These stunning portal photographs are featured courtesy of photographer Jim Nilsen.
Found through Eating Peanuts

A Walking Meditation

a story for every door
opened
journeyed through
ignored
missed
slammed in my face.
Choice, chance, challenge, change.
Courage, Fear, and Confusion.
Childhood Bedroom
"I'll be good"
Principal's Office
"you're not trying hard enough"
First Apartment
"don't forget to lock the door"
Doctor's Office
"I'm afraid I can't help you"
Funeral Director's Office
"your mother's ashes"
Emergency Room
"she's not breathing"
Prayer
"I trust you"
Meditation
"I hear you"
I remember every door
and I cry
and I wish
I could go through every door once more,
with my Eyes Open

Stephanie Hansen

Personality of A Front Door

Courtesy of Sylvia Kleindinst

Have you ever stopped to think about comparing your personality with that of a front-door?

Front doors come in an endless variety of materials, shapes and sizes. They include the dignified Cathedral door, the pretentious bank door, the revolving door, the forbidden door and the humble tent-fly. Front doors often acquire a character reflecting that of their owners. There is the furtive door, opened a cautious six inches; the sagging dispirited door with its air of defeat; the blatant door, quivering on its hinges to a blast of sound from the radio, the blank, tightly closed door; and the friendly open door, through which is transmitted pleasant, homely sights, sounds and smell - a snatch of song, or buzz of conversation - a glimpse of bright flowers in a sunny window, or the fragrance of a batch of scones, fresh from the oven.

Front doors have a lore all of their own. Receiving the key of the front door is seen as a token of independence. The groom carries his bride over the threshold and so it goes on.

Some Activities

Create the door that represents your personality using bright kindergarten coloured squares and cover your next journal. Use the journal to reveal what you find when you walk inside.

Collect as many images of doors as you can find, create a collage and then walk through one of these doors into the house of a character in your story.

Sketch the front door of a home you lived in. Walk back in that door and write about your memories of that home.

Doors leave you cold! Try using gates instead.
"Gates are such wonderful characters. They people our gardens in every imaginable way. Like people gates convey their own individuality, expressing style, spirit and mood, which is the very essence of their being. Sometimes they are terribly grand, appearing a little severe - forbidding even - on other occasions they are warm and welcoming, artistic, entertaining, quiet, unassuming. Whatever, they make statements, suggest a sense of place, contribute to design, frame a pathway. Gates can be bold and purposeful, add wit and humour, instill a sense of magic and mystery, create a particular atmosphere or simply serve to add interest. Gates, symbolic of a beginning, an end. Positioned with authority and confidence, gateways can lift even the most ordinary setting into a realm of fantasy and delight."

by Lissa - from 800 - 600 project

Try looking out your back door.