I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
¤ TGIF ¤
Monday will start again with new Gems. I didn’t want to throw off the numbers, so I thought you might enjoy a TGIF collection. Over the years I’ve accumulated several alternative meanings for TGIF.
Be Truthful Gentle (Inspiring) and Fearless.” -Gandhi
T.otally G.orgeous I.credibly F.it | The Remarkable Story of Ernestine Shepherd
Photographer, graphic artist unknown.
This Giraffe Is too Fabulous
Speaking of giraffes… Continue reading
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo by “pido67,” Pixabay Continue reading
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “Italy, Sicily Sea” by Pixabay
The Moon is distant from the Sea – (387)
By Emily Dickinson
The Moon is distant from the Sea –
And yet, with Amber Hands –
She leads Him – docile as a Boy –
Along appointed Sands –
He never misses a Degree –
Obedient to Her eye –
He comes just so far – toward the Town –
Just so far – goes away –
Oh, Signor, Thine, the Amber Hand –
And mine – the distant Sea –
Obedient to the least command
Thine eye impose on me –
If you know any homeless artists who would like their poems, photos or art featured on under1000skies, on our social media accounts and through our email list, please pass on our information. Thank you!
We’re also always gratefully accepting photos, art, poems or quotes or any Gems anyone might want to share. Special thanks today and always to everyone who has shared these so generously over the years since we began.
Have a great weekend.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Hope
Sometimes when life knocks us down, hope is the only thing we feel we have to hold onto. We hope for healing in mind, body and spirit. Hope for a better day, today. Hope for a better day, tomorrow. Hope we see things with fresh eyes when our vision has become narrow. Hope for understanding. Hope that our goals will be achieved. Hope lifts us up. Hope gives us strength to carry on and the trust that all will work out for the best. We set our sights on those hopes and work towards them with a willing heart and an open mind. Each of us has hopes for our personal lives and for the lives of those we love and cherish. Hope is powerful and we need to hold onto it with all our being. Please feel free to share, if you are so inspired.
Photo and essay by TC, KindSpring.org. Used with permission. Thanks so much TC! ♡ Original post is here: Hope When Life Knocks
If you know any homeless artists who would like their poems, photos or art featured on under1000skies, on our social media accounts and through our email list, please pass on our information. Thank you!
We’re also always gratefully accepting photos, art, poems or quotes or any Gems anyone might want to share. Special thanks today and always to everyone who has shared these so generously over the years since we began.
Have a great weekend.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “Abenstimmung” (Evening Mood) by Johannes Plenio, Pixabay
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo by Sasin Tipchai generously donated to Pixabay. Thank you! ♡
If you know any homeless artists who would like their poems, photos or art featured on under1000skies, on our social media accounts and through our email list, please pass on our information. Thank you!
We’re also always gratefully accepting photos, art, poems or quotes or any Gems anyone might want to share. Special thanks today and always to everyone who has shared these so generously over the years since we began.
Have a great weekend.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “Coneflower” contributed by Cord X. Thank you!
I loved this quote today and read a little about Theodore Roethke. He was a poet who lived in the 20th Century. Some of his poems were for children. I searched but didn’t find the poem that contains this line. So, I decided to write my own.
The idea of flowers keeping light inside their roots captured my imagination. I think that we humans keep the light in our “roots” in our own way, too. We keep the light in our memories. We share the light through our creativity.
To keep the light as flowers do
Deep in their roots to save ’til night
Then, in the garden before dawn,
Release it into fairy light;
To blend it gently with the dew,
To catch the first rays of the sun
That warm each blade of grass, each leaf
‘Til every drop of light is gone;
To watch it rise, a shimmering,
The new sun’s rays now amplify,
Then almost imperceptibly,
Release it to the waiting sky.
My light holds memories of you;
In outstretched hands, my heart’s bijou.
Niki Flow
Thank you Cord, for sharing this beautiful photo, today’s light-filled gem.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “The Blades Aerobatic Display Team; National Armed Forces Day” UK -June30th in Gallery/New Themes. Copyright © Richard Keys, Photo Sociology: “Exploring Sociology through Photography” All rights reserved. Used with permission. Thank you, Richard! ♡
Today’s quote
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” ― Leonardo da Vinci
is courtesy of SkyGod.
Doesn’t it make you wonder how Leonardo da Vinci knew how flying felt? Did he have vivid dreams about it? Have you ever had a vivid dream about flying? I always wanted to but never have, even though I often have vivid dreams.
Today I learned by way of LeonardodaVinci.net that Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated with flight all his life. He drew sketches of flying machines (some of which are on the linked page) more than 400 years before the Wright Brothers made his dreams a reality in 1903 at Kitty Hawk. I loved Kitty Hawk and could have spent days there. If you ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend it!
I was delighted to see an entire series of flying photos on Richard’s blog a few months ago and to learn that he loves air shows at least as much as I do. I got to go to two air shows in the UK this summer by way of Richard’s camera. (Thank you Richard! Incidentally, this is the song I mentioned on your Armed Forces Day post.)
Special thanks to Richard Keys Photo Sociology, for gifting us with his beautiful photos all week long. You’ll be seeing more of Richard’s photos for as long as he permits. it. Thanks so much Richard!
