HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHANNON!

Your blog is such a happy place for me to come and visit, and I felt like I got to visit with you for just a few quiet, whispered moments of glee on your birthday.

How cool that you share a birthday with Madeleine L'Engle!

I like that you like normal days. Me too, more and more with each passing week.

PS: That tree with ballerinas is so amazing! Love it. xoxo

Happy Birthday, Shannon!!! (And a happy posthumous remembering of Madeleine L'Engle, one of my favorite authors.) The ballerina tree is the best! It makes me want to pick up my pointe shoes and pirouette again!

beautiful, beautiful shan! this birthday feels extra special for some reason, and yet, like you said, just like a special, normal day.

i love you dear friend. :)

I'm glad you had a happy birthday. :)
I love those ballerinas!

Aww...happy birthday, Shannon! I know that for the few minutes I've met you that you've enriched my life in a great way. :) Here's to many more special normal days!!

I just saw this..happy belated birthday :)

shannon! thank you for the book rec, i LOVE madeline l'engle! yes yes, we are kindred souls. :)

you go, girl, you GO. ;)

I really love the photo at the top of this post? Is it in your home? Because it looks like it's taken from way up high, like the second story of a building, and I never had the impression that your pink house had a second floor!

Also, I think it is so cool + amazing that you've been about the sacredness of the everyday since that 4x5 project. So cool to see that you're getting more and more clear and in tune with who you have been all along.

I'm still so proud of you for taking these steps forward -- for launching shine out into the world, but also declaring that you are done with certain forms of photography work so that you can be completely clear and free to do the work only you can do.

I so know that feeling of vulnerability from putting your idea and yourself OUT THERE. I had that exact same feeling after I finally opened registration on my Look at Jesus course -- it was my first time taking a huge step like that, and I felt very exposed and raw and vulnerable, but also really alive, like I was living more fully into myself.

Long comment! But all that to say, I love the person you are and the story you're living. xoxo

you inspire me, girl. beautiful vision. isn't it amazing that the ideas we were chewing on and wrestling with in college are still present today? i know mine certainly are. keep breathing. keep being. keep shining.

thank you for being so real and open. you are an inspiration! i am also hoping to crack open my shell and begin pursuing what i know is in my heart.. also my dream since studying photography in college (and well before). it is a vulnerable place to be and just reading your honesty helps validate my own thoughts and fears and hopes and dreams. keep it up!!

thank you for being so real and open. you are an inspiration! i am also hoping to crack open my shell and begin pursuing what i know is in my heart.. also my dream since studying photography in college (and well before). it is a vulnerable place to be and just reading your honesty helps validate my own thoughts and fears and hopes and dreams. keep it up!!

thank you for being so real and open. you are an inspiration! i am also hoping to crack open my shell and begin pursuing what i know is in my heart.. also my dream since studying photography in college (and well before). it is a vulnerable place to be and just reading your honesty helps validate my own thoughts and fears and hopes and dreams. keep it up!!

You are magic to me, as always.

You are magic to me, as always.

I know you posted this a while back - and admittedly I'm new around here - but I had to add a comment, because yes. YES. "i'm done with walking in the neutral zone with my photography." You have expressed in this post, so beautifully, something I have been feeling quite a bit this past year. It's always good to hear you're not alone in the uncertainties that plague an open, creative life.

Your photos and blog are wonderful! Continue to rock it!

YES! yes! YES!!! LOVE it! You ROCK, Shannon!

Popcorn ceilings aren't all bad if it's somewhere besides your WHOLE HOUSE! Touch that stuff up there and you get a snow shower into everything. I DON'T LIKE IT! It's a mess to get rid of when it's everywhere. BUT, I love you, Shannon.....gr ma

Oh girl, you are so inspiring. I feel like your blog just reaches right across all the BS and touches the REAL. You've got a real gift both in your writing and in your photography. I so love what I discover here, and mostly what it makes me discover about myself.

one of my favorite posts by you, EVER.
i resonate with these thoughts so much and love being forced to have only REAL LIFE face to face conversations. love love love having no phone.

two fav lines:
"no phone. a way of waking up to the present moment instead of constantly trying to be somewhere else."
"i have been entirely enjoying the past 3 days and 3 nights with no way of communicating except for real life."

I often want to throw my phone away or at least take a break from it. You always inspire me.

i secretly loved it when my phone broke. i experienced these same things!

this is so counter-cultural...beautiful how you are learning to embrace each moment as it unfolds...discovering so much freedom in letting go...enjoying the gifts of each day...i love how you walked right into this & haven't looked back...with Katie, I am inspired ... & smiling right now!

This is an inspiring tale, but also makes me feel woefully fearful, now that just four days ago, I entered my first steps into the world of smartphoning.Others are already rejecting the world I have so little knowledge of yet! I feel behind the times.

And you and cosmo are the cutest.

i love leaving my phone and bags at home and going places completely empty handed... so free. This is a great post. love you.

oh and who needs phones anyway now? we have no shortage of ways to communicate simply through this crazy thing called the internet that so often sucks the life right out of us.

What about getting a landline? That's all I have. It's beautiful. It takes messages. It's there when you get home. But when I'm out and about I'm there with just me, just a paper and pen in case someone wants me to take a note about something.

What about getting a landline? That's all I have. It's beautiful. It takes messages. It's there when you get home. But when I'm out and about I'm there with just me, just a paper and pen in case someone wants me to take a note about something.

Losing your phone is TOTALLY the best. :)

I have dreams about giving up my cell phone. My fiance wants me to get the new iPhone, but I think my subconscious is secretly resisting this.... I kind of think that if people can finally get a hold of me via e-mail while I'm out and about, then there's no hiding anywhere.

one of my favorite posts.

for about 3-4 months i would only use my phone in my studio. when i left - the phone stayed. made me feel SO GOOD. now i am not so freaked out about people being able to contact me. i feel in control. the phone doesn't control me. but maybe i will need another phone fast in the future.

LOVE YOU.

I love how much trust and joy you are experiencing with the loss of your phone. I hope I am the kind of person who can have those qualities whenever I am without the things I assume I depend on.

J.e.a.l.o.u.s. I HATE phones. And, as a result, I generally don't answer calls and avoid calling back as long as possible. I'd much rather just meet in person or over email. Email, well still annoying and time-consuming, doesn't seem to be nearly as obtrusive as a phone call. :) So, just wanted to let you know, I'm kinda in awe and totally jealous of you.

Can you come to Cape Breton and do a class here?!? Pretty please? I can give you a place to stay, a yoga teacher who would cooperate, a restaurant to eat at and people to take part. It could be rad!

(I'm mostly kidding since I bet it would cost more for you than it would be worth, but I would also LOVE to take this class and California is just so far away.)

reminds me of ryan muirhead. he loves shooting in bathrooms. and yes, i'm in love with the paper towel holder here.

yes, why do bathrooms have the best light? Seriously. I've thought of this before too. NOT weird that you pulled out your camera while you were sitting there. Not at all....

I'm gonna remember that one. :) I like to call it "my YES moments." Just learning to say yes instead of automatically saying no.