a year in photos two (photos taken by others...with my camera)

so here we have it.  the second edition of my "year in photos" project.  i realized as i uploaded pictures that there were two months (april and may) where i was too selfish to let others touch my camera to take photos.  so i supplemented with other favorite photos and memories.  enjoy!

january
photo credit: mom t.

another january telluride picture, taken right outside the lodge (read: mansion) we stayed in.  it was beautiful.  

february
photo credit: luke

i turned 25 on the first day of february!  i had a lovely relaxing day, with a good long run, and an ice cream cake, compliments of my loving and wonderful husband.

march
photo credit: luke

again, march when my sisters came to visit (so many good pictures of those beautiful ladies!).  here we are at eastern market under a cherry blossom tree!  i love the cherry blossoms!

april
photo credit: me

easter was lovely and warm.  after church, jordan, valerie, luke and i spent the sunny, april afternoon lounging on blankets in a nearby park and blowing bubbles. 

may
photo credit: me

in may our friends, neil and rachel, invited us to join their lovely family on a trip to camden yards to see the orioles take on the nationals. it was so much fun!  and the kids are adorable.  i love this picture of neil teaching henry (and i guess kind of margaret....) how to keep score.

june
photo credit: luke

in june i had the lovely opportunity to see my wonderful mentor, kristen, get married.  and rachel and whitney, my lovely friends who were discipled along with me were there, too!  it was a most glorious event.

july
photo credit: zoya

july in india.  could it be any better than letting kids play with your camera?  i, personally, don't think so (see september as well).  

august
photo credit: kathleen

weddings are a wonderful time to be with friends.  see: liz and kris' august wedding.  good times were had by all.

september
photo credit: beautiful little girl who's name i can't recall...

september and our block party.  this little girl loved taking pictures.  and she was pretty good. again, i love letting little kids play with my camera.

october
photo credit: tamara

my family came up in october and we spent the weekend walking around pretty places, eating german food and watching the planes land at gravelley point. 

november
photo credit: jordan

november thanksgiving again, which was a good enough memory to include in both rounds.  and the only time i actually let someone else touch my camera.  i like this picture cause you can see little ted.

december
photo credit: tamara

during the months of november and december we had two clients die.  it was a really rough month, that ended with a beautiful series of memorial services.  during the service for tim, tamara captured this photo.  i think it says so much.

______________________________________________

honorable mention all happened during june and july, and are basically just some funny and memorable pictures. 

the pictures below were all taken during the same visit home during the month of june:

june honorable mention
photo credit: luke

this is a common occurrence when all the sisters get together with ted.  we can't decide if he loves it or hates it, but we love him!

this next series of pictures cracks me up because of christie:

june honorable mention
photo credit: luke

in this first photo christie (far left) will have nothing to do with the silliness jenny and i are creating...

june honorable mention
photo credit: luke

the second photo christie is considering joining in on our crazy actions...

june honorable mention
photo credit: luke

third photo: christie abandons all sense of what is right and mature and joins in our escapade.  mission accomplished.

july honorable mention
photo credit: some dude on the street in front of the place we ate.

kelly's birthday we had indian food and laughed and took our first "family" photo.  we had a lot of fun.  i love these people.

____________________________________________

so that's the complete 2011 photo review.  happy new years, everyone!

a year in photos part 1 (photos taken by me)

so i saw on another blog someone who posted one picture a month...their favorite picture or their favorite memory...to recap the year.  i wanted to do that, but i had such a hard time limiting it to just one!  so, i decided to split it into two sections.  the first (this one) being photos taken by me.  the second (soon to come) is photos taken by others, but with my camera. i also struggled between choosing my favorite memory from each month and my favorite picture.  sometimes they matched and sometimes they didn't.  hopefully the second set will reconcile these a bit, but the honorable mention might as well. 

so here they are, my favorite picture from each month of 2011.

january

 in january we hopped in a plane and flew to colorado for some skiing.  i had never seen the rockies up close before and they were glorious.  a whole different kind of beauty than the blue ridge.  we had an excellent time with luke’s family. 

