My favorite way of feeding my soul is photography. It fills me with joy to go back and look at my albums, recalling special moments and memories. I am lucky that my closest friends are excellent photographers, too, and this simply adds to my joy. I fondly think of the days I wished for a camera, and then saved up enough to buy one of those aim and click Kodak cameras (I still have it). It used to be expensive to develop the film but that did not deter me. I’d feel happy that all my friends depended on me for photos of any get-togethers or events we organized or attended. And I had a tendency to capture all kinds of unusual things around the place, what with my penchant for the “little things”.
The excitement of capturing a moment on camera is amazing. And then, my son came along and made an even bigger shutterbug out of me. I wished I could afford to buy a video camera back then – I would have had so many clips to savor.
I remember the wonderful day, a few years ago when I went and bought my first digital camera – It was in September 2005 – a birthday present to myself. Suddenly, the world opened up in glorious color to me, never mind that I am colorblind. I couldn’t believe that I could click as many pictures as I wanted without worrying about the cost of developing and printing them and then, scanning them if I wanted to share them! I could upload them and view them on my computer and – gasp! – edit them!
Today, I am even more overjoyed to be able to carry a cellphone that can take pretty good photos. Technology has changed our lives so much.
Getting out on a walk with my camera is my way of feeding my soul. It is such a stress-buster, besides showing me that life exists beyond my immediate environment.
So after saying all that you would expect me to show off some of my own photos, right? Wrong. Today, I am keen on sharing my dearest friend Ravi‘s photos. I love his generosity in giving me free rein to freak out with his photos. He is one of the best human beings I know and value his friendship as much as I value my life.
Here are some of my favorites from his recent photography: Go ahead and click the photos to see them full screen – you can navigate from one photo to the other with the arrows on the side.
I am linking up with UnknownMami, one of my favorite bloggers, who hosts the Sundays in my City meme. Through her, I get to travel the world with a big group of bloggers. Come join us!
Do you enjoy feeding your soul? How do you do it?
Please share in the comments!
Some fabulous posts I enjoyed feeding my soul with, this week:
How can I be more kind? at Positive Provocations
10 ways to see the world different at The BridgeMaker
Self Care Secrets and tips by 12 bloggers at Treatment Talk (yep! I am one of them!)
Have a beautiful week ahead!
Yes, some nice pictures! I love these animals!
Thank you, Leovi! Have a nice weekend and see you on Sunday!
How do I feed my soul? Thinking. With colors. Doing. Helping. Photographing. Learning new things.
There are more but maybe enough here 🙂
I can see your friend Ravi has a good camera and he knows how to use it, great shots!
Have a good week!
Your photos are always a treat, BLOGitse! After I wrote the post, I actually made a list of all that makes me happy. It is very very long!
Thank you for visiting!
Hi Vidya,
Indeed, photos, a moment captured in time. A snapshot recorded of a memory of your life.
I feed my soul with positive distractions. Photography, writing, embracing the great outdoors. Being in harmony with the world that encourages rather than discourages.
A peaceful week ahead, my friend.
Gary
Thank you, Gary! I love what you said about being in harmony – that’s my prime goal, always.I am quite crazy about photos..they pull me like a magnet.
Hope you are having a wonderful week! (Love to Pawesome Penny!)
I don’t do enough to feed my soul, and I think that’s the problem…sigh.
Never to late to start! Hugs!
I see how photography feeds your soul. Just looking at that beautiful peacock, and the striking green of the first bird, and all the rest has fed my soul. Thank you, Vidya.
Be well.
xoRobyn
Thank you, Robyn, for visiting. The sight of a peacock is literally breathtaking. But oh, its voice is horrible! 😀
Hi Vidya, great to see that you finally came around to using my pics.. wish you did that more often 🙂 how do i feed my soul ? hmmm.. photography of course, doing things that like, music, doing things I like, doing things that I like, photography, cooking, cooking, cooking 🙂
🙂 Not the first time, Ravi! You know I am your fan! And the things that feed your soul, we see a lot of evidence! Hugs! Thanks so much for coming over! I tried to find the pic of Veena’s painting of the parrot on FB but couldn’t find it!
Nice pictures!
My favourite activities (they lift my spirits; I’m not sure they ‘feed my soul’): Crossword, Sudoku, reading Wodehouse.
Wodehouse is among my favorite spirit-lifters! And crossword too. I have such fond memories of fighting for The Hindu crossword with my best friend’s Dad. Somehow sudoku did not grab me as everyone expected. I am so very glad to have my cameras!
I feed my soul by spending a cheerful moment with the only love of my life- my daughter! Thanks Vidya for being so inspirational 🙂
Ah, Kajal! How lovely! I’ve seen photos of her on your FB page! Children are wonderful!
Reading is my soul food, and in more recent years writing. But I can see how photography can fit in too. Great pictures from Ravi!
Thank you, Corinne! Imagine life without books, eh? No!
