the end of missing someone...

“I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, 

the end of missing someone.”

// Jonathan Safran Foer // 

we've been having too much fun than what's good for us. the days have been filled with loads of teasing and blushing smiles and OneRepublic and beach hair and bubbling laughter - laughter which spill life and joy into my heart. there's been lots of doctor who and tea sipping and crafting afternoons and evenings spent round a cheery fire, while jokes are being told under a ceiling of faint twinkling stars. i think my favorite moments, though, are the ones when i look across the room and realize my bestie and I are together. proving that those taunting miles can't separate us all the time.

xx from your OC explorer

out of focus // summertime swing dancing.

|| fourth of august twenty-thirteen || 

i don't want to crave perfection. i'm tired of it. it forces a gap for discontentment to easily settle in. and life is so short to make it something that it's not, nor ever will be. simply put it isn't perfect neither is it about making it so. but perhaps it is about learning to cherish the messy moments, the smudges & ink stains, the spins & the stumbles, the blurs and & the out-of-focus. i want to accept the imperfections - fall head over heels for the little things that make this life extremely unique and incredibly, profoundly beautiful. perhaps, because He accepts my every imperfection and because every bit of it is a stitch in a story that is being quilted together day by day made with patchworks from every bit of life-altering adventure and at-home day and afternoon spent in the garden and day at the fair with friends and perhaps, swing dances in the country. 

i've been begging to go swing dancing for who knows how long, and my wish finally came true. my friends jessica, simone, denise, and my distant, long-lost cousin megan were the most eager to join the crowd when i had planted the idea at the first morning rehearsals last month. i don't know what i would do without those girls. there's a barn about 20 minutes out of town in this teeny tiny town where there's nothing but one main street, a post office, and one restaurant. every sunday night they host swing dances with east and west coast swing lessons and an hour of free dance at the end. good heavens, am i far from even being near to knowing what on earth i was doing! but somehow with swing dancing, it's about laughing it off and moving on and stumbling and learning {and of course, avoiding stepping on your partner's toes}. i didn't capture many photos, as always when i go out, but the ones i did are blurry and out of focus and imperfect to the usual crisp photographer's in-focus portfolios. but each of them are spilling with laughs and memories of spending a few hours under a string of lights in the country, listening to strands of music some of my partners listened to when they were my age. the blurs sew memories of people whirling and laughing and stumbling and learning and being in love with life. being alive. 
and i wouldn't have them any other way.  

xx from your fellow swing dancer 

postscript // have any of you been swing dancing? 
p.s.s. i know i said i was going on a haitus, but these were too good not to share immediately. ;P  

A is for Adventure {and the rest is for everything in between}.

we must take adventures in order to know where we truly belong. 

A is for ADVENTURE.
B is for DUSTY BUTTERFLY WINGS.
C is for COMINGS AND GOINGS. 
D is for DRIPS OF HONEY SWEET SUNSHINE. 
E is for EVERYTHING GOOD UNDER THE SUN. 
F is for FEARLESSNESS. 
G is for GOODLY UNEXPECTED THINGS. 
H is for HOME, WHERE THE WEARY MAY REST AND AUTHENTICITY ABOUNDS. 
I is for SUMMER'S INTERLUDE 
J is for JENCTACULAR PURSUITS AND THE JOY-FILLED MOMENTS LIVED IN THE PRESENT AND FOR THE JOURNALS THAT CAPTURE THOSE MOMENTS. 
K is for THE KISSES OF THE BREEZE. 
L is for THE LIGHT OF THE FIRE AND THE STORIES THAT ARE TOLD AROUND IT. and LIGHT LEAKS. ALWAYS LIGHT LEAKS. 
M is for THE MEMORIES TO CAPTURE IN A JAR. 
N is for THE NOTES, THE OBSERVATIONS OF A JOURNALER. 
O is for THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT NEVER PRESENT ITSELF ANY OTHER SEASONS THAN THIS ONE.
P is for THE LOVE PARCELS ON DOORSTEPS AND FOR THIS PROJECT AND THIS ONE TOO, and for PSITHURISM.
Q is for THE QUIVERS IN THE BRAMBLES AND THE TREES. 
R is for THE RIPPLES OF LAUGHTER. 
S is for FOR THE SALTY SEA THAT IS FOREVER BECKONING. 
T is for THE THERE AND BACK AGAIN, AND THE TIME THAT PRESSES FORWARD.
U is for THE UNDERSTANDING, THE MEASURES IN TIME OF RESTING AND OTHER PONDERINGS. 
V is for VIVACIOUSNESS, FOR THE LIFE AND ALIVENESS. 
W is for THE CRISP SPARKLING WATERS TO DIVE INTO. 
X is for THE X'S AND O'S IN THE SAND, CARVED IN THE TREES, AND SIGNED AT THE END OF LOVE NOTES. 
Y is for THE YEAR ENVELOPED IN SUMMER. 
Z is for THE ZENITH OF SUMMER, FOR THE TIPPING POINTS IN TIME, THE SATURDAYS WHEN ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING SEEMS POSSIBLE. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

a bit o' poetry as a tribute to midsummer.

there are too many photographs i haven't taken and too many memories i have yet to make.
today is the oldest i have ever been and the youngest i will ever be.  
i am anticipating swing dancing over the weekend, perhaps a canoe trip, film experimenting, sewing projects for my dear friends, listening to owl city, and brainstorming a trip to OC. and so i will leave you now, m'dears, for only but a few weeks with a prompting to join my dear friend's snail mail project, keep updated on my instagram, and a wish that you have a loverly summer's day. 

 one || two || three || breath. 

xx from your fellow adventurer