holiday message 2019

It started with the poppies.

This year’s card is about adventure. It’s about the beauty all around us. It’s about family, through and through.

It’s about following through on something, and giving it your best effort.

It’s about being open to moments of incredible beauty – so stunning that even months later, the sight of this image brings tears to my eyes.

It’s about celebrating joy, even in the hard stuff, the new stuff, the scary stuff. Especially those things.

But mostly, it’s about the poppies.

The poppies that I’d bring home every Saturday morning from the market – the first thing I’d see every morning for a month. The poppies, in paper, that provided inspiration for one of my favorite school committee traditions. Poppies in the garden that I’d photograph on our morning walks. Fields and fields of poppies in California that took my breath away. That’s where the idea started, along the many paths we wandered this year. I looked for images along the way for inspiration, and there were plenty.

Wisteria in bloom in Savannah, stately palms in Charleston.

Fragrant camellias along the Ashley River, and inside the Linea House at the garden. Camellias were the subject of a favorite book that F and I read this year, sometimes as we wandered in the garden early mornings before school.

Majestic redwoods in California, azaleas at their peak in Savannah, and in their peak again in Charleston. Layers and layers of pink glimpses through the cypress trees.

And the mountains, oh, the mountains – where we pushed our legs and our lungs and didn’t want to ever leave.

I was asked to include an additional water feature, and to reference the whales we encountered off the coast of Monterey. I was getting a little close on time, but then I thought about how many times we’ve walked along or over or even through water this year, and I found the time to make it happen. It’s one of my very favorite details. Second to poppies, is water, I suppose!

More than anything else, this card is about color. Color that surprises, that delights. Color that changes throughout the year, color that makes everything new again, color that drives me out of the house and the office and onto the running paths. Color that decorates celebrations with families and friends. Color on our table, color in our market basket, fresh colors applied to our beautiful old home. Color in our work and in our play, colors for the projects we do for the people and organizations we love, the color of travel and adventure, of passion and protest and pride. The color of poppies grown on an urban farm in the heart of the city we love and call home.

For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth over and around us lies.
For the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light.
For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight.

-excerpt from “For the Beauty of the Earth”, words: F. Pierpoint
verses of gratitude, embodied in the sights and senses of this world,
sung at our wedding two decades ago

Entering our twentieth year of adventures together, this handmade photo holder highlights moments of beauty we encountered along our paths this year. It can be used to display a personal moment of color or awe along the way in 2020.
Example photo is from a morning hike in Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite National Park, June 2019, bonus photo is a family moment of enthusiasm for the sights and sounds of San Francisco!

Wishing you a beautiful holiday season. Kristin, Marcus, Ella & Frances