pussbackfoot love is definitely in the air. more and more people are becoming excited about experiencing this special month of love with us!  on this third day of love, we are focusing on some of our favourite images of love, and we want you to do the same – love in any relationship: love of couples, love of families, love of friendships, even love of pets, whatever brings you joy.

love is such a beautiful and powerful emotion because it captivates us, fills us up and stays with us as it lingers in our smiles. its intangible quality means that we can see it wherever we go. love is really all around us. sometimes we have the privilege to be able to capture it with our cameras, other times we only have the camera of our mind, but the image, the memory and the feeling is preserved nonetheless.

as i prepared to write this love note, one of these such memories crept into my consciousness, and i smiled: i was driving, and in the distance i noticed  a man and a woman dressed in work-out clothes, walking briskly along the side of the road. i thought nothing special of it, but when i got closer i saw a little more, love was there.
because, as they walked, they held hands, never letting go.
it was a beautiful way for me to start the day.

another such moment, was seeing one of my closest friends just after she had had her baby. she was lying in bed, and the baby was in the nursery. i said “i saw him. he is soo sweet!” and she smiled, a wide-eyed smile that beamed and filled the room. that too, made me step a little lighter that day.

love is all around us. whether or not you are aware, your love makes a difference in others’ lives, so, let’s live in love and make the world a happier place.

it is in this spirit of love that we are launching our “28 Days of Love Exhibition”, where we ask you to share some of your favorite expressions of love of any kind, for us to display in a specially created online gallery. (please see below for submission guidelines).

here are some of my favourite images of love…

a piece of me

my sweet

no words necessary

photo credits: (1) Arrianne Williams , (2) Sandor Panton, (3) Jeremy Francis

photo submission guidelines:
1. email photos to love@pussbackfoot.com. multiple submissions are allowed. all photos must be clean, work and family safe.
2. JPEG format. higher resolutions preferred.
3. captions describing the moment must be submitted with photo.
4. closing date is Tuesday, February 9, 2010. the Exhibition will be published on line for viewing of all photos on Wednesday, February 10, 2010.
5. by submitting, you grant Pussbackfoot the right to publish the photo for the 28 Days of Love Exhibition only
6. thank you!

also, if you are not yet subscribed to the blog, please remember to sign up at the bottom of the page so that you can receive your updates in your personal mailbox. thank you.

more love,

it seems that cheery yellowy vibe lifted soo many spirits! i am happy about that. i really believe that people just want to be happy, be loved and to give love back. this is why i love what i do so much, because i love being a part of the process of love. love makes the world go round. old cliche i know, but its so true.

i don’t have any beautiful photos or exciting tips to share with you today, but i just feel compelled to share with you. hoping this will nourish your soul as it has mine.

so, there is this list of very personal questions circulating in my family in an effort to capture and document the spirit of each of us. anyway, we started to ask my grandmother some of these questions last night.

my grandmother was married to my grandfather for 65 years and was with him for 7 years before that. she has three children, five grandchildren and five great grand children. she has the most vivacious spirit of anyone i know. she worked way beyond her retirement years and studied well into MY school years. she is successful and independent. she is fashionable and always dressed to pussbackfoot . she has travelled the world and loves to tell you about her many trips. she has much to boast about, but doesn’t.

so, one of the questions was “what is your happiest memory?”. she quickly answered that it was when she saw my grandfather standing at her gate, before she had actually ever met him. she had seen him before and liked him. she ran to her sister and said “the boy with the “beauty spot” is outside!”

now, my grandparents have always shown love for each other – watching their favorite shows, holding hands and all. but they do come from “that” generation. where most marriages seem to last. and as people of  younger generations like to say, its because back then, women didn’t have much of a choice, they were more submissive, they didn’t have their own mind. i don’t know why those marriages last, while why half of us today struggle to keep it together.

but what i know is that my grandmother has experienced many things in her life that have given her tremendous joy. she has brought children into this world, and seen them have their own children and their children have children. she has seen her children and their offspring achieve success after success. she has been recognized throughout her life for being exceptional and doing exceptional things. but still, her happiest moment in life, after all that, and plenty decades later, was the moment she knew she would get the chance to meet the boy who made her heart flutter.

there IS someting such as happily ever after. even if sometimes we have to fight for it.

my grandparents would have been married for 66 years this coming tuesday. my 6th anniversary is this sunday. i like to think, that some of my grandparents’ happily-ever-after rubbed off on me since i got married almost exactly 60 years after they did.

happy anniversary grandma & pa. happy anniversary baby.

if you already have your happily ever after, then i am happier for you than you can imagine. if not, i am happier still. because you are about to have your happiest moment too.  its there. its real. and it is for you.

so today i end not with “cheers” but with

love