1. Dance Halls

There’s some small remnant of magic left on a summer night in a small town – in leather soles, sawdust floors and live music. It gets inside you. It heightens your senses and your skin prickles as he leads you through the crowd onto the floor. You feel free and alive and totally at peace in the organized chaos. I feel most myself these nights, to let go and enjoy and embrace and forget.

2. Inscriptions in old books

I’m a headhunter for quaint old bookstores – you know the dusty kind with dim lighting where you feel like you can’t really breathe over the years of undisturbed dust. They hold the greatest treasures; the oddball-oversized art prints, the classics stacked away above your reach or the treasures of poetry shoved in crevices. The prize? Small, delicate inscriptions of love and good wishes kept in the secret of spines that creak to any investigation, like a small look into the owner’s heart and soul and passions and dreams and ultimately, in that dozen or so words, their life.

3. New love

Giddy, all encompassing, intoxicating, can’t think straight because your heart, which is now in your stomach, has cut off the oxygen to your brain. It saturates your thoughts, your words, and ignites your belief in fairy tale endings. It’s the moment drenched in happiness, where the possibilities are endless and faith in love is restored. The small things take weight in your heart— a touch, a glance, a stolen kiss and that stupid smile that stays plastered on your face that make people ask “what’s his name?”

4. My parent’s house at Christmas

The lights come into view from the end of the drive—welcome home. A sweet smell wafting from the kitchen meets me at the door.  I can still hear the way our dog would run around the corner, nails searching for traction on the long hardwood entry way. This is my home. Every space and corner delicately decorated with deep-green garland, lush maroon and bright twinkle lights. My family floats back together in a season of love for long embraces and deep laughter. It’s the one time of year we’re pretty much guaranteed to return from the tips of the world to be together.

5. Changing seasons

The first crisp wind that tangles your hair—leaves scratching along the sidewalk as the brilliant afternoon light dances through the kaleidoscope of orange leaves in the trees and the smell of change intoxicates your lungs.

The first snowfall that blankets the world in a beautifully isolating calm and the juxtaposition of the mountains that beckon with adventure and the comfort factor of staying inside with a warm fire and heavy blankets.

The first kiss of the sun on your skin as you lay in the cool, prickly grass. Watching the clouds float over the world that seemingly turned brilliant green over night. A moment of new life—to begin anew with purity and revolution in your heart.

The first warm nights when all your time is spent on the water, when music and laughter are loud and full of life and there’s no reason not to smile. When possibilities stretch endlessly before you in the late setting sun, and the stars overtake the sky stretching down to touch the horizon and you feel freedom resonate within you.

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After growing up in the South, Lacee Peloquin left everything she’d ever known to travel the world. What she found changed her, and because of it she has dedicated her life to aiding and funding third-world countries through the sales of her photography. Lacee believes that an increase in information and awareness will create an opportunity for change. Long gone are the days when images on the nightly news created shock in the American living room – she wants to relight the human spirit for the aching spirit world wide by creating an informed global community. You can check out her photography here, read her beautiful writing on her blog Through Lens and Pen and follow her on Twitter! 

(If you’d like to be featured on The Loveliest Things- send me an email! Stephanielouisemay@gmail.com)