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There are not many people who know who I am completely. There is only one. What I love about life is that I have a special place here, and what makes me unique is built inside and it is for me to explore and share as I wish. Everyone has that quality. Everyone has something that allows them to experience the world in a unique way. It is unquantifiable and beautiful.
So often artists strive to put that abstract feeling into something concrete, and that is the challenge of someone trying to share their soul – it is always growing and changing. It is blooming into something bigger all the time and to share it fully is to kill it. And so we create with the kind of vigor that allows us to grow and change, and in doing so, we feed our uniqueness all the time.
There are ideas I think about that would shock people and upset others, that would disturb some and intrigue some. And I keep some of it to myself not because I am guarded but because I want the mystery for myself. I am on a journey with myself and that is the only company I can always count on. So I keep something for that special place within that is always searching. My imagination is a fantasy land that I get to explore, and it is a beautiful thing.
Take what it is that makes you so incredible and explore it. Seek to understand it but never do so fully. It is the place you can never visit, the thing you can never touch, the sound that you can’t quite hear. It draws you along your life journey. It inspires. It beckons. Always explore who you are and why you are. Fight for what makes you beautiful. You are infinitely beautiful.
by brookeshaden
Jen Sulak - and GOOD MORNING to you!
brookeshaden - <3 :)
natascha van niekerk - Oh Brooke, how beautifully written!!! I so completely agree! To me, people (including myself) are simultaneously the most amazing, intricate and fascinating things AND the scariest.
So excited to see more of what you shot in France, I’ve seen some of the other photographer’s work that was doing the workshop with you, and it is just awesome! I’m hoping that one day we will be able to convince you to come to beautiful Cape Town for a workshop 😀
brookeshaden - Absolutely! There is so much goodness, strength and poetry in every living being.
I am very excited to share what I shot in France – this is very unlike it – but there is still much work to be done. Things that have to/ had to be photographed after the fact 🙂 I’m actually considering coming there to host a retreat next year 😀
Mary-Claire - What a lovely photograph! I love the dress, the B & W, movement…
brookeshaden - Thank you!
natalie - <3 <3 <3…
brookeshaden - Right back at you 🙂 <3
moodphototeija - I really love love love that photograph! It is so pure lovely you! And those last 3 sentences are maybe the most beautiful thing that anyone have ever wrote. I might have to quote you sometimes 🙂
brookeshaden - That means so much to me. Love and happiness to you <3
Marisa White - And we ARE infinite. 🙂
brookeshaden - Adore adore adore.
Paulo Alexandre Carvalho - Just to say that either the text or the photo, are stunning. <3
brookeshaden - Thank you, Paulo 🙂
Rand Huneidi - Thank you for this post Brooke…I needed to hear this today:)
brookeshaden - <3 I am so glad to hear it helped!
Kimberly - This is very powerful, liberating, and empowering. I was told this morning that I have a beautiful spirit and a powerful energy. I never saw or thought of myself that way. It’s intriguing.
brookeshaden - More than intriguing, it is the truth. I love that someone told you, and I hope that you hold that knowledge close for all your days. XO!
Margherita Introna - I’ve never really thought of it that way, but yes… I reckon if you know absolutely everything about yourself would mean that there is nothing left to discover and nothing left to learn. That would be rather boring… Never stop exploring <3
Kimberly - Thank you Brooke. I contemplated my experience from the morning and some other similar situations came to mind. I shared my thoughts with my husband last night and he was so happy to hear that I’m finally coming into this awareness that he agrees. That really means a lot to me.
Denise McGill - I have a place, lets call it a meadow of the mind, where I visit often. It is a beautiful meadow, birds singing, wild flowers blooming, a brook (no pun intended) runs by, and there are doors. Yes, doors. Red doors, green pealing paint doors, beige doors, solid oak doors. Hiding behind them were things I couldn’t face: abuse and trauma. Slowly those doors have been opened to me through much therapy and caring family. But I have found there are a few doors that won’t open. As much as I have tried, the door to success and hope seemed locked to me over the years. Not creativity though, I find that every time I visit my meadow. Reading about your private journey reminds me of my meadow and how I have begun to just walk around the door that won’t open instead of trying to pick the lock. Someday.