Kauai + the Cheerful Print Shop

Imagery is my native language, not just out in the world, but also inside my head. My thoughts come through in colors and pictures more than they do in words and sometimes the words just can’t keep up or they come out all wrong if I’m trying to get something out of my mind and through my mouth and that’s why I talk fast and start stories in the middle. And write run-on sentences.

But because words don’t come as easily to me, I super admire the people who have a gift with them. One of my most favorites is Glennon Doyle, who has the loveliest way of sharing truth. Her book, Love Warrior, was one of the most enjoyable and soulful books I read last year, and I want to tattoo her words about beauty onto my heart:

Women who are concerned with being beautiful think about what they are looking at. They are taking it all in. They are taking in the whole beautiful world and making all that beauty theirs to give away to others.

Admittedly, she is talking about filling up with the beauty of other people, but it resonates with me about places and things that delight our senses too.

One of the things that I find fascinating is that we hold what we find beautiful close to our chest, afraid that we’ll be rejected for our most loved treasures. Ben and I like to listen to music while we make dinner, and usually he lets me select the tunes, which is really just turning on DJ Spotify. And it’s not because I have better taste in music – both of us would agree that even though I majored in music, my selections are campy at best, saccharine at worst. But if I ask him to put on a playlist, he demurs on the grounds that I wouldn’t like his choices or that they aren’t safe enough to play for anyone. So one night, I asked him to play me his favorite song, and when that was over, a song that made him feel like all lit up inside. Music is his second love and I could see what moved him and excited him in the pieces he chose. I loved what those songs showed me about his most essential self.

The truth is, I tried to write this blog post as a travel guide, because when we went to the island of Kauai, Hawaii last fall, there were things we did that I loved that weren’t on any travel guide I found on Pinterest. But I couldn’t make it work…partly because I didn’t make a lot of photographs that documented what we did or that were taken at most instagrammable spots on the island. Frankly, I spent a lot of this trip just taking in beauty, because it was so abundant everywhere we went. I see beautiful things surrounding me every day, but the ones that speak to my soul and put me in touch with the very best version of myself, like sunrises over turquoise waters and palm trees swaying in the breeze and the songs my husband played for me the other night, were everywhere I turned in Kauai. And that’s what felt fun to make photos of.

I’ve held onto these for months, sharing a one-off every now and then on instagram, but never putting up the whole story, probably because, like Ben with his music, I’m afraid of sharing these photos that are intimately connected to my inner self, of anyone rejecting them because they are too much. But beauty is made to be shared, and want them to be loved by anyone else whose heart leaps with joy when it sees colors and flowers or a waterfall or the ocean.

One of my certain paths to happiness is to be surrounded by things that feel delightful, which is why many of the photos in this post are available for you to put on your walls in the Cheerful Print Shop. It’s my most favorite thing in the world to make photos that hold on to the beautiful things that fill me up, and then to share them by giving others a way to surround themselves with it too. We all deserve to be able to fill up with beauty when we need it most.

PS. Images that are available in the print shop are clickable; just click and a new tab will open up with the link to buy. Special limited edition prints are also coming soon to the print shop – if you want to be notified when they arrive, follow along on instagram (@cheerfulprintshop) or sign up for the newsletter!

PPS. The photos of us in this post were taken by Wendy Laurel and I will love them forever; if you are ever on a magical trip with your loved ones, do not hesitate to get photos taken right then and there, because the best photos are the ones you take when you are happy.