february

in february luke had his lasic eye surgery. this is hands down my favorite picture of february because it cracks me up.  he had to wear these weird eye-protectors for two weeks after the surgery. 

march

in march two of my sisters came up to visit and we spent a lovely afternoon at eastern market.  the capitol hillbillies were playing and we listened for awhile.  this is probably my favorite picture that i took that afternoon.  i don’t remember much of march.  i think that jenny and her boyfriend also came up, but i just didn’t take many pictures.  march is also when i started a new full-time job, so the business might have something to do with it...

april

in april we moved from our first apartment together into a community home in anacostia.  we love our new home, and i honestly can't believe that we moved there in april...it seems like we've been there so long.  anyways, this was our very last picture together in our apartment before we turned the keys in.  good bye, rock creek church road ne!

may

in may my mom's side all got together to surprise my pappap on his 90th birthday.  it was a wonderful trip, and we all had a lot of fun.  i love this picture of my grandma and pappap during the flurry of pictures we were taking.  they are pretty cool and inspiring.

june

so much happened during the summer, and a lot of my honorable mentions will come from june, july and august.  however, this picture from june when our friend, kevin, came up to dc is probably my favorite.  during that visit we went to the zoo and went tubing (and i lost my tiny camera...) they are so comfortable in their masculinity...

july

july was another one of those months when so.much.happened.  during the fourth of july fireworks were going off EVERYWHERE.  there were some teens and kids setting these off in the alley behind our house and i joined in and took some pictures.  the kids would get up so close and then the sparks would fly and they would run away screaming.  time after time after time.  it was a lot of fun.

august

we spent the last half of july and august in india.  it was beautiful and so affirming of the call luke and i have felt for awhile now.  during our time in k-town we volunteered with the sisters of charity.  serving in this place taught me lessons that i am still learning about now.  this picture is also telling because of the crazy flood waters.  it was raining so hard!

september

i struggled with the picture for september because we had several great pictures.  but i think the most meaningful memory i had was our last baseball game in nats park.  we've had a could of "last" games because we always thought we would be leaving dc.  this one was indeed our last, for now.  we had a good time.

october

i took a lot of beautiful pictures on our annual apple picking event with jordan and valerie in october but this was my favorite. look at the excitement and the joy =)  i love them.

november

november was beautiful, with beautiful weather, beautiful leaves and beautiful people.  we had 16 people at our thanksgiving meal, plus one dog and one cat.  the weekend was fun.

december

thus far, december has been filled with hard stuff, good time with family and meaningful time with God.  i think the most uplifting time was the spiritual retreat we went on in mid-december.  this little kitten followed me around for the morning of our second day, but the time at corhaven, the spiritual retreat center, was refreshing.

 _____________________________________________________

so those are my top 12 for the year.  a few honorable mentions include:

january honorable mention

another picture from telluride ski trip.

march honorable mention.

another picture from katie and christie's visit to dc and eastern market. 

may honorable mention.

a picture from our trip to pennsylvania.  i think this field is stunning.

july honorable mention.

luke and i celebrated our 3rd anniversary with a double header baseball game and a picnic.  it was perfect.

august honorable mention.

kites fling in delhi.  it was more beautiful than my little camera could capture.

september honorable mention.

we had our first block party.  the little girl on the left loved taking pictures with me camera.  this family was beautiful.

october honorable mention.

 we went to michigan for kali and charlie teater's wedding.  it was beautiful and they were sweet.  i really liked capturing both of them with their father's during the father-daughter dance.

november honorable mention.

we went to teddy roosavelt island to collect leaves for decorations and hike around.  this little boy wanted to do exactly what luke was doing but swore it was his own idea.  it was pretty cute.

november honorable mention.

 the beginning of the christmas season.  we went to the botanical gardens with our families the friday after thanksgiving to herald it in. it was a lot of fun and extremely beautiful.

december honorable mention.

celebrating ellen's birthday at the gaylord with the housemates.  we rode the elevator a couple of times so we could see the decorations from up high and ride the super-fast elevator.