In the meantime, if you know any homeless artists who would like their poems, photos or art featured on under1000skies, on our social media accounts and through our email list, please pass on our information. Thank you!
Have a great weekend.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “Ganet-puffin-guillemot-1-of-12” in Gallery/Birds. Copyright © Richard Keys, Photo Sociology: “Exploring Sociology through Photography” All rights reserved. Used with permission. Thank you, Richard! ♡
From Richard’s page:
Northern Gannet
The Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) is one of my favorite sea birds. It has a beautiful blue eye which us set against a pastel yellow nape. They nest in large colonies and are very territorial. Gannets mate for life and return to the same nest year after year.
The snippet of poem shared on today’s Gem came from Julian Date, friend of writer and photographer Richard Carter, FDC. EDIT: Richard kindly gave me permission today to share the full poem. Also, I have corrected Julian’s last name from “Dale” to “Date” (“like the Julian calendar…” Richard kindly explained). Thank you so much Richard and Julian! ♡
THE GANNET
My favourite bird’s the gannet:
It’s the best bird on the planet.
It’s better than knots
And guillemots
And beats razorbills by lots and lots.Yes, my favourite bird’s the gannet:
It just can’t be beaten, can it?
It hatches on ledges,
Where it stays till it fledges
And grows a physique
With a fabulous beak.
Then it takes to the air
And soars way up there,
Till it reaches a summit,
Whence it dives in a plummet
And down with a S W I S H !
It catches a fish.Yes, my favourite bird’s the gannet
(Apart from my girlfriend, Janet!).
Richard Carter created a movement in the United Kingdom called Friends of Darwin. His original goal was to get the face of Charles Darwin on a bank note. This is from his Home page:
The Friends of Charles Darwin were founded in 1994 to campaign for the depiction of their hero, Charles Darwin, on a Bank of England bank note. The great man finally appeared on the new £10 note in November 2000.
Due to popular demand, we’re still taking on new members. We currently have 4,070 members in 98 countries. Our most recent new member is Chris Stephens of London, England.
So if you can truly say “Charlie is my Darwin”, and you’d like to be able to write the letters FCD after your name, why not join us? It’s totally free!
I’ve written to Mr. Carter to ask permission to share J. Dale’s entire poem here. Meanwhile, if you have some time, have a look around his site. It’s really fun and very informative.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤
Photo “Flowers, Macro 1,” Gallery/Macro Photography Copyright © Richard Keys, Photo Sociology: “Exploring Sociology through Photography” All rights reserved. Used with permission. Thank you! ♡
This is a gorgeous flower photo, but I didn’t know what kind of flower it was until I did a little research. I found this wonderful poet just today searching for quotes about anemone, which I’m forever confusing with anemones — same word, but the flower is pluralized without the “s” and the marine creature with it. Did you know that? I learned that today too!
It’s a delight to learn new things, and to find new poets, too, and learn their stories:
Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) and Dora Read Goodale (1866–1953) were American poets and sisters from Massachusetts. They published their first poetry as children still living at home, and were included in Edmund Clarence Stedman’s classic An American Anthology (1900).
Elaine Goodale taught at the Indian Department of Hampton Institute, started a day school on a Dakota reservation in 1886, and was appointed as Superintendent of Indian Education for the Two Dakotas by 1890. She married Dr. Charles Eastman (also known as Ohiyesa), a Santee Sioux who was the first Native American to graduate from medical school and become a physician. They lived with their growing family in the West for several years. Goodale collaborated with him in writing about his childhood and Sioux culture; his nine books were popular and made him a featured speaker on a public lecture circuit. She also continued her own writing, publishing her last book of poetry in 1930, and a biography and last novel in 1935.
Source, Wikipedia, The Goodale Sisters
Elaine Goodale Eastman and her family sound really fascinating. Imagine publishing your first book of poetry as a child. I didn’t publish my first book of poetry until I was a grandmother!
Speaking of, you can find Elanthian Love Songs – A Bard’s Tale on Amazon. As always, 100 percent of the profits go to under1000skies website fund (coming soon). We purchased the names “under1000skies.org” and “under1000skies.com.” The dot-org will be for this site and the dot-com for our stationary store. You can read more here: About Us.
We’ve stopped sending out artist kits for now because we’re looking into ways to combine volunteers with homeless artists for the day to take for camera-phone shots — much cheaper than mailing film and developing photos. We only ever got one roll of film back (from our friend John O.) and I lost it! It was just after Ben disappeared. Not an excuse, but perhaps a reason. I still have hope it will turn up, but that was not a great start. Thankfully, John was very understanding and cool about it.
I still love the idea of artist packs, so we’ll work on putting together a waterproof sketchbook with the notebook to include instead of a camera. Meanwhile, if you have any ideas about how to find cheap camera phones, please let me know.
Thank you again so much Richard, Photo Sociology, for allowing us to use another one of your gorgeous macro photos today.
♡. under1000skies
☼ A “Giftivism” Initiative ☼
We are photographers,
writers, artists & advocates
serving and connecting
homeless creatives.
under1000skies 