A Journey of Healing

One Photograph, One Workshop, One Day at a Time

In February of this year (2010) we teamed up with Charles Needle and produced a workshop ‘Creative Macro Photography’. Attending this workshop was this extraordinary person who recently lost her husband. She was taking up photography to help her through her grief. This was her first workshop and the beginning of her journey to heal.

Since this workshop her journey into photography has taken her to different parts of the country, she has been exposed to a variety of instructors and has met some wonderful people. She has found some comfort during this time, but it was her photography that helped her the most while on this journey, it has given her a reason to live and carry on.

In September we did a workshop on ‘Creating a Photo Book’ using Blurb and other programs. Sally, again attended one of our workshops. With her, she brought some of the stunning photographs she had been taking during this journey. It was fun and exciting to she her growth as a photographer and to see happiness in her experience.

Her new book is an accumulation of her photographs - and maybe a touch of a memoir to her healing process and her husband. http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1618332

Thank you Sally, for sharing this journey with us. You are a beautiful person and a wonderful photographer. We wish you all the best as you continue your photography and your life.

It is because of people, and photographers, like you that we enjoy having these workshops. We get a chance to live vicariously through your lens, and then watch you grow as a photographer.

From Sally:

I was with my husband for 18 years. He was my best friend, my husband, my cheerleader and my backbone. He was my rock and my sunshine. He was diagnosed with Cancer that had spread to his spine and after a yearlong battle with extreme pain and unimaginable hurdles he passed away.

When I say he was my sunshine, he was. He smiled everyday that he was here. It did not matter how much pain he was in - he smiled.

I loved him so much and miss him terribly, but I know that we must go on. It would have been so easy to just curl up in a ball and just let it all go. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. I still had a desire, a desire to live, as hard as it was and at times it still is I really did want to live.

I joined photography groups; they got me out of the house and kept me out of the malls. I needed to be around people that had my passion for photography. I needed to get out and make some friends, and I did. I can’t express enough how much this helped me. I can only tell you that through my photography I met some fantastic people, I reconnected with others and I’m living.

My first workshop was with “That Photo Shoppe” doing Macro Photography. I did another workshop with them that dealt with building books, books like this one. This book is a result of all the workshops I did, it was a way for me to get back to living again and to make something beautiful out of all the pain.

The journey of healing will never end, but I’m doing it the only way I know, “Through the lens”.

Thanks for being part of my journey...Hope this is not too long :)

Living Local Economies and Communities

Local Living Economies – Sustainable Communities

This isn’t a new concept but it is something that all of us should pay attention to, especially now.

People are fed up. Fed up with the Government. Fed up with Corporations. Fed up with Banks. Fed up with the economy. We are just FED UP!! So what are some communities and small businesses doing about it? They are promoting a Local Living Economy – a Sustainable Community.

Way back when, communities worked together, they supported each other and built their lives and their businesses around their community. Their economy was local, they traded local, they lived local and they sustained local. It was a true – Relationship Economy.

Then the grocery store chains, the malls and the large ‘box’ stores came in and spending shifted to a more global economy. Our community dollars (and jobs) went somewhere else, causing some small (and larger) businesses and communities to struggle, or worse collapse.

There are some communities (towns) that are trying to shift back to the Local Economy. Those that are good at it are surviving and even thriving during these down economic times. One such community is Bellingham, WA. Through Sustainable Connections – a local non-profit – they have boosted Bellingham’s economy and small businesses are thriving. The local businesses are supporting each other and most importantly supporting their community. They are providing jobs, supporting their community and they are supporting their environment.

Everyone benefits from this movement, including the community.

We should all pay attention to this movement. Most importantly we should be supporting it and starting to do it in our own communities.

To learn more about Sustainable Connections visit their website at http://sustainableconnections.org or visit http://www.livingeconomies.org - a national organization on Local Living Economies.


Watch this well-done video on YouTube about Sustainable Connections.






You can also watch a PBS special about this subject – to watch it visit this website http://video.pbs.org/video/1650808108



From Sustainable Connections Website:

What We Do, Values & History

Vision:

We envision a thriving, collaborative community in which local businesses are prosperous and contribute to a healthy environment and the well-being of all citizens.
Mission:

To be the local forum where businesses come together to transform and model an economy built on sustainable practices.

We work with local, independently owned businesses that have the autonomy to make any transformational change in their business that they can imagine… reexamining where we buy goods and services, how we consume energy, grow and distribute our food, build homes, and even, how we define success in business. Sustainable Connections is supporting a community of innovators in green building, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, supporting independent businesses in town centers, and mentoring a new breed of entrepreneurs that have designed their business with a sustainable vision.

New Book by Tiny Hands Art

In the summer we did a workshop on creating your own Photo book. We had an enthusiastic crowd of people who wanted to learn since that time there have been a few books published (one will be a feature story soon). For now though I am sharing my most recent book. I took the art produced by my niece and nephew during their Kindergarten through Third Grade period, and I made a book out it. It was a lot of fun being creative around their work.

This book is also a showcase of some upcoming services we will be providing through our new business "design MADNESS". We will be offering design services, such as children books created by their Tiny Hands.

Enjoy.

A Glimpse of Art by Ben & Madi Harasek | Make Your Own Book