__________________________________________________

so there's the first round!  pictures taken by others to come shortly!

living broken.

"no one has ever accused me of being gentle"  i told my spiritual director.  "maybe i need to work on that."  i sighed and added another thing to my list.
"no," she said softly, "you need to be gentled."

i've lived a life of exasperation these past few weeks.  anger at work, frustration in relationships, sadness with clients.  all of these have added to a load that i feel has grown quite heavy.  on top of that God has been humbling me in so many ways...showing me my brokenness when i just want to blame others for theirs, making me face my judgmental attitudes head on. 

i am so broken.  and as i listen to beloved music during this advent season i find myself longing for Emmanuel to come, for the bells to answer me that the wrong shall fail and right prevail.  this place, this world, is. so. broken.

and i'm homesick.  i am longing for a new heaven and a new earth.  and to be gentled.

but here i am.  in a broken world.  living broken.  and (sometimes unfortunately) it is not my personality to back down.

but this Messiah that i long for and anxiously await made a promise for the time being.  the waiting period.

" come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  for My yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

sometimes being gentle and humble are scary.  it's a loss of control and a loss of the right to be correct and even (at least it feels sometimes...) a loss of justice.  but really it is placing the trust that all will be cared for in the hands of whom it belongs.

for now, i will allow Him to gentle me.

but my heart still longs for Emmanuel to come. 

community.

after dinner we gathered in the living room to talk about dreams, listen to stories and learn about what it means to live.  together.  in community.  bundled up in hoodies, blankets, and scarves (because we're a little too cheap to give in to the heat quite yet), we lit candles laughed, sighed and debated together.  this is what life looks like.  i am so lucky that God has called me to this place.

feelin' groovy

things i am currently finding groovy*:

september.  and the return of my spiced pumpkin candle.

simon & garfunkel (hence the title...).

my clients. and how much i love them.

my job.  because my co-worker is amazing and my clients are special.  and because it's the best job in the world.

dreaming about india.

fresh flowers.  and how my client who sells them likes to give them to me for free (he tried to do it again today when i wanted to buy some for my housemate!).

living in community and practicing common prayer.

my husband.  who makes me giggle.

pictures and the taking and editing of.

pumpkin spice muffins (and the anticipation of a pumpkin spice latte on tuesday!).

just a happy note as we head into friday!

happy september everyone!

____________________________________________

*in no particular order.

human together

i had every intention of going to the gym when i got home from work this afternoon. but after staying up until midnight last night and going into work at 7:00 this morning it was more appealing for me to come home to our empty community house, grab a handful of pita chips and a mug full of chocolate milk and sit down to blog while our house cat snoozes on the chair across from me and the sunlight filters through the numerous windows. it's not usually quiet in our house. which i like. i love living in community, i love my housemates and i would not give up where i am in life right now for anything (unless, maybe, i was offered a ticket to india...but even that's uncertain because that will happen when God is ready...). but it's been an emotional week, and i haven't really had time to think and sometimes that can add to the exhaustion.

today tamara and i were talking to one of our clients who sells flowers.
"a," i said, "those are really beautiful. i'm going to come back and buy some from you later." "take some" a answered, "i want you to have them."
"but i don't have any money with me right now..."
"i want to give them to you."
so i left him with a bouquet of beautiful flowers in yellows and reds and burgundy--a perfect fall mix for the end of august.

i have probably said it before and i will probably say it again because i think that our common humanity will always and forever be what drives me and compels me consistently to love others. i count myself so, so privileged because day after day i get to sit down and hear the stories and share the humanity with people who many have pushed to the side.

i get to see the smile on a's face as he watches people pick out flowers from his stand. i get to hear the simple reasoning of justice from my developmentally delayed friend r, which reminds me day after day to seek the simple justices and ways of life. it's not really as complicated as i make it. i get to see the tears in g's eyes as he tells me (yet again) of the death of his daughter. i see the excitement when d gets to provide a home for his wife after a long time searching. i get to enter into the delusions of mr. c who has somehow decided to trust me even though he thinks everyone else is out to get him. and i get to laugh with c as he tells me i'm a stalker and accuses me of stealing all the petty cash (i never really know if he's joking...).

