Gems 3.10

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

SONY DSC

Photo © Alisa Reagan.  Used with permission.  Thank you! ♥.

“I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair

I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see

For still there are so many things
That I have never seen
In every wood in every spring
There is a different green

I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people that will see a world
That I shall never know

But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.” Special thanks to WaY for submitting this wonderful poem from J.R.R. Tolkien.   If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!

May you find joy every day on your journey,

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

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Gems 3.9

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

a-hundred-silent-ways-rumi-gems-3-9

Photo by Niki Flow

Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.”  (I realize this quote isn’t strictly about a journey but if you turn your head sideways and squint a little, it works.)  If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!

May you find joy every day on your journey,

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

TGIF 8: This Week under1000skies

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s what’s happening ¤ under1000skies ¤

This week we featured a beautiful photo from Alisa Reagan, two photos from Niki Flow and one photo from an unknown photographer.

 

We also shared the letter we include with our artist packs:

 

T.G.I.F. – What It Really Means

love-vimeo-curlystreetmedia

Happy Friday!  Today’s TGIF is a video shared on KindSpring.org yesterday by Rajni.  It’s a spoken-word piece by Curly Street Media called “Love.”   This short and beautiful video was a gift to me yesterday.  May it be so for you too.  TGIF:  “Love” – This Gift Is Forever

“Love liberates.  It doesn’t just hold.  That’s ego. Love liberates.”

“Right may not be expedient.  It may not be profitable.  But it will satisfy your soul.”

Love by CurlyStreetMedia on Vimeo

Gems 3.8


I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

gems-3-8

Photo by Niki Flow

 Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.”  If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!

May you find joy every day on your journey,

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

Gems 3.7

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

thunder-road-bruce-springsteen-photographer-unknown

Photographer unknown. (If you know, please leave a comment so we can credit this beautiful photo!)  “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen

 Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.”  If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!

Today I’d like to thank Nicole and Lisa, our volunteers in Denver, Colorado, for agreeing to hand out artist packs.  Thank you both so much!  We couldn’t do this without your help.

This is a letter that goes with the artist packs which our volunteers give to homeless creatives:

dear-creative-soul-page-1

dear-creative-soul-page-2

Just a quick note.  None of our artists or photographers so far are currently homeless.  Until we get this up and running, we depend on the contributions of everyone who cares about creativity and homelessness.  People have been so generous and we are so grateful!

In the years to come, we hope to feature creations every day from homeless artists and photographers.  Our new website (coming later this year) will have a forum where folks can talk every day to each other about their projects and inspirations.

When we link to others who love beauty, who are passionate about the things we love — even for a few minutes a day — we don’t feel so alone.

May you find joy every day on your journey,

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

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Gems 3.5

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

SONY DSC

Photo © Alisa Reagan 2016.  All rights reserved.  Used with permission. Thank you! ♥   Quote submitted by Rajni. Thank you! ♥

 Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.”  If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!  Also, we don’t do fund raising.  Our only source of revenue is donations and the sale of Elanthian Love Songs – A Bard’s Tale by Sara Michele O’Sullivan (Niki Flow).  Starting in 2017, 100 percent of the profits from the sale of this book go to buying artist packs.  If you would like to contribute photos, artwork, writing or to be one of our volunteers, please contact us at the email address at the bottom of our About Us page or leave a comment below.

May you find joy every day on your journey,

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

TGIF 7: This Week under1000skies

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s what’s happening ¤ under1000skies ¤

This week we featured a beautiful photo and poem from MJ and photos and art work from Niki Flow.  Our About page also got an update:

T.G.I.F. – What It Really Means

Today’s TGIF is just for fun. I don’t know who took this hilarious photo or who made the meme, but it made me laugh when I saw it. I hope you enjoy it.  Have a great weekend!

tgif-giraffe-duck

clu

 Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.”  If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

Save

Gems 3.4

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

under1000skies-pale-crab-ball

Today we’re featuring a sketch from Niki Flow’s #the1000dayproject on Instagram (which is accompanied by a one-minute recording there)..  Niki was invited to this project while listening to an interview on Awakin.org with Elle Luna (author of The Crossroads of Should and Must).  Every day for the past 69 days she has used a post-it note and a sharpie to do broad sketches, inspired by a story Elle told during the interview about designing for IDEO.  Today, inspired by her friend MJ’s poetry contribution yesterday, Niki decided to begin to show her poetry to a  wider audience.  As we announced last February, 2016, profits from  Elanthian Love Songs – A Bard’s Tale go to funding packs for under1000skies.   When we published it was 50 percent until we paid our artist, the fabulous Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Shadowscapes.com) and our editor.  At the end of 2016 we did so and now we can contribute 100 percent of the profits from the sale of Elanthian Love Songs to funding artist packs.   This is part 1 of one of the poems in Elanthian Love Songs.  Parts 2 until the end will be recorded one minute at a time (the limit on Instagram) and will be illustrated there every day with Niki’s post-it sketches.   The plain text of this part of the poem is below since the type is small.  Please pass this on and let others know to support our only way to raise funds.  We don’t do fund raisers or solicit funds of any kind.  This is in line with the gift economy and Nipon Mehta’s beautiful economic vision called “Gifivism.”  Thanks so much for supporting under1000skies.

