New Year

New Year 2012

The year has ended and it is a time when winter snows and long days allow call us to look back.  Remember those who have walked on, were born, tragedies that have touched us or our family, the gatherings that brought us great joy, the high and low points that we will keep and hold close to us forever.

In the long nights of darkness, we also ponder the new year to come.  365(or 6) new days, what will we choose to do with them?  Ah yes, the resolution…what will I promise myself this year?  To lose weight, get healthy, go on a trip, visit a best friend I have not seen in years, get a new car, buy my first house, move out of my parents home, or maybe it is something more personal, not allowing others to treat me bad, ignore those who don’t make me feel good, be nicer to others, and so on and on…

Whatever this day means to you, embrace it!  My desire for me in the new year is the same desire for each of you, 365(or 6) new beginnings!  Each day wake up and know that ‘today’ is the first day of the next 365(or6) and today I will try to live in the now, this very moment, enjoy it, love it, learn in it, share with it, be honest, to love, give, laugh, forgive others but most of all forgive self, to pass on loving sentiments from your true heart, to walk with respect in each step.  Most of all, know that you ARE loved and that love can conquer all!  This is my wish/prayer for each of my dear friends and to those of the world…366 days of 2012 and that same wish/prayer for every minute of those days and to ripple through the rest of your life! 

Happy New Year, New You!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

WOW!  This year has been very eventful!  Kev came home from Nevada, in March.   He spent a couple months on unemployment and then went back to work for TJader, who he worked for a couple years ago.  November of this year he became a Certified Pipeline Welding Inspector.  Applications are sent out all over the place…now the waiting game.

March of this year I got a message in my Facebook messages, from someone I never met…she said she was searching for family for her friend, Theresa Hiler.  My father was married before my mom, to Elsie.  She had a daughter, Bonnie and they had Paula.  Bonnie had two children, Bobby and Theresa.  I met them all once back in 1976 (or something like that) and then again when our dad was really sick.  I called Theresa right away.  She got me in touch with Bonnie and told me where I could find Paula.  I looked Paula up on line and found her and her two sons and granddaughter!  I called, and within the week, Kev and I were picking Paula up at the Humphrey Airport in the cities.

Right off the plane we noticed likenesses…we had the same shoes on...then at our house, we have similar kitchen items, furniture, bedding, decorating ideas and we would finish each other’s sentences.

Anna Martineau Merritt and Paula Martineau Kolonich

…Was not long and my cousin John, found his brother’s kids and they were living in the Grand Rapids, MI area…so, we were off to Michigan to meet them and to reacquaint myself with Bonnie, Theresa and Elsie, the mother to my sisters.  I also met one of Theresa’s two boys…was over the top! I am sad that I was not able to meet Robert.  He was killed by a hit and run, drunk driver a month ago.

Anna, Elsie Martineau, Paula Martineau-Kolonich, Bonnie Graskey-Saunders and Theresa Saunders-Hiler

July came my brother Bobby’s wedding to Vicki…a union our mother would have rejoiced in!  Kev could not go with, so our friend Louanne and I hit the road…we stopped off in Bay City Michigan to see my cousin Sharon Dresser-Brendt and her son Mark.  

Sharon Dresser-Brendt, Mark Brendt and Anna

We then drove through Canada, and stopped to visit with our dear friends, Jack and Lonnie…Louanne made instant friends!  Was a great time!!!

Lonni and Jack Jamieson, Anna and Louanne Wald

The four of us visited the home of my very favorite Native Poet, E. Pauline Johnson.  Her home is in the same community where Jack and Lonni live.  Then we drove to Niagra Falls, Ontario to see the Canadian Horseshoe Falls...we ended up right smack in the middle of a short lived thunder storm!

Louanne Wald and Anna...soaking wet! 

Then off to the wedding and LOTS of country to see…the wedding was so beautiful!!!  Our brother Donny, Amy and the twins also made the long trip.  We got to take part in a real seafood lobster boil…then it was off toward home…through Niagara Falls, Canada and lots of lighthouses…

Anna Martineau-Merritt, brothers, Bob and Don Cline

Brothers Bob and Don Cline...hehehe

Took a trip up the north shore with a couple photographer friends and found ourselves in Pass Lake, Ontario…visited with good friends Linda, Heather and Leo…missed seeing Gunnar this time…just means I need to get back up there again, soon!

Then my brother Farmer came home to visit and to attend his daughters wedding...we had an amazing week bonding with him.  The wedding was beautiful...Jessica and Joe had a very nice wedding!  Farmer got to spend some time with his grand-kids too and that made his whole trip...he talked about them till he walked out the door...was sure a great week...

