Getting Back to Our Roots

A little over a week ago in my post "Remembering to Feed our Roots" I discussed how important it was to once inawhile feed our root system.  This is the base of who we are and is what keeps us strong during life's toughest storms.  Many of you had some amazing comments about what you do to feed your roots.  With everything that has been going on I could feel my roots were getting weary, because I was getting mentally weary.  I just knew that I needed to do something to get back to normal, and so over the thanksgiving weekend I focused on correcting this.

Leading into thanksgiving had been tough for me.  I had been battling with stomach problems for weeks by then.  The problem wasn't actually all the "lost" liquid (you guess the end) but it was more a tiny prison.  Because of my situation I could never be far from a bathroom.  This stopped all forms of pleasure in my life, by constricting my diet to the blandest thing you can imagine, and taking my photography away.  I just couldn't go out taking pictures without a tow along porta potty :) 

This isn't a post looking for empathy or to complain, just trying to give some context.  I made it through, mostly smiling so everything is all good :)  But back to the story. 

Leading up to thanksgiving there were two drastic changes in my situation.  First off, I sold my Leica camera and bought another system (more on that in my photography review of October).  The second was the doctors started to get a handle on my stomach and I was making my way out of that dark valley.  The tuesday before thanksgiving I was given an IV bag of fluid because I was so dangerously low and started on a cocktail of drugs to try and fix the problem.  I had to go back to the hospital for Friday for a second appt.  This is the first time I had two appointments in one week and had an IV bad since my first 90 days post transplant.  The Friday appointment was to determine if I was getting better or whether I was going to get admitted to the hospital for thanksgiving weekend.



As you all know by now I didn't get admitted.  I decided that weekend enough was enough and it was time to feed our roots.  The first method I like to use is drawing on our passions.  These are almost like fertilizer for our souls!  They rejuvenate us and make us remember why like like living.  I had a two pronged approach for Project Passion Re-Introduction. 

I love to cook so for the Sunday I cooked a turkey dinner for Amy and I.

There were two reasons why this is important.  First, turkey is by far and away my favourite meal ever.  Especially having too much of it for all those delicious turkey sandwiches for weeks afterwards.  Second, due to my treatment I haven't been allowed to eat a stuff turkey since 2009.  Everything worked out though and I cooked my turkey to perfection.  The weather was even so nice we had our dinner out on our back porch.

The second approach was I reintroduced photography back into my life.  I hadn't done it in so long it almost felt like I had lost some passion for it.  But once I did my first click, I knew it was still there!  I ended up taking over 1000 pictures over the course of thanksgiving weekend.  

The Monday was my real getting back to roots day.  My mom and I went off to Erin (the village I was born and grew up in) to visit their annual fall fair.  This was an oppurtunity to really get back to my roots and remember the times of my youth (the fair was always my favourite) and get some pictures in at the fair and in and around town.  We broke the day into four parts essentially: visiting the fair, visiting the roots, photography focused, and saying goodbye.

This post is getting a little long winded so I will just share a brief description of each part and my favourite pics from that part.

Visiting the Fair 

The fair is a fun activity where there is a midway and lots of farm animals.  If you aren't a country kid you may not appreciate it as much but here are some of the pics we took from walking around the event. 

The Welcome Area

Midway from afar

Saying Hello

There were many more pictures from the day but those were my favourites/give you a look at the fair. 

Visiting the Roots
This was the second phase of the day. Since I grew up there I thought I could take you on a mini photo journey of my childhood.

My very first home, where I was born and grew up until around 4

My Childhood home.  We lived here until relocating to Guelph

My Elementary School - St John Brebeuf

Our Church - St John Brebeuf

Just a quaint looking part of down town...no significance personally but just wanted to give you an idea of what the "downtown" looked like

Photography Focused

This part of the day is exactly how it sounds.  I hadn't shot photography in so long and wanted to just get some good ol' fashioned shooting in.  Plus my fall collection of photos was extrememly bare so I was hoping to bulk up that part of the portfolio.  I didn't get as many shots as I would have liked but I did get a couple.  Here are my favourite shots

Autumn on the Credit - I finally got a fall image I was proud of

I just loved the colouring of this barn

Dinosaur Trees -  We were walking through the forest when I came across this.  Maybe it was all the nostalgia of the being back in my childhood places but to me this looks like a dinosaurs head being held down by another ones foot.  I imagine a trex standing above this poor fellow ready to eat.  Do you see it too?

Saying Goodbye
A tradition I always keep when visiting Erin is to make my last stop on the way out of town and say hello and check up on my dad.  I didn't have any pictures so I took a couple from this visit.

Reflections in the headstone

Words to live your life by

Well that marks the end of my getting back to my roots.  I hope it wasn't too long of a post, I didn't intend for it to be.  Also sorry for the delay, I was intending to write and send this out a week ago to better line up with last weeks theme.  As always, would love to hear if you liked any photos and which they were :) 

I have been responding in the comments on the photographic journeys with my favourite as promised so if you are curious go check it out.  I will continue to reveal my favourites a couple days after each post.  So once I know yours, I will tell you mine :)

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