PALE CRAB BALL

(Part 1)

A long time ago, or perhaps yesterday,

I heard a sad story of lovers betrayed.

‘Twas a pity.

The story begins a short distance from here

In the time of full moon, in the Spring of the year

near our city.

For during that time you can hear a strange call,

“Come one come all to the pale crab ball!”

near the river!

“Tis a day to be merry, to dance and to sing

“So come little crabs, let your pincers ring loudly

with rhythm!”

With eyestalks that wiggled, inside eyeballs jiggled

On quick little legs, they skittered and zigged

by the dozens.

And with them came one, a shy pale-crab lass,

Shell polished and sparkling, to this her first dance

with her cousins.

Now off to the side, a band was beginning

With reed pipes and grass lutes, and shells for a’pinging.

The dance started.

The pale crabs all rose up on multiple legs

And gracefully spun with each other and swayed,

so lighthearted.

(To be continued – here – tomorrow and ongoing.  There are approximately 7 more minutes to go (49-50 stanzas or so.  )

clu

 Journey Notes

The theme for the month of January is “journey.”  If you have a favorite quote or poem about “journey,” or the journey of life,  please leave a comment!

♡. under1000skies
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.

Save

Save

TGIF 6: Big News under1000skies

I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s what’s happening this week on ¤ under1000skies ¤

This week we featured three photos from Alisa Reagan

and one from Niki Flow

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Thank you for donating your beautiful photos! ♡

 

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NEWS

We have purchased under1000skies.com and under1000skies.org!

During 2017, we will be working to build both websites and have them up and running as soon as possible.  As you may have read, thanks to Bay Area Web Designers, we received a free year of hosting for our Domestic Violence advocacy and survivor site, Moonsongs.net which will go live by the end of March.  This will be a sister site to under100oskies.org.  Very often, women and children who are victims of domestic violence and other violent crimes become homeless.

 

 

One of our photographers and volunteer coordinator, Niki Flow, spent years with her youngest son homeless.  Niki lost her home and the contents of her home due to DV and stalking.   Most of that time, she and her son did not spend on the street but in DV shelters, with friends and family.  Domestic violence was also the cause of the death of her youngest son, Samuel Christopher.  Since then, Niki and her two older sons, Benjamin and Joseph, have been passionate about helping those who are homeless and who have been through trauma become — not just survivors — but a strong, connected tribe of thrivers.

 

under1000skies-org-mousepad

We’ll be using the Under1000skies.com site for our new store (coming soon!), and 100 percent of the profits from our products sold there will go to buy artist packs.  We’ll be selling things like cards, stationary and mouse pads using Niki Flow’s heart-people drawings, like the one above.  The under1000skies.org site is where we’ll have our artist gallery and daily photos.

 

 

clu

TGIF:  What It Really Means

T.his G.orgeous (Planner) I.s F.ree!

00000001-the-handmade-home-journal-free-2017

This weeks TGIF is a cool #freebiefriday thanks to Liz Stevens Art.  She tweeted this today:

Thanks to for this gorgeous FREE printable planner that I’ve been using for 3 years

The Handmade Home 2017 Planner

I can’t wait to print this and start using it. Such a beautiful gift to the world! *cheering wildly* Thanks so much Ashley and Liz!! ♥

 

clu

What Do You Find Joyful? Beautiful?

The theme for the month of December is “joy.”  If you have a favorite quote about “joy,”  please leave a comment!  As always, we would love to feature your creative visions.  When we show each other what we find beautiful, we get a glimpse into each others’ hearts.

May you find joy every day.

♡. under1000skies

Gems News

Big News today for Gems/Under1000Skies!

packs

As Posted on Instagram:
#under1000skies Our artist-pack supplies came in today! We have enough for six packs. Each pack includes pens, an all-weather notebook, a disposable camera and a waterproof bag (shown behind). Each (winter) pack also includes one warm scarf and one pair of gloves. Three of these packs are going to our Denver volunteer @wilddreamwalks two to our Delaware team @jazztizz and the other one to our California volunteer @big_manuel  These photos will be returned to us to be developed scanned and featured on our “Under1000Skies” @wordpressdotcom site along with poetry, musings, stories or anything else the artists care to write. We began Under1000skies as a way for homeless artists to connect with each other and form bonds of mutual respect, compassion and deep understanding from shared life experiences. Our Second Gallery #exhibition will be up this weekend. #grateful #heartsong #homeless #artists #photographers #lightfilledgems Special thanks to @cntryboyluv @#and @wilddreamwalks for photography #contributions. We are always looking for new #photos and #art to feature on our site. You always retain full rights. See our “about” page for more info. Thank you you so much for helping us distribute these packs! Thanks also to everyone for your support and for helping to spread the word about “Under1000Skies”. 😊@tizzlovesrowdy