I guess I write to feed my soul. I stitch memories of good times across pages of paper or blogbytes… they fuel me onto the next day.
Love the crab pic 😀
And you are doing such a wonderful job of it, Roshan, going by your blogs! Thanks – I love the crab pic too! There was more than one and I had a tough time picking one!
Woooooonderful.
I love the green bird w/ the red beak! WOW.
LOVE U more than birds w/ red beaks! Xxx
Hugs, Kim! Love you more than the peacock!
And these photos feed my soul too Vidya. Nature does that for me. Love these shots…I need to get out with my camera more often.
Thank you Elle! I can’t imagine life without a camera! Especially since I tend to click pics of all sorts of strange things! 😀
Clicking photographs and going through old pics is what I enjoy too. Music and family is the greatest food for my soul.Nice collections of pics Vidya.
True, Diana, true! They are my favorites too. Always puts a smile on my face!
Beautiful, beautiful photos my kindred spirit! Cheers! Kaarina
Hugs, Kaarina. Last week, Sury and I were browsing your Facebook photos and enjoying ourselves. 😀 Love you!
Thanks for sharing these lovely photos Vidya (and Ravi) The peacock photo is sharp! My other 2 favorites are the color of the water in the other couple of photos. Taking in beautiful sights helps feed m soul. Not just photographing them (which I do) but sometimes taking a minute to soak in the view!
Ravi has quite a fabulous eye, Vishnu! Some time back, I posted a set of his pictures where there was a blue boat in the water, in the setting sun. So stunning. You are right – we can click those pics, but the experience will always be in our minds!
By the way, Tiziana sent me the book – and I am loving it! Thank you so much!
Glad to hear – it gets more and more interesting with every chapter:)
Lovely… I got a peacok dancing last month as well. Its an experience by itself
PhenoMenon
Pheno, I remember your photo! In fact I thought of it when I posted this!
Beautiful pics…and yes I too wish digital cameras had come a little earlier and a bit cheaper too. There are so many moments I wish I could have captured. 🙂
It is a good thing we have the digicams now, eh, Rekha? 🙂 Thank you for visiting!
Lovely pictures Vidya. The parrot especially is eye catching. I have many foods for my soul – music, walking, photography, meditation, writing, reading.
Suzy, a friend painted that parrot photo – I looked for it on FB so I could post it here but couldn’t find it! Wish I had saved it when I saw it. I love your list – so like mine!
Clicking pictures and revisiting them again and again makes my soul happy too. The pile of albums is so huge and the soft copies on the hard drive are all the more. You have some amazing pictures here… 🙂
Same here, Shilpa – and the digital pile is building by the day! 🙂 Thank you!
Nice post and beautiful pics. I agree with you that photos feed the soul. They are like capturing a moment in time, something priceless and precious and fleeting and being able to “bottle” it and keep it forever. Years later looking back over those pictures, memories, you get to relive the moment and your heart soars! I get the same feeling with books, too. Old friends that I can re-visit again and again, and they never get bored of me, and I’m always happy to see them.
Me too, Janet! And I especially love to come across little notes in those books, perhaps some pressed flowers, an old bus ticket with something noted in the reverse…. Old friends indeed! My all time favorites are photos because of the train of thought that chugs along when I see them! So happy to have you here today!
Thank you Vidya. I have a shoe box full of photos that I still need to sort thru, but I almost feel they should live in the box instead of an album, like that makes them more precious to me somehow. And as for books! Well I have so many and I just keep collecting them. I don’t just collect mind you, I read every single one, and most of them over and over again. They are very comforting to me, just like keeping my photos and snapshots in their shoe box.
Thank you for responding, most don’t so I appreciate it.
You know, Janet, you sound a lot like me. Just two days ago, I was sorting through photos and decided to let them be in the boxes – they seemed more precious that way. There’s a charm going through them in stacks! 🙂 As for the books, same here. I collect and collect and read and read. I am gratified to think that I have enough books to read until I cease to exist…yet I keep collecting. I am very glad you stopped by. Love, Vidya
I think you feed your soul every time you “create”. Whenever I “create” or improve something – and it could be anything – I get immense satisfaction. From restoring old pieces of furniture, to crafty-type things (yup I’m a gal and I really love that sort of thing), to even seeing this comment going into this post, these all will have a permanent and positive effect on whomever encounters it from that day, all because of my effort, and that’s hugely satisfying!
Is the green bird a parrot? How beautiful! How do I feed my soul? Well, one way is to look at beautiful images like your photos! I also feed my soul by reading, and by sitting by the creek at my cabin. Ahhh….
I love those photos, but would like to see yours too. I especially like the peacock. Stunning birds.
What brilliant photographs from Ravi – not that yours aren’t! I can see how walking around and snapping (up) beauty can be so good for the soul.
For me it’s reading and of late, writing my Morning Pages that feeds my soul.
Writing feeds my soul, too. Gimme a camera any day, a place to walk and my mind is already spinning stories at everything I see! Thank you, Corinne! 😀