i'm so privileged because i get to experience humanity every day with people who are simply human...but told by society that they just aren't worth it.

t and i have two quotes in our office and at the end of every email that we send. her's reads "my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together" (bishop desmond tutu) and i have found this to be so true. as i realize my clients humanity i realize more and more my own humanity. our weaknesses and strengths. loves and dislikes. we rejoice together and cry together. and through our common humanity we build bonds and help each other grow.

a psalm

i've been struggling with God. learning what it looks like to give control over to Him and to trust Him with my life. to accept that He knows my future, and He knows what He wants it to look like. also trying to remember that He is the God of justice and mercy. of love and wrath. and He is able to be the God of opposites because He is the Alpha and the Omega.

whenever i struggle, i find it helpful to do something creative. for some reason it helps bring me closer to God in a way that is easy and comfortable. this week i've been praying and thinking and reading the psalms. i came to psalm 101, and for some reason i was prompted to re-write it. and i thought i would share.

psalm 101
of elisabeth. a psalm.

i will sing of Your love and justice;
to You, O LORD, i will sing praise.
i will try, with Your help, to live a life of justice and mercy--
will You help me?

i will treat my family with love and grace.
i will not enter into temptation purposefully.

the deeds of the unjust--especially those that they claim to do in Your name--frustrate me.
those deeds i hate. they will not be my deeds.
those whose heart is focused on violence and lies shall not be close to me--
for i will have nothing to do with evil.

whoever slanders the poor or meek--
those i will try to give a new point of view;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart--
i will speak to them the truth of Your justice.

my eyes will be on the marginalized in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
i will entreat the faithful and just to minister to me.

no one who speaks lies as if they are truth will dwell in my house--
for they do more damage than good.

every morning i will seek Your truth, and put to silence the wicked in myself;
and i will seek to bring the Kingdom of the Lord to this city.

we're leaving for india this week. while we're gone luke and i will be blogging from here. hopefully on a more regular basis than we have been previously...

blessed are you who are poor.

"hi m." i said as i approached the woman who always sits in the park. "how are you today?"
"oh, i'm doing fine." she replied in her soft voice. "elisabeth, have you had something to eat today?"
"yes, i have," i answered, knowing this time that if i answered in the negative she would reach into her small plastic bag and given me exactly half of what she had been given that day, including a bottle of water (even though it was 100 degrees outside), for that's what she had done the previous week. every day since then i have seen her carefully and quietly walk around and offer each one of the clients in the park some of her food. we don't know m. well. we don't know why she is living in the park or why she doesn't want to talk to us. but we do know that something in her longs to nurture and care for others. and she has a generous spirit. what else would compel her to ask others if she could give out of the meager food that she had?

m. reminds me of a story that is found in the gospel of luke. Jesus and His disciples are standing near the temple and Jesus sees "the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury". He then sees a poor widow put in just two small "mites" as one translation calls them. Jesus then states that "this poor widow has put in more than all the others...".

i learn a lot from my clients.

i learn grace. yesterday i was a mess. i couldn't drive. i couldn't talk. i kept dropping things. i was taking a client to get a police clearance and he was chuckling the whole time. when i dropped him off he turned to me and said "elisabeth--you and me, we're gonna be okay."

i learn humility. every day my client tells me something about "the system" i did not know. and often times, they have way more knowledge than i, they just need a little bit of encouragement to take advantage of the resources.

i learn patience. mr. w is one of my clients who teaches me this every day. he's a soft-spoken southern gentleman, who always looks out for my co-worker and me. and whenever there's a set back, he always says "well, liz, that's okay." and gives me a big grin.

when i started this job my prayer was that every day i would be a learner. that i would learn something from the people that others think that i "help". and without even trying every day it happens.

