east

China was fascinating. In all the obvious ways.

And in thousands of small, unexpected ways.

There is a lot more where this came from. I promise I will post them... soon.

blog it forward - what inspires me...

This month is incredibly precious to me. March coincides with a nineteen days long fast for members of the Baha'i Faith. All over the world, Baha'is are abstaining from food and drink, from sunrise to sunset, from March 2nd to march 20th. Why, you ask?

"It is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent within his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character."
-- Shoghi Effendi

In conjunction with this special time, a group of Baha'i photographers decided to collaborate in a worldwide project: each day of the Fast, two photographers would take photos at dawn and dusk, to mark the beginning and the end of every fasting day. And so was born nineteen days, which has provided me with daily doses of visual and spiritual inspiration this month.
Here are some of my most favorite photographs...

Layli - Rapid City, USA

Shirin - Beijing, China

Negeen - Haifa, Israel

Omid - Santa Monica, USA

Ryan - Vancouver, Canada

Elliott - Ross Creek, Australia

Leili - Boston, USA

Shahriar - Quito, Ecuador

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This post is a part of blog it forward, a wonderful initiative by victoria, to collect and share inspiration from all over the world. I am so happy to be a part of this and encourage you to check out all the other blogs involved, and especially our.city.lights who is posting tomorrow!

'nineteen days' book - and a giveaway!

Leila, Anjali and I spent the past two months working on collecting the images and the words of our 'nineteen days' project from last year. The result? A lovely book - filled with over eighty full-color pictures, from a cup of tea in America to a blazing sunset over an African capital... it is a truly precious thing to us and I hope it will be to you too!

We're have three copies of the book to giveaway - as a special thank you to friends that purchase the book and help spread the word about it. Here is what you need to do to be eligible for the giveaway:

(1) Do one of the following: join our facebook group, follow us on twitter at @nineteendays, post the cover of “nineteen days” to your flickr account and link to the “nineteen days” shopping site, or blog about this giveaway.

(2) Buy at least one copy of “nineteen days“: the more copies you buy, the more times you are entered to win one of the three giveaway copies.

(3) Let us know that you’re in to win by contacting us. You can do one or more of the following:

• tweet this message: “Hey, @nineteendays, count me in for your book giveaway!”
• leave a comment on this blog
• contact us on flickr, letting us know you’ve posted the cover (Amy, Anjali, or Leila).
• post something relevant on your facebook status (and then let us know on our facebook group’s wall).

(4) Winner(s) of the three giveaway copies of “nineteen days” will be chosen by random selection.

(5) On Tuesday, 9 March 2010, at 5pm MST we will announce the winner(s) of the three giveaway copies of “nineteen days“!

This is a beautiful book, a five-star book, a book you know you need.

Good luck!

nineteen days - year three

I can hardly believe it is March once again. And that this year marks the third year that my dearest friend leila and I will be working on nineteen days.
Leila and I are both members of the Bahá'í Faith and we started this project back in 2008 as a way to mark the annual occurrence of the Bahá'í Fast.

It is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. –Shoghi Effendi —


Then last year, we cast our net a bit wider and invited 19 additional photographers to join us.
This year we because incredibly ambitious and have thirty-eight people contributing from all over the world.

Every day a different pairing of photographers will share images, words and thoughts of their fasting experience.
On one of those days, leila and I will share our own.

We hope you can join us over at nineteen days.

dinner time

It's cold and dark in the evenings still. So we cook food that is warm, and comforting. Pasta with zucchini, or tomatoes, broccoli, even butternut squash once so far. Polenta. Ratatouille. A variety of persian stews. Soups with big chunks of bread to go with them. What is your winter comfort food?

Some perch themselves on the windowsill, curiously smelling the air, intrigued by what we are making...

i ♥ new york - snow day

Snow in New York comes with a special glow. As soon as I wake up, I can tell from the light streaming in through the window that the ground is covered with it, that big fat flakes are coming down, that the sky is heavy and full with more snow -- big clouds blocking out, filtering the sunlight.

I love that view out of our window. Rooftops and red brick. On good days you can see all the way to Staten Island. Though I seem to take that photograph every year when it snows, and then you can only see as far as a few blocks away.

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Today's Soundtrack
The Lovemakers - Love is Dead

elsewhere...

As New Yorkers prepare for a big snowfall overnight, here are some snippets of spring, hoping they will entice it here, with its bright colors and warm air, sooner.
These were taken in March of last year, as we visited my parents back in Italy. The last photo is the view from our home's garden. I have a Polaroid of that same view at my desk, and I look at it everyday. It makes me so happy.

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Today's Soundtrack
Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin'