It all started with a blown-out tire on a Wisconsin roadside and a Pirates of the Caribbean movie marathon.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Just start the movie without me,” Sarah insisted. She had planned to meet friends for a Pirates movie marathon after finishing work one night, but suffered a tire mishap on the way home. One of her new friends from the movie crew, Justin, kindly came to her rescue. He kept her company while AAA did its roadside duties.

A couple of days later, they bought a $1 deck of cards and started playing at a patio set inside Walmart while awaiting the tire repair. As they say, the rest is history – life had dealt them a sweet hand. To this day, they’re still playing that same deck of cards.

 XOXO, 

Some days when I open my front door and breathe in the morning air, some scent triggers the nostalgic region of my brain, and I swoon a little.

It’s something sweet and pungent, like the smoke from juniper branches burnt every morning in Himalayan households.

Outside their front doors, branches burn in large urns, an offering to God. 

Of all the wildness I’ve witnessed this past year, nothing has stirred such a frenzy of drums in my heart as Namche Bazaar, Nepal.

Every morning, I’d watch the sun crest over the ridge from my 12,000-foot vantage point, inhaling crisp, pure juniper air.

My vision of heaven was transformed. It now includes swaths of shape-shifting clouds and low-tone drum beats. There are yak bells clinking, Sanskrit chants, and a warm welcoming committee in the tightly knit streets.

I left a piece of my heart – the back burner of my mind – in Namche Bazaar.

Yak bells. Usually adorning their bovine necks, these ones are for sale to tourists.

A baby calf (not a yak), but still insanely adorable.

The Everest View Hotel. Behind me, the world’s most stunning view. See the valley fading into the far left? That’s where we trekked from.

 My trusty, glorious Keens.

 Trekker Survival Kit. Tiger Balm, Snickers ($1-5, depending on the altitude), leather journal, philosophical travel book, SPF 50+ sunscreen. Oh, and one battered deck of playing cards.

My goal is to return to this place and trek with as many friends and family as I can humanly persuade.

Let’s go.

XOXO,

 A graceful bride-to-be and her best friends get all dolled up. It’s these times I most love being the fly on the wall. Happy Monday, and enjoy!

XOXO,

Sunflowers fresh from the farmer’s market.

Surrounding fields washed in golden sunset light.

Belly laughter from inside a church.

Two rings, a dress, and the eve of a new journey between two best friends.

XOXO,

Today is the International Day of Peace, or Peace Day.

As of this morning (and I say this while knocking on wood), jailed hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been released. After over two years of unjust imprisonment and an unreal roller coaster, they appear to be on their way home.

According to early morning reports, they have been freed on bail and are now preparing to depart Iran. I’m crossing my fingers and doing a little dance at the same time. This is awesome, and especially today.

I have to wonder if Peace Day has any relevancy in the timing of their release. In any case, it’s wonderful happenstance.

To celebrate and help spread some peace, I’m hosting a small giveaway today. Anyone who makes a print purchase in the Bailey Aro Photography Etsy shop before midnight will receive a complimentary greeting card featuring my photograph, “The Mantra.”

This is one of my most popular images and greeting cards, and the message resonates: “Peace is possible only by true love.”

I captured this under a spellbinding blue sky in the Everest region of the Nepal Himalayas. The words were graffitied on the side of a whitewashed stupa, or Tibetan Buddhist monument.  Altitude: approximately 13,000 feet. Heaven.

Check out the larger version of “The Mantra” here. 

Learn all about Peace Day and how you can participate here and here.

Read about Free the Hikers and see the timeline of events here.

Please note: Any print purchase can be made in order to receive a free card, excluding single greeting cards. You must purchase three or more greeting cards in order to receive a free one.

XOXO,

I’ve been a naughty blogger lately. As in, post-less. So here’s a peace offering of fruit, yogurt and granola.

Everything copacetic now? Thought so.

Somehow, since I was last here, the seasons changed. I now have the itch to buy woolly hats and scarves. I nearly ate an apple spice candle for dinner last night, its aroma was so intoxicating. And yes, I’ll jump on the caffeinated bandwagon and say that a Pumpkin Spice Latte sounds oh-so-right.

What have I been up to? Well:

Completing a few items on the ol’ summer bucket list, for one.

Editing wedding photos.  Many, many wedding photos. Many utterly lovely moments. Many more to show soon.

Managing inquiries and booking weddings for 2012. As it turns out, I am fairly in love with shooting newly engaged couples and their amazing days. As in, butterflies-in-my-stomach loving it!

Feeling the wind catch hold of me and pull me in new and unexpected directions: I have an exhibit coming up in a couple of weeks at Ochre Ghost Gallery in downtown Duluth. A canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA). An international street foods cooking class at a local epicurean shop (and how apropos that this class falls on the one-year anniversary of departing for Asian backpacking travels!).

And, finally, a very exciting move is in the works. A temporary but very wonderful relocation. More to come, I promise!

XOXO,