i think in the world we have it mixed up. especially in the united states. we think that if we have material resources, or if we have a large house that God has blessed us. we think that living "the good life" is a sign of blessings from God. but Jesus turns all of that upside down when in luke He says "blessed are you who are poor, for yours in the Kingdom of God..." and the poor are blessed. blessed with grace, with patience, with giving spirits, with humility and gentleness. when i think of those who most clearly exhibit the fruits of the spirit to me it is my clients. without even trying they care for others, even if they don't always know how to care for themselves.

when Jesus came He turned everything upside down. He said blessed are the poor, the weak and the weary--when our world exalts all that is rich, powerful and strong. He said that two mites is worth more than the millions--not because of the amount but because of the Spirit. He instructed us to love our enemies. and ultimately He died a brutal death in order that we may have life and in living have hope.

the more involved i get with my clients the more i long for Jesus to come back and show us again what this world should be. the more i long to exhibit His love to others and to live this upside down world. will you join me?

______________________________

**i know that i have not written in awhile. i want to say that i will be better at it...but in all honesty, i won't. i'm loving living the community life a little bit too much, and rarely take time to sit at my computer alone...

wandering angels

when i walked into his hospital room in the psychiatric ward i felt a wave of relief--and as he turned around a huge smile spread across his face, and joy filled my heart as he exclaimed in his soft spanish accent "ee-lees-a-bet! i was so worried about you!" i wanted to hug him. but all i could do was smile my biggest smile and exclaim "i'm SO glad we found you!"

i have been working with this soft-spoken veteran since my first day at my new job, until he disappeared earlier this week. we've been looking for him since monday, and finally yesterday my co-worker and i called the hospitals in a last ditch attempt to make contact with him to let him know that his housing application got approved and he can move into his new apartment. they told us at one of the local hospitals that someone with the general description of our client and the same name was admitted over the weekend, but he was 10 years younger. i went to check on him today, but after my morning--which was filled with a client (and his mom--for real) yelling at me, another client deciding to strip down and run around a park, and a woman who was convinced i missed our appointment (that i had no idea we had made) i was 100% sure that this would turn out badly as well.

but it didn't, and when our dear gentleman gave me his grin, i knew why i had been so excited about this job.

these past three weeks i have probably experienced the best and the worst that street outreach has to offer. but such love fills my heart for every one of these people that i can't imagine doing anything else. and even on the rough days a client will say something brilliant or hilarious that will brighten my day. as i sit and listen i realize that these men and women who have been disregarded, ignored or pushed to the streets by various illnesses, stigmas or people have so much to offer if i will just sit down and take the time to listen.

and today as A smiled up at me from his hospital bed the only thing i could think of was this verse in hebrews, and how today A was such an angel to me.

keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
(hebrews 13:1-3)

and even though today was really, really hard, that smile reminded me that i am the luckiest person on this whole earth. because i get to sit in the company of angels that so many people disregard.

february.

what? the last day of february is tomorrow? and i haven't posted at all in february? woah.

february was a whirlwind. it was peppered with celebration, disappointment, fasting and illness. these things combined to make an already short month fly by. so, here it is in pictures:

february started out, as it does every year, with my birthday. i turned 25, and celebrated with my husband, chipotle and an ice cream cake. it was lovely.

week two of february i was having a rough time, so i decided to fast from food and media for the week. during the week i studied lamentations and first john, and read practicing the presence of God by brother lawrence and sensing God by roger ferlo. i'm not really sure what i was hoping to achieve. prior to the week i had been feeling quite jumbled, agitated and distracted. i wanted to gain focus and so i tried to reach this goal by removing all barriers that i place between me and God. by the end of the week i was just tired and hungry. while i was able to focus more on praying, i had not been able to focus on listening. i was frustrated. so on sunday morning luke and i took a retreat of silence. during which i had an incredible moment of clarity, in which i realized that while i am unsure of where i am or what God has in store for me, i realized that He is doing something. the result of which was this collage (click to make bigger):

i think i realized that even though luke and i are wanting to go abroad at some point, right now God has us here. and while we are here, we need to be living. we need to be here, proclaiming hope, justice and love. so that is what we decided to do. we decided to move into an intentional community in SE DC, get more involved in our church, and i decided to get involved in the intervarsity project here called dc urban plunge. God also brought into my life a wonderful university of maryland student who i'm going to start meeting with once a week for discipleship.

