Based on the evidence of the blog, you might be tempted to believe that I haven't made any friends in Greenville.
But I have. I've made a few really great friends. really. Like this one, Lauren, who invited me to spend last weekend in Asheville for her birthday.
Also from the evidence of the blog, you would be tempted to believe that I don't do anything on the weekends except pick fruit. You'd be correct about that.
On the drive back to Greenville we stopped at an apple orchard ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN and ate apples off the vine and bought some pepper jelly. Because really, how can you resist buying pepper jelly whenever you see it? It's such a rare delicacy.
Here's the birthday girl again, wearing an apple as a hat (similar to a girl I know who wears a lentil as a hat).
and here we are sitting in a tree, making really awkward faces.
Did I mention the lambs? And my beautiful friend Sarah?
And a group shot. I wish you could see the view, but due to my poor photography skills--you cannot. Comes with the territory.
You know what being in apple orchard kind of feels like? That scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is so hungry so she picks an apple off a tree, BUT THEN all those scary trees attack her.
Why is this my only image of an apple orchard? Nonetheless, it was so fun.
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What was not quite so fun was riding home in a tow truck.
today i am really missing my sweet sister, cassidy. i'm also missing our sweet dog, dakota. cassidy is in spain right now. dakota is in san diego. sigh.
this picture was taken forever ago, but seriously, how beautiful are those two gibson girls??
I hope that you've had a few moments recently where you've stopped long enough to consciously thing about how marvelous an experience is. This weekend was full of those for me, tangible gifts of mercy from the giver that make me more aware of his realness.
Meagan invited me to spend a couple of days with her and her mom in Highlands, NC, before her momleft for Africa. In typical Gibson fashion, we didn't have a place to stay until the day before we left. When a place came through, we were told it was was "rustic...very rustic," and knew it would either be incredibly terrible or incredibly wonderful.
Turns out, it was incredibly wonderful. The cabin is owned by a sweet, old couple who let us pick vegetables and blueberries from their garden just up the drive.
We also saw this little produce stand right off a trail we hiked so we grabbed some squash, zucchini & herbs and left a few dollars in that little tin.
For dinner we had a small cornucopia of asian pear, goat cheese & pecan salad, succotash with corn, green pepper, squash, zucchini, onion, the best tomatos on the planet & dill, and tomato (again, the best tomatoes on the planet. I'm serious.), basil and mozzarella. I'm aware that these dishes don't go together, but you gotta eat what you gotta eat when you're livin' off the land.
I think it may have been the freshest and most colorful meal I've ever had.
And we are Holly Hereth and Meagan Gibson, so there was cobbler.
It was delicious and turned our mouths completely blue. After a bottle of wine we thought it was way funnier than it actually was.
And we had this great swing. I haven't swung on a swing since the day I moved out of 524, and it made me feel at home. Which I needed.
I even got to sit and eat breakfast, drink coffee and read on the porch in the morning wearing a sweatshirt. Tell me this isn't paradise.
There were braids.
And long hikes with views like this.
And sheer bliss, really.
I hate to make such blatant pop culture references all the time (who am I kidding... I'm listening to the Cast of Glee on Pandora as we speak), but after seeing Eat, Pray, Love the night before we left--I believe just as firmly as ever that it takes no grand, exotic travel to experience the magic of the world. Just some people who you really like, some food from the ground and a porch.
The thing about people is we are all defending something. Family and future and finance. Checkbook, child, country. Time, value, resource. Body. Home. Good cause. Medicine and education. Peace. War. Global warming. Oil spill clean-up. Santa, BMW and soup kitchen.
These things that we defend sometimes make up our selves, which can be a good or a bad thing, and our self is what we defend with the greatest of fierceness. Sometimes we use guns, and sometimes we use cuss words, and sometimes we become reclusive.
But I know a story about a man who, amidst a world of BMW and Santa and big-dollar corporation defenders, was threatened and did not defend his self, his finances, or his home. Last January, Paul Gibson lost his job of 35 years. Too passionate about a certain network of AIDS orphanages in Uganda to continue a life of slavish defense of a suburban California lifestyle, he took the director's position with Children of Grace, requiring him to move his family to Jinja, Uganda. Instead of defending, he rejoiced.
That story inspired us. Not because Paul Gibson moved to Africa, but because God told Paul Gibson to give up everything to defend something bigger than himself--and he actually did it, similar to another Paul you may have heard of.
Let us explain who we are. We're Holly and Meagan, and we share this blog. We also shared a room for four years in college, countless jars of peanut butter and bottles of cheap wine, but mostly we shared a spirit of fervency. Sifting through passions like laundry, we fought to find what made our hearts ache and what made us feel alive. We wanted the kind of story where God told us to give up everything we had to defend something bigger than ourselves---the kind where we would actually do it.
