Beliefs are what you hold on to, when the feelings are not there and when the emotion is all over the ball park. Knowing what you believe is like knowing your foundation, knowing where to stand on.”
Helping a Neighbour in times of need is what I am finding Peace River, Alberta to be all about today.
I was told that Peace River is about 51 miles away from all the fires. And after what happened to Slave Lake, Alberta, fires coming that close puts life into perspective just a little bit better for you. At least for mee it did. The fires, one hour away from our house is just a little too close for our liking!
Slave Lake on Sunday, May 15th 2011 was caught up in flames, the residents didn’t have any warning, it just happened so fast. Now, several days later, 40% of the town is gone and more land mass has burned in a couple of days than all of the fires combined in Canada last year.
Below, in the slideshow, the first image, this is the severity of this situation. This is a neighborhood in Slave Lake taken with a helicopter with an arial view. I found this photo in a CBC article online, where they interview one lady, named Chantal Tkach to see how the situation was in Slave Lake. Hearing it from her perspective makes it seem so real. This is not in another country, or thousands of years ago, this happened this week, in our backyard.
To see more photos of what has happened and what is now happening in Slave Lake, here is a slideshow video of that location.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5m6OErRXpA?rel=0&w=640&h=510]
The last I heard there were just over 1,000 fire fighters in Alberta, primarily targeting the wildfires of Slave Lake, but the fires are not just in Slave Lake, they are all over. The second image in the slideshow below is a shot of an actual PDF that the SRDAlberta Wildfire Operations has been updating all this week. This map was updated last night, May 17th 2011 at 7pm, if you want to see the full map, please click here.
The red fires are fires that are out of control, green means under control and yellow means being held.
If there ever was a time to pray for our fire fighters, it certainly is now. We have been praying that God would bless them, strengthen them, encourage them and give them discernment and wisdom as to where to attack these fires to put them out.
Tues, yesterday around 2:30 in the afternoon, I started coughing really badly and my eyes were stinging. I couldn’t figure out why, until I looked out the window and saw that a thick blanket of smoke hovered over the entire neighborhood. My sister-in-law came home and we talked about the smoke, she said that if I went across the river I could really see where the smoke was, so I decided to take my camera out and see if I could find any trace of fire or smoke. I didn’t find any fires (thank you Lord) but there was alot of smoke being blown in. These are not images of the fog rolling in nor of a severe storm, these are taken of smoke that was being blown in by the wind. These images were also not edited, they were just sharpened in post processing because my lenses were foggy because of all the dust and smoke on the outer glass of my lens, making it kind of hard to take photos. After this, my eyes stung so bad. It made mee really think about and pray for the towns people of Slave Lake.
 
Yesterday, my husband’s status was this: “The smoke in peace river valley today reminds us that this is a time to give hope,with generousity & abundant kindness. http://tiny.cc/l1e7c ” Which I thought was very timely and I have been reading statuses and blog posts all over. I am so thankful for a community in the Peace River Region that cares! If you haven’t had the chance yet to give, keep reading below because there are still many ways to help a neighbour in times of need.
I have been told that Peace River is acting as a Refuge town, bringing in as many residents as they can, and the Ski Chalet has been set up for a rescue centre. They need Blankets, Pillows, and everyday housing items, especially once the people find a place to live, there are alot of people who need help collecting everyday household items. So if you have anything you can give, our local Peace River Salvation Army has been set up to receive items and donations for helping the Slave Lake and area towns people to recover.
Also if you can give $5 or more, I encourage you to give at least $5 to the Redcross in helping bring in firefighters, shelters, temp housing set ups, with food, clothing and articles for sleeping. All you have to do is text the number 303-33 and write in the text “Redcross” and they will text you with a confirmation code. That is really easy, it just takes a couple of buttons and a heart that wants to help.
And I have been told, that just as a thoughtful reminder, there is a total fire ban in the province of Alberta, which includes all provincial parks and public lands. The fire ban prohibits the use of all wood, briquette and propane/natural gas fires, including those contained in designated fire facilities and portable fire pits. So if you are thinking of camping over the May Long Weekend here in Alberta, maybe go for a day trip and go for some scenic hikes instead.
This is not over, but if we all get together and pray and support those who need it, this can finish with a great ending.
Cheerio
-Melissa E Earle
10% of all people, think about life, and come up with a plan for their life. Only 3% of the population will write it down. The people who write it down are 50-100 times more likely to accomplish what they want to do than those who do not write anything down. -via John Mark after attending a marketing meeting
I love prizes. Especially when it comes to photographer related things that will help my clients!! I love to study, to learn and to keep up with the photography industry! Yumm! It is almost like fresh baked chocolate cookies…well ok! ALMOST just as good.
