"That's who I am"

[another day of gratitude to share]

Day 30

Serene is doing a Picture of the Day Challenge. I'm supposed to "look around and find something that speaks who [I] am." At first I wanted to just find something among pictures I've already taken. I take lots. LOTS. On all my "adventures" my camera is in hand. I want to document my life because there is plenty to document even if it is mostly just me and a stuffed turtle.

So I started looking through my pictures. Hmm...it's either me or Bob or no one in the pictures. The posed pictures don't seem to speak as naturally as others. Yet often the unposed pictures are only about one thing here or there. Not really who I am. I am so many things. And it's tough to show that in that one fun afternoon, or that great vacation moment, or....

Then I looked at around me on this snowy (yes! actual snow that stuck and covered the ground!) day.

These are the days I like to be lazy. And perhaps I'll clean that one corner of my room that I always say I need to clean.

Yet I never get to it. Because in spite of my love for cleaning and being in a clean environment, I always have to have some spot where I unload all my gunk and just let it be. In my own apartment, that was my room. As I now live in one room, it has become a section of that room. Which in the last week got particularly messy as I did some of those things that speak of who I am. I saw it and thought, "Aha!" And snapped the photo.

Wow. It speaks volumes.

Then the thought came to me that there is one other picture that speaks even louder of who I am, and always will be.

Today, I am happy and grateful...to be me.

I am Rosemary's granddaughter,

The spitting image of my father,

And when the day is done my momma's still my biggest fan.

Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy,

But I've got friends that love me

And they know just where I stand.

It's all a part of me

And that's who I am.

-from "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrews