take only pictures...

Take only pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.
~Motto of the Baltimore Grotto

With the exception of 2 1/2 years in Rhode Island, I spent my childhood living all along the Gulf coast.  You see, my dad worked on the oil rigs.  I was born in southwest Louisiana (practically Texas).  We moved to Rhode Island, Florida, back to Rhode Island, back to southwest Louisiana, then Texas.  When I was 13 we moved to a tiny town in southeast Louisiana named Cut Off.  Bayou Lafourche runs through the small string of towns that make up Lafourche parish.

I remember my first night when we moved there.  I couldn't sleep.  I could hear the tug boats blowing their fog horns signalling to the pontoon bridge operator to open the bridge over the bayou so the boat could pass.  It was bizarre.  This was not like any place I had lived before.  Everyone had crazy Cajun accents and names I couldn't pronounce.  They ate weird food and everyone was related to everyone else.  I was a complete outsider.  

After living there for 5 years (longest ever in one place for me at the time!) I decided it was the most backwards place I'd ever lived, but it I was proud to call it home.  These were the most kind and welcoming people I'd ever met.  To this day when people ask me where I'm from, I tell them I'm from a little bayou town south of New Orleans...

So you probably see where I'm going with this.  My heart aches for the people down there.  Their livelihoods depend on the Gulf.  This oil spill is devastating.  It's horrible to see what's happening with the wildlife, but the ramifications reach much farther.  

I wasn't sure what I could do to help, little old me with my camera out here in Colorado.  But some wonderful people have put together a shop on Etsy where all proceeds will be donated to charities to help in the recovery.  Independent Etsy sellers from all over, including myself, have donated a variety of  items for the collective shop.  If you would like to donate to a great cause and get a little something for yourself in the process, please be sure to check out HelpTheGulfCoast on Etsy.  My print can be found here, but there are a lot of great items to choose from with several more being posted as fast as they can post them.