As a child I remember getting so excited when it came time to back to school shopping. It meant it was time to pick up a brand new giant box of crayola crayons. Every year I would reach for the mega box with the built in sharpener that contained wonderfully named shades such as "razzmatazz" and "macaroni and cheese" and the glittery promise of silver, gold, and copper. Sometimes they would be scented, sometimes they contained sparkles, but they always filled my heart with excitement and joy as I dreamt of the possibility of creation within each and every crayon.

Someone once said to me "I was there when you took that photograph and it didn't look that way to me. You changed what was there completely." She was wrong. I made the scene into exactly how my eyes saw it. Henry David Thoreau once said "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." When I am in the moment, when I let go of all preconceived notions about what something is and isn't and look at it as if it were the first time through my camera lens, it's as if that mega box of 96 crayola crayons spilled out into the world's canvas and splashed vitality into the scene. Actually, nature way out does crayola. There are colors out there like "take my breath away blue" and "kick you in your teeth yellow." Colors so wild and beautiful to even try and name them would be a disservice. It's all about opening one's eyes and soaking them with wonder to the point that the wonder completely overwhelms the soul. There is magic everywhere if you're willing to make yourself vulnerable enough to see it. And that magic doesn't happen in a quick glance. It happens when we sit with something, when we find gratitude for the beauty it holds and the gifts it offers. It is easy to allow the daily grind to take over and to forget how to wow ourselves in wonder. It's easy to forget the excitement of seeking beauty in the seemingly mundane and the thrill of discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary. Life is wonder-full when we take the time to awe-some. Goodness knows I've been guilty of not seeing, of missing moments and wishing I could go back and capture moments in an entirely different light. My internal default button is to disconnect when this happens. I disconnect from being present, I disconnect from gratitude, and I especially disconnect from the people around me. The only way I know how to right those wrongs is to wake up to wonder here and now, to step back from the daily grind and just take a breath, to open my heart in a way that makes me crazy vulnerable (especially when it is the most wounded and raw), and to express love and gratitude in words, thoughts, deeds, and pigmented pixel passion. 

Just Breathe. Soak your eyes with wonder. Fill your heart with love. Reconnect and become an active participant in life here and now. That's how magic happens and that's how the extraordinary is found in the ordinary. A great big colorful wonder-filled world awaits.

Love Big. Hug Hard. Laugh Loud. Write On.