my family is gone from los angeles now, spread out all over the world again, and i too, am not home. i'm learning this weightless, ungrounded stability is the home - the culture of my family, the strength and the longing. i am so damn lucky to have such a long line of badass truth-seeking warriors and lovers in my family. so very blessed.
a couple of weeks ago my buddy aaron huey was in town and after we caught up over coffee about the work we are moving forward on together, we went over to studio number one to meet with shepard so that aaron could sign their collaborative prints. aaron is an amazing photographer, check out his work here. and shepard took a couple of huey's photographs and made them in to sweet street posters and billboards. here are a couple shots of the two of them before they started signing the hundreds of stellar prints. it was great to meet shepard and see his huge space, but more importantly, to see that the two of them are collaborating on such a good cause for the Lakota people.
today was a big day for me in connecting things. it was pretty cool how things just connected, from the time i woke up, to right now, before i go to sleep.
today i watched two extremely inspriational, grounding videos. the first was of marianne williamson and oprah on her 'super soul sunday' show [my dear friendgolis also involved with super soul sundays on the OWN channel]. watch it here. one of my take-aways from this episode was that the life i'm living right no, is THE life that i am living right now. meaning, that life doesn't start when x, y or z happens, but that the happening is happening all the time, not when i have the perfect ______________ and the best _______________, etc.. another one that was huge for me is that marianne says, "the reason so many of us our obsessed with being stars is because we are not yet starring in our own lives...the cosmic spotlight isn't shining on you, it's radiating in you". these were two things that i found to be extremely profound and it was so refreshing to watch this. it was such a huge reminder that really the only things that are important are connecting with our soul and nurturing our relationship with God. if you have the time to dedicate, it won't be a waste of your time.
the second was this phenomenal [descriptive] video about the impressive jonathan harris, founder of online community storytelling website cowbird.com [i am currently working w/ cowbird, the mad genius photographer & friend aaron huey and nationalgeographic.com - more on that soon!!]. when jonathan turned 30, he decided to document each day with a photograph and a short story, to preserve his memories, as memories are so important to him [preserving a memory or a feeling is the reason i do photography]. honestly, everything that jonathan says in this video is so articulate and true - i could have been saying all the things he is; i resonate with every single word. when the short gets to 1:50 - 2:45, i really connected with the content. and it hit me, how earlier today, i heard marianne williamson saying something so similar to him, about how life isn't about getting somewhere specific, or a right or wrong, or an end point, cut and dry, but that life is about the every day, and that is our journey. [no, i'm not talking about those hippie bumper stickers, "life is the journey, not the destination", but i can see you going there, people. hahhaha. rather, something much deeper, yet so very elemental.]
please take 8 minutes to watch this and i assure you, you'll feel connected at the end.
so i wanted to share these with you, dear readers, in hopes that you will feel more connected to your true self, your higher being and remember [and be inspired] that there are beautiful, beautiful souls out there, trying to make sense of it all, striving to tap in to the higher realm, the place where there is a beautiful search for connection, community, service & spirit.
when i get over to west hollywood [which isn't that often], i always drive by this "pink dot" convience store. for the 4 years, i've driven past it, i've always wanted to pull off the road and do a photo shoot. well, as it turns out, my family and i found ourselves with some extra time, my camera and the opportunity to photo shoot it up at this amazing wall. i just love these photos, the colors and the lighting - the pink hue that was reflecting off the walls in the sunlight and in to my camera. i wish the entire family was there so we could have taken a samimi-moore family portrait. but this will suffice in a damn good way.
isn't this fun?? you may recall other photographs i've taken in front of polka dot walls in LA. i believe this was another one of the "pink dot" locations in the valley.
hey dudes. i just saw this neat little video of charles duhigg talking about his book called the power of habit . and i felt it was good enough to share, i am sure this message benefits all of us, in one way or another. and the subject is really interesting. are there any habits that you would like to break?
speaking of habits, i've come across two very cool little articles recently, on forming habits/routines in your living space - ways to enhance your quality of life and tips to putting good habits in place.
so my family couldn't be more spread out on the globe. like, actually. it's as if God threw us all in a potato sack, shook it up as hard as he could, and then opened the bag and whisked us as far away from one another as possible, scattered all around the globe. my sister lives in brooklyn, my older brother and his family live in st. paul, my brother and his wife in beijing, my parents in israel and my aunt and her family in saskatchewan. it's pretty insane. but there is something to be said about our love for one another that every break/vacation we have, we spend it together, even if it means that the reunions/meetups will be in segments. so part 1 came over this past two weeks and it was so amazing to have them all here in LA with baki and i. they had never been before, or rather, not spent any time in LA, so it was really a treat to be able to show them some of our favorite spots that are super beautiful.
lately i haven't felt super motivated to shoot photographs for myself, but once they arrived, i felt the spark come back. and i shot tons of photographs. it was hard to narrow it down to this blog post, but i am super happy with the way they turned out, but more importantly, the subjects therein.
i hope you get to be around those that you love, and find a closeness within your family and be so ever grateful for the laughter and companionship that ensues. enjoi:
peench, peench!
i like dad's hat over his face. among everything else.
baktash and i have now been married 3 years and have been together 7 1/2. we took off outta dodge and hit the coast for some fresh ocean air, camping and fireworks on a boat in the morro bay harbor, almost got mauled by a starving coyote and GIANT, no lie, GIANT racoon on our anniversary night. it was freakin' awesome. why the hell don't we live north of here on the coast?!? it's just radacious [why does spell check not recognize this word as a legit word in the dictionary??]. we hit the beach big time this past week and laughed a lot.
honestly, if i can say that after almost 8 years that we still make one another laugh harder than any one else, i think we're doing it right. doing it proper. doing it the way a samimi and an aazami should. hip hip hooray to life in love with your best friend.
just in case, you thought we were going all patriotic - as if getting married on the 4th of july isn't enough - the 3 balloons symbolize each year married together and the damn supermarket only had the freedom balloons. either way, we had fun and took some sweet shots at my second favorite tree. have a gander and be well!!