Jessica, Samauria, Farmer, Little Joe and Joe

 Joe and Jessica (Pettit) Perkins and Farmer 

Anna and Farmer

 Arthur "Farmer" Cline

There have been many photo opportunities near and far, people, animal and nature...my husband has taken me to really neat local areas for nature shots...there have been so much more than what I have listed here...enJOY our journey...

What an amazing year to be alive!  We are so very blessed!  Have a wonder filled holiday season…may only love and goodness encircle you all year long!!!

Much love, Kevin and Anna

How do you know...?

Here is one of my most recent images that makes me feel all giddy inside...enJOY!

“How do you know that you are doing what God wants you to?” was the question asked of me a few days ago…

Do I know for sure that I am doing what the Creator wants me to do?  Yes I do!  How do I know…well, that is a bit different.  I feel completely directed, whether it be physically or just emotional feelings…when I get there, and take part in whatever it may be, I feel so exhilarated that I feel as though I could just explode into a gazillion little pieces.  Even hours later, I still feel very happy and humble that I was allowed to take part in that experience. 

Example:  Jane comes to me for pictures of her 6 year old daughter.  After the photo shoot and we are looking at the images Jane sees one that makes her so excited and she starts to cry.  The fact that I was able to capture that image for her, makes me feel so exhilarated for her and for me, that the feeling will last for a long time…sometimes weeks, months, years can go by and when I least expect it, the vision of Jane and her love for that image will well up and I feel all the same feelings, as if we just completed the shoot.

Example:  I captured an image of an American Bittern bird, which stood tall and pretended to be a reed to hide from me.  Now, this was early spring and there were NO reeds.  I, to this day can still see the Bittern, so sure that I could not see him/her, that I got some amazing captures.  Within a short few miles down the road, I had already completed a Haiku (poetry form) about this little beauty!  I steel see the Bittern in my mind’s eye and I get all giddy all over again.  When someone sees the image for the first time and they get so excited at the ‘beauty’ of it, I am transposed right back to the very moment that I snapped the shot…and yes, I truly share the beauty that the Creator has gifted me to see and capture so that you may enJOY experiencing the stunning creation.

So, that my dear friends, is how I know when I am doing what I am supposed to be doing…I really and truly LOVE capturing images of most of the creations the Creator has gifted the world…I feel truly honored to be able to capture and share these with the world.

Have a great day and smile, because you deserve it!!!

Wings

Today my thoughts run along many paths...I was reminded yesterday by a Dragonfly, to remember my dreams and to reach for them...just like the Dragonfly, my dreams start out in a cocoon and then when the time is right, it will emerge into reality…

I have always wanted to be a Photographer and then later in life (25 yrs old), I began to write…my dream of writing is pushing to the point of emergence…a scary, yet exhilarating feeling…

Reach deep into your mind and pull out those old dreams of yours, dust them off and let them emerge…it is in those dreams we dreamed in happy, carefree times, that will bring us much happiness in this time.

Hug yourself and share those dreams with those around you…the help needed flourish will come to you…

Have a great day and smile, because you can!

Winters Battle

As winter loses his grip on the cold wind from the north to give way to Spring’s grasp onsouthern air, the most amazing transformations begin…the trees force the leaf buds to crack through the bark on the branches, birds become more active and sing louder and longer…the sun creeps northward to offer warmth along with southern breezes.

On the path to a more northerly post, the sun offers us such amazing and new images of beauty every day…the rise through the jackpine and scrub oaks, spreading fuchsia cotton like clouds above and to the western sky…in the evening, setting over the barn instead of next to it, the shadows grow longer and dances atop the snow in the open field…

The snow begins to melt and soak into the earth offering her the most amazing gift of all, water.Birds begin to return and offer their humble thanks for the gifts of life being brought forth and sing for all to hear.

Truly a beautiful time to be alive...have a blessed and happy day!

Smile, because you can!

4-10-1931 ~ 1/22/2009

Two years ago today, we said goodbye to my mother. In the past two years, she has been in my heart, on my mind, around me, guiding me along the journey of life.

This past year has been a whirlwind of searching for and finding her grandchildren that she didn’t know and bringing about the opportunity to come together and meet for the first time…meet siblings, cousins, uncles and aunties…and the great nieces and nephews the chance to meet grandparents, cousins, aunties and uncles…as long as this miraculous bond continues our connection of love ,to and through my mother lives on…

I miss her today as much as ever and am so very grateful that she chose to be my mother and I her daughter.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ~Dr. Seuss

Mom, I love and miss you and I am smiling from the depths of my soul!