Photography again.....

I am not an artist, but all I want to do is make art. When I decided to come back to school after 7 years I wasn't coming back to take any art classes. I want to study developmental psych. Here is my 1st semester back and the 1st thing on my schedule....an art class. I don't regret making this decision at. What is really interesting to me is that this semester I'm passing a class I thought I'd fail (math), and failing my psych class. I'm really confused as to what this means, and what I should do about it. I want to get my degree in something I can use to help people, and I don't know how I would do that just by making art. Or how I would make money to support myself and a family. But all I want to do is be creative. Not because its easier, because its not.... Actually I'm not sure why. Maybe its because its one of the few things that I've done in my life that I get praised on.  Or because even if it's not "great" it's not bad...

I swear I plan my day around good places to eat. I have a very fast metabolism so I get hungry pretty fast, and pretty often. Being in school again means that I need more food through out the day then I would normally, or I get no work done. But the above photo's is how I would eat everyday if I could. The first two food photo's are of are from the only true Vegetarian Ayurvedic restaurant in NY, called Divya's Kitchen in the LES. The restaurant is right downstairs from my temple(go figure, hum?). I'm finding the older I get, 29 so old, the more an Ayurvedic diet works best for me. Some things I've adopted are: eating little to no onion or garlic, drinking water that is either hot or room temperature never cold, and staying away from hard snacks like dry nuts or potato chips(my absolute favorite). Also eating at this restaurant helps! The very first photo is of my yoga teacher and friend. The last is of my desert later that day!

The summer has one last rose to give. I've been feeling thankful that taking pictures has been getting easier. I have a horrible and tiring tendency to overthink things. I would think this would help me with my writing, and finding things to photograph. It really doesn't though. Instead it's so hard to untangle the jumble of thoughts and feelings  going on inside my head and heart. I like to think of my pictures as stories, especially because I'm using blogger instead of Instagram where using one image is more acceptable for me. but looking for the story stops me from missing moments like this. I forget to see the beauty in the morning light. I forget to catch my friends smile while she laughs uncontrollably. At the same time, I have to find a way to balance looking for the story, and naturally letting the story/moments happen. Because I can see how both can be considered extremes.

This month is super special at my temple because it is the month of Kartik! For me it is a time where all the devotees come together to sing for the pleasure of the lord, every day! As much as I enjoy this month long celebration, I also have a hard time with it. I know that  Kartik (Damodar) is the best, the purest of purifiers, and most glorious of all months. Also the month of Kartik is particularly dear to Lord Sri Krishna. I'm always so overwhelmed by by emotions when I'm listening to the pray that is sung every night. But as soon as its my turn to go up to offer my ghee lamp (shown in the second picture) I literally can't think of anything to pray or give thanks for. So I sit there feeling like an ungrateful fool waving a lamp around...

The Lord has come to the LES! I found the Bhakti Center and the devotees of Radha Muralidhar temple one year after moving to China Town while looking for a yoga. I was looking for a yoga studio a bit closer to my house and first walked in because of I was told about the "free live music meditation class" that turned out to be Kirtan, or congregational chanting. I have been hooked ever since on the sweet names of the Lord. This specific day was part of a three day festival that concluded with our temple getting a new deity,  Sri Gaurachandra, to worship! The first photo is just art that a fellow devotee makes for every festival. The second is during the installation of the deity. And the third is of him finally in his new home! Jai Sri Gaurachandra!

Spent a little time this morning playing with a piece of Palo Santo. I just woke up and wanted to photograph it, and the smell was great too! I feel like I'm still trying to relearn how to get the images I want and by manipulate the camera settings. I'm really happy with both of these photo's and how I was able to manipulate the exposure times to get them.

Besides fried potatoes and other various non-yucky food items I don't remember what my childhood obsessions where. But being a nanny I get to partake in all of the things this little guys gets obsessed with. I've noticed that more then just mer obsessions the items that he's mad about are more so comfort objects that change day to day based on how he's feeling. When he was around 4 months old he had to have a dirty shirt of his mothers or he would cry until she came back....3 hours later. Shoes and scenes curated by Oscar S.