week three of february was my mom's birthday, and so i traveled to north carolina to surprise her for her weekend celebration. on the way down to durham, megabus stops in richmond, so i hopped out with buke and took some pictures of downtown richmond, which (in my opinion) is great for photographing.

the surprise was a success! my mom had no idea i was coming (especially since i called her from the bus to throw her off) and we had a good weekend. except i got sick. which, while it made the weekend a little bit pitiful, did not ruin it completely, but rather (i thought) helped us slow down and just enjoy each others' company. and i was still able to accompany my mom and sisters on my mom's birthday shopping trip. while i was in nc celebrating my mom's birthday, luke flew to louisville and picked up a car from luke's grandma. she was nice enough to give us her car, since she is no longer using it. luke swung by nc and picked me up, and now we have a car for the first time in over a year. and, while we know we don't need it and don't plan on using it as much as we used otto, it sure is nice to go to the grocery store without lugging all our groceries on the bus!

while in nc i got a new jacket with an old navy gift certificate from my sisters! for which this week has provided the perfect weather.

this weekend, luke--aka my little blind mole (face pictured directly below)--got lasik eye surgery.

(blind baby mole face)

(during the surgery)

(successful surgery!)

(and now for the next two weeks he has to wear these weird goggle eye-protector things while he sleeps, but he's no longer a blind baby mole)

this weekend we also found out that the house we were planning on moving into is being sold. while we will still be joining the group of people who live there, it will be in a different house, and the time is now uncertain. i've also had a couple of other upsets this week, which have all left me feeling very unsettled and frustrated. because i feel like luke and i have really been seeking to follow God--but we're just uncertain now. i'm really learning how to hold plans lightly, allow God to work and follow Him into uncertainty. today i spent a long time debating with God, telling Him my frustrations, fears and just complaining to Him. while i know that this season can only last for a short while, i've always found it helpful to give myself at least a morning to hash it all out with God--positive or negative. today's session produced this collage:


which is completely different than my collage at the beginning of the month. this one is not as positive, and poses a question to me: do i really believe that better is one day in the courts of my Lord than a thousand elsewhere? herein lies the question that i am seeking to answer right now. and until i answer this question affirmatively, i think i will be stuck in uncertainty. but i do know that when i finally have the courage to face this question and truthfully answer that yes, i do believe that, things will fall in place in my heart (even if they literally stay the same as they are now).

this afternoon luke and i (and my adventure pants!) explored rock creek park a little bit more:

we climbed.

we balanced.

and jumped.

we adventured.

we smiled.

and i practiced taking artsy pictures.

speaking of, here is a technique of the week. shutter speed and water:
changing the shutter speed when taking pictures of water can give the water more of a flowing feeling. here is what it looks like at a normal shutter speed:

(shutter speed 1/80--meaning the shutter is open for 1/80th of a second, and f/7.1)

here is the same pictures with a slower shutter speed:
(shutter speed .8--meaning shutter stays open for .8 seconds, and f/29)

this is a different spot, but my favorite picture:
(shutter speed .6, f/29)

pretty cool, huh?

we also used our new found car freedom to venture into maryland to a bojangles. YUM!

i'm really lucky (lukey?) to have luke. i know i say this a lot, but it's because it's so true. he knows me really well, and i like that we can adventure together while having serious discussions about struggling with God, and what life is supposed to look like. he can speak to me with great wisdom and insight on a level that shows me that he understands and cares what's going on. God really blessed me with him. He knew what i would need, and He gave me luke to be a fellow adventurer, listener and partner (in crime and otherwise).

so there you have it. february in one past with a little bit of everything--pictures, God stuff, and technique of the week. and here's a little bit of onion humor to wrap it up:

Pants Attempt To Convey What Owner Can't

happy (almost) march everyone!