This morning I was invited to join in a photographer give away, to win an incredible DVD. It was a photographer’s workshop, where some of the industry’s best top photographers all got together, taught, spoke and recorded their answers to owning and operating successful boutique photography businesses. Their “SECRETS” oooooh secrets!!! I was there in a second, and who wouldn’t want draw in to get these photographers secrets. Ok ok, maybe not EVERYONE will be climbing up the walls to get at these DVDs, but this photographer chick would love to know more.
So just like a sucker, I clicked the link, dreams of winning dancing in my head, I could just see it all now!: mee sitting at my computer desk, sipping on a latte, the newly won dvd was playing on my tv, while I edited photos and put together wedding albums on my computer. Perfect of all worlds, multi tasking and all for the purpose of constantly getting better at photography. Win Win! Double Win!! What did I need to do to enter? Like a facebook page? Re-tweet a twitter quote? Sing a song, dance? Yes I could do them all!
But to my surprise, I read the conditions. Then I re-read them. Then I thought I somehow miss-understood them, so I read them again. Then I shrugged and started to comment on the blog post, and yet found it was still too hard to write what I thought, so I went back up to the entry instructions and read it all over again! 4 or 5 times! This is what it read: “We’re giving ONE lucky photographer a DVD set! To enter, leave a comment…telling us what you do to make your business unique.”
Now this may not seem so hard to write out an answer for, but it really stumped mee! After thinking about it, leaving the page for a while to muse over the question, and coming back to write my answer, this is what I finally came up with…
“Super excited to enter to win this DVD, I can’t wait to get the great information from all these amazing photographer teachers!
The question you asked us to write out, well it isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, especially since the more photographers coming on board, the harder and harder it is to be unique. The first thing that comes to my mind though, is the continual effort to give the best customer experience that I can give to my clients. From quality time, to doing my research, to great photos, to great {unique} packaging, to great incentives. But I think the reason my clients keep coming back day after day is because I try very hard to make them feel like they are the most important person to me, and worth so much. If I can make some kind of difference in someone’s life or day, then photography is so worth every second of hard work in my books!
So my answer is: To go above and beyond for my clients, to make sure they feel worth it, loved, valued and important. Because life is worth remembering and as a photographer, that is what I am creating, value on moments and connections.”
Now I know that I probably won’t win, but the idea of coming up with the answer to tough questions; actually taking the time to stop and think it all through, is pretty valuable to mee. I think it is similar to the idea of stopping to smell the roses, with the concept of stoping to look yourself in the mirror and take note of what you really don’t want to take note of, but if you do, it will help you in the long run.
Bottom line is, what am I “open for?” What do I desire to see? I am not at my goals yet, but thinking, stopping to think it through, writing it out, marking the goals, then making those goals, well one of these days I’ll get there. I have to start somewhere, and I encourage you to stop and journal some of those looming questions over what you are thinking about these days. Lets find our purposes together Let’s be in that 3% who write our goals down and therefore also in the 50-100 times more likely to accomplish our goals.
Cheerio
-Melissa E Earle
Smart Holiday Concepts from Melissa E Earle on Vimeo.
In this video I share my Holiday Concepts on how to be smart with time, energy and money. After watching, let me know if you have any similar concepts that you have found work really well for your Christmas Season.
Make sure to know what you want. Make a list or make sure to take time to think about what you want for this time of year. Whether it’s what you want to see happen in events, the food you want to make, the baking you want to do, the friends you want to see or the gifts you need to buy. The more of an idea of what you want helps you narrow down how to save money so that you are not fooled by the latest and greatest thing that costs more than you were intending to spend in the first place. Don’t be fooled by sales that are not for what you want. Sales are great if they are for the thing or idea you wanted in the first place.
The link to David Ramsey is: http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/
Take a second to imagine something with mee.
I walk into a room full of mostly parents, women and several men, who have arrived to pick up their children from school. Everyone is talking, some are laughing and everyone is sharing with one another parts of their day, their life. I come inside, from out in the cold, the warmth of the heater going, pulsing all the chills off, to say, “welcome! come inside!”
As I notice my body reacting to the welcoming warmth inside, I all of a sudden, take notice to my other senses, to “other details” around mee.
The sounds of everyone talking, the laughing, the shuffling of feet to find a more comfortable way to stand, in another room the sound of the children getting ready to go just vibrates through the walls. The smells of clean school floors, the aroma of cookies baking somewhere distant and of course the smell of winter blasting in through the outside doors every time they open. And yet my favourite sense of all is seeing. Watching everyone interact. To watch the expressions and how everyone’s hands move as they talk. The frowning of the brow, and the nodding of heads as others listen. The little siblings finding something interesting to do as they wait patiently for the school bell to sound. And of course, the expressions everyone gives as the large double doors open wide to usher in the parade progression of little kindergarteners all ready with their winter gear (making them double their weight) march out so seriously and yet as soon as they see their parents, serious turns to joy, as they run quite literally, into the friendly faces awaiting their arrival.
