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I have a contrasting relationship with frames.
I relish browsing through second hand shops, garage sales, car boot sales and flea markets for second hand, weathered frames. The ones where the paint is chipping and pealing and wood seems rotten. The ones with character and life experience and wisdom. I lovingly take them home, hang them on my walls. I place memorable moments within their confines. I put them on display. I share them.
Emotional, intellectual and spiritual frames are a whole different kettle of fish though. In fact they have started to make me feel uncomfortable of late. I was brought up in a home with very strong and loving boundaries. I have carried these boundary lines into my adult years and they have formed the foundations on which I have built my life. My parents also challenged me though to question those boundaries, to make them my own. I have done that regularly but I find myself in a dimly lit side street at present. The light is just ahead, but I am not quite feeling its warmth yet.
I would not go so far as to say that the boundaries and my foundations are the dimly lit side street and that light and warmth is beyond them. Rather I would say that my own ability to bring the light and the warmth into the boundary line is where I am tripping up. I still have reservations about that which is different to me, that which is not the same as my own. Where do these reservations come from? Why the resistance to that which is different.
The more I travel, the more I spend time in the homes of strangers that I meet. The more I listen to what I see, the more frames I am starting to remove from my heart, mind and intellect. I am learning to feel warmth under different suns and my side street is somehow more joyful.
This morning I looked up. I saw the roses in full bloom and the geraniums in the window boxes.
When I look up, my frames are ones of love.
{This is part of the Frame It prompt up at High Calling Blogs. The feedback post will be featured on the main page tomorrow. Join me again in July. Thank you for all the posts that came in this week. The gallery is going to look great tomorrow! Also, Michelle from Graceful will be guest posting here tomorrow.}
14 comments:
Claire, I so want to see what you see in the morning... these are beautiful!
Hi Claire!
I love your writing AND your photos! Incredible!! Where were these taken? Europe ?
Claire: first, I must say that I think your blog is absolutely beautiful! I love what you've done with it. And this post--these are lovely photos. Your words always get me, always, every time. <3
Change is something that is good, to realize that you are changing and accept it, that is rare. I like old frames too, I do it too save money, and for the chance to take something old and make it new again. New for my family.
ahhh the homes of strangers.....me me me !
although i'm not that strange anymore am i :) hee hee
Claire,
Since your first post about the "Frame It" project, I have realized that the frames I like best are the soft, arched frames which welcome one into a warm, cozy, love-filled place beyond the frame.
I loved your courtyard frame from before, and here I love the arch with the geraniums.
Very beautiful and beckoning.
From My Heart to Yours,
Janis
you've taken fascinatingly beautiful pictures... I love them :) this topic of frames has been heart opening for me. but not in the way I might have thought. thank you for sharing it. :)
amy in peru
wonderful images... so romantic and poetic.
I like the frames within the frames leading the eye onward ...
Claire, your eyes and your heart speak volumes on the topic of frames.
"When I look up, my frames are ones of love." This statement brings a smile of recognition as I remember the days after your PhotoPlay topic was announced. I have eagerly welcomed my world daily with head raised to look for frames.
Thank you for stopping by - in joy...
Claire,
I just gasped when I first opened this, the pics reminded me of Fiesole, the little town near Florence where my new hubs and I wandered a bit on our honeymoon... then I saw that indeed you were in Italy.
our life experiences, these moments, these mysterious movings of the Spirit, these frame my life often.
I see through all I've become , all I've learned to realize who others are.
I loved the thoughts you 've so honestly shared here.
This has become one of my favorite spots to rest a while.
Your borders, frames, boundaries.....are being enlarged. This is wonderful. As it works in you, it is passed on to us, where our borders, frames, boundaries are being enlarged along with yours. :)
Your work is a delight, your blog got me off to a great start this morning. Home I can do the same for you one day soon. Annie
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