simply, thank you

where do i begin?

i thought of placing my photograph first... at the top of this post. but then i realized, i have more to write and say than i have to show, and what i want to say is what i want to leave you strongly with this week.

"thank you" is only a small phrase i can use to tell you what is on my heart. i am beyond grateful that you guys asked me to be your first ever guest blogger! and although i know i will not be the last, i feel honored to have been here at all.

when you approached me and asked, i thought i'd better read the e-mail again. i was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me. i mean, i had been visiting here long enough to know that you guys are both really good photographers and writers, so i thought, "huh? they want me to blog with them?"

but then i realized something... the biggest reason i am {and ever have been} drawn to your blog is the friendship that seeps from every pore of it's blogging skin. that friendship is way down deep, and it just shows like a bright light. it kept me coming back every single time. {and kim, i have to thank you for leaving your comment on my flickr photo one day. otherwise, i might never have discovered your blog here.}

so i want you to know a couple of things. first, i'm very impressed with the real kindred-ness that exists between you two. like i said in the very first comment i ever left here, i felt funny commenting at first... almost like i was eaves dropping in on the conversation of two friends. but then i realized something else... you two so evidently want to share that spirit of kindred-ness with others and make new friends. i felt it instantly! i think there ought to be more friends like you!

secondly, i consider you both like angels. i really do. you both came into my life at just the perfect time. i really can't even explain it, but i truly felt a strange protection and peace come over me when we would interact... either via comments or in e-mails. and i felt it from both of you. you're both gifted with the art of encouragement. i hope you will always use that gift as you have. somehow i think that you will.

okay... now for the photo. it's actually two. the one on the left was taken by me. the one on the right was taken by my twin sister.

i've been so excited all week to tell you that i am a twin. i had planned to tell you earlier... just because that is one of the most significant things about me and i wanted to share a little bit about myself with you two.

but then my sister left a comment here {on my first guest-post}. although she did not say she was my twin, i thought, "uh-oh! she let the cat out of the bag." but no worries. i'll share about our twinship anyway.

i have to say, she is one of my biggest inspirations for taking photos. i say that, because she was taking them long before i was. and i've always admired her photography. i remember just out of college, i had printed several photos that she had taken of various things in nature and stuck them to my walls to form a border around my entire bedroom. she may not know that, but i have always been her fan!

that is why i was so excited to get into the art form too, and then walk down this photography road with her. after a while, we started our own little co-blog called ethereal. we really don't write to each other over there... we only post pics. but when i saw 2bbb, i thought, "oh, this is just the kind of thing i have always wanted to do with angela." {that's her name, but she also goes by gigi.}

anyway, maybe some day we will do something like this. i hope so. we lead busy lives, so perhaps that will never be, but i can always dream.

anyway, we're back to orange. my flower is paper. and just like a photo, paper flowers last forever. that's why i had to buy it when i saw it at one of my favorite gift stores. i'm not sure what her flower is called, but it was real, and it is exquisite, no?

alright... i best be winding down now. i'm sad to go, because i've had just the best time here this week! but i will always stop by to see how my honest-to-goodness true friends, prairie girl and kim k. are doing and what you've been up to.

thank you for letting me go on a little blog vacation. you just say the word when you want me to come again.

one girl whose socks have been blessed right off her feet,
~g.e.o.r.g.i

{i'm not adding the "a"!!!! that would be too much finality. and i'll be back, so you'll just have to wait on that letter! until then, you can call me georgi-girl... like my papa did.}

"friendship is the greatest of worldly goods.
certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life."
~c. s. lewis