If I could stand there and take photos of the whole thing, well I would just be in my element. I would laugh, watch the scenes unfolding in front of mee and enjoy every second of it enough to record and remember them. I love photography for this reason as well as many others, that it has given mee the opportunity to notice details and take notice of moments as they pass quickly by. It’s one thing to notice though, and it is another to participate.
And yet as an adult, I don’t always get the chance to carry my camera around everywhere I go, and am still in fact learning, how to walk into a room full of adults and talk about something that is very meaningful. To use the moments to create relationships and to find out the moments in time that effected my friend’s lives. I am learning how to not, just be, a good photographer who notices moments, but who also can pay attention to listen. To connect the dots in “seeing” through listening. To realize that just like to mee moments are important, well what others have to say is important also.
To Listen. To listen More. And to not just listen to fall asleep, but to take notice and hear. Hear the important things being said. Hear past the words sometimes, to the heart of what is being said.
I wrote that it is one thing to notice, and yet another to participate, but I think when your “comfort zone” is gone it is harder to find a way to participate. When I was little, I was the oldest of 5 kids and there always was something to see or something to be apart of. When the conversation got dull or a little boring (I can’t remember this happening very often since so many people had their own input, ideas and opinions to share) we would go see what the other half of our siblings and their friends were doing. I love my siblings and my husbands siblings, but right now I only live around 2 out of 10. Since we have moved a couple times, the friendships and relationships I had have to be made all over again, it’s kinda like starting from scratch every time I move. And the older I get, the more I find people around me are not as quick to jump on the “change” bandwagon. It’s interesting to see, once you get stripped a. from your family being able to interact in daily physical aspects of your life, b. from your friends that were there to polish off your rough edges, what’s left is kind of like the raw shell.
Where I just took for granted, I am finding I am not. I realize that I didn’t take that extra time to go out with a friend for coffee, go to a movie with my sister when I could have, allowed my kids to go to that friend’s house when it was inconvenient to mee. It’s not that I shouldn’t have done it, but it’s the fact that now I am trying to not take those moments for granted.
People are different. People are all so vast, interesting with lots of different kinds of character, ideas, dreams and purposes. And to be able to walk by each one to not think, “They can’t be my friend because they don’t look or sound like the type of person I’ll get along with,” is what I am going to try not to think any more. I am choosing to listen, choosing to take notice and appreciate. Choosing to see and take notice of the achievements in another persons life. To choose to say, “You are worth it. Worth every moment.”
Sometimes learning to participate actually means that I have to let my pre-concieved ideas get out of the way. Just because I haven’t “been there done that, learned that, bought the tee shirt” doesn’t mean that I should immediately dissmiss someone because they don’t fit into how I ‘view the world.’ Maybe in order to be an adult, I need to be willing to change and I need to be willing to listen.
To see and to listen. To take notice. And to take heart.
Ha! It sounds like in becoming more like a “mature adult” I kinda need to be more like a kid. Open, truthful and willing to listen.
Well today, maybe I’ll start with a smile and wave. “Smile and Wave, boys. Smile and wave”
When editing photos there are so many different looks a photo can have just because you add more contrast, exposure, light, shadows, etc…
Love showing different ways photos can be personalized! These are a little grainy because of the site I used to create this, but I love the quick and easy way to compare photos and different looks!
My personal favourite is the Black and White. What’s your favourite?
Cheerio
-Melissa E Earle
I wanted to delete this, I really did. Saved as a draft it was over and over again, but now in my goal and attempt to finally be the “Just be mee” “a day in the real life with mee” after I read the blog post from tara whitney and many other puzzle pieces started coming together, real writing and heart sharing and recording is where its just gotta be. that equals truth from the heart.
So crying…
“the preparation of the heart belongs to man” -an old proverb
“A hard heart is walking in denial of Truth. It kills you, it shuts off your feelings and makes you dead inside. Dead to emotion, especially joy.”-John Mark Earle
If you were like me, you grew up out numbered by boys, brothers, cousins, their friends, and the list goes on and on. Being a girl in a little boy’s world isn’t full of princesses and dress up, (believe me, I have a daughter of my own and she has the “girl world” down pat) and although I had my own room and mom did her best to make sure that there wasn’t any “boy world” near my room, somehow “boy world” crept into everything. Even crying.
I have never been a cryer. well not really.