Holly now lives in Greenville, South Carolina and Meagan's in Atlanta. After a season of post-grad life, we are learning, solo jar of peanut butter by solo jar of peanut butter, that God wants us to live the kind of story where we defend something bigger than ourselves all the time--in Africa, Atlanta or Greenville--no matter how mundane or unsexy our jobs are. And they can be really unsexy, even when you are wearing a pencil skirt.
We are also learning that sometimes God wants us to go to Far Corners of the earth to defend something bigger than ourselves--and sometimes he blesses us and lets us go in pairs, like on the Ark except with your best friend so that when it's scary and you freak out (because you've never been to Far Corners before) you have each other. And maybe a jar of peanut butter to share. And hopefully a bottle of cheap wine.
You see, Holly's a writer and Meagan's a graphic designer and photographer. Collectively, we're a brainstorming, story-telling machine. Creative minds, dreamers, big-picture thinkers. If that sounds ambitious, it probably is. But we have more enthusiasm than we know what to do with. And like we said, we're dreamers. It's just what we do. So when presented with the opportunity to join Paul Gibson (who also happens to be Meagan's dad) and the Children of Grace team in Uganda to do some promotional media for them, our wheels started spinning on how we could tell the story.
700+ HIV/AIDS orphans cared for and educated. These are the kind of words that you hear often if you run in non-profit circles (700 orphans blah blah blah), but think about that. Seven hundred kids with AIDS are given a home, medicine and schooling that would otherwise die alone, because that's what orphans with AIDS do unless someone extends a hand to them. The story of Children of Grace is hope in the dark. It's a stream in the dessert. It's a good story, in the truest sense of good.
Children of Grace needs media material to tell these stories--video, photographs, written stories, brochures, booklets. That's how they grow, and growing means more orphans cared for. Orphans cared for means God's story moving forward, a parade: triumphant and gentle. That's what we care about. Like I said--big picture thinkers here. But we are training our eyes to see the big picture in the ordinary. The magic in the mundane. The poetry in the prose. The Truth in the facts. One orphan cared for, Jesus coming to earth. This is story.
So between Holly's writing skills, Meagan's photography and design skills, our pooled videography skills (still working on learning those…), we think we can help Children of Grace with what they need. We can join them in telling their story--and we want tell it well.
We believe God gives us specific gifts and talents, and he also makes our hearts ache & makes us feel alive in specific ways. Maybe he would like for us to apply our specific gifts and talents to our specific heart-aches and joys. That, specifically, is what we want our story to be about. And this is just the beginning.
In January we will board a plane, fly across the ocean into another hemisphere where we will stay for half of 2011. Until then, we will be working our jobs, raising money to buy that plane ticket & equipment and praising the Lord for our bosses', friends' and families' unceasing support, vision and defense of our stories.
So, why not just keep working our "normal" jobs, making sufficient money, fueling our cars, moderate shopping and thai food habits? After all, then we would get to stand next to one of our dearest friends when she marries a boy she loves in Tennessee.
We're going because we think that maybe when Jesus told his followers to care for orphans, he meant for us to really care for orphans, and sometimes that means we have to go to Far Corners. So we are going to help Children of Grace do just that--and not because it's sexier than our jobs in Greenville and Atlanta.
Because God told us to give up everything to defend something bigger than ourselves--and we want to live the kind of story where we actually do it. Like the Pauls.
We want to be a part of the Living a Better Story Seminar to figure out more distinctly what makes story important and good and what makes an important and good story. We're dying to wrestle with this because we know it won't be the things we expect; moving to Africa, saving lives, creating the most awesome non-profit media material ever. We think that maybe the things that will make our stories important and good will be smaller than we thought and, at the same, much grander.
Story-telling will be crucial when it comes to communicating the stories of a Ugandan orphanage, in photo and video and word (such layman's tools). The things we think are important probably won't be. And the things that are important, we will probably miss. It takes the careful spirit of an intuitive story-teller to dig through the muck to find the gem.
We know we love story. We know we love the First Storyteller. But we need help finding the gems.
-I joined a gym today, and the quality of my life has already improved. Ah, the simple things.
-I tried to sit outside for breakfast this morning again, and it's still not fall.
-last night Meagan told me on the phone, "So something that you don't know about my life, Holly, that has been going on is that I've been organizing my google reader."Ah, the simple things.
-tomorrow we have something really exciting to tell you.
Call me a woman, but there is something about making a pie that makes my heart jump*. Starting a post with that sentence would lead you to believe that I made a pie today and I didn't, but I did read Jenna from Eat Live Run's* post** on her pie-making experience (twice). Then I stared at the pictures and thought about how late I would have to stay up tonight to make a pie. The time I calculated with my trusty Auburn Degree was too late for the day I have tomorrow.
The bottom line is that I was made to live in the country and make pies all summer. I'm wondering when God will act-- I'm sure he already knows, but his timing is so off.
That's all.
*The first time I typed that sentence I wrote "makes my heart hump," on accident and laughed out loud. I just had to tell you.
**So you know, Meagan loves Jenna. One time she almost got to eat lunch with her, but then had to cancel, and she cried when her brother died in April of 2009. We take blogs really seriously.
when i lived in auburn, i was lucky enough to cross paths with this cute woman. two years later she is one of my dearest friends who means more to me than she'll ever know. shes got the cutest family in alabama, a contagious smile, the best chocolate chip cherry cookies i've ever had, and a genuine and kind spirit that is more than magnetic.
she's about to be a new mom to what i predict will be the cutest little girl in all the lands. i was lucky enough to be able to see her this past weekend and shoot some of that pregnancy glow!
This time of year I always begin to itch for flannel, vests, steamy cups of coffee, warm colors like reds and oranges. This year is no exception. It's clockwork, like cycles of homesickness that also always seem to find their way to the surface the moment the thought of cool weather enters my mind. I think it's because when I think about growing up in Huntsville, I only picture fall.
Anyways, a few mornings a week I stumble outside wearing a zip-up hoodie, coffee cup in hand, to eat breakfast. Then I sweat and think, "Oh yeah. It's August, and I live in South Carolina," and I go inside. Naturally this wonderfully autumn engagement shoot is adding to the stirring. I can't wait to go camping in October. Who's with me?
if this picture* doesn't say, "WE LOVE EACH OTHER," I don't know what does.
An ENGAGEMENT RING maybe?????? Attaboy, Marc! You scored yourself a beautiful lady. And Hannah, all those emotional breakdowns? Worth it.
If I wasn't so excited, I would be crying that I couldn't hug these two in person, but thanks to modern technology I got a midnight video chat with the happy couple. I was told that dear friend Jamie had a fish bowl margarita to celebrate--not necessarily in my honor--but I'm just glad someone's holding down the fort down in the Loveliest Village on the Plains.
Now, go grow old together you two.
*note the location of this picture. outside 524 wrights mill rd. If for one second you thought I was done mourning the loss of my house, you were wrong. very, very wrong.
working for a wedding blog means that i look at wedding pictures all day long.
a l l l l l l l l d a y l o n g
now, i love weddings so my job is a dream--don't get me wrong. but at this point, it takes a special wedding to catch my eye. this, my friends, is a special wedding. first off, tessa and her mom designed and made her dress--and look at those felt boutonnieres! adorable.
When you're beautiful and your name is Lindsay Schwak, the livin' is easy.
I loved getting to shoot this future broadway star last week! How beautiful is she? And just as talented and sweet. All you New Yorkers out there (....hello?), look out for this one because she's new on your scene, and you clearly want to be seen with her. All I'm sayin' is, look out concrete jungle.
because i know you're dying to know how i stay in such good shape (psh), here is an example of my monday morning workout plan!
1.wake up at 7 to go to the gym
2. turn on the car, only the realize there is no gas in the tank*
3. run-literally-1 mile to the gas station. good thing you already have your running shoes on!
4. fill up a 1 gallon tank of gas
5. powerwalk 1 mile back to the car, using the gas tank as a weight for arm exercises. (my pick this morning was bicep curls, shoulder shrugs, and tricep pushdowns)
6. finish with nice long leg and arm stretches while you pour gasoline into your car.
oh, and if you want holly's weight loss tips, try losing your debit card and locking yourself out of the car. you can't buy food with no money, and you certainly can't drive to the bank to get money for food with no car! also, standing outside in the atlanta summer heat while waiting for triple a will help you sweat out tons of calories.
all of these events really did happen today. being thin and in shape comes so easy when you live like we do!
what a monday. good thing we both have this to look forward to tonight
the bachelorette finale!! ali is a FOOL if she doesn't pick cape cod chris.
*in my defense, it actually wasn't out of of gas, it was just running low. being parked on a downward hill confuses my gas tank into thinking its empty.
Modern-day Lucy and Ethels, bona fide sharers, creative spirits, lifetime members of the clean-plate club and chroniclers of everything worth chronicling. Welcome!
writer, creature of habit, dreamer, aspiring early bird. Advocate for anything lemony, the big picture, the written word, going back for seconds, having one more glass of wine and the South. Tweet, tweet!
