weekly photo challenge

afloat and buoyed up

boat

I suppose that’s the same thing — to be afloat or buoyed up. Well. Maybe not so much.

This park, Black Shoals, is fairly close to our home. My husband and I drive out to a wooden covered bridge there every once in a while. We used to walk on the trail by the water, and then just up to the bridge, where we’d look out across the water — mostly at nothing at all. It’s a nice way to spend an afternoon talking. Or not talking. After 30 years, the silence can be just as intimate. Maybe more.

These past few years have seen very low water levels due to drought, so when I saw this sailboat I was surprised. I didn’t think sailboats could handle such a small draft. Maybe the water here is way deeper than I thought. Anyway, it was quite a surprise to see the boat appear out of nowhere.

I enjoyed the couple sailing. They reminded me of us, my honey and I. Out on a quiet sunny day doing little more than enjoying each other’s company. More than just staying afloat and surviving, it’s a delightful way to keep each other moving on this journey together.

Blur: Self-Portrait

blur

I took this photo some years ago….I was fooling around with aperture and speed and honestly don’t know how I caught this. I’ve always liked it, though, as far as self-portraits go.

It was taken at a time in my life that seemed to always be in motion. Three kids in high school/middle school, a bunch of after school activities, and a return to teaching for me. It was, to say the least, crazy. It was also a wonderful time.

I can’t believe how quickly the years have flown by…it’s been a blur.

A busy. Happy. Joyful. Blur.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threshold

20140411-121359.jpgThis is Otis. He’s a noble puppy. Obedient. Gentle, unless he feels the immediate need to jump on you and lick you to death.

I exiled him to the office so I could clean in the kitchen, but he wanted so badly to be with me, and obey the command to stay in the office, that he tried to do a little of both. He figured he could stay and put his front paws past the threshold into the forbidden kitchen.

I feel like that these days. I’m quite comfortable where I am in my life. You could say I’m comfortable with the known.

Yet, the unknown beckons. It’s not about thinking the grass is greener elsewhere, but that I’m being called to do more. In my personal life, to finish a project that has consumed me for many years. Professionally, to take some risks and perhaps cast a wider net. Spiritually, to go deeper in my faith.

Like Otis, I’m taking some tentative steps, crossing the threshold into something new, not forbidden — on the contrary, designed just for me. I just need to stop looking around the corner and do it.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection

 

This week’s photo challenge intrigued me. I knew right away I wanted to do it, but time, and inspiration, and frankly, a picture, kept me waiting for the right moment.

reflectionI finally got it this afternoon. I live by a small lake, so the easy photo was to take a little walk down there and see what the water was reflecting. I love those kinds of pictures, but I took to heart the other part of the challenge, to see a little into my soul and wonder what it reflects.

If nothing else, the challenge had me pondering this throughout the week. I think we don’t ponder things enough. Our microwave-hurry-up-ding-fries-are-done mindset doesn’t make time for that essential need.

So I pondered. Reflected, if you will.

 

The picture above is a reflection of the top of a tree on a very small, thin puddle on my patio. I took the picture right side up, but the tree is reflected upside down. Like an old style photograph view finder.

Here’s the thing, I know it’s a tree, but it looks like a root system. I’ve been thinking about this all day. What is my root system? What is my foundation?

And is it reflected in my bearing?

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned

20140307-150813.jpg

This week’s photo challenge is abandoned.

That’s a powerful word, something that evokes a sense of despair for me, and so I am loathe to apply it to any persons. Yet here I am, posting this picture that I took on a whim while waiting for a friend to come out of a store.

I’ll never make it as a photo-journalist because I can’t bring myself to take this kind of picture. Yes, I know, I did in fact take this picture, and then post it, but I’m going to confess, it is not without a great deal of discomfort.

Let me explain. I’m not discomfited by the poor, nor the homeless. On the contrary, more and more I find myself drawn to them with more compassion than I’ve had in my whole life up to now. Is it Christ working in me? No doubt, although I do not know to what end.

To the person reading the title of this post and looking only at the photo, the message might be that the person captured in the photo is abandoned. I don’t know this. I do know that the photo is an intrusion…I’ve broken his peace for the sake of an internet game, and I almost didn’t use it after all. But then I got to thinking. This man, while seemingly abandoned by society … Has not been abandoned by God.

Perhaps that’s what my purpose is here, to draw attention to his humanity in spite of my preconceived notions. Because, in failing to see his human dignity, I would be the one abandoning my own humanity.