I grew up with three brothers, two of whom were very close in age to mee and although it isn’t all their fault (I love you guys )especially while watching movies that I just really wanted to cry at, only tears were allowed to slowly slide down my face before the endless teasing began. And where in worship I just wanted to bawl (ok this did happen on more than once, especially when I was a teenager) I would just raise my hands towards heaven and lift my face, instead of not caring who saw me cry and let it all out, I tried my best to keep it in (I think that worship is one of the only times we can let out all of our emotions because they are true and pure) When hard times, events happened, I just journaled, or sat down, or went for a walk. And it all was me ignoring what was in my heart. My true heart. But that has been the journey to figure that one out.
Do you remember that moment, the last time you really cried as a child? Or maybe remember occasions where you did cry often? I cried when I was a child (that doesn’t count as I have never been a cryer, does it?) and I can remember the occasions and having really good excuses to cry. When I was 10 years old, I got teased because I ran to my room and cried to escape my neighbourhood friends, and my “boy friend crush” that was over visiting for the afternoon, gave me a hard time about not understanding what “making out” was. So I ran to my room to hide and cry, but my window was near the front porch, where everyone was, and I felt like my 10 year old world fell apart when they started chanting, “Melissa is a big baby, she runs to her room to cry and probably still needs a blankey.” After that I didn’t run to my room and cry on my pillow. I tried to stop crying, I tried to be tough. ”Aww not like a girl!” whose femininity seems to be defined as: females cry. But instead, tried to fit into the boy’s scene, all around me of, not crying.
Talking about crying with my husband, he told me a really good example about being a child and crying. My son, on many occasions has tried very hard not to cry. He will choke and grunt, hit his chest, all when he is “over-the-edge-so-sad-you-can-see-the-tears-welling-up-behind-his-eyes” kind of sadness, and still no tears, no crying. Both my dear husband and I have felt it is not like a child to do that, and since we knew the reason he wasn’t crying was because, some one told him that, “boys really don’t cry.” John Mark finally talked to him and this is what he said, “If you try to make yourself stop, there will probably be a time when you want to cry and you won’t be able to.” He was talking from experience he told me later, that when he was a child, he was told the same thing and when he got older and wanted to cry, nothing happened. Taking away from that lesson with son and father, crying if stopped is just not natural, we were meant to cry, for some reason we were made to.
I have come to realize that if you don’t cry because you are trying to be something you are not, then that is not a good enough reason to not cry.
Back to the top quote; my husband would always talk about having a “hard heart.” I never really paid attention to what it was until one day, he told me the quote above, that he didn’t like, didn’t want, in fact loathed the times he felt like he had a hardened heart. Then I knew I needed to pay better attention. But I didn’t know what it meant until I went through a time where I had it myself. I felt like having a hardened heart was brought on by decisions and attitudes that I had allowed, especially un-forgiveness towards situations and other people. And having ahard heart was painful, terribly painful and it hurt alot too.
After having a “hardened heart” I realized that when you can actually cry, when tears can actually come out, I should let them come. There is just something about crying that lets my heart open up and breathe a little. This summer I have cried alot, especially after leaving my loved ones and dear friends in Cold Lake, life just isn’t the same without any of them. But I have slowly realized that the more I cry (little bits at a time) helps to heal my heart a little bit at a time.
Another thing about crying, I always thought you had to cry hard and long. AND have a good hard head ache to follow. Not true.
In fact just recently, something happened, and immediately afterwards I was angry, bitter, resentful. But all of a sudden I felt like crying, and instead of choking it back and distracting myself, like I have done countless numerious times, I began to cry, not stuff it and lock it up inside somewhere. John Mark was taking a nap and I went, found him, layed on his chest and had a cry. The more I cried, the more I realized I was ok, the more that frustration lost it’s power and the easier it became to remember the bright side of the situation.
So often I have skipped over the tear part and jumped right into the looking at it from the bright side, but then later still had to deal with my emotions, usually they had become very negative by that point. After my cry, I didn’t have anger issues or a mental break down of sorts, I just cried. I think I actually cried for less than a minute, got up, left and John Mark had no clue, becausethe world was right again and I had a good attitude about it all.
I haven’t found a perfect solution. ”Cry for 8 minutes and you will have no stress and no wrinkles.” No, I wish it were similar to that, but to be truthful, it takes alot of hard work to guard my heart and make sure it doesn’t become older than it should be, colder, harder than it should be.
So the point of all of this, is be real. Be true. This “truthful journey” to be ourselves isn’t always easy. Shutting up and not letting emotions out though is not the point either. Tara Whitney said on her blog that we can’t always be happy just happy, we need the whole picture. My mother always said that having the whole picture in front of you, that going through hard times (insert where crying should come into play) allows us to celebrate and rejoice when there are good times. That good memories are worth remembering.
As long as you can remember the